Page 7 of The Love Position

‘Maggie’s found ten Iceni coins at the site on the escarpment. I thought…’ She trailed off. What did it matter? He wasn’t going to support her now.

Marcus scratched his balls through the sheet. ‘Ten?’

Sophia nodded, staring at him as if for the first time. Had she really given this man a decade of her life?

‘Might be worth doing geophysics now then. And didn’t you say there was a structure that might be a barrow? I’ll take another look at your dig proposal next week.’

‘You’d support it?’

He shrugged. ‘Maybe? Be a good project for the undergrads and we’d get another paper out of it. Now, come on back inside.’

She shook her head.

‘Look, I’m sorry, Soph. It was a one-off. It won’t happen again.’

‘I found more photos in your desk drawer,’ she choked out.

‘What were you doing poking around my office?’

‘What were you doing, poking around with at least ten of your students?’

Marcus ran a hand through his grey hair. ‘It’s nothing.’

‘Nothing? You might have given me an STD!’

He rolled his eyes again. ‘It’s fine. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.’

Sophia stepped back, a hand reflexively touching her stomach.

‘Where are you going to go?’

She swallowed. ‘My parents’ new place in Somerset. I can commute to work from there.’

‘So, I’ll see you at the staff meeting tomorrow?’

‘It’s in four hours, Marcus. And no, I won’t be there.’

He glanced up at the pale sky with a frown. ‘It’s Sunday.’

‘No, it’s not. Today is Monday.’

‘It can’t be.’

Sophia got in the car.

Marcus stepped forward. ‘Soph! Wait!’

She ignored him, slamming the engine into first gear and driving away. She didn’t know what was going to happen next in her life, but she knew with utter certainty that her relationship with Marcus was over.

2

FEBRUARY

Sophia ran a finger over the glossy surface of the Valentine’s card, tracing the cartoon of a fluffy dog holding an outsized heart.

Inside, the words ‘From ?’ had been written by her mum using her left hand in a traditional, and futile, attempt to disguise who’d sent it.

Ever since Sophia had been a little girl, her parents had given Sophia and her brother cards on Valentine’s day. They’d stopped when she got together with Marcus.

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