Page 30 of Modern Romance November 2024 5-8

‘What talk?’

‘The one I said would have to wait.’

Violet thought for a moment. Yes, she had hoped to talk to him later. She’d been looking forward to it, in fact.

This time with Sahir had been wonderful—it was others who had soured the night. And so she nodded.

‘I’d like that.’

‘And me.’ He glanced to the happy couple, who were draped around each other. ‘I doubt they’ll miss us.’

He took a bottle of champagne and she discreetly followed him, but it was all a bit of a maze.

Some events you didn’t want to attend turned out to be the most surprising of pleasures, she thought, as she unlocked a door and found a courtyard lit with fairy lights. It was the size of a small bedroom, really, but it felt like a magic garden...

‘Oh, my...’ Violet breathed and handed him the key, sighing in relief as he locked them in the courtyard and the wedding inside faded. ‘I can stop smiling now.’

‘Yes,’ Sahir said. ‘It’s just us.’

She just closed her eyes and stopped smiling, and it was possibly as nice as taking her heels off would be later.

‘Tell me about this dreadful week,’ he said.

‘I don’t want to bore you.’

‘If you do, I shall put up a hand for you to stop.’

She giggled. He made it so easy to just be herself.

She took a seat on a small stone bench. ‘Your speech was lovely.’

‘Stop trying to change the subject. I want to hear about you. You said you lost your job?’

‘I found out I was being let go about ten minutes after I found out about the wedding. Well, they’ve offered me a part time role at a library on the other side of London, but it’s less money and it would mean moving.’ She sighed despondently. ‘Usually I’d discuss it with Grace, but...’ She put her hand up, gestured to the laughter and music. ‘I didn’t want to bring the mood down.’

‘Talk to me, if you like.’

Violet thought for a moment. It had been so hard not talking about it.

‘I don’t want to leave,’ she stated. ‘I’ve been there for more than ten years.’

‘You look too young to have worked anywhere for ten years.’

‘I started there when I was fourteen, just on a Saturday, then I did a couple of evenings a week, then worked full time when I was sixteen.’

She took his rather messed-up silk pocket square out of her purse and blew her nose.

He was thankfully silent, and he stood rather than sat, but not in an overbearing way...more in a way that gave her space as she sat and pondered her life.

She looked around the pretty garden, its walls dulling the sounds of laughter. It was a relief to escape, and even better not to be hiding from the world alone.

‘Do you want a drink?’ he offered.

She nodded, and he popped the cork and handed her a glass of champagne.

‘Cheers.’

‘To what?’ Violet asked, but she did clink his glass. ‘I’ve got no job, no qualifications, and my flatmate has just gone and got married...’

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