Page 102 of Love in Tune

He bowed low with a courtly flourish of his hand and tipped his imaginary hat on the way out.

As it happened, Billy didn’t retire to his chamber. Looking furtive, he sidled around the back of the home and down the path to the tree line at the bottom of the garden, and then through them to the big old shed in the corner. It had long since been his unofficial lair, and over the years he’d added various cast-out bits and bobs to make it a comfortable place to hide out. A couple of old reclining armchairs lifted from a bunch put outside because they didn’t meet new fire regulations. A sideboard he’d resurrected from the dead, and a much-prized radio that had kept him company on many an afternoon. For all his gregarious nature, Billy sometimes craved a couple of hours’ peace and quiet, and here in the old potting shed was where he found it.

Pushing the door open, he stepped inside and put the morning paper down on the sideboard.

‘At ease, Hal. It’s only me.’

Honey heaved her tired body over the threshold of the house later that evening, slamming the door against the rain and looking towards Hal’s front door rather than her own. Some habits were hard to break.

‘Hal?’ she called out his name even though she knew perfectly well that he wasn’t there. Still bundled up in her coat and scarf, Honey walked to his door and laid a hand on it.

‘It’s been a long, grey day out there today, Hal,’ she said, world weary. Was it really any different because he wasn’t on the other side of the door? She’d become well accustomed to one-sided conversations, and so well acquainted with the floor outside his flat that it was a wonder there wasn’t a groove shaped like her backside worn into the Minton tiles.

Sliding down into her spot, she wrapped her arms around her knees and hugged them, shivering. She hadn’t felt properly warm since the day he’d left; there was a chill in her bones that had nothing to do with the weather.

‘Can you believe Ernie bought the home in the end?’ she said, letting her weight sag against his door.

‘I’m so glad for Lucille and Mimi. Well, for all of the residents of course, but them especially. I don’t think Lucille has said a sentence that didn’t include Ernie’s name ever since.’ The tiniest of smiles touched her lips at the thought of Mimi and Lucille as the new bosses of the home. She was pretty sure her job was safe for as long as she wanted it, although Mimi and Lucille had already floated other possibilities too.

‘They asked me today if I’d think about taking over Christopher’s old job,’ she said, imagining what Hal would have thought had he really been sitting on the other side of the door. Something involving quite a lot of swear words, no doubt.

‘I missed you today,’ she whispered. ‘I missed you this morning when I opened my eyes. I missed you on the bus to work, and again on the way home just now. When will it stop, Hal?’

The worst thing was that she wasn’t even sure she wanted it to stop, because that would mean she was moving on, and the idea of moving from him hurt like a shard of glass lodged in her heart. She closed her eyes and laid her head against the door, ignoring the tear that seeped through her lashes and slid down her cheek.

A noise, a rustling.Honey dashed her hands hurriedly over her cheeks, her heart a swooping skylark behind her ribs and then a stone falling into her boots when she realised the sounds were outside on the street rather than behind Hal’s door. Voices easily recognised as Nell and Tash’s floated around the hall, snippets of concerned conversation as they knocked on the door and called out her name. Honey didn’t reply. She didn’t have the energy.

‘Hang on,’ she heard Nell say. ‘I think I’ve still got a key.’

‘Why have you got a key and I haven’t?’

‘Maybe because she trusts me not to throw wild parties in her flat when she goes away?’ Nell said, and a few seconds later she must have found the key, because they pushed the door open.

‘Bloody rain,’ Tash grumbled, fighting with her brolly, and then jumped back when she spotted Honey huddled by Hal’s door.

‘Shit, Hon, you nearly gave me a sodding heart attack!’

Nell moved across the lamplit lobby and dropped onto her haunches beside Honey, concern all over her pretty face.

‘What are you doing out here, babes?’ She smoothed her hand over Honey’s hair.

Honey shook her head, and shrugged her shoulders, fresh tears gathering in her eyes.

‘Talking to Hal,’ she said.

Nell glanced up quickly at Tash, who frowned and moved around to sit beside Honey on the floor.

‘He’s not in there, Hon. You know that, right?’

Honey nodded. ‘He hardly ever used to answer me anyway,’ she said. ‘It’s not that different now. I just …’ She halted mid-sentence to swallow the painful lump in her throat. ‘I just feel close to him here.’

Nell slid her slender frame in on Honey’s other side.

‘Then we’ll sit with you for a while. If that’s okay?’

Tash rustled in her huge suede bag and produced a bottle of wine.

‘We were kind of planning on drinking this out of glasses like normal people, but hey, the floor works for me.’ She unscrewed the cap and took a drink, then passed the bottle along the row.

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