Page 72 of The Village Midwife
‘Only on TV.’
He paused, studying her for a moment. ‘You’ve changed.’
‘Of course I have. I was married and living in Manchester, and now I’m single living out in the countryside. I’m bound to have changed.’
‘I haven’t.’
Zoe considered his remark before she nodded. ‘I think you might be right.’
‘I don’t mean it as an insult,’ he said. ‘You’re different. I wonder…’ He shook his head. ‘Never mind.’
Zoe was beginning to see what a mistake it had been, inviting him over for lunch. Perhaps she was giving him hope for something more, and that hadn’t been her intention at all. And as always when they were together, she wasn’t comfortable with the direction their conversation kept taking. What was worse, there was a part of her that still cared for him more than she ought to. One or two moments of weakness…
She shook herself. She wasn’t a teenager; she was a grown woman with common sense and self-control. She picked up thewine, stared at it for a moment, before putting the bottle down again and reaching for her glass of water. Better to be safe than sorry.
20
Disappointing as it was, Zoe was forced to admit as the sun went down and Ritchie showed no signs of leaving that she wasn’t going to make it to Alex’s fields to help him search for his treasure.
What was worse, as lunch wore on and spilled out across the afternoon, she realised she wasn’t going to get much else done either. She’d been prepared for that to an extent – she hadn’t invited her ex over with a strict time slot in mind, after all – but she still marvelled at how little awareness he had for etiquette.
Like all their interactions these days, he behaved as if he was still entitled to her time in the same way he’d been before they’d split. He couldn’t seem to see that things were different, that the way they were had to change. And every conversational topic she opened up left her wishing she hadn’t. His redundancy, his job hunt, the new couple who’d moved in next door, the potential struggle with his buy-out of the house they’d once shared (though she’d reassured him that she could wait as long as it took for him to get back on his feet), his parents, her parents, people at the pub…no subject was too insignificant to provoke an opinion, usually a negative one.
It brought back complicated emotions for Zoe, reminded her of feelings she’d had when they’d first started to drift apart, feelings she’d somehow forced herself to forget. Was she clinging on to a friendship based on wanting to keep a man who no longer existed in her life? It made her remember how changed she’d found him during that time. Though she’d always put that down to their loss, she had to wonder now if he’d been changing all along. Even without the death of their baby, would their marriage have ended just the same?
By the time Ritchie had sloped off at around nine, Zoe had been so exhausted from his company she’d watched some television and then gone to bed. And then Monday morning came around once again with alarming speed.
Magnus was wiping down the counter as Zoe walked in. The sound of the bell at the door made him look up, a broad smile on his face as he saw who was coming in.
‘Here she is!’
‘Oh,’ Zoe said, trying her best to be wittier than she felt. ‘That sounds ominous. What have I done?’
‘You’re only guilty of loveliness,’ Magnus said. He balled up his cloth and put it to one side. ‘What can we do for you this morning?’
‘Just milk and biscuits for the surgery. Oh, and I’d better get teabags; I think we might be low.’ Zoe went to the shelf. ‘Have you got those ones in the gold pack? Ah, here…’
After collecting what she needed, she went to the counter and gazed absently around the shop as Magnus scanned her shopping.
‘Good weekend?’ he asked.
‘Yes, it was nice.’
‘What did you get up to?’
‘This and that.’
Magnus gave a knowing look that threw her momentarily. What did he know? There wasn’t even anything to know, so why was she concerned?
‘This and that,’ he said. ‘This and that always makes for the best kind of weekend, don’t you think?’
As he bagged up her goods, the door opened and Alex came in. His gaze went straight to her, and then he seemed to jump, as if someone had pinched him, before collecting himself and greeting them both.
‘Morning.’
‘Hello,’ Magnus said. ‘Come for more chocolate?’
At this comment, Alex seemed even more awkward. ‘No, just milk and bread. And do you have lemons? Billie wants to suck on lemons…’ He shrugged at Zoe. ‘You have to get her what she’s craving, right?’
