Page 16 of The Winter of Second Chances
Mrs Tiggy-Winkle stretched out on the bed while Annie packed.
‘I’m sorry to leave you, Tiggs,’ she said. ‘Let me get sorted and I’ll come back for you. I think you’ll like your new home, there are plenty of places to explore. You’ll be a seaside cat instead of a town cat, how do you like that?’
Mrs Tiggy-Winkle rolled onto her back and stretched before pulling herself back into a coil and going to sleep.
With the last box loaded into the car, Annie took one final look around the place. She heard the key turn in the lock and the front door close softly.Oh shit!she thought. Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, who had been padding along beside Annie on her farewell tour, retreated into the airing cupboard.
‘Coward,’ said Annie as Tiggs’s ginger tail disappeared between the louvre doors.
She heard Max’s footsteps walking from room to room downstairs and finally the creak of the tread on the stairs. He saw her and planted himself at the top of the stairs, one hand on the wall, the other gripping the newel post, casually blocking her exit.
‘I couldn’t let you leave without saying something,’ he said. ‘And now I don’t know what to say.’
‘I think it’s all been said before.’
‘I guess I’d always hoped we’d find each other again,’ said Max.
‘Not in the placesyou’vebeen looking,’ Annie retorted.
Max looked at the carpet.
‘I don’t want to fight,’ he said. ‘I came to tell you again that I’m not giving up on us. We’ve been through too much. You hate me now and I don’t blame you, I hate me too. But I’m going to make it right.’
‘I don’t hate you, Max,’ said Annie. ‘Hate requires much bigger feelings than I have for you. And you can’t make this right. It’s too broken. Let’s just move on with our lives and stop pretending we shouldn’t have called time on us ten years ago.’
‘Did you say goodbye to Tiggs?’ asked Max.
‘Yes,’ said Annie. ‘I’ll come back for her in a few weeks.’
‘You can’t take her,’ said Max.
‘What do you mean,I can’t take her? She’s my cat!’
‘She’s my cat too,’ said Max.
‘You don’t even like her!’
‘I do like her,’ said Max. ‘She just doesn’t like me. Maybe we’ll bond over your desertion.’
‘You deserted our marriage long before I did!’ said Annie, her hackles rising. This was precisely why she hadn’t wanted to see Max.
‘I don’t want to do tit for tat with you,’ said Max quietly. ‘It’s painful enough without petty insults adding to the sting.’
It was remarkable how Max always managed to climb up to the moral high ground even when his ethics were in sinking sand. Annie concentrated on breathing and resisting the urge to push Max down the stairs.
‘You don’t want to do tit for tat?’ she asked incredulously. ‘I leave you because you cheat and so you freeze me out of my own bank accounts. I’d say you are well and truly in tit for tat territory!’
‘I’m trying to undo it. I’ve been calling the bank to get it reversed. It’ll take a bit of time.’
‘Let me pass,’ said Annie in exasperation.
Max didn’t move. She could feel his eyes on her.
Her heart pounded. She didn’t look at him. It was a familiar fear. She’d always told herself that his behaviour wasn’t abusive because he didn’t hit her. But deep down she knew that was wrong. Max’s psychological manipulation was insidious – he might not leave bruises but that didn’t mean there weren’t scars. She had to make a stand.
‘Let me pass, Max,’ she said again. ‘This isn’t going to make it any easier. I’m not going to change my mind.’
Max dropped his hand and moved aside to let her pass.
