Page 38 of Summer at Croftwood Cinema
She was glad he was being honest with her and she appreciated that they had been living in each other’s pockets over the past couple of weeks. Both of them had abandoned their regular routines for the sake of their fledgling romance, but for him not to have said anything about how he was feeling and not got on with what he needed to do was a bit odd.
‘If we didn’t see each other for the rest of the week, would that make any difference to your decision?’
He was quiet for a few seconds. ‘That seems a bit drastic.’
‘Christ Ed, you either need time to work or you don’t and surely you can get the same amount done in four evenings that you can get done in a weekend?’ She couldn’t hide her exasperation.
‘Okay, you’re right,’ he said, halfheartedly. ‘Count me in for the weekend then. Sorry.’
They finished the call and Patsy turned on the television. It did feel nice to be by herself again. She’d been missing her own company, having been used to nothing else for so long. It was a chance to catch up with things that had been neglected while she and Ed had been spending so much time together. She picked up her knitting and felt the rhythm of the stitches soothe her as she got back into the pattern. It had only been a month since she’d started seeing Ed and already it was morphing from the easy, happy relationship that they’d begun, into something more. The conversation they’d had that afternoon was testament to that and gave Patsy an uneasy feeling that she might have embarked down a road where she was no longer excited about the destination. It was hard to know whether the baggage she was carrying from her marriage was always going to colour her view of future relationships or whether maybe the easy fling that Oliver had suggested she go for with Ed, was all there should ever be between them. Perhaps the weekend away together was a mistake. It might send a signal that she thought it was more serious between them than she was beginning to think was the case. Although going alone with Oliver and Amy was an even less tempting prospect.
She texted Oliver.
Ed’s in xx,
Great! I’ll book somewhere. Double or twin?
Patsy laughed.
Get a double in case the non-research takes over xx
Lol. Will do. Night Pats x
17
ON WEDNESDAY EVENING, it was Knit and Natter night. Patsy was excited because having finished her latest pair of socks, she was planning to buy some yarn for her next project. She arrived early so that she’d have time to shop before everyone else arrived and distracted her.
‘What are you starting next?’ asked Jess, as she began tidying the yarn, re-twisting skeins and stacking balls of wool that had been considered by customers, neatly back into colour order.
‘I’m thinking about a Love Note jumper. It’s knitted on big needles so I might get it finished before we go to Birmingham. We’re going on a cinema research trip.’
‘And by we…?’ Jess raised an eyebrow.
‘Oliver, Amy me and Ed.’
‘Ed’s the guy that I’ve seen meeting you from work every evening for the past two weeks?’
Jess didn’t know about what had happened with Dan. Patsy was happy she’d told Oliver and Matt but she didn’t want everyone to know and Jess was a knitting friend and a high street colleague but not someone she normally confided in, so Patsy shrugged and smiled. ‘He’s been working on the projector for us and I suppose we kind of hit it off.’
‘It’s nice, Patsy. You guys look good together.’
Patsy began browsing the shelves, deciding on yarn type and colour. The pattern called for using a strand of 4-ply yarn with a strand of lace-weight fluffy yarn and it was fun looking at different combinations. As she played with the yarn, she thought about what Jess had said, that she and Ed looked good together. Was it something she’d said because that’s the kind of thing you say? Because Patsy didn’t particularly feel like they exuded anything as a couple. Sometimes you saw a couple and they were lost in their own world, maybe they’d be laughing or talking intently, but they were in a bubble and you’d think, almost enviously, that there was something special going on, that they looked great together. That wasn’t how she felt about Ed.
She pulled out her phone and saw the latest in the text exchange she’d been having with Ed all day, saying that he hoped she would have a nice time at knitting club. She sent back a ball of wool emoji and a cup of tea emoji along with the love-heart eyed one for good measure.
Since he’d got the heebie-jeebies about going to Birmingham, they’d had the start of a heart-to-heart about where their relationship was going. It turned out that what she had thought was the fun part of their fledgling relationship, where you spent nights at each others places, not caring about much else that was going on, was causing Ed quite a few problems. He had launched into a serious conversation about whether they should live together to solve his problem of having to commute from her house to work. His other idea was to buy a car. Both ideas had amused as well as shocked Patsy; he was using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It was a classic case of overthinking everything. If they’d discussed it when he’d first started worrying about it, she could have reassured him and maybe he wouldn’t have been the ball of anxiety he’d been by the time he’d brought it up with her.
By the time the others had arrived, Patsy had picked out her yarn and was sat at the table casting on.
‘Oooh, you’re starting something new!’ said Penny. It was always a great source of inspiration for them all to see what each other was knitting. There were quite a few things that had gone viral amongst the group and Patsy predicted that this jumper was going to be the next big thing.
‘It’s for a weekend away,’ Jess said with a wink at Patsy as she brought a tray of tea and biscuits in for them.
‘With someone special?’ Mary asked.
‘It’s a research trip for the cinema. We’re going to Birmingham to see a cinema that does something similar to what we’re planning. Oliver, Amy, me and the guy who’s been helping us with the projector.’
‘Oh, lovely,’ Penny said. ‘A bit of time away is always a treat.’
