Page 88 of The Dolce Vita Divas
‘—and the next minute you’re talking about changing everything and going off abroad. It’s like you’ve suddenly decided to have a gap year, which sounds great fun but who would you go with? You can’t possibly go on your own.’
‘Why not?’ I said. ‘I’ve got all my marbles, I’m perfectly mobile now I’ve had my knee done, and to be honest, a gap year sounds like a great idea.’
Kat gasped. ‘It’s Susie, isn’t it? She’s put you up to this. She’s the one putting ideas in your head. Just because she doesn’t have any family of her own to consider. It’s different for you.’
I was outraged by this. Did they honestly think that my happiness, my interests, were completely reliant on them for the rest of my life?
‘Listen to yourself, Kat. I thought you regarded yourself as a feminist. Women can do anything they want to do, wasn’t that what you and Jess always say to Violet and Maud?’
‘Yes, they can. Just not?—’
She stopped talking then and looked a bit flustered.
‘I hope you weren’t actually going to saynot at my age?’ I asked.
All three of them looked rather uncomfortable at that point.
‘I’m sixty-five,’ I said, ‘not ninety-five. And no, it’s nothing to do with Susie. Look, you might as well know?—’
‘You are ill! I knew it!’ Jess wailed. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll get you a second opinion. The best doctors. Have you got health insurance?’
‘I’m not ill, and if you would just listen instead of shouting over each other I will tell you something else you need to know.’
There was silence then and the three faces stared blankly at me from their screens, waiting for me to speak.
‘When I went to Capri it was for the five-year anniversary of Ellen’s death. You all met her; she was one of my oldest friends. Well, Susie and I stayed at the hotel Ellen used to run with her husband, who was also a very old friend from university.’
‘Yes, Mum, we know this,’ Jess said. ‘Paulo someone, you told us.’
‘Well, Paulo and I used to be – we are more than just friends.’
Alex frowned, not really taking this in. ‘You mean he and you…’
‘Yes.’
There was a stunned silence. I suppose it was the same for all children when they realised that their parent might just have had a life of their own before they appeared. Or, heaven forbid, any meaningful relationships.
‘Go on,’ Kat said slowly.
‘Well, we sort of reconnected. There was nothing tacky about it, we just realised we still liked each other.’
‘Liking each other isn’t the same as – you know – getting back together again,’ Jess said, ‘as a couple.’
‘No, I know. But the fact is, we have. Got back together again,’ I said.
‘Does Dad know?’ Alex asked.
‘It’s got nothing to do with him!’ I said rather heatedly. ‘He’s got what’s her name?—’
‘Siobhan,’ Kat put in.
‘He didn’t ask me what I thought about that all those years ago.’
Alex tilted his head to one side thoughtfully.
‘No, I suppose he didn’t. But okay. You’re not hurting anyone, Mum, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a boyfriend. He’s been on his own for years by the sounds of it, and so have you.’
Jess and Kat gasped at this, and I almost felt like running upstairs to the granny flat to give Alex a hug.
