‘Sounds ideal. Here, I picked up a bottle of wine at the off-licence on the corner.’
‘Lovely! I’ll go and open it.’
Henry took off his jacket and unpacked the set-top box, while Felicity took the wine through to the kitchen.
A few moments later, as Henry was examining scart leads, Felicity returned with two glasses. ‘I’ll just leave yours here,’ she said, setting down Henry’s wine on the coffee table.
‘Thanks. This shouldn’t take long.’
She sipped her wine, watching Henry on his hands and knees, trying to sort out the various connections. It was nice to have a man around, helping out. Vince had rarely done a hand’s turn, and even when he did it had usually ended in failure, making more work than there had been to start with. Henry wasn’t like that. He was competent, industrious, and he did things conscientiously and well. She knew that from years of working with him.
‘How do you like your steak?’ she asked.
‘Medium rare, thanks.’
‘Right – same as me. They’ll only take a few minutes.’ It was a little thing, but it pleased Felicity. Vince had always insisted on having his steak well done, and she’d hated cooking perfectly good bits of meat to a frazzle, only to have him complain that she never got it right, not like his mum. As she watched Henry work, she wondered vaguely how Denise was coping.
‘OK. All done.’ Henry emerged from behind the television. ‘Pass us your remote.’
Felicity left Henry to set up the channels and went back to the kitchen to cook the steaks. When she came back through, she found Henry sipping his wine and watching a shopping channel. ‘There you go. All your extra channels. You’d still be better off getting a dish, though, or cable.’
‘This will do to be going on with. It’s brilliant. Thanks. Now switch it off and come and get some food.’
Over supper they chatted about the goings-on in chambers. It was gossipy, relaxing, and pleasantly intimate. Afterwards, they cleared up and tidied the kitchen together.
‘Still a couple of glasses left,’ remarked Felicity, holding up the bottle Henry had brought. ‘Shame not to finish it.’
They settled themselves on Felicity’s sofa and Henry picked up the remote. ‘Want to watch one of your new channels?’
‘Sounds daft after you’ve gone to all that trouble, but I think I’d rather just talk.’
‘Fine by me.’
‘So, how’s everything with you and Cheryl? Still all loved-up?’
Henry twisted the stem of his glass. ‘Not really. You know I said I was going round to see her tonight? Well, it was to tell her I was ending it.’ He took a swig of his wine. ‘And to give her back her dad’s power drill.’
‘Oh, Henry – why?’
‘Because I’d finished the shelves – oh, I see. Sorry. Because … well, because she wants something long-term, and I don’t love her enough for that. And it seems unfair to let her think it’s going to turn into something it’s not.’
‘That’s such a shame.’
‘Yeah. But it would have been an even bigger shame if we’d got married and it hadn’t worked out.’
‘I suppose.’ Felicity glanced up at the sudden sound of someone knocking on the front door. ‘God, that gave me a fright. Who is it at this time?’
She went down the hallway and opened the front door. There stood Vince.
‘Hello, Fliss. How you doing?’ He smiled, and Felicity could tell immediately that he’d been drinking.
‘Vince, I don’t want you round here. You and me are over. So piss off.’ She tried to close the door, but Vince held it open.
‘You don’t mean that. You were upset a few weeks back, but now you’ve had time to get over it, and you and me just need to have a little chat and sort things out. Isn’t that right?’
‘No, it’s not right – get out!’ She tried shoving the door shut again, but Vince leant against it, and a second later he was inside the flat.
‘We’ve got a bit of unfinished business, Fliss. I mean, why did you have to do stuff like change the locks? Couldn’t you just say to my face you wanted me gone?’ His tone of wheedling aggression and the stink of stale beer set off a sudden explosion of anger in Felicity. Why couldn’t he just get out of her life and stay out?
‘Because it wouldn’t have made any difference!’ she shouted. ‘Because if I hadn’t done what I did, you’d still have been here, still a big, useless waste of space. So get out – now!’
Henry came into the hallway. ‘What’s going on, Fliss? You all right?’