Fenna had put my chair beside hers for the Tuesday meeting. I had prepared for an empty space and found this much harder.
“Tea?” she asked.
“Please.”
“Usual?”
“I haven’t changed that.”
She looked at me, and I wished I could unsay the small plea inside the joke. Then she passed me the cup.
The other three committee members were looking through the anniversary programme. Fenna had collected the printed copies on Monday as arranged, carrying them away in the square cardboard box I had saved for her. We had discussed the weather and a crease in the proof. Neither of us had mentioned Gethin.
Now the copies lay between us. Our names were printed together on the back, beneath a thank-you to the hall staff. I had aligned the two lines by eye because their different lengths made a measured centre look wrong.
I had brought a pen, my…
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