A Summer Reunion

by Fanny Blake

  They had never gone away, one without the other. She had booked holidays, found lost passports, washed and ironed and packed for two. Not this time.

  ‘In Spain?’ His disbelief was almost comical.

  ‘Mallorca, to be exact. I’m going to Amy Green’s place. Just for four days so I won’t be gone for long.’

  ‘Amy Green of Amy Green?!’ Molly sounded astonished. ‘I read a piece about her online somewhere.’

  Kate nodded as a smile spread across her face. She really was going to go.

  ‘How do you know her?’ Lara’s estimation of her had obviously risen a notch. ‘You’ve never said.’

  ‘Old school friends. I haven’t seen her for over forty years but we’ve kept in touch. I sometimes see what she’s up to on Twitter.’

  ‘Twitter?’ Alan’s astonishment had reduced him to bluster. ‘Since when?’

  ‘Since Molly showed me. I don’t tweet though.’ She glanced round the table. ‘What’s so funny?’

  She had to wait till her family stopped laughing before she could go on. ‘Amy’s asked three of us out to her villa for a long weekend.’ When she had first read Amy’s letter, Kate had been far from convinced by the idea. Not that she would ever bring up what happened, of course. But what did it matter? That was years ago. This was Amy holding out a hand to show there were no hard feelings, presenting her with an opportunity on a plate.

  The time had come to stretch her wings: to do something unexpected of her. To live a little.

  There was a moment of silence as the others took it in. Then: ‘Good for you.’ Kit raised his glass in her direction. ‘It’s time you did something for yourself. Here’s to Mum’s reunion.’

  Kate could have hugged him as the others raised their glasses in support. Only Alan looked uncomfortable. She shouldn’t have sprung it on them like that but she would rationalise the speed of her decision to him later, and get him to understand. After all, it wasn’t as if she was going to be away for weeks. She’d soon be back to enjoy the new duvet and ‘ring the changes’ with the cooking. She gritted her teeth. This was something she wanted to do. For herself. She shook her head again, so her earrings jiggled.

  ‘And these bad boys are coming with me!’

  4

  Jane’s office was a soulless box of a room, with grubby windows that were jammed shut, yet it was the one place where she could get a moment’s respite from her hospital duties. She had brightened it as best she could with a couple of photos of David and Paul, their son, and one or two of the ornaments given to her by grateful patients. That was enough. On the shelves behind her desk were a number of hefty medical textbooks and piles of back numbers of the BMJ and the Lancet. She pulled a letter out of her handbag. Why on earth was Kate writing to her? She had brought the letter into work with her, uncomfortably aware that she hadn’t phoned back after the voicemail Kate had left months earlier. Work and life – those two most demanding of creatures – had got in the way. Now she had a moment to herself, she tore off the Sellotape that stuck down the back of the reused envelope, and pulled out a note and another envelope.

  Amy sent me this for you. Let’s go. Yes? It should be fun. Love, Kate x

  Puzzled, Jane opened the second.

  Come to Mallorca for a long weekend!

  We can stay in our house and could catch up at last with no interruptions. What do you think? If you like the idea, I’d suggest we go in September when the weather’s lovely and it’s less crowded. I’m asking Linda and Kate too.

  I hope you’ll all be able to come.

  Love

  Amy x

  Jane groaned. Kate always got so overenthusiastic when there was something she wanted to do. The last thing like this she’d tried to persuade her to go to was when she got excited about returning to school for an old girls’ reunion that had then been cancelled a fortnight before due to lack of interest. Admittedly that was twenty years ago.

  She put the letters into her bag. She would think it over when she got home although she already knew her conclusion: No thanks. She needed to finish up before she went home. She never tired of her job as a medical oncologist that remained as fascinating, stimulating and humbling as she had found it when she first started out. She logged into her personal inbox to find a stream of messages.

  Among them was one from Kate, asking her to call her when she had a moment. She understood how demanding Jane’s job was. As her personal life was becoming too. She checked the list again. Yes, Rick had called to confirm he was in town that evening. They didn’t need to speak, just the fact that he’d made the call was enough. They’d been snatching these rare times together long enough for her to know that. She also knew she should call time on their relationship and yet she couldn’t bring herself to, despite her fear that David must be close to realising what had been going on under his nose for years.

  How had she got herself into this position of being torn between two men, neither of whom she could live without? David was the husband she had wanted Rick to be: thoughtful, kind, loving. He would do anything for her and she could rely on him one hundred per cent. And she loved him back with almost all her heart. But the little bit left over went to Rick, the ex-husband David would never be: unpredictable, charismatic and irresistible. They had made a hopeless partnership in every way except one. She couldn’t help smiling as she remembered the time they had punted their boat into an overhanging willow tree to make out under its branches. And that time years later in St Helen’s Passage after a late one in Oxford’s Turf Tavern – urgent, fast, thrilling. Then she remembered the hurt on David’s face when she turned up half an hour late for dinner with his friends who were over from New York. She felt ashamed and yet addicted. But to keep David, she knew it couldn’t go on.

  She looked at her watch. Six-thirty. She only had a few minutes before she had to leave so there was little point in attacking the mound of admin that was waiting for her – that would wait till the morning – so she just had time to return Kate’s call.

  Kate picked up immediately. ‘I shouldn’t call you at work but I wanted to check you got Amy’s invitation to Mallorca?’

  ‘I did just now.’ She straightened the ornaments on her desk into a neat line, turned the photo of Paul, her son, to face her.

  ‘I’ve decided to go. I’ve told the family.’

  ‘You have?’ It was unlike Kate to take the initiative. ‘I haven’t given it much thought yet. If it was just an evening somewhere, then maybe. But I don’t have time for a whole weekend.’

  ‘The thing is, I’ve been thinking about it, and I don’t much want to go on my own so I was thinking if you …’

  ‘No. Really, no.’ She may not have given Amy a thought for years but the unexpected reminder of her existence had forced what had happened between them back through the haze of memory. A whole lot of growing up had happened since then.

  ‘Aren’t you curious?’

  ‘A bit. But not so much that I’d want to risk spending all that time together.’ She scrolled through her emails to see if there was anything that couldn’t wait till tomorrow.

  ‘But I’d be there and it might be fun.’

  Kate had always been there. Since they were children, they had been best friends but they couldn’t be more different. Kate’s life was so unlike hers. She had been married to the same man for years, stuck out in the Yorkshire Dales, popping out children until she had the family she so longed for. When she and Alan had asked Jane to be godmother to Lara, their first, she had been delighted and touched. That had come at a time when she had been convinced she wouldn’t ever have children herself. Before David. Before Paul, their son. But it was always Jane who took the important decisions in their friendship and Kate went along with that. This was a first. They might live hundreds of miles apart but they talked occasionally, saw each other when they could and told each other about everything
in their lives. Or almost everything.

  How disbelieving and disapproving Kate would be if she ever got wind of Jane’s continuing on-off relationship with Rick. Marriage and family meant everything to her.

  ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘At least think about it. I think we’d enjoy it.’

  She couldn’t remember when Kate had last sounded so determined. Every now and then she stood her ground, but usually ended up caving in for a quiet life. She had always shied away from confrontation.

  ‘I’ve checked the flights and they’re not too expensive. What’s the worst that can happen?’

  ‘None of us get on and we have a terrible time?’ She folded up the letter again as if she hadn’t opened it.

  ‘That won’t happen. We’re not kids any more. You can always get a flight home or check into a hotel if things go that badly. But why should they? I’ll be there.’

  But Jane’s attention had wandered back to one particular email from one of the surgeons, asking her opinion on an aspect of the treatment plan discussed at that morning’s multi-disciplinary meeting for a woman recently admitted to the hospital with metastatic cancer. She should read it and reply before she left. ‘Look, can I call you back? Something’s come up.’

  ‘Of course. But we’ll need to book soon before the prices go up.’

  ‘I’ll call you back in the morning.’

  ‘Truly?’ She heard the note of hope in Kate’s voice. ‘You’ll think about it then?’

  ‘Yes, I’ll think about it but no promises.’ She would have to be content with that.

  Twenty minutes later she was at Rick’s flat, a neat pied-a-terre for the man whose real life took place in the enormous country pile that she’d seen in a photograph on a shelf once. The next time she came it had been removed so there was no longer any sign of his other life. She hesitated for a second before ringing the bell. She shouldn’t be doing this. But, as always, when he opened the door, those thoughts flew out of her head, leaving the residual question: occasionally sleeping with the man you’d been married to for seven years didn’t really count. Did it? Their relationship could hardly be termed an affair – after all they only met very occasionally, when he happened to be in town and their schedules coincided. Sometimes they caught up on the phone.

  The door opened and he stood there, smiling. His face was lined, his hair grey but his eyes had never lost that twinkle that made him so attractive.

  She kissed him, felt that familiar flip of her stomach and walked into the flat. This was the best stress buster there was and just what she needed. Any day now she’d receive a letter from the General Medical Council summoning her to a tribunal that had the power to kibosh her career. Although, if she were honest with herself, she had to acknowledge if anyone was responsible for that, she was. If she wasn’t at work, that was all she could think about so coming here would take her mind off what was to come.

  He followed her into the living room where a chilled bottle of her favourite Sauvignon stood beside two empty glasses. He quickly did the honours and passed her one.

  ‘Shall we?’

  She nodded and went into the bedroom where she put her glass on the bedside table. Sometimes it was like this. Almost wordless. Adrenaline-fuelled and satisfying. Tonight she might talk to him about what she’d done that day, ask his advice, but she could tell by the way he was looking at her that he wouldn’t be in the mood. And, in fact, she didn’t want anyone, least of all him, knowing about what she’d done. His day in meetings would have been as testing as hers. She didn’t ask him. Instead she removed her clothes, those belonging to a well-respected member of the medical fraternity. No one would have any idea that underneath them, she was someone else altogether. Her body was well-toned, thanks to the rigorous demands of her personal trainer, whom she saw in the gym at least twice a week before work, and a regimented personal regime. Her underwear was brief but expensive and (she hoped) seductive. Judging by the look on Rick’s face, her hopes were satisfied.

  They fell on the bed as if for the first time and she forgot everything else. They knew each other’s bodies intimately, knew the shortcuts to each other’s pleasure. Afterwards, they lay back, exhausted and fulfilled, the stresses of the day disappeared.

  Rick propped himself up on one elbow. ‘You look amazing and that was …’

  ‘Amazing too?’ she offered.

  He grinned. ‘As always.’

  ‘We should stop doing this.’ She rolled onto her side to look at him.

  ‘You always say that.’ He ran his hand over her breast, stopping at her nipple, teasing it, watching her respond. ‘But no one’s going to find out. If they haven’t before, why would they now?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ She spoke lazily, losing herself in his kiss before she tore herself away. Every time she was surprised that he still found her attractive. Her body had changed so much since they first met but then, so had his. They had both done their best to keep ageing at bay. HRT and exercise seemed to do the trick for her, but she had no idea what his secret was. Nor had she any idea who else he might be having an affair with. She never asked him because it didn’t matter. What they had together was unique and what he did with the rest of his life was his business, not hers.

  She had never regretted the break-up of their marriage, recognising that they could not live together. He had been an infuriating mix of possessive, quick-tempered and unfaithful, determined to get to the top of his career as an orthopaedic surgeon. She had been equally career-focused and refused to let his demands get in her way. Her friends might accuse her of being selfish but that was the person she had been and it had got her to where she wanted to be. Her parents had been proud and supportive – she had been an only child in a medical family and given every encouragement. They had been delighted when she had married Rick, another member of the profession, although they would be spinning in their graves if they knew she was still involved with him. Not that they had carried any particular brief for David. As far as her father had been concerned, her second husband – an advertising man through and through – stood for everything he didn’t approve of: crass commercialism. For as long as she had been married to him, they had said nothing but had made their feelings quite plain.

  They lay facing each other, almost touching. She could smell the wine on his breath.

  ‘How’s David?’

  ‘He’s well.’ She disliked talking about her husband with him. Any such conversation brought her guilt racing to the surface. ‘And Paul got that job at Masters and McAusland.’ She named the marketing company that her only son had worked so hard to get in to. Somehow she felt easier talking about him. ‘Remember I told you about that away day he had to go to – team-building stuff.’

  His hand ran down the curve of her side, halting on her hip bone. ‘Good for him.’ But she could tell he wasn’t really interested. His hand was back on the move.

  ‘I should go.’

  ‘So soon?’ He turned down the corners of his mouth like a spoiled child. ‘I may not be back for a while.’

  ‘You will.’ She smiled at him, moving her head so their noses touched. Her tongue touched his lips, until he responded.

  Sex for sixty-year-olds was severely underrated, she thought fleetingly as they kissed, long and hard. Perhaps she didn’t have to be back precisely on time after all. What were a few minutes either way? And anyway David had said he was going to be late tonight …

  By the time Jane got home, David was in the kitchen cracking eggs into a bowl, James Taylor on the sound system. He turned as she came in, looking at her over the thick dark frames of his specs. In her hand was the letter she’d picked up off the table in the hall. It had arrived at last. Sometimes apologies and lies weren’t enough. The word ‘tribunal’ had jumped out at her immediately. If only she hadn’t transgressed all hospital protocol and succumbed to temptation. If only …
But she had been thinking not about herself but about Paul, her son. And her grandchild.

  She read through the letter carefully. It confirmed the date of the tribunal in four weeks’ time. Type of case – Misconduct. Thank God her father was no longer around. He would have been aghast however she tried to justify her actions.

  As she changed into her fleecy slippers, she reflected on what she’d done. It had only taken a moment. A moment that broke all the codes of her profession. And when Paul had found out what she’d done – for him – he had been appalled. However she would defend herself to the end so her reputation would remain intact. That was everything to her. She was so close to retirement that she couldn’t go out with a cloud hanging over her.

  ‘Good day? Scrambled eggs, okay?’ We don’t seem to have anything else.’ That wasn’t a reproach, just a statement of fact. They worked on the premise that they had equal responsibility when it came to running the house and their lives together. Both of them held down demanding jobs so everything they had together should be shared.

  She went over to him, and put her arms around him, feeling the sort of warm affection that she had never felt for Rick. ‘Perfect.’

  ‘Have you heard from Paul?’ He turned down the volume on the speaker dock. ‘Is he getting on okay?’

  ‘He hasn’t rung, but that’s a good sign, I’m sure. I’ll try him in a minute.’ She got out the bread, cut a couple of slices and stuck them in the toaster.

  ‘Is something wrong?’

  ‘Just they’ve sent me notice of the hearing at last.’ She pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and sat down, suddenly feeling exhausted.

  He swung round, stopping his stirring. ‘You don’t think they’ll take it seriously? Extenuating circumstances and all that.’

  ‘They have to. There’s no getting away from the fact that I accessed patient records without consent and that’s enough for them to find my fitness to practice impaired.’