A Country Affair by Rebecca Shaw

with, “See you tonight. I’m split shift today, so I’ll go shopping this afternoon and be home about seven-thirty, with any luck. If you and Dad are going out, don’t worry about me. OK?” Kate bent to kiss Mia’s cheek. “Bye! Let
me
tell Dad.”
     
    B EARING in mind Gerry’s warning not to fritter away her granny’s money, Kate decided to spend some of it that very afternoon. She desperately needed new clothes and she also intended treating herself to a nice lunch in the Bite to Eat cafin the shopping precinct to celebrate having taken the big decision.
    Most of the dress shops in her spending bracket had autumn sales on, so after a splendid lunch, which she thoroughly enjoyed, she set off to spend, spend, spend.
    It was a day for swift decisions, and she made them. A suit, a party dress, some lingerie and a jacket. She came out of Next, turning left to head for her car, intending to put all her bags in the trunk and to return for a pleasant reviving cup of tea in the Food Gallery surrounding the main shopping square. Kate set off at a pace and had gone quite a way when she realized she’d left the jacket she’d just bought in the shop. Without stopping to inspect her bags to make sure, she swung around to return to the shop and bumped headlong into Adam.
    “Ooh! Sorry! Adam! What a surprise! What are you doing here?”
    Adam appeared as surprised as she was and twice as flustered. Kate asked him if he was not working today. “Having a late lunch.” He looked at her, long and deep, and put out a hand to take her bags. “If you’re leaving, I’ll help you with those to the car.”
    “I’ve just bought a jacket in Next and I’ve left it on the counter, so I’m going back to get it.”
    “I’ll come with you, then.”
    Kate retrieved her jacket and went with Adam to the car park. On the way she debated whether or not to go straight back to the practice, thus avoiding a talk with Adam, but she decided there was no time like now and asked him if he had time for a cup of tea. He glanced at his watch and accepted. “I’ve put in a lot of hours this week. They can’t complain.”
    His Adam’s apple was bobbing up and down quite vigorously and she wondered about the stress he must be under with this promotion. “Are you settling in?”
    “Settling in?”
    “In your new job?”
    “Oh yes! Day off, is it?”
    She explained about the split shift.
    “I see.” He gazed over the balustrade, watching the shoppers walking about below. “Nice spot, this. Come here often?”
    “No, just sometimes. I got Granny Howard’s money this week, so since I needed new clothes, I came shopping.”
    “Come in handy, that will. Take care of it.”
    “Handy for what?”
    “Our deposit on a house.”
    A terrible feeling of suffocation came over Kate and she had to breathe deeply to rescue herself. Things were much worse than she had thought; he must be losing his marbles.
    “There’re some nice starter homes being built the other side of town. I thought we might go and look at them.”
    “You might, but I’m not.”
    Adam picked up his cup and toasted her with it. “To us. We’ll look somewhere else, then.”
    “We won’t. I’m not ready to get married yet. Not for a long long while.” Now was the time to tell him what she’d done this morning on her way to work, but something in his eyes held her back from spilling the beans.
    He continued eagerly, as if she’d never spoken, “I’ve just had the most tremendous idea. Mother’s house is not suitable for an up-and-coming man. How about if she sells and we use the money and your granny’s to buy a bigger house, and we all live together? That way, if I work long hours, which one does if one is in a top executive position, you’d always have someone at home for company and to give you a hand with the children. What do you think, eh? Good idea, isn’t it?”
    The nightmarish turn his conversation had taken scared Kate to death. Live with his mother! That