The Last Goodbye by Caroline Finnerty

and cool blue eyes. She took no shit, did Cathy. She was a real eye-opener. I thought we’d do a long-distance relationship – y’know, wait by the payphone at five o’clock on a Tuesday because she said she’d ring, or write letters to each other – but my cousin rang me a few weeks later and told me she had met another boy from the town and it was ‘Bye-bye, Will’.”
“Ah, my poor Will!” Nat laughed as she tousled his hair.
They were so touchy feely. They couldn’t keep their hands off one another.
“Yeah, I was heartbroken, I really was. Absolutely gutted. There’s nothing quite like your first love,” he said wistfully.
“Do you think there’s only one person for everyone?” Nat asked.
“Hardly,” I said.
“Do you know what, Nat?” Will said. “I think there might be. I mean, I think that you can love a lot of people but there’s an ultimate one out there for all of us.” He smiled at her and there was a look exchanged between them. “But one wrong decision can change how things work out for the rest of your life . . .” He sounded sad.
“But if that’s the case what happens if ‘the one’ is living in a yurt in Outer Mongolia?” I said.
“Well, then you just have to hope that destiny intervenes and brings you together,” said Will.
“But what happens if ‘the one’ is already dead?” I said.
“I never thought of that,” Nat said. “God, that’s very sad, isn’t it? To think of someone spending their whole life looking for ‘the one’ and not knowing that they’re never going to find them!”
“Nah. I’m pretty sure there are lots of ‘ones’ out there for us,” I said.
“Thanks a lot, Kate!” Ben said, feigning indignation.
“Oh, you know what I mean . . .”
“You are such a cynic, Kate Flynn!” Nat said.
“No, I’m not, I’m just realistic. We can’t all be hopeless romantics like you.” I smiled at Nat who was looking very comfy cuddling up to Will.
Everybody was well on, Ben included, but I had hit the wall of tiredness. I couldn’t help myself from yawning. I tried swallowing them back but I couldn’t stop – it was like my body was trying to search out the last of the oxygen in the room. Finally I couldn’t fight them any longer.
“Sorry, guys, I’m falling asleep – I’m such a lightweight.”
“Well, you’re also nearly six months pregnant,” Ben said.
“Yeah, maybe we should start making tracks.” I yawned again.
“Really? Ah, that’s a pity!” Nat said.
They both saw us out to the door. Will had his two arms around Nat’s waist from behind and was lightly kissing her hair.
“Well, thank you for coming,” she said.
“No, thank you – we had a great time,” I responded.
They closed the door behind us and Ben turned to me and said, “Asshole.”

Chapter 10
On Monday morning I had a meeting with Charlie, the graphic designer we used whenever we needed to get artwork designed for our exhibitions. I wanted to talk to him about the booklets and the postcards. He was waiting for me outside the door of the gallery.
“Sorry, Charlie,” I said, rushing up and opening the door to let him in. Usually Nat was there first but she wasn’t in yet.
“No worries, I was a few minutes early,” he said.
He took a seat while I got myself organised. A few minutes later Nat came in.
“Morning!” she said breezily. “Oh hi, Charlie. How are you?”
“I’m good, thank you, Nat.”
She was wearing a burgundy dress with a repeating cat pattern, knitted mustard tights and brown suede ankle boots. Her hair was tied up loosely on top of her head.
While Charlie set up his laptop, I went down to the kitchen and made a pot of coffee.
First Nat talked him through the theme of Silence and what photos we would be displaying. Charlie flipped open his notepad to take notes. Then I talked him through the practicalities, the number of artists displaying work, the style of booklet we wanted, the colours and fonts. Rather than use a standard template, we liked