The Look of Love by Judy Astley Read Free Book Online Page A

plates away and took their order for espressos, which appeared in seconds. James was quiet for a moment, checking the edge of his cup for marks. There wouldn’t be any, Bella knew that, but it didn’t stop him running the edge of his napkin around the cup’s rim before he dropped a couple of chunks of sugar in.
    Bella felt confused. ‘Wait a minute … what are you talking about, James? What equity?’
    ‘The house, Annabelle. That bricks-and-mortar place you and our offspring occupy. The one I still half own, that we never got round to splitting when it came to assets and custody. Remember?’
    Her attention had snapped to full alert now. ‘So what do you want to do?’ She laughed suddenly. ‘ Sell it?’
    He didn’t look as if there was any joke involved. Oh surely, surely not?
    James frowned. ‘Well, yes – that’s what I had in mind. Unless you can buy me out? Of course now Alex and Molly …’
    ‘But Alex and Molly still live in the house! As I do, in case you’d forgotten!’ Bella protested.
    ‘For now, yes. That’s why I’m mentioning it now . But we’ve got to do some blue-sky thinking here. Alex is already away at university and Molly’s got only months till she leaves school. I mean, you must have known this was coming one day. You’ve had years …’
    ‘Oh. Right. So that’s it, is it?’ Bella felt weary and defeated. ‘Yes, I’ve had years. I’ve had years of scraping by in a hugely precarious job, raising our children single-handedly with barely any input from you because you claimed that because I’d got the house your contribution stopped right there! And that if I sold it at any point during that time, I’d have only half the cash with which to get something else! So thanks, James, thanksfor reminding me how little I actually have to call my own. Thanks a whole bunch !’
    The eyes of white-linen man across the room met hers as she looked away from James. He half smiled, raised his glass. Chloe-Zoe grinned at her, both with the same ‘look what we’re having lunch with’ expression. She tried to smile back at them but her mouth got all twisted up somehow, and her vision had gone swimmy.
    James’s BlackBerry beeped and he glanced at his watch. ‘Look, I have to go. Got to meet the agent to pick up the keys to the flat. We’ll continue this another time, shall we? Get all the ducks set out in a row? Sorry and that,’ he said, pushing back his chair and looking eager to be out of Bella’s orbit. ‘We’ll touch base again soon: I’ll give you the new address and so on. And er …’
    ‘Oh just go, James. Just go .’ And he did, scuttling out fast to avoid having to deal with emotion, something else he’d always considered messy and unpleasant. Bella finished her coffee and sat for a moment, trying to feel calm. She still had half a glass of wine and she downed most of it in one go. So … the score so far this week? No boyfriend, no job (well a quarter of one, nothing much to speak of), and soon no home. Just great.
    There was chair-scraping and signs of imminent departure from across the room. Chloe and Zoe were on their way out and stopped by Bella’s table on the way. ‘Hi Bella, are you coming to the Fox tomorrow? Hope so!’
    ‘Er … yes, probably!’ Bella smiled brightly, amazed she still had the power of speech.
    ‘Great! See you there – got to dash, school-time! Ciao!’ The two women were on their way out, their lunch companion left behind, dealing with the bill and talking to Luigi. Bella finished the rest of her wine, feeling numb and as if she couldn’t move. She put her hands over her face and felt warm tears on her cheeks. Oh, great.
    ‘Are you all right?’ She opened her eyes and found she was disturbingly close to crotch-level denim, property of the Chloe-Zoe man. She scuffed at her face with the napkin, realizing too late that it was smeared with Amatriciano sauce.
    He sat down in James’s seat and leaned across. ‘Here, let me; you’ve got