Summer at West Sands Guest House: A perfect feel good, uplifting romantic comedy. Maggie Conway

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СКАЧАТЬ temperature – totally unsuitable for the luxury two-ply fabric Colin favoured. Part of her had hoped the shirt might disintegrate in the wash. Perhaps if she destroyed the evidence, they could carry on as normal. Except deep down, she had known normal wasn’t good. She had noticed a brightness in her husband’s eyes, a spring in his step that she knew wasn’t of her making.

      She hadn’t confronted him immediately, hadn’t been in a particular hurry to have the conversation that might end their five-year marriage. Because although she had wondered about the state of their marriage for some time, she certainly hadn’t expected her husband’s infidelity to bring it to an ignominious end. She needed to live with the notion that her husband was having an affair, to bolster herself for what she knew was surely to come. She thought she should be rallying herself to put up a fight to save their marriage, except she wasn’t sure exactly what she would be fighting for.

      She had tried to pinpoint the moment their lives seemed to have veered in different directions. Molly had known Colin was driven but it wasn’t until after they were married that she realised just how ambitious he really was. It seemed with every step he took up the corporate ladder he also took a step further away from her.

      Molly supposed she’d always been more of a dreamer, not just in her career but in life generally. She liked to view the future as an unknown quantity, new things to discover, surprises still to come. Colin on the other hand was a planner and liked to look ahead – preferably with a spreadsheet involved. She began to feel caught in his tailwind, always trying to keep up with him.

      A year ago, Molly had been made redundant at the same time Colin had gained a big promotion in the financial company where he worked. She was proud of his success and he was sympathetic for her loss but instead of pulling them closer, it had the opposite effect. While his career soared, Molly’s had stalled and she’d taken a temporary position covering maternity leave. Colin clearly wasn’t impressed with her temping status; Molly suspected it annoyed him that she wasn’t following a clear career path.

      At school Molly had been undecided about her future, shuffling along to the careers teacher admitting she didn’t have a clue what she wanted to do. Somehow between them, they’d conjured up marketing and so after school she started her degree.

      In her first year at university, Molly had met Declan, an effortlessly cool and impossibly good-looking arts student from Galway who told Molly her wild red hair and emerald green eyes reminded him of home. Her hair was closer to brown than red and her eyes were hazel but who was she to argue with such romanticism? Until then, her only experience had been clumsy, fumbling encounters with boys she knew from school. She had never met anyone like him and she was soon spending every minute she could with him – all her good intentions of working hard flying out the window. When, after several months, the relationship ended as suddenly as it had started, the resultant fallout had been responsible not only for breaking Molly’s heart but also for her failing all her exams.

      Studying for her resits during a miserable summer Molly wondered if university was right for her. But she had buckled down, passed all her resits and started second year determined to do well. From that point on, when she wasn’t attending lectures she squirrelled herself away in the library. It was there one day, when she was stretching for a book on the top shelf, that a safe pair of hands had reached out and prevented it from toppling on her.

      She had turned to find Colin. Handsome and serious, Molly had immediately fallen for him, impressed by his focus and self-assuredness. She liked that he was organised and remembered important dates. What he may have lacked in spontaneity (Declan had once turned up with a picnic and whisked her away from classes to spend the day at Loch Lomond), he made up for in dependability (she recalled all the times Declan had never showed up).

      Studying economics, Colin was two years ahead of Molly so that by the time she graduated, he was already on his career path. On the day of her graduation Molly had been surprised but delighted when Colin offered her a dazzling engagement ring which she had readily accepted. She knew they were young but she had seen that as a good thing, a sign they were meant to be together.

      Using her parents’ perfect marriage as her guiding light, Molly knew she had found the right man to follow in their footsteps. She had been full of hope on the day of her wedding; this was the start of her fairy tale and she had no reason to suppose it wouldn’t last.

      But then came the day of the laundry discovery. When several days had passed and Molly finally gathered her courage to talk to Colin, he’d admitted to the affair immediately and told her he was leaving. She couldn’t believe that he hadn’t wanted to discuss it, that he was so ready to throw it all away.

      ‘Aren’t we at least going to talk about it?’ she’d asked him.

      ‘It’s too late, I’m sorry.’ He’d shuffled on his feet awkwardly, unable to meet her eye. Beneath his contrite expression, Molly saw relief and she knew there was no way back for them. She looked at him, wondering what had happened to the man she had married.

      Gone was the man she’d trusted and thought she’d grow old with. In his place there was a man she barely recognised. One who had become very particular about the clothes he wore and the car he drove, and preferred dinner parties to nights in the pub. One who spent more time at work than at home and took business calls before hers. One who had lied and cheated.

      A woman at work was enough information for Molly. She resisted asking for the details – what good could come from knowing when it had started, if he’d bought her gifts, if they’d shared a hotel room at the conference he’d attended in Paris. No, she refused to acknowledge the cliché their marriage had become.

      Colin moved out quickly, clearly in a hurry to get on with his new life. Strange, difficult days followed. At times Molly felt like running away – where to, she had no idea. But running wasn’t an option; she had her job to go to and didn’t want to let anyone down. And it had been the job that had acted as a life-raft of sorts, giving her a routine and a reason to get out of bed each day.

      So Molly had remained in the house on her own, desperately trying to cling to normality. Functioning on automatic pilot, she went to work and avoided people. She’d told only those who needed to know, which turned out to be not many. Cossetted in what she thought was the security of her life with Colin, letting friendships fade had been all too easy. Colin told her to keep the house as if he were doing her a massive favour but the truth was, she’d never really liked the house.

      It had been Colin who insisted they go and see a new-build estate on the outskirts of Glasgow. Molly’s dream of starting married life in a spacious red sandstone in the West End, of weekends spent painting, varnishing floorboards and strolling around the bustling bars and vintage shops were slowly extinguished by the gushing sales advisor fawning over the flawless finishes of the contemporary kitchen and the dual-aspect bay-windowed lounge.

      She’d turned to Colin, his eyes shining.

      ‘There’s not much character,’ she’d whispered to him.

      ‘Who cares about character? With the deal they’re offering first time buyers we’ll be quids in, we won’t do any better than this.’ With little or no knowledge on such things she had bowed to his financial acumen. She’d simply been happy there were four bedrooms and had felt a little inner glow as she imagined children filling the rooms.

      She had tried to make the most of the house but no amount of coloured cushions, clever lighting or potted plants ever seemed to infuse any real warmth into it. It had always felt soulless to her. The first few times Molly had driven into the cul-de-sac of identikit houses, she struggled to recognise her own home and had resorted to placing a bright yellow СКАЧАТЬ