Could Sarah really be happy at last with Rob? Or had she misread the signs?
When he walked in, she was busily gulping down a coffee in the station buffet.‘Sarah!’ he cried. Her heart missed a beat. She turned. Rob! She could hardly believe her eyes.
‘It is you!’ he said. ‘I thought it was! Fancy seeing you after all these years!’
Sarah smiled and stood up. ‘Rob!’ she said unsteadily. ‘Well! How are you?’
‘Fine.’ He stepped forward, as though to kiss her on the cheek, then he changed his mind. Instead, he just stood on the spot, awkwardly.
‘Sit down!’ said Sarah. ‘I’ll have to go in a minute, but please...’ She indicated the chair opposite.
They both sat down. ‘I can’t believe it!’ said Rob, still grinning. ‘I was only thinking of you yesterday as I drove past our old offices…’
Sarah shook her head. She could hardly believe he was sitting there opposite her. She smiled at him and quickly put her hands on her lap under the table, so he couldn’t see them shaking.
‘Where are you catching a train to?’ she asked.
‘Beacham,’ he said. ‘I moved out that way two years ago. How’s the family?’
She smiled. ‘Oh, OK. Well, the boys are. They’re both at university.’
‘And Henry?’ he asked.
Sarah sighed. ‘He died.’
‘Really?’ Rob frowned. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Oh, it was seven years ago,’ she said. ‘He hadn’t had a day’s illness and then he had a heart attack out of the blue. He didn’t suffer, but it was a great shock for me.’
‘It must have been.’
‘How’s Alice?’
‘She’s well. And happy...’ Rob pulled a wry face. ‘Very happy.’
‘Oh?’
‘She married a bank manager. He’s got loads of money. That’s why she’s happy.’
Sarah gasped. ‘She left you?!’
He shrugged. ‘It was more a mutual parting of the ways. I told you things weren’t right between us when we... you know.’
Sarah nodded. She knew. How could she forget? When they nearly had an affair. When their working relationship developed into something far more personal, at a time when Henry was away from home so much and she was lonely. But Sarah had far too much to lose. And Rob had a wife, Alice. He’d told her she didn’t love him any more, but Sarah wasn’t going to be involved in breaking up someone else’s marriage, let alone her own. So she’d left the company where she and Rob both worked before anything started. She’d never seen him again... unti
