As Dawn slowly pedalled the last few yards through the gym car park, she was tooted by a car. She slowed down and put her foot on the kerb to steady herself.
‘Hi! Meeses Dawn, how you? You on bike, no? Fabulous!’ It was Ramone, rolling his window down.
‘What are you doing here, Ramone?’ She smiled.
‘I give Meeses Charlie a lift. She goes gym all the time now! Sometimes she work out, other time eets working in ze coffee shop; I must go, Meeses Suzie she just text me!’
‘How is the baby? Suzie?’
‘Yes, baby fine! Very noisy! Señora Suzie, she – how you say, quite up-loose – but she eat my food now! Even the croquettes! I must go! Bye!’
‘Ramone?’
‘Sí?’
‘It’s uptight.’
She waved him off laughing and pushed her bike towards the gym entrance. The last few kilometres of her bike ride with Rex had been fun. He’d persuaded her to come out with him again, despite her swearing she wouldn’t. He’d gone on ahead in the end as he’d needed to rush back to work, some conference calls he had to take at home – even on a Saturday. Dawn had taken her time on the last stretch, a hundred different thoughts clogging up her brain from turning fifty, to Rex’s biceps, to googling dye removal for cats, to her marriage.
There was a tap on her shoulder and Dawn jumped. Charlie eyed her suspiciously.
‘Million miles away?’
‘Oh, Charlie, hey, look at you! You look fabulous!’ She cast her eye over a new Charlie: dark grey yoga trackpants, a blue and silver racer back top and a pretty floral sweatband around her head. Unrecognisable from the girl of a few months ago. ‘What have you been doing?’
‘Exercising here – what else?’ she said with an odd look about her. ‘What have you been doing, more to the point? Don’t you do a spinning class today?’
Dawn took a swig of water from her bottle and hoped that her flushed face just looked like she’d been exercising very hard. ‘Coffee?’
‘Yup, sure.’ Charlie glanced at her watch. ‘I’ll pop back in and order.’ Charlie smiled at her and wandered ahead to the café. She really was looking different. Gone was the girl who’d been tired and heavily pregnant only a couple of months ago. Exercising and having Ramone around clearly suited her. Ramone had said that he wanted to ‘look after’ her a bit longer, and now that Suzie wasn’t so stressed about her house looking immaculate, Suzie had agreed for him to spend a bit of time still at Charlie’s.
‘So how have you been?’ Dawn found Charlie at her usual table and sank gratefully into the leather sofa. She took the coffee from Charlie and looked up at her. ‘You do look great, by the way.’ She wanted to steer the conversation away from Rex.
‘So you said! Thanks.’ Charlie beamed. ‘Ramone’s such a good cook – and he’s taught me the perils of custard creams! It’s great to—’ she lowered her voice ‘—have enough money now, and not worry so much. Paid off those awful loans. I’ve been coming here, doing some classes to try to—’ Her voice trailed off and she yanked the hem of her top.
‘Hm?’
‘Keep busy.’ Charlie smiled tightly.
‘Really?’
‘Yes.’ She looked up. ‘That and keep me from thinking about Daniel too much,’ she sighed. ‘Remember when I saw him a few weeks ago, Dawn? Well, I just can’t help thinking about it all, about that text – about his girlfriend.’ She shook her head.
Dawn didn’t know what to say. Poor Charlie. She put her arms around her and rubbed her shoulder. Daniel hadn’t mentioned any new girlfriend to her, and she’d been on the phone to him only recently. He’d wanted to ask if she knew anyone else who needed help with lifts, to keep his business going.
‘I sent him a text, actually. I just think it’s for the best. Told him not to contact me.’
‘Oh, darling, I’m sorry. I can tell how much you like him.’
‘I had been going to ask if I could start driving lessons again,’ she said, ‘but, well, not now, not with him seeing someone.’ She looked at Dawn and then quickly said, ‘So what about you – what have you been up to? Were you cycling on your own?’
Dawn felt her heart race. ‘Um, well, no. Rex suggested we go outside and take a bike ride instead of the class; it was very stuffy in there. I had a headache,’ she lied.
Charlie blinked. ‘Rex? Really? Actually, I thought I saw you in the park a few weeks ago – that time, when I was with Daniel. Was that you?’
Good grief, she hadn’t realised Charlie had seen them. Dawn suddenly worried about who else might have spotted her.
‘Yes, I think so.’
‘You think so?’ Charlie’s eyes narrowed.
‘Look, what’s a cycle ride?’ She took a gulp of her coffee and burnt her mouth. ‘Blast!’ She winced. ‘If you must know, Suzie is so caught up with Jacob that Rex told me he wanted to get out for some air – and I was talking to him about how hard things were, and that I’d talk to Suzie.’ Dawn knew full well she was justifying her actions, but that’s what she’d been doing, hadn’t she? Helping Suzie really. ‘Suzie’s just so intense about Jacob, that’s all, and Rex needed a break, needed to offload to someone.’
Charlie gave her a long, sideways look. Somehow this blasted girl could see right through her.
‘I’m not doing anything wrong, you know.’
Charlie stirred her coffee and looked up at her. ‘I didn’t say a word.’
After an awkward silence, Charlie crossed her legs and leant back in the chair. ‘But aren’t you, Dawn? You seem to be hanging out a lot with someone else’s husband.’
Dawn put down her coffee cup sharply as what Charlie said sunk in. She looked around the café, into the gardens. She stared at the golden yellow roses, at the Nelly Moser clematis climbing all over the back fence in the mid-September sun, with its final bloom for summer of cheery purple striped flowers, their faces happily bobbing in the breeze.
Suddenly, her heart felt heavy. Wasn’t it here, nearly a year ago, that she’d lectured Suzie about her marriage, and yet, here she was, trying to hide that she did feel something for Rex. She’d tried very hard to convince herself that it was friendly, that it was all terribly innocent, but when he’d moved closer to her today she’d almost fainted with desire. And when she realised he was in her classes, or if she recognised his car in the car park, not only did her heart lurch a little, she’d also find an excuse to quickly reapply her lipstick. She wasn’t really imagining those things, was she? And didn’t she secretly like the fact that she could be warm and understanding when Suzie was so unavailable? She was a terrible, terrible friend.
She remembered being shocked when Suzie had confessed to her, all those months ago, about her flirting with some guy after a night out in London and felt ashamed that now she was risking everything she’d built up – her home, family, Eric – and yet, what did she feel for Eric?
Charlie touched her arm. ‘Listen, Dawn, the way I see it, is if Suzie’s not herself right now, all you’re doing is making it easy for Rex to, well, fall into someone else’s arms.’
She was right. That was final. She’d make a decision. Anyway, there would be no more close encounters, would there? No more cycle rides.
She promised herself there and then that she would not be alone with him again.