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Helen swore to herself as she wiggled the useless key Dominic had got cut for her in the temperamental lock of his flat door. She slung her bag on the sofa and went straight to the kitchen. As expected Dominic was at his laptop on the breakfast bar with a pile of textbooks on the floor at his feet.
‘It’s Christmas eve. Stop working.’
He grinned. ‘Just got to finish this lesson plan.’
‘You’re writing plans for next term’s teaching practice?’
‘No. This is the last one for last term’s teaching practice. It’s a lot easier to know what’s in the lesson after you’ve taught it.’
She walked around the table and wrapped her arms around his neck. ‘I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to work.’
‘Okay. Okay. I’m stopping.’ He clicked save and shutdown the computer. ‘I’m officially off for Christmas then. We have about fifteen hours together before we have to go to my mother’s.’
Helen raised her fist in a gesture of faux celebration.
‘Are you sure you don’t mind going to Mum’s?’
‘It’s fine. I think she’s warming up a bit. I’m sure she smiled while we were there last time.’
‘I think that was wind.’ Dominic swung his legs round so she could perch on his lap. ‘I heard you swearing at the door.’
‘It’s a stupid lock.’
‘You have to sort of lift and wiggle the key a bit.’
‘If you moved in with me ...’
He closed his eyes. ‘We agreed that it was too soon to live together. We agreed that having separate places was sensible.’
It was true. They had. ‘And how many nights have we actually spent apart since we agreed that?’
He glanced at the floor. ‘Two.’
‘Yeah. And that was because I went to stay with my baby niece while my sister was in hospital, wasn’t it?’
He nodded. Sensible was proving expensive. ‘I’ve got two more months on the tenancy.’
‘And after that?’
He smiled. ‘I don’t know. I’m not sure I want to live in sin.’
‘I live in Didsbury. It’s a very nice class of sin.’ Helen laughed again. ‘Anyway, sin’s all you’re being offered. Make the best of it.’
He wrapped his arms around her. ‘Sin sounds good.’
‘Excellent.’ She leant in and kissed him for a long time. When she pulled back she glanced at the clock. ‘Hey. It’s ten to eight.’
Dominic frowned. ‘So?’
Helen rolled her eyes. ‘Alex and Emily’s big date.’ Alex had banged on about their promise to meet up again in six months’ time every time she’d spoken to him since Theo and Tania’s wedding, until their last conversation a couple of weeks ago. Then he’d been strangely muted on the subject. Nerves, or cold feet? It had been impossible to tell. ‘Do you think they’ll both turn up?’
Dominic sighed. ‘I don’t know.’
Helen reached into her pocket and pulled out a fiver, which she placed on the table. ‘Five pounds says they’re both there.’
Dominic shook his head. ‘I’ll take that.’
Helen bit her bottom lip. ‘Does it bother you?’
‘What?’
‘The idea of Emily with somebody else.’
He laughed. ‘No. It’s just weird thinking back to where I might have ended up. Married to Emily. Still in the same job. Perfect house. Perfect job.’
‘And instead you’re here?’ Helen looked around his rather brown and dated kitchen.
Dominic was only looking at her. ‘Exactly where I’m supposed to be.’