An Honest Question

My hand on her arm steadies her but I could do with some support myself. I can't just leave her here and so, we pay for our shopping and then, with my arm around her shoulder, I take her to the café for a coffee. She's looking less spectral now but she feels small to me. It makes me feel sad. Life has sucked what it can out of her but she's still battling.

I get us coffees while she sits down at a table.

"Here you are," I say, inadvertently mimicking the way she'd say it to me when handing me food at her house. Her eyes are wet but she smiles up at me, kindly.

"Thanks, love," she says, pulling the mug towards her. She doesn't take a sip. I do, of mine. I'm desperate for something to do. I don't know what to say. The silence sits. I want to know about Mark but I don't. By the look on her face, it's not a happy tale.

Suddenly, she looks up at me.

"I thought everyone knew, you know..." She pauses, "that Mark, you know."

I nod, blowing on my coffee.

"I'm sorry," I say.

The silence tries to muscle in again but she fights it off. She's keen to speak now she's in better control of her emotions.

"Life for Mark was never..." She chooses the word carefully, "...easy."

I nod again.

"I don't know how much you knew about...our life." She is looking at me, earnestly as if to say, "Say you know so I don't have to say it out loud" and I help her.

"I know things were difficult at times...with his dad."

She relaxes a little. "Yes. It was always...tense. But we managed." She lifts her coffee now and takes a sip. "He left me, you know."

I didn't.

"Best day of my life. Good luck to her. She'll need it."

I sit with this, the coffee warming us.

"I miss our Mark. Every day."

Her eyes are moist again.

"He was never the same after that Laney disappeared. Poor girl."

My heart jolts as her eyes search mine.

"Did they ever find out what happened to her?"

***

366 words

How will Luke deal with directly being asked after all these years?

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