Down on Daffodil Lane. Rebecca Pugh

are you looking at?’ Mille leant to the side to see if she could locate Maria’s point of interest. ‘Oh, I see,’ she said slowly, her voice light with amusement.

      ‘No one!’ Maria shook her head quickly. ‘I’m just taking a look about the place. That’s all. It’s a completely new area to me. It’s only normal that I’m interested to see what’s what.’

      Millie smirked. ‘It was Brad you were eyeing up, wasn’t it?’ She wore an all-knowing expression as she spoke.

      ‘Of course it wasn’t! I don’t even know who Brad is.’ Maria did her best to appear confused. So, his name was Brad, was it? She mentally filed away the information, although for what use she wasn’t entirely sure.

      ‘Yes, you do,’ giggled Millie. ‘Broad shoulders, messy hair, tattoo peeking out from under his t-shirt. You know exactly who Brad is. He’s the one who looks like he’s been rolling around in the mud and had a blast doing it. The one most women wouldn’t mind rolling around in the mud with.’ Millie said all of this without a hint of surprise evident. Her blue eyes glittered naughtily at her last comment and she smiled. ‘It’s true. A lot of the women around here can be found swooning over him. He doesn’t have any of it though, doesn’t even acknowledge it. I love a man like that, don’t you? Hard to reach. The shell around him impossible to crack.’

      ‘You know him then?’ Maria tried not to appear too interested in Millie’s answer. She had to admit though, he did look a little untidy but not in an unpleasant way. In quite an appealing way, actually. She wanted to look in his direction again but also didn’t want to risk being caught. The look he’d thrown in her direction minutes ago hadn’t been an inviting one.

      ‘Vaguely,’ Millie shrugged in reply. ‘He works at Meadow Farm. It’s right up the lane beside the café. He’s not around much, I guess he likes to keep to himself. It looks like he’s had a change of heart this evening though. You don’t see him out and about that often. I wouldn’t blame you if you were admiring him, by the way. Don’t worry, I won’t judge. He’s quite yummy to look at. He’s definitely got that whole rough-and-rugged look going on, hasn’t he?’

      Maria took the information in quickly, then rolled her eyes. ‘I was not admiring him. I was merely curious as to who was sat at the table, that’s all. After what I’ve been through, I should be sworn off men for life. How old is he anyway? He looks about your age.’

      ‘No way. Couple of years older than me. Mid-thirties, I think. He’s got a nerve showing up here though.’ Millie glanced out across the lake and watched the ducks gliding across the surface of the water. It was a pretty scene, but Maria was still thinking about what Millie had just said. She’d always been a curious person, and this man was igniting that curiosity this evening, although she couldn’t put her finger on why. She’d never been the type of woman swayed purely by good looks. She was of the frame of mind that it was what was on the inside that counted. Still, a little admiration never hurt anyone, and coupled with her beer-fuelled mind, she couldn’t seem to help herself.

      She hadn’t fancied many men in her lifetime, Maria realised. Sure, there’d been the odd celebrity crush, but they were just a silly fantasy that she’d sometimes entertain. She’d spent her life from the age of sixteen upwards ridiculously devoted to Mike. He could never have done any wrong in Maria’s eyes, and she thought that was another reason why she’d been so shocked by the truth. She’d been under the impression that she’d known her husband inside and out, believed that he’d never keep a secret from her, no matter what. That’s what marriage was about, wasn’t it? Loyalty, honesty and trust? It turned out that they hadn’t had any of those things, and she wondered whether this affair, the one that had broken their marriage apart, had been the first, or one of many? She’d never know now.

      ‘What do you mean?’ Maria glanced again in Brad’s direction but pulled her gaze away just as quickly. ‘Why would he have a nerve coming here?’ It seemed like an odd thing for Millie to say, and she was interested to know more about the mysterious man across the way.

      Millie shrugged. ‘I’m not entirely sure of what happened but apparently, according to local gossip, which I don’t participate in by the way, he used to go out with Sophie, and Sophie’s parents are the people who own this pub. She used to live here with them. I can’t say one hundred percent that what everyone says is true, you know what it’s like in a small place like this. A game of Chinese whispers, and the story grows more outrageous with every mouth that adds to it. But there’s supposedly bad blood between Brad and her parents.’ She made quote marks with her fingers around the words ‘bad blood’. ‘Something happened and ever since, Brad isn’t exactly made to feel welcome.’

      ‘Does Sophie still live here?’ asked Maria, glancing about foolishly, as if Sophie herself would pop up from out of the bushes and yell ‘surprise!’

      ‘No, she moved away a good few years ago, I think, and apparently got married last summer. Still, I suppose they can’t stop him from coming to the pub for a pint, can they? Free will and all that. My guess is he broke her heart. Bit of a cliché but that’s all I can come up with on the matter. They were together for years, you know. Stupidly in love. You’d always see them walking by the lake together, feeding the ducks. It was like something out of a movie. Everyone was shocked when they broke up and Brad sort of disappeared from Loland Green for a while. No one knows where he went but when he finally returned, he kept away from everyone, which is why I’m surprised to see him here. And with friends, too! I didn’t even know he had any, he spends that much time on his own.’ She snorted into her glass and Maria realised that the beer was beginning to have its effects on Millie.

      Maria wondered where Brad had gone during the period in which he’d vanished. Was it a bit like her situation, she wondered. Where she’d come to Daffodil Lane to sort herself out? ‘Interesting,’ she murmured. ‘It’s sad that they broke up though, if they were as happy as you said they were. Relationships aren’t the same these days, are they?’

      ‘Don’t say that,’ Millie groaned. ‘I’m still holding out hope for a knight in shining armour. I’ve always been chasing after that fairy-tale, happy-ever-after.’ She laughed at herself, slightly tipsy if her flushed cheeks and unsteady sway on the seat were anything to go by.

      ‘You’ll get your knight in shining armour, I’m sure of it.’ Maria nodded firmly. ‘You’re lovely. In fact,’ she lowered her voice to a whisper, ‘if I’m right, one of those lads at Brad’s table keeps sneaking glances at you. He’s been doing so since you went inside to get the last drinks.’

      Millie frowned. ‘Really?’

      ‘Really,’ Maria insisted. ‘He’s wearing the light green top with beige shorts. Can you see him? He’s sat next to Brad. Quite handsome, actually.’

      Millie peered in the table’s direction. She scanned the four men. ‘God, I don’t even know what I’d do if a man tried to flirt with me these days, it’s been that long. I’d probably run screaming into the hills.’

      Once the drinks were finished, they grabbed their belongings and headed back towards town. The sky had darkened just a little bit but the air was still warm as they strolled, neither one of them rushing to end the evening. They hadn’t walked very far when they heard shouting from behind them. Millie turned and, having seen who it was, tugged on Maria’s arm in panic.