Through the Glass by Lisa J. Hobman @LivingScottishD

Once inside Polly and Matt’s three-story Georgian town house, she heaved a sigh of relief and dropped her case by the coat stand. Polly came through from the kitchen, took one look at her, and opened her arms. Felicity fell into her friend’s warm embrace and began to sob yet again.

“Oh, sweetheart. What on earth happened up there? I’ve been so worried.” Felicity didn’t answer right away. She just poured out all of the raw emotion that she had left inside her, soaking Polly’s cashmere sweater through with warm, salty tears. “Come on, let’s go through to the lounge… Matt, bring Flick a glass of wine darling!” she called to her husband.

Matt brought the glass, squeezed Felicity’s shoulder, and left the girls to talk. Polly handed a rather pretty tissue box to Felicity and waited for her to calm down enough to speak.

“Oh, Polly…what have I done to him?” She sobbed. Polly held Felicity’s hand and gently stroked the back of it.

“Sweetie, that’s all in the past. Surely he wasn’t still holding a grudge, was he?”

“No…no…he was lovely, for the most part. Distant and guarded, but lovely. He let me stay when I got stranded because of the snow. He cooked for me. He even borrowed painting supplies from his friends so that I wouldn’t be bored.” She sighed. “But he clearly has a visceral fear of getting hurt again. There’s been no one serious since me. He met someone lovely by the sound of it, but she apparently lived a fair distance away and he used that as an excuse to not take things further. He won’t allow anyone to get close and it’s my fault entirely.”

“I…don’t understand. What went wrong?” Polly tucked a stray strand of hair behind Felicity’s ear. “You only went to tell him about your dad.”

“Oh, Polly…things were going so well. I felt like I was making amends. I apologised. We talked so much…about everything…and then last night…last night we made love.” She covered her face with her hands.

“You did what?!” Polly didn’t attempt to hide her shock, sitting bolt upright as she spoke. “Oh no, sweetie. But…but…how come?”