Coming home and finding the wife had fetched him in a cold beer to have with his in-the-oven dinner even though it was her bridge night and he wouldn't see her until the morning. Remembering their anniversary, not because she'd been hinting but because he remembered it and brought her burnt toast and over-stewed tea in bed every year. Taking her out for a dance on her birthday, evenings spent sitting quietly, him drinking and her pottering about, Roger Whitaker on the radio.
He doesn't think about it. He just knows that those things, at home, in Manchester, were solid. That was home. He knows there were girls and one night stands and all-night boozing sessions, far too much work and football and fists and laughing with your mates and team down the pub. But if he thinks about romance, he thinks about simple, quiet, care.
Which is not what he thinks Alex would want to hear - and is more than he'd be willing to admit, even if he could find the words - so he dodges the question.
'I s'pose yours is all walkin' on the beach an' soppy stuff like that.'
no subject
Coming home and finding the wife had fetched him in a cold beer to have with his in-the-oven dinner even though it was her bridge night and he wouldn't see her until the morning. Remembering their anniversary, not because she'd been hinting but because he remembered it and brought her burnt toast and over-stewed tea in bed every year. Taking her out for a dance on her birthday, evenings spent sitting quietly, him drinking and her pottering about, Roger Whitaker on the radio.
He doesn't think about it. He just knows that those things, at home, in Manchester, were solid. That was home. He knows there were girls and one night stands and all-night boozing sessions, far too much work and football and fists and laughing with your mates and team down the pub. But if he thinks about romance, he thinks about simple, quiet, care.
Which is not what he thinks Alex would want to hear - and is more than he'd be willing to admit, even if he could find the words - so he dodges the question.
'I s'pose yours is all walkin' on the beach an' soppy stuff like that.'