Semi-Detached Marriage Read Free Page B

of
beige.'
    'Well, wear a contrast colour, then. Your
snakeskin shoes would look perfect, much better than an exact match.'
    D'you think so?' Julia held the skirt and
shoes together musingly.
    'Maybe you're right.' Reluctantly she
replaced the shoes on the stand.
    'I know I'm right, I'm not a fashion buyer
for nothing. Come on, these crowds are getting too much.
    Let's find somewhere to have a coffee.'
    The two girls took the escalator down to the
basement and found themselves a table in the coffee shop, which was all apple
green walls, white trelliswork decoration and potted plants.
    'Ooh, that's better!' Julia gave a sigh of relief
as she eased her shoes off under the table. 'Why is it that the
    oo pavements around Oxford Street are always
harder than anywhere else?'
    'You shouldn't wear such high- heels,' Cassie
told her, without sympathy. 'Arc you going to tell John about the things you've
bought?'
    'No. He won't find out until the credit card
statement comes in, and by then we might be on better terms.'
    Cassie didn't say anything, letting her
friend decide whether or not to take that last remark farther. Julia was silent
for a moment, broodingly stirring her coffee, then she burst out, 'Honestly,
Cass, you'd never think that John was only a few years older than Simon! Simon
still makes a fuss of you and takes you out a lot, whereas all John wants to do
when he comes home from work is eat a meal and then collapse in front of the
television. And he usually falls asleep in the chair!' she added feelingly.
    'But don't forget that Simon and I have only
been married three years, whereas you've been married ten. Maybe when we've
been married that long all Simon will want to do is watch television. Maybe it
happens to all men in time.'
    Julia's eyebrows rose in disbelief and she
shook her head.
    'Oh, no. Do you really believe that Simon's
the type of man who goes to bed and then tells his wife that he's too tired to
make love?'
    Cassie had to laugh at Julia's outraged face.
'Oh, come on, it's not as bad as that, surely?'
    'Near enough. If I didn't know that John was
just too lazy, I'd say that he was having an affair.' 'Oh, you don't really think
that, Julia? You can't!' There was real shock in Cassie’s voice. 'Why, John
dotes on you and the children.'
    Julia sighed. 'Yes, I know he does. And I'm
sure he's faithful. It's just that.' She shrugged rather helplessly. 'It's just
that I wish he was more alive ,younger in spirit.
Sometimes he seems about sixty years old, when he's not even forty yet.'
    Cassie thought it wiser to change the subject
then, and they talked of other things until Julia mentioned the dinner party
the previous night.
    'They were a nice couple, Sue and
Christopher. Have you known them long?'
    'No, only a few months. Sue only came to work
at Marriott & Brown's after they got married.' 'They haven't been married very
long, then?' 'No, just over a year, I think.'
    'He seemed interesting; quite a sporty type
by the look of him.'
    There was something in Julia's voice that
made Cassie look at her quickly, but the elder girl's face was quite impassive,
her attention given to the cream cake she was cutting.
    'Yes, I believe he's a squash addict.'
    'They usually are nowadays; no one seems to
go in for tennis any more. It's either squash or badminton. Oh, by the way,'
Julia licked cream off her lips, 'per- haps you could give me Sue's telephone
number. I promised to give her my recipe for salmon mousse, but she forgot to
give me her number.'
    'I'll write it down for you.' Cassie jotted
the number on a page torn out of her notebook and passed it over, looking at
her friend searchingly, but Julia was completely casual as she took it and
dropped it in her bag. Cassie chided herself for being a fool; as if Julia
would be interested in a boy six years younger than herself! They parted soon
after and Cassie went home to
    oo spend the rest of the weekend catching up
on jobs. Simon phoned every evening, but it seemed that the