Chapter Twelve
Gloria had wanted to stop at Mary and Alan’s earlier in the week, but something had always come up. And then she and Ash had stopped texting—because what else was there to say, really?—and she no longer needed to get a brutal reality check. Until this morning. Now, she wasn’t sure if she was here for a reality check or for something else entirely, like a small thread of connection with Ash. She could casually ask Mary how Ash was doing and, in the process, find out if Ash had mentioned their outing at all, and if so, if she’d said anything nice about her.
It was borderline childish behaviour, Gloria knew this, but there she stood, knocking on Mary and Alan’s kitchen door. It wasn’t that unusual for her to drop by. Mary always seemed to have a pot of coffee on—and she kept
