30
That week, my mother phoned to arrange to pay me a visit at the weekend. Looking forward to seeing her again, I wondered how she would react when she found out that Ben had come back to me, and hoped she would be pleased.
‘Ben’s come back and is living here with me,’ I warned her. ‘I just thought you’d like to know.’
To my surprise, she told me she knew he had returned. It was not clear how she had found out, but I was pleased she sounded happy about it. When Ben and I had lived together, my mother had been really friendly towards him. I had always suspected it was only her eagerness to see me settled in a relationship that had prompted her to treat him with such warmth, yet when Ben and I split up, she had appeared to be genuinely dismayed. Now that Ben and I were together again, s
