A Close Connection Read Online Free PDF

to calm her down. She had called him names, which she now regretted because it was so childish and she had sworn a lot too which he did not carefor, but then he could be annoyingly puritanical at times.
    She could almost see herself, face contorted with anger, spitting out her words, flushed, with her eyes bulging, spittle escaping her mouth, a very bad look indeed so that, in the end, frustrated beyond belief that she was getting no reaction from him, she had no option but to storm out of the room and leave him to it. The sitting-room door was swollen with the heat and was sticking, at that, so it wasn’t as if she could slam it with any satisfaction. If he expected her to dissolve into ladylike tears then he had another think coming. She prided herself on being able to contain tears as her mother did and she really had no time for ‘weepers’. Weeping really was a very underhand way of trying to get what you want. Women who resorted to tears might actually get their way but they let the sisterhood down.
    Now, remembering last night, she was sulking and Matthew, showered, shaved and dressed for work, was foolishly pretending that all was well, whistling as he made himself a full English breakfast, the complete cholesterol works, before sitting down opposite her. Sitting with her glass of orange juice and slice of toast thinly coated with some sort of disgusting good-for-you spread, she gave a disapproving sniff towards the bacon, sausage and egg on his plate but he took no notice.
    It was hard work, however, sulking and although, just like her father, she did not think of herself as a morning person, she normally said something over breakfast. They always sat down at the table for they had agreed at the start of their marriage that they would try and sit down in a civilized manner to begin the day. Radio Two blared out a tune, something cheerful and completely inappropriate this morning, and at last she could stand it no longer. She was not a sulking sort; her temper flared and retreated as quickly as it came and even though she felt she was backing down she finally broke the silence.
    ‘All right, babe, you win. But if you think I’m going toapologize just because you overreacted, you can think again,’ she began, knowing it was not the best opening, the prelude to another row if anything, but it was how she felt and he needed to know.
    ‘Oh, come on, darling, let’s not let this escalate any further,’ he said, smiling his first smile of the day, boringly correct as usual for they needed to put this behind them, also boringly unmoved as if he could smile his way back into her affections. ‘It was all heat-of-the-moment stuff and I forgive you,’ he added rubbing salt into the wound because she knew in her heart that she was the one who had taken umbrage and turned what had merely started off as an observation into a row.
    ‘You’ve got egg on your chin,’ she said, frowning at him as he wiped his chin with a piece of kitchen roll. Even though she had been up early they were now close to running late and she glanced at the clock, a wedding present, a big faux station clock that hung importantly from a hook on the roughly plastered kitchen wall. ‘Look at the time; we’d better get a move on.’ She hesitated a moment and then went for it because it would bother her all day if they did not settle this. ‘Although I honestly think you overreacted hugely, I didn’t mean to imply that your mother was thick and I’m sorry if you thought that.’
    He said nothing but his smile faltered.
    ‘I didn’t mean for a minute that Paula was thick,’ she continued, pressing the point home. ‘I just said that she would find it difficult on the holiday keeping up with my mother. Socially and intellectually they are poles apart.’
    ‘There you go again. For goodness’ sake, Nicola, I never realized you were such a snob.’
    ‘You are so wrong there. And you can’t face facts. I’m not making a public announcement,