11
Saw Frank again tonight. Since that first odd meeting in town with Mrs Finley we’d bumped into each other a few times and it got quite silly, we started to laugh after it happened for the fourth time and decided we might as well arrange a proper time and place to catch up. We went to a little café on the edge of town and sat and talked and talked.
I didn’t ask him all the things I was dying to know, not at first, I didn’t want to seem too eager. But I made sure I looked very smart that day, and I wore my new jewellery and put my hair up in a new style I’d been trying out.
The first thing Frank said was how sophisticated I looked and how pretty I still was. He looked very nice too, he wore a nice suit and tie and the same mackintosh I’d seen him in that first time. He still wears his hair slicked back and it suits him very well.
Frank’s been living in Italy for the past five years! Imagine that! His company was drafted there and he decided to stay on when the war ended. He won’t tell me about what he did while he was in the Navy. In fact it seems he’ll talk about anything but that couple of years. He goes quite quiet and clams up which is very annoying! I told him I still have the sweetheart brooch he gave me all those years before and we both laughed about the way we were back then.
I told him all about George and how well we are both doing. How next year George may be promoted when Mr Shafer retires. I told him about my new frock and how nice our home is.
Then he did the queerest thing, he took my hand and said very sweetly that he was glad I’d done so well for myself and that I was so happy.
It made my heart turn over.
We’ve met a few times since then and tonight we went to the cinema. I’m afraid I had to tell George a little lie. I said I was meeting Betty but in truth it was Frank I met and we went to see the new Abbot and Costello film. I didn’t like lying to George, but he wouldn’t understand if I said I was just going for a friendly evening out with an old boyfriend. Besides, it’s nice to get to know Frank again and hear all about the things he’s seen and done in Italy. He keeps making me laugh by speaking Italian. I can’t understand a word of it but it’s very funny and pretty to listen to.
