Off to the river

The week passed quickly for both Leonard and Leonora.

Fortunately for Leonora, Mark was busy with work, and after picking up Sheba on Monday, she didn't see him again.

Leonard managed to skive off work one day to supervise the delivery of his new sofas.

He was very pleased with them. Tata was not pleased. She was not allowed on.

She glared balefully at Leonard's new sofa. It looked particularly dog-sized to her and was the best position in the room to see what was going on.

Leonard thought it was Leonard-sized - not that he needed two seats of course - but he didn't want to share it with anyone else, not even Tata. And he also liked to be able to see exactly what was going on everywhere.

Tata could not believe that she wasn't allowed on these new sofas. Just because her claws might have made a few small incisions on the previous one was no reason to deny her the right to jump up when she wanted.

She lay in front of the fire and sulked at Leonard.

Then she went to her basket and sulked again. She formulated a plan. Perhaps Leonora would help her regain sofa rights.

Leonard sprawled on his new sofa and typed an email to Leonora with his large clumsy fingers.

"Hey you
When are you coming?"

Leonora sighed when she read it. Why did Leonard not send thoughtful sensitive emails? How about 'I'm really looking forward to seeing you Leonora, any idea what time you might be arriving?'

No. Not Leonard. Direct to the point of bluntness.

"Hello," she typed back.

"Thursday arvo."

Leonard smiled.

"Send me a text/email to let me know when, and I will meet you at the station. See you soon."

Bossy git, she thought.

....................

Leonora sat on the train reading, although not paying much attention to her book. It seemed pretty boring and she had renewed it loads of times at the library. 'Your Face Tomorrow 1 - Fever and Spear' by Javier Marías. She thought about Leonard and Mark, and Tata and Sheba. Mostly she thought about Leonard. And that she was spending a fortune travelling up and down every few weeks to argue with him. The trouble was, she couldn't quite get him out of her life. When they fell out, she missed him. Horrid Leonard.

She left the book on the table and gazed out of the window, watching the dismal scenery flashing by. It was cold, damp and miserable. Still at least Leonard had a nice fire, when he could be bothered to light it. Time passed quickly and soon Leonora was at the station, clutching her tiny bag. She got out of the train and looked for Leonard.

There he was, as usual, standing by the wall and not rushing to greet her. Leonora pouted and walked over to him.

"Hello you," he said grinning. And not bothering to take her bag.

"Aren't you going to take my bag for me?" she asked sulkily.

"Why? It's small enough and you have managed it so far. Don't be such a wimp."

But then he smiled and leaned across and kissed her on the cheek.

Leonora nearly dropped her bag in shock.

She didn't know what to say.

"Er, how is everyone?" she managed, eventually.

"Fine. Tata is looking forward to showing you some new rivers so I hope you have brought wellingtons.

"Mrs Leonard has got lots of new vegetarian recipes to try," he added slightly less enthusiastically.

"And I have been eating lots of chocolate truffles."

"So I see," said Leonora, and poked him in the stomach, laughing.

I'll get you for that Leonora, just you wait.

They drove to Leonard's and Leonora got out of Tata's Land Rover, feeling strangely at home. Tata bounded up to the door to greet them, twirling round especially for Leonora's benefit.

"Darling dog," she said, bending down and narrowly avoiding getting head-butted.

"Ruff ruff RUFF RUFF?" demanded Tata.

"The river?" asked Leonora, very unenthusiastically.

She turned to look at Leonard who was leaning against the wall laughing himself silly.

"It's all your fault," she said.

"It always is," he agreed.

"You told her I would run through rivers with her and she believed you."

"That was months ago. You should have done it at the time and not disappointed her," he said, still laughing.

Leonora tried to look serious and sulky and failed miserably. She ended up laughing too.

"Of course darling. Well, when I say of course, I mean maybe we can go for a walk by the river. Right now," she added quickly to avoid any more grief from Tata.

Leonard put on his wellingtons. Leonora was rude about them and told him he should have bought some decent Hunter wellies. Tata proudly wore her fake Barbour. Leonard and Leonora put on their posh Goretexes. Leonora hadn't brought wellies but she put on her vegan walking boots. She thought, not for the first time, that perhaps she should leave a pair of wellies at Leonard's.

Off they all went down to the river.