Fragment #38 - Back to normal

"Hello girl! How was Cork? You've been away for so long, I wasn't expecting you back anymore!"
I just opened the door, but maybe she saw the taxi down the block. Claire hugs me, she is smiling. She looks tired, she was working last night. Pretty weird to be on holidays for weeks when normal people still work as usual. Guess this is what being a teacher is about, and what people mostly hate about teachers. But I came to think that anyway, people always hate other people's privileges.
"So what's up here? Anything good?"
She isn't smiling anymore. What did I say?
"We better sit down for that. You really don't know?"
Not really...
I don't want to tell her that I've been avoiding taking news of what was happening in Scotland for the past three weeks. After Mike came at my own appartment to make a fuss, the fucking argument about the new flat, this recurring sensation that I wasn' really on holidays, I really didn't want anything else that enjoying another place. Ireland, the Emerauld Isle, the long walks along the sea, the pubs and my friends Cathy and David.
She goes into the living room, I enter my room to leave my bags and suitcase. I notice that Sarah's mattress is tied up, her stuff seem to be gone.
I join Claire in the living-room.
"So you noticed, Sarah is gone. Don't know what happened between you two. But maybe it's for the best, you both need to have your own life, don't you, you've never been that close..."
Very perceptive, as always.
"So, where is she?"
"She found a flat to share in Shawlands. I guess she decided to work in a pub, she called me last week to know if I could help her somehow. I hope you don't mind, I'm not choosing a side, really, and I think it's better that things are back to normal."
Back to normal. I guess that's what this is about. Back to something normal, rationnal, meaningfull.
"So everyhting is for the best. I should call her one day, just to get to know how she is settling in."
I don't need to tell Claire that our fights were on our parents. She knows anyway that family isn't my thing.
"And what else happened?"
And now she hands me over a letter. I could have been expecting Sarah's departure. Though... This is something else. The stampmark tells me the letter is from London. And there is an adress. Mike. So he is back in London... I pause, look at the letter, look back at Claire, who is obviously expecting to know what's in that letter.
"I'm not opening it Claire."
"You're not?"
"No I don't think there is anything more I need to know. This is over. He wasn't the right guy for me, it's been going on for too long. It's really over now."
No one finds anything to add. I stand up, go to the kitchen, to prepare some tea. I put the letter aside , in one of the kitchen's drawer. Maybe I'll feel like opening it. But not now, I need to go on with my life. Even if with this adress he might be telling me more than he has been in six months. But that's exactly why I left him. I don't need to cling to any tiny piece of information he let me know. Not anymore. I close the drawer. And prepare two mugs for the tea.