Chapter nine: Things End

Monday, 15th July 1996

Leytonstone and Walthamstow, East London

At six o’clock on the last day of term at Cromwell Road lx. Comprehensive School, almost everyone had gone home. Only Emma Morley and Mr Godaiming, the school’s headteacher, were still in the building. They were lying on the floor of Mr Godaiming’s office.

‘I’ll miss you very much during the holidays, Emma,’ Mr Godaiming said as they put on their clothes. ‘I’ll miss our Friday afternoons together.’

‘No you won’t, Phil, you’ll have Mrs Godaiming,’ Emma replied unkindly. ‘You’ll be fine.’

Emma wondered, as she spoke, why she always felt so cross after their meetings in the headteacher’s office. Afterwards she always felt unhappy and that made her cross.

They collected their coats and books and the headteacher locked the office. As they walked to the school car park, Emma was thinking hard. She had been Phil Godaiming’s lover for nine months now and she was starting to worry about this. She was afraid that he was going to tell his wife about their relationship and ask for a divorce. That was not what Emma wanted at all. She didn’t love Phil. She had never really loved him. For a short time, he had made her feel better when her life had become very sad. She wasn’t seeing Dexter any longer and she missed him. And her relationship with Ian Whitehead had gone wrong. Phil had helped her to be confident during the bad times. But she certainly didn’t want to marry him. And she thought now that it was time for this relationship to end.

As Mr Godaiming opened the door of his car, Emma held his arm.

‘Phil, I’m sorry but I don’t want to be your lover any longer,’ she said. ‘I feel bad about our relationship. I feel bad about your wife. I’m not happy.’

‘You were very happy ten minutes ago, Emma,’ the headteacher said. He laughed.

‘No, Phil, you were very happy ten minutes ago,’ Emma replied sadly.

Phil Godaiming wasn’t pleased to hear Emma’s words. He’d enjoyed their meetings after school on Fridays. He argued for some time, but clearly, Emma wasn’t going to change her mind.

‘We’ll talk about this next term,’ he said. He got into his car, closed the door and drove quickly out of the car park.

Emma travelled sadly home to Walthamstow on the Underground. On her way home, she bought some wine to drink later. She was going to spend the evening on her own. Ian Whitehead no longer lived with her. They had ended their relationship after a terrible argument. They had argued about Ian’s jealousy and his selfishness. At the end of their argument they had both cried. They had cried for each other and for the end of their relationship. But they both knew that it had to end. It had all been so sad, Emma thought now, as she sat in the train.

Late that evening, after she had drunk the wine, Emma turned on her television. The first person she saw was Dexter Mayhew. Suddenly, Emma realized that it was exactly a year since she had spoken to him. She knew that Dexter’s TV career hadn’t been very successful recently. Viewers had never really loved him, it seemed. They had only loved to hate him. And nowadays most of them just hated him. Dexter was now presenting a very late-night TV show about computer games. Few people watched it.

Emma did watch the show for a few minutes. She thought that Dexter wasn’t looking well. His face was looking tired and he no longer seemed confident. Suddenly, Emma had a great feeling of friendship and love for him. She realized that for the last eight years, she had thought about Dexter every day. Now she knew that she wanted his friendship again. She wanted him to be her best friend again.

‘I’ll call him tomorrow,’ she told herself. ‘I really will call him.’