They walked to the front door and Sheelagh fumbled around in her handbag for her keys, eventually she found them and turned the key in the lock, opened the door and wandered in, turning on the lights as she went.
"Well, this is it" She said at last
"Very nice" Des replied, carefully masking the bitterness in his voice
"Go and take a seat in the lounge, I'll make you a drink and get the dinner on and I'll be through in a minute. Make yourself at home!" She said ushering him into the living room with a gentle push
Des walked into to the immaculately tidy room, how could he make himself at home when he was surrounded by photographs of the 'happy family', every picture he saw of Patrick and Sheelagh together made him angry and his heart ache, so he reached for the remote from the coffee table and turned on the television
It wasn't long before Sheelagh came and sat beside him, passing him a cup of coffee and smiling.
"Dinner's on, it should be about 45 minutes" She said as she took a sip of her hot chocolate
"Great, what are we having?" He asked curiously
"Wait and see!" she said with a cheeky smile
They sat together in silence watching the TV, until eventually Sheelagh got up and went back to the kitchen. She set the dining table and poured two glasses of wine, then carried the food through.
She walked into the lounge and smiled to herself, Des was sat on the sofa half asleep. She wandered quietly over to him, fighting the urge inside herself to sit down beside him and curl up under his arm, she leant forward and whispered in his ear
"Des? Dinner's ready"
"Umm? OK" He murmured, rubbing his eyes
She took his hand and led him into the dining room. Des's eyes widened as he saw all the effort that she'd gone to, he sat down opposite her and they smiled across the table
"You didn't have to go to all this trouble you know" Des said, feeling rather guilty
"I know" She smiled
For all they ate the rest of their meal in silence, their eyes kept meeting accidentally and they'd look away, it was a conversation in itself.
Sheelagh cleared the crockery, Des offered to help her but she refused to let him.
"Des, you can bring the wine and glasses through into the lounge if you still want to help, we can have dessert in there" She called from the kitchen
"OK" He replied
They sat together on the sofa, Sheelagh brought her knees up under herself and twisted herself round to face Des. She passed him a plate of tiramisu and smiled.