It's Raining Men by Milly Johnson

to Yorkshire that night. She wanted to stay here for the week and mosey around the house during the day, making Clare-standard dishes for James’s tea, which she would bring to the table
wearing something skimpy and revealing. But her case was packed and in the hallway. She would be setting off in less than an hour to pick up her friends and travel the motorways through the night
to avoid the traffic.
    James poured a glass of wine, instinctively offering it to Lara first.
    ‘Driving,’ she said, holding up her hand against it.
    ‘Of course, sorry. I forgot. That’s a shame, darling.’
    ‘I wish I weren’t going,’ she said.
    James sighed. ‘It’ll do you good to be with your friends. And it’s not as if it’s for ever. You’ll be back in the blink of an eye.’
    Lara nodded, trying not to look upset that he didn’t say that he didn’t want her to go either.
    ‘I know,’ she said. ‘I just wish I’d known that you were going to be alone in the house. It seems such a missed opportunity.’
    James took a long sip of the Chenin Blanc and nodded slowly. ‘Well, can’t be helped. And you’re hardly going to Timbuktu. I do believe they have mobile signals in
Yorkshire.’ He winked, polishing off that first glass of wine in double-quick time. Lara wished she could abandon all her plans, pull a glass out of the cupboard and join him.
    ‘Are you going to be okay in the house by yourself?’ she teased. ‘Not too lonely without me?’
    ‘Possibly,’ mused James. ‘I think I know the way to the kitchen and to the clean underpants in the drawer. Kristina will point me in the right direction if I get lost,
I’m sure.’
    ‘Will you miss me?’
    ‘Of course I’m going to miss you.’ He replied. ‘But I’m very busy at work, as you know. At least with you gone I won’t have to feel guilty about being late
home. I do feel awful that I’m leaving you alone so much with the children and their teenage hormones. It won’t be for long, I promise you. I’ll make more time for us when you
come back. I’ll be counting the days and, selfish as this sounds, I hope every one speeds by.’
    Lara beamed. At last – an admission that he was going to miss her and wanted the time when she was away to go fast and an acknowledgement that he knew things weren’t easy for her in
the house.
    ‘You’d better go soon, hadn’t you?’ said James, checking his Rolex. ‘By now the roads should be much clearer of traffic and the sooner you get there and are safe,
the better.’
    Lara moved forwards and placed her head on his chest. She loved him so much. She wished Miriam would have an epiphany and decide she wanted the children to live permanently with her in France.
She felt James’s lips kiss her hair. She lifted her head and let him kiss her lips, which he did – slowly and deliciously. That felt so much better. He wasn’t going off her after
all. What a stupid cow she was.
    ‘You take care and ring me when you get there,’ he said. ‘Drive carefully and not like a loony in that fast car of yours. Promise?’
    ‘Promise,’ she said.
    He picked up her suitcase and carried it to the car for her.
    ‘I won’t ask you if you have everything, because you’re Lara and so you will have,’ he said. He always said she was the most capable, organized woman he had ever met.
Then he kissed her softly on the mouth again and stood on the doorstep, waving to her until she was finally out of sight.
    But in fact Lara’s brain hadn’t been functioning to full capacity recently and all the needles that Keely had been using against her had punctured her self-belief. Half an hour into
her journey she realized she had forgotten her glasses. It really was too far to turn back and get them, but at the same time she needed them. She intended to do a lot of reading on holiday and she
couldn’t even read a menu with big lettering very comfortably without them. Bugger. There was nothing else for it. She pulled into the