The Secret of Happy Ever After by Lucy Dillon Page A

readers,’ she went on. ‘You could maybe get the mums in to read to the smaller ones, like the Reading Aloud project? They had to cut back on that at the library, but it was always well attended.’
    ‘Of course!’ Michelle scribbled away, turning the page quickly.
    ‘I don’t want to sound interfering,’ said Anna cautiously, ‘but if you need some help with the books, I’d be happy to give you a hand.’
    ‘I was hoping you’d do a bit more than that,’ said Michelle. She looked up with a smile, and Anna could almost see the sparks of her enthusiasm prickling the dusty air. ‘I was hoping I could hire you. To run the whole thing.’
    ‘Me?’
    Michelle nodded, as if it were too obvious to explain. ‘I want to see the customers looking like those people at Butterfields.’
    ‘What? Old?’
    ‘No!’ Michelle swatted her knee. ‘ Entranced . Captivated by your storytelling. You’ve got library experience, you’re not working at the moment . . . You can start at once, can’t you?’ She paused for the first time and gave Anna a searching look. ‘I know you’ve been applying for jobs, but have you had any interviews?’
    ‘No,’ admitted Anna. ‘To be honest, I’d stand more chance of getting into space travel than finding work in a library right now.’
    She didn’t know what to say: she was touched by Michelle’s confidence in her, but also suddenly shy. Michelle was a mate, but she was serious about her business, and Anna didn’t want to let her down. She hated letting anyone down.
    But a bookshop. Her own bookshop.
    A slow smile spread across her face. ‘Honestly?’
    ‘Honestly.’ Michelle grinned. ‘I can’t think of anyone who’d do it better. You’ve got to believe in yourself a bit more. Didn’t I tell you that when you wrote things down on a list they happened?’
    She raised her cappuccino, and they chinked their paper cups of coffee, two friends setting off on an adventure together.
    But even as she sipped, Anna’s enthusiasm hit a cartoon brick wall. How was the girls’ daily routine going to function if she was out during shop hours? The transporting, shopping, cooking, washing – it was like running a hotel.
    And Pongo. There was another responsibility. He’d got used to having her around, and going out twice a day to meet his mates down the park. They’d have to get Juliet the dog-walker back – if she had any spaces.
    She put down her coffee and shoved her hands into her hair. ‘Michelle, I really want to do this, but I’m going to have to run it by Phil first.’
    ‘Why?’ Michelle tried to hide it, but Anna could tell she was irritated. ‘Phil should be thrilled . You’ve spent the last year acting as a housekeeper for him, it’s about time he let you get back to using your brain again. It’d do him good to realise how hard you work at home.’
    ‘Well, it’s not as simple as that,’ she said. ‘We’ve got routines, responsibilities. I can’t just do my own thing any more. It’s what you do when you’re married.’
    Too late, Anna realised that wasn’t the most tactful thing to say.
    Michelle flipped her notebook back so the cover snapped shut on itself, and looked at her with the cool, clear gaze that she sometimes found quite unsettling. Michelle’s focus could sometimes verge on the superhuman; it was hard to imagine her worrying much about anything, once she’d set her mind to it. Anna wondered – very quietly, in case Michelle could read her mind – if that was a result of her divorce, or something that had contributed to it.
    After three years, she still only knew the very vaguest of details about Michelle’s failed marriage. Michelle knew Anna inside out, but there were areas of her own life that remained thoroughly fenced off.
    ‘ Is it what you do when you’re married?’ Michelle said. ‘That’s one of the reasons I decided I didn’t want to be married any more. Having to run everything past someone else for approval, only to