{"id":147,"date":"2019-09-22T15:25:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-22T15:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=147"},"modified":"2019-11-17T15:26:04","modified_gmt":"2019-11-17T15:26:04","slug":"mmm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/mmm\/147\/","title":{"rendered":"Mmm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Only one item of mail this morning. It appears to be a\ncard. In February? It is<\/em> a card, a Valentine\u2019s card. Who\u2019d be sending\nher a Valentine\u2019s card? Married, on the cusp of middle-age, though that\nthreshold has of course not yet been crossed, no indeed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            She\nopened it and read its one word: Mmm!<\/em> Who on earth had written that? Had\nshe a secret admirer? Her husband, Steve, was away in London with senior\nmanagement. Did somebody know that and was taking advantage of his absence to\nsend her a little cheer-up? Perhaps it was more serious? Could there really be\nsomebody out there who\u2019d noticed her? On the lip of middle-age? Sometimes, if\nshe were really honest, she felt a bit of a frump, she felt she was past her\nsell-by-date, and sliding down a long bannister to oblivion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

            She\nstudied the handwriting. Just three letters, all \u2018m\u2019s, and an exclamation mark.\nIt could be anybody\u2019s writing. She found herself thinking of the new vicar,\nFather Toby. Late thirties and single, but the word was he wasn\u2019t gay. He\nseemed the serious sort, sincere, in need perhaps of a little lightening up.\nCould he really have noticed her, taken a fancy to her, decided she would be\nthe one to \u2018lighten\u2019 him? Last Sunday he\u2019d smiled at her at the church door. A\nsincere, bachelor\u2019s smile? Or was there just a little hint of forbidden\nknowledge there, a \u2018you are<\/em> an interesting woman, Jackie\u2019 suggestion? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            For\none crazy minute she thought of ringing the vicarage to thank him. Husband away\nfor three more nights, why there might be a chance of something happening\nbetween them immediately, a combustion, a lightning strike, a detonation. Would\nshe be interested? She was surprised to discover she would. Forty-nine and\nready to throw herself into the arms of a man she hardly knew. She must be\nlonging for a thrill, an adventure, another\u2019s touch? Was she? You know\nsomething, she thought, I really am. I need some passion. Steve and I are just\ndrifting, have been for quite a while. The discovery was a shock to her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            She\nwas fingering the card tenderly, when her mobile made a noise. A text. For a\nhead-spinning moment she believed Father Toby had discovered her number, and\nthey were about to embark on a life-changing affair. But it was from Steve. It simply\nsaid: Mmm!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            <\/em>She sat down at the\nkitchen table, staring at the card. Steve had sent her a Valentine\u2019s? He\u2019d only\nonce sent her one previously, when they were courting. Why had he sent it now?\nHad he seen her eyeing the new vicar? Did he have a lady friend in London, and\nhe was covering himself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            She\npresumed she ought to put the card on the mantelpiece, so he\u2019d see it when he\nreturned, so he would think she was grateful to have been remembered. Was she\ngrateful? She was disappointed, actually. Yes, that would about describe it.\nDisappointed? Mmm.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only one item of mail this morning. It appears to be a card. In February? It is a card, a Valentine\u2019s card. Who\u2019d be sending her a Valentine\u2019s card? Married, on the cusp of middle-age, though that threshold has of course not yet been crossed, no indeed.             She opened it and read its one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,75],"tags":[85],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2","category-september","tag-mmm"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sbrNJE-mmm","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions\/148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}