A Better Offer

Did everyone else in the world have New Year plans apart from me?

Staying on too long after Christmas had been a mistake, everyone who popped round to Mum and Dad’s asking, ‘Luke not with you, Tania?’

As if they didn’t know he’d left me for another woman.

I felt like hanging a bulletin on the gate: Tania Marks hereby announces she is no longer with the love rat formerly known as Luke Smethwick. Thank you.

Even being with my family was painful. My sister Jane was all starry-eyed about her engagement.

‘I’m going back tomorrow,’ I declared, on the 28th.

‘Before New Year?’ gasped Mum. ‘You’ll miss the party!’

‘Exactly. Look, Mum, I can’t face another round of ‘where’s that nice chap you were seeing?’. Anyway,’ I muttered, ‘I said

I’d go back and look after my neighbour’s dog.’

Though I’d glimpsed my elderly neighbour and her Pomeranian from time to time, neither were really on my radar.

But in the end, Mum didn’t try to dissuade me.

Still, letting myself into the flat I’d once shared with Luke, I glanced over at the Christmas tree, and felt my heart sink.

I’d only moved to this area because it was near Luke’s job. We’d been dating for two years.

He’d said he was leaving me on the day after we decorated that tree. I’d packed a bag, left him to pack his own, and decamped to Mum and Dad’s. And hadn’t been back since. Sighing, I made a cup of tea. The doorbell rang.

It was my neighbour,

Miss Nightingale, with her Pomeranian. ‘Saw your car in the drive,’ she said breathlessly. ‘Couldn’t believe my luck that someone was around! Whole world seems to have decamped elsewhere. My sister-in-law’s had a fall, my brother’s in a frazzle, so I said I’d go to help out for a few days, but they don’t allow dogs in their block. Could you take Ivan?’

Ivan (as in ‘the terrible’, I assumed) eyed me warily.

Next thing I knew, she’d kissed him on the nose, thrust his lead at me and scooted off, promising to return with a bowl, a blanket and dog food.

‘Er – hope your sister’s OK!’ I called, part of me wondering if she’d had a last-minute invite to a hot-ticket event.

Ivan and I passed a quiet New Year’s Eve. Didn’t even stay up to watch the fireworks on telly. The following day, I had no plans to get out of bed. Until Ivan started pawing the front doormat, nudged it back with his nose and found a crumpled old flyer that must have been there for weeks.

I picked it up. ‘Blitz that festive hangover!’ it declared. ‘Join us on midday, New

Year’s Day for an historical walk around the locality. Experienced guide. Dogs and children welcome.’

‘Might do us good,’ I said to Ivan. ‘You’re looking a bit peaky.’ ‘Same to you,’ he growled. We set off after breakfast – although

Ivan didn’t eat his. Pining for his owner, I suppose.

We reached the meeting point to find six other people and a tall bloke in a fleece who flashed his laminated badge and mumbled, ‘I’m Paul, it’s £7.50’, collected the money and grunted, ‘let’s go.’

As tours went, it was useless. The bloke stumbled through facts and figures, clearly not giving a monkey’s. I knew more about the ‘locality’, and I’d only moved here recently with Luke.

‘Excuse me,’ said a woman with no-nonsense hair. ‘You’re making this up as you go along.’

Paul turned. ‘I stepped in at the last minute, so sorry, I am making it up. I’m also making it vaguely entertaining. Believe me, the real stats were dull as ditchwater. Which is why I can’t remember them.’

In the end, only three people asked for their money back. I wasn’t among them.

When it was just me, Ivan and Paul, he asked, ‘Fancy a coffee?’

Turned out Paul had come back early to swerve enforced family jollity, too, and avoid being grilled about an ex. Which was how he’d ended up volunteering, rashly, to guide the walk for his friend, who’d had a better offer.

‘The whole world has had a better offer,’ I grunted. ‘Even my neighbour, and she lives on her on her own and is at least 75.’ I told him about Miss Nightingale’s flit to her brother and sister-in-law.

‘Yeah, well,’ said Paul, ‘maybe she spent Christmas on her tod, so going to help out her relatives was an offer too good to pass up. I mean, why wasn’t she with them for Christmas?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe she was and came back. I probably should get to know her better. What do you do really?’ I asked, to get off the topic of my lack of neighbourliness.

‘Trainee vet.’ He peered at Ivan, who still looked listless under the table. ‘Do you have low-hanging baubles on your tree? If me laddo here has swallowed any of the glitter or even crunched up a bauble, it will need investigating.’

I looked at Ivan. ‘Will there be a place open today?’

Paul stood up. ‘Yep, an emergency pet shelter is open over the New Year. They’ll check him out. Come on,’ he said and smiled. ‘Reckon you’ll get a better offer?’

Not this side of New Year’s Day, I thought, following him out of the caff with Ivan. Or even, possibly, the rest of the year.

‘The walk might do us good, Ivan. You’re looking a bit peaky’