Diane closed the door to her little cottage and wandered across the narrow unmade lane to the old wooden fence that guarded the cliff edge and gazed out across the sea. Widowed at fifty-four she had sold up her London home and moved to live by the Cornish coast in what had previously been their weekend retreat. She had loved this little place ever since they had bought it as an escape and with the avowed intention of making it their retirement home. That was before the heart attack that took David from her and changed everything.
Hers was the middle of just three old cottages scattered along the single track road, and the only one to have a permanent resident. Occasionally she would meet the owners of the others when they too broke free of the rat-race for week or two, or perhaps the holidaymakers to whom the cottages were often let on a week to week basis, but other than that she had the little road with its fabulous sea views to herself.
She didn't mind, she loved the peace and solitude after so many years in the bustle and noise of the city, although she would readily admit that she missed David's arms around her and would have swapped anything to have his warmth and passion just once more.
Physical contact with another human being she missed above almost everything else, but she had loved David dearly and couldn't yet bring herself to enter into another relationship. It would seem so disloyal to the man who had given her everything, including the lovely little cottage she now lived in. She would manage with her memories and her fingers, and her first vibrator bought last year at the age of fifty-five, something that made her smile every time she thought about it. What did they say? Just because there's frost on the roof doesn't mean the fire's gone out. Blonde hair dye got rid of the frost and her new little toy kept the fire under control, and would do so until she felt able to break free and of her memories and offer herself to another man. But even she acknowledged that getting over a husband of nearly thirty years and moving on, especially at her age, was not very likely, and anyway, who would want a wizened old thing like her?
She turned her head to the west where a big red summer sun hovered just above the horizon and felt a warm evening breeze play with her hair. Across the water she could just make out the dark smudge of a ship sailing out into the Atlantic. She leaned on the fence and let her mind drift, thinking of the times she'd had here with David, and even the times they'd made love down on the beach. She smiled wistfully, giggling softly and only straightening her face when the sound of footsteps on the gravel of the road announced someone approaching. She didn't want to be thought of as the old mad woman who lived on her own.
'Hello.'
She looked up, but the man was a stranger. He was an attractive stranger with an open face and a broad smile, but still a stranger.
'Hello.' She replied simply, not wanting to sound impolite but not really wanting to encourage him.
'Beautiful, isn't it.'
She turned her face back out to sea as if taking in the view.
'Yes, isn't it.'
He had stopped and was standing level with her.
'Are you on holiday?'
'No, I live here.'
'Lucky you.'
'Yes.'
She looked across at him, seeing a man who was pretty much the exact opposite of David. Tall, strong and tanned, her junior by about ten years or perhaps a little more, and with long wavy dark hair that curled around the neck of his tee-shirt. With a physique like that he was clearly not a heart attack candidate. Why couldn't David have kept himself that fit?
'Down here for long?'
She had no idea why she asked, only a couple of minutes before she had been wanting him to move on, but now she found herself extending the conversation.
'A couple of weeks. I'm renting the end one.'
She assumed, rightly, that he had meant the cottage at the far end of this dead end lane as that was the direction he was walking. It was the most modernised of the three cottages, even boasting a hot tub.
'You'll like it, just so long as you don't want excitement.'
He smiled. 'No, I've had enough of that for a while, now I just want to enjoy a rest.'
She wondered briefly what he had been doing to prompt those words, but she shrugged the question away as none of her business. She nodded, looking out to sea again. The ship had disappeared, swallowed by the vastness of the ocean. He came across the grass verge and stood next to her, his hands alongside hers on the top rail of the fence. She knew she should feel nervous, but she didn't. In fact she felt strangely reassured by his presence, and so she accepted it willingly and they stood side by side, enjoying silent companionship as the sun made its slow way into the sea.
