Dinner with Cookie

When I finally got up and moving this morning, I saw that I had a text from Cookie asking if I'd like to come over for dinner this evening. Having no plans, I figured why not?

I also wondered if this was finally to be the occasion when I got together with my Friend's Flatmate, as his original excuse for inviting me out for drinks had been to make it up to me for missing a dinner invite at the flat.

It took me an hour to get there (why does Cookie live south of the river?), but once I did, she had the stove going and seemed happy to see me. Her flatmate wasn't there (apparently she'd actually just made the dinner invite to see me, without consulting him, and I discovered she didn't know anything about the cancelled drinks saga), but I was happy to come for dinner to see my friend regardless.

I was surprised when early on in the evening, she dropped a slight bomb into the conversation: "My fiancee no longer lives here, by the way...." I took a quick glance at her ring finger, and she wasn't wearing her engagement ring. Dammit, why can't I learn to be more observant?

She didn't really seem to want to talk about it, so I tried not to press for details, but basically did my best to be a welcome distraction. But it didn't escape my attention that Cookie was really putting away the wine, and seemed to be looking for other things to drink when that ran out. I was concerned, but didn't know quite how to voice it.

She seemed to be trying to put on a brave face however, almost joking about how she was now going to have to use the money she had been saving for the wedding to buy her ex-fiancee out of his share of the flat. (Yes, they had bought a flat together, so now they were in a real financial mess together).

In some ways, perhaps she's had a lucky escape. He was much younger than she was, and in the military besides. I had sort of wondered if their relationship thrived all of these years because it was constantly a long-distance one, perhaps when they were actually living together, things took a turn for the worse.

Yet, they had been together since their university days, the two of them always being a matched pair. I had to admit, he was a ridiculously good-looking guy (but equally perhaps that was always a reason to be suspicious of him?) Without knowing what happened, it's hard to speculate. And as my mother pointed out, they may still get back together, so it's probably wise that I don't know too much. I feel for Cookie though, I really do...