"Carla?" Bryan asked the beautiful woman as soon as his hand basket accidentally bumped into her trolley.
"Hello, Bryan," she replied, with a beautiful smile, "Wasn't sure if it was you from the end of the dairy aisle or not."
Of course she knew it was him, carrying a shopping basket with milk, yoghurts, cheese, salad leaves and a jar of pickled onions. She'd already seen him twice as he'd clearly tried to avoid her in the last ten minutes.
"And who's this?" he asked, smiling at the child sitting in Carla's trolley.
"This is Brie, my daughter."
"You're pretty," he said, making the little girl laugh. "How old are you?"
"Three," Brie giggled.
"You on leave from the Army?" Carla enquired.
"No, I've finished my commission, about a month or so ago. I start as Logistics Manager at Tanner's Transport on Monday."
"How long you in the Army for, then?"
"The short commission minimum is three years; I added the extra year in order to make Captain."
"Are you staying with your Dad?"
"No, his house is tiny; and his live-in girlfriend's about our age, added to that their baby cries all night. They are trying to break the feeding cycle by letting her cry, apparently," he replied, "Did you have to do that with Brie?"
"No, fortunately she grew out of the nightly feeds naturally," Carla smiled, lovingly remembering the closeness of those dead of night feeds.
Bryan's heart missed a beat at that smile. She was definitely the prettiest girl he'd known in school. He reminded himself, though, that she was always Gary Cox's sweetheart. Bryan had only had the one single date with Carla, coinciding with one of their frequent break-ups, just before he left for the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst. He'd already noticed the wedding ring on her finger where she gripped the shopping trolley handle bar and, if that wasn't enough, the piles of steaks, chops and six-packs in the trolley was a dead giveaway of a healthy male presence at home.
"A lot of meat there," he commented, almost without thinking.
"We're having a barbecue at the house tomorrow, Bryan, if you want to come-"
"No, I can't, I'm sorry," he interrupted quickly.
The last thing he wanted was having Gary bloody Cox lording it over him as the smug bastard who won Carla's heart, Bryan simply couldn't bear it.
"I've just moved into one of the new three-beds on Cooper's Meadow, and I have a lot of straightening to do before starting work on Monday. Anyway, Carla, it's really lovely seeing you again, oh, and meeting your lovely daughter Brie." He started to move away.
"You never wrote!" she blurted out, "after our date, you left and never came back." He stopped in his tracks and half-turned. Carla's head was bowed, her shoulder-length hair across her face like a curtain.
"I know," he said softly, "I didn't know what to write, and, well training was ... intense. Then Mum and Dad split up almost immediately I joined the Academy, so I had all of their crap to deal with, too. Then Mum wrote to me saying she had heard from Dad that you were back with Cox. You didn't write to me either, remember?"
"Sorry, I didn't know what to write either." She looked up, her eyes sad. "I've seen your Dad about with his new missus, but haven't seen your Mum recently, where'd she go?"
"To Sussex, to be near my grandparents. Dad moved in with Sadie Forrest, you know, my best friend's sister? I've stayed with Mum on leave sometimes, but I can't afford the property around there, so thought I'd move back up here and got a good job. I came up and stayed in a hotel here last night, having exchanged contracts on the house online and I only moved in today, had the furniture delivered this morning."
"Text me your address Bryan, and we'll send you a Congrats card for your new house and new job."
"Great, thanks, Carla. I think I've still got your number on my phone," he grinned.
"If you can't find it I, we, still live in Mum and Dad's old house. You know, I, er, I actually saw you on Thursday night," Carla added quietly.
"What, in the Fisherman's Arms?"
