Free Coincidences by Maria Savva Page A

few happy months
together. Stephanie dared to believe that their marriage was back on track, but
the happiness was short-lived. Roger began to stay out late more often. This
led to arguments which became progressively worse. Finally, Roger left.
     
    Stephanie thought back to the time of Alice’s birth. The
surrogacy arrangement now seemed like something murky and unspeakable, that was
better forgotten. Even after all these years, she still could not get her head
around how Miranda had so easily given up her child for a bit of money.
    Stephanie wasn’t present at
Alice’s birth, and neither was Roger. Miranda had insisted she didn’t want them
there. This made Stephanie jittery, worried that the girl could easily change
her mind about giving them the baby. Her marriage seemed to be hanging by a
thread at that stage, and her one hope was still that as soon as Roger saw his
child he would become a loving husband again. She sighed at her naiveté
whenever she thought back to that time. It was as if there were red flashing
warning signs all over the place about the dire state of the marriage, but she
chose to ignore them.
    She had desperately wanted to
take more of a role during the pregnancy, but Miranda had only agreed to meet
with her and Roger twice in the nine months, and both times she had told them
that she thought it was best if they kept their distance and treated it as more
of a business arrangement so that emotions would not be involved. Miranda
seemed to be acting rather neurotically, so Stephanie thought it best to go
along with whatever she wanted.
    When Alice was born, Miranda
insisted that only Roger could attend to collect her from the hospital, as he
could pretend to be her husband. She wanted things to look as normal as
possible to the hospital staff.
    Stephanie remembered how she had
waited in anticipation for Roger to arrive back from the hospital with Alice,
and how perfect Alice had looked. They told their friends that they had adopted
her. Stephanie took comfort in knowing that this wasn’t a complete lie as she
did have to adopt her to make everything legal.
    Looking up at the kitchen clock,
as she ate her breakfast, her mind soon came back to the present day. She would
have to meet Rita in less than half an hour. She finished her coffee and set
off towards the Tube station.
     
    ***
     
    Alice finished her shift at the bookstore at 1 p.m. She
had lunch at a nearby café and then decided to visit her mother. Since
yesterday, Alice had been feeling guilty about upsetting her by mentioning her
father. Her mind battled between not wanting to hurt her mother’s feelings, but
at the same time wanting to acknowledge her own curiosity about the man who had
abandoned her as a child.
    On the way to her mother’s flat,
Alice saw a man selling flowers in the street. He had a few bunches of roses in
his bucket, and when he saw Alice approach him, he picked out a bunch of yellow
roses and held them towards her, smiling. His face looked dirty and weather worn,
but his eyes were beautiful, an almost translucent blue. Alice remembered that
Stephanie used to always buy yellow roses for the flat, saying that they
reminded her of the sun and made her feel happy.
    Alice reached into her handbag
and took out her purse. The man smiled, revealing surprisingly white teeth.
‘Thank you,’ he said in an accent she did not recognise, as he handed her the
bunch of roses.
    The perfume from the flowers
wafted up to Alice’s nose as she walked along the street, the aroma reminding her
of days when she was younger and more carefree, living with her mother. The
flat always seemed to smell of roses in those days.
    At 2 p.m., Alice arrived at
Stephanie’s front door. As she opened the door, she could hear laughter.
Realising that her mother was not alone, Alice wondered whether she should
leave and come back another time. She had only really wanted to make sure that
her mother was okay, and not lonely, and she’d wanted to try