Free River Deep by Rowan Coleman

the colour and quality of his eyes hidden by the absence of natural light.
    ‘No, I definitely haven’t been dumped. Stella’s gone away for a year. To Australia, the week before last. To decide things. The day after I proposed. I really miss her.’ He shrugged self-consciously. ‘It’s like I breathe in and I miss her, I breathe out and I miss her, I blink and I miss her and—’
    Maggie interrupted abruptly. ‘I get the picture. You miss her so much that you think you could die, but the big difference here, my friend, is that she loves you. She’s coming back to marry you in twelve months. Christian, on the other hand, doesn’t care if he never sees me again, and now I’ve gone from Company Director to redundant barmaid in one easy step.’
    Suddenly angry, Maggie felt herself letting go of The Plan, and, picking up her bag, began to rub at the dark pools of mascara that had collected under her eyes. She peeled one fake lash off her cheek and dropped it to the ground.
    ‘I don’t think we should talk any longer,’ she told Pete kindly. ‘Because you obviously need sympathy and I’m not the one to give it. You should make friends with someone who’s still labouring under the misapprehension that happiness is more than just some flim-flam invented by God to keep us all quiet whilst he plots our excruciating demise.’
    Maggie stood and shrugged in apology, but Pete only laughed, causing her to despair quietly to herself.
    ‘It’s not funny,’ she told him sulkily.
    ‘It is, sort of,’ Pete replied. Despite himself he found her distress distracting, like looking at a car crash, only messier. ‘And anyway, um, sorry, what’s your name?’
    ‘Maggie,’ Maggie grumbled, feeling the sudden chill of sobriety creep over her skin.
    ‘And anyway, Maggie, she’s gone to Australia to decide if she really loves me, to make sure that she really wants to marry me. To absolutely rule out the possibility that there might be someone better out there.’
    Maggie sat back down with a bump, bemused by the expression of acceptance and, yes, even affection, in Pete’s eyes. She laid a cold hand on his arm, for a split second enjoying being the harbinger of doom, instead of the harbingee.
    ‘I don’t want to have to be the one to tell you this, Pete, but I’m fairly sure you are chucked.’
    Pete shook his head, running his fingers though his roughly-cut fair hair, trying to shake off a look of discomfort. He’d preferred it when they were talking about her.
    ‘I know, I know how it sounds, but you see, it’s not like that.’ He tried his best to explain to this stranger what he had failed to explain to his closest friends and family. ‘I’m having the courage of my convictions, is all. I love her. I know
absolutely
that she is the one for me. I know it just as I know the universe is infinite and endless, and for me that knowledge is enough. I don’t need anything else, I have faith. But Stella needs … proof. So she’s gone away for a year to make sure,’ he finished with a brave smile, which slowly faded as he noticed Maggie gawping at him. ‘Come to think of it, it does sound rather daft when you say it out loud.’
    Pete thought of Stella laughing and smiled to himself. It was something no one could understand unless they felt her love, although when he’d told his sister that she’d laughed, and replied that she imagined that by now there were quite a few men who’d earned that distinction. Maggie’s voice snapped him back to the moment in hand.
    ‘You proposed to this Stella and she nicked off to shag her way around another continent for a year?’ she said incredulously, strangely angry on this stranger’s behalf.
    ‘Well, seeing other people is part of the agreement, yes,’ Pete began. ‘Not that I will, I couldn’t. Look, I know you think I’m a stupid idiot and a gullible fool, like most people – my mum, my mate Ian, my sister Jess – but, you see, like most people, you’re all