I sighed quietly after opening the gate and discovering my wife sipping coffee on the porch with her sister. It had been a slow day at work. I wasn’t in the mood for them.
‘Just the man,’ my wife exclaimed upon noticing me. ‘We were discussing that new couple who’ve moved into number twenty. Have you met them yet?’
‘Now Maggie,’ I told her, ‘you know I’ve no time for gossip.’
‘Oh come on James,’ my sister-in-law cajoled. ‘You must have an opinion.’
‘Okay, fine. They seem like a nice couple. Very affectionate together.’
My wife snorted. ‘Too affectionate.’
‘They’re always together,’ her sister offered. ‘And she’s young enough to be his daughter.’
I laughed. ‘Well, lucky him.’
‘She even looks a lot like him,’ my sister-in law continued. ‘You must have noticed.’
I thought about it for a second and she did have a point. I shook my head. ‘That’s just nonsense.’
‘Well,’ Maggie declared, ‘there’s something wrong about them.’
‘Just because they are married and happy it doesn’t make them odd. I remember reading somewhere that that can actually happen.’
I left them there on the porch continuing with their slander and went to have a shower.