The Text

by Claire Douglas

‘I don’t want to see that bloke crawling around you,’ Stuart had said when I questioned him about it. ‘Doesn’t he know that you’re mine?’

the roses he’d given me after our last row, now all broken and bent.

A metaphor for how horrible her life with Stuart is.

His job is demanding, stressful. It means he gets angry sometimes.

I’m sorry, but this is an excuse. If he felt it was demanding, he should look for work closer to home. He beats her up!