Simon closed the door and locked the outside world away from his mind and body. Slipping his shoes off and placing them onto the shoe rack and taking a few steps in his comfortable slippers, he relished the silence that surrounded him.

The first couple of days he'd found it depressing, but now he was getting used to it, he enjoyed the solitude of his newly acquired single life.

Stripping off and stepping into the shower to wash away the day from his body, his thoughts flashed back to the conversations he would have been having at this time with his wife.

He always wanted to have a few minutes of privacy before the questions would begin, 'how was your day? What have you been doing? Who have you been talking to? What did they say?'

He had learned quickly that if he didn't answer and say the right thing then the next few hours would be a mix of arguments and crying. If he tried to explain he needed a minute in the shower he would get accusations of trying to hide something. Her fear of him meeting someone new and her fear of being alone had eventually driven them apart.

She had hated any form of social life outside of their family as a couple and when any of the neighbours had tried to show friendliness by inviting them for a drink it was met with rejection and then many days of inquiry and speculation as she wondered why they would want to invite them around for a drink.

Simon had tried to explain that it was normal behaviour, but she had dismissed this, preferring to choose her own theory that they were all up to something.

The last few weeks of their marriage had been particularly bad, he'd arrived home almost to the minute every night, where she would be waiting for him with, he would open the door and he would be ushered inside, she would cause him to squeeze past her as he entered and at first he thought he imagined it but as the days went by he would notice that she would breathe in deeply as he passed her, even to the point of pushing her face into his clothes and sniffing.