Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 115737 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115737 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
I nod, giving my enthusiastic agreement, just needing her to pull it together and leave so I can commence with my own meltdown. It won’t be as spectacular as Stephanie’s, but I can guarantee it’ll involve tears and a panicked call to Jack.
Her face cracks and she starts sobbing again, more controlled this time, her body jerking with the constant sniffles and gasps for air. ‘What am I going to do?’ She hiccups over her words, her head dropping limply.
I have nothing to say to that. I don’t know what she’s going to do, and that truly scares me. ‘Do you want me to call a friend?’ I ask. ‘Someone you can talk to?’ I need to make it clear that I’m not that someone. I wouldn’t be even if I wasn’t in love with her husband.
‘There’s no one,’ she sobs. ‘I have no friends.’ She looks at me hopefully. I fear the worst. ‘Except you. I’ll stay with you for a while. You can make me a cup of tea. I’m not good on my own, Annie.’
‘How about your mum?’ I press, trying to sound concerned rather than desperate.
She shakes her head. ‘She and Daddy are out for dinner. I don’t want to bother them.’
I try to swallow down the growing lump of apprehension in my throat. It’s not budging. She wants me to be her friend. Or she clearly thinks I already am. She wants to spill her problems to the woman who is carrying her husband’s baby. I can’t imagine a worse situation. Jesus, I can’t make her leave and spend all night wondering if she’s trying to hack at her wrists.
‘I’ll put the kettle on,’ I say, shutting the front door. I’m totally and utterly fucked.
Leading Stephanie through to the kitchen, I let her take a seat and start making tea, my mind racing, dreading how this conversation will go.
‘He says there’s someone else,’ she says out of the blue, with definite amusement in her tone.
‘Probably just a flash in the pan,’ I reply robotically, deciding as I stir our tea that I have no option but to shut down and act like the friend she thinks I am.
‘That’s what I said. Some hussy who’s opened her legs.’
I grit my teeth and slide her tea onto the table, taking a seat opposite her.
‘He’ll come back. I mean, he did before when he realised he’d made a mistake. That he couldn’t live without me.’ She laughs, and my smile is strained. I’m falling apart on the inside. I don’t want to hear this. She leans forward, her hands wrapped around her mug, and smiles at me. ‘You can help me show him. You work with him, see him all the time. You can tell him that he’s making a mistake. What do you say?’
What do I say? I say this must be hell. I smile, physically hurting, my stomach performing constant flips as if to remind me that I have a part of me and a part of Jack growing inside me. ‘Okay,’ I reply on a swallow.
‘Thank you, Annie,’ she says, bringing her mug to her lips thoughtfully. She seems significantly more together now. And just as I think that, she slams the mug down and starts howling again. I can’t figure out if this is the normal behaviour of any woman whose husband has walked out on them, or just the normal behaviour of Stephanie. ‘I’m sorry,’ she cries, wiping at her face. ‘Do you have any tissues?’ she asks.
‘In the bathroom.’ I’m praying she goes to get some herself and doesn’t expect me to. My phone is across the room by the kettle and it’s going to look odd if I grab it and take it with me. If she goes, I can text Jack for emergency help. ‘You know where it is.’
The chair slides across the floor as she pushes herself up, and I wait for her to disappear around the corner before I make a mad dash for my phone, hammering out a message to Jack.
Stephanie is here!
I take a seat again and hold on to my phone, hearing her blowing her nose in the distance. Jack’s reply is almost instant.
What? At your place?
I only have time to reply with a simple Yes! before Stephanie appears again. I slip my phone into my pocket and stand. ‘Okay?’ I ask.
She nods, stuffing the tissue in her pocket. Then she approaches me and wraps her arms around my tense body, which refuses to loosen up no matter how much I yell at it not to give my anxiety away. ‘You’re a good friend,’ she says, pulling away from me and kissing my cheek.
I can’t bear this. My alarm bells are suddenly going wild.
A phone starts ringing, and Stephanie gasps, pulling a mobile from the pocket of her coat. The happiness on her face as she looks down at the screen is enough to floor me. ‘It’s Jack!’ she squeals, connecting the call. ‘Jack?’ She turns and hurries out of the kitchen. ‘Yes, I’m on my way home. Are you coming? We’ll talk. Properly. I’ll listen, I swear.’ She disappears in a whirl of excitement, slamming the front door behind her.