Fiona took a deep breath and steeled herself for the trial to come.
She moved from the sofa to the armchair facing it, and then called
out to her husband who she had heard putting his coat away in the hall cupboard.
”Hello George. I’m in the living room.”
“Hello dear. Have you had a good day”
“Oh, you know… how about you?”
“Oh, nothing special… The usual. Bloody train was late again
this morning. Eleven minutes late – signal failure at Clapham Junction.”
“I need to talk, George.” she said pointing at the couch. “You’d
better sit down. Ahh - Do you want to
get a drink first? It’s… it’s not good news.”
George sat down looking worriedly at his wife and trying to guess
what this was about.
“I Know George.”
He looked blankly back at her.
“I Know. … I know about Susannah, and I can’t keep
quiet about it any more.”
His face crumpled.
“How long have you known?”
“A few months. I found the ticket stubs for the Bermuda. Mr
George Jenkins, Ms Susannah Ayres. After that I started to look and listen more
carefully. The credit cards, your excuses when you were late.”
“I ought to explain..” he started but she cut him off,
“George, it’s too late for explanations. I don’t care and I
don’t want to hear them. You You You’ve been hiding this from me, lying to me, and
living this secret life for God knows how long… ”
“Three years” he said
“WHAT!, THREE FUCKING YEARS”, Christ George I can’t BELIEVE you’d
do that to me. And with Susannah Ayres for God’s sake. I can understand that little
whore milking you for whatever she could get, but didn’t you have the sense to
see she was just after your wallet? ”
“I’m sorry…”
“YOU’RE sorry! Hah – I’M SORRY – I’M BLOODY SORRY. I’m
disgusted, revolted, betrayed; I’m so angry it hurts. It HURTS George, it hurts
me so much, it’s physical, it’s eating me up from inside…. DON’T TRY AND TOUCH
ME!”
George lowered his arms and sat back on the sofa again.
Unable to do anything else he tried to look Fiona in the eyes again, and
blinked as the intensity of her anger dazzled him. He took a breath and waited
for the moment to speak again.
“I am sorry Fiona. I didn’t mean it to happen. But working
together we just found a friendship, more than that, an empathy, it was all
innocent at first. She’s too young for ”
“You got that right you fool.”
“And I enjoyed working alongside her. It was, it was … it was
like the daughter we never had.”
Fiona let out a subdued whine that escaped in spite of her efforts
to keep it confined. The guttural low notes growled slowly and were then capped
by a short high pitched “eak” as she choked it off.
“You can’t blame me for that”
“Fiona I don’t blame you at all. It was just that, just that
she seemed so full of life. I took pleasure in her company. Nothing more…
nothing inappropriate … then.”
“But you didn’t stop there, did you? What was it? The blonde
hair or long legs? You couldn’t keep your
hands off could you!”
“I, I, eyes. I just noticed her eyes. They sparkled – just with
joy, at doing a good job”
“Hah! I don’t want to know… She fluttered her eyelashes at
you I bet. Did she gaze longingly at you is that it? Tell you how much she was
in awe of you as her manager?”
“I, I, I just liked being with her. It was like being able
to look at the world afresh. She had energy, vivacity and a lovely smile whi…”
“Oh I bet she smiled you stupid bastard. She must have smiled
when she saw you coming. Oh look George is going soppy over me, I wonder what I
can get out of this. Better flash some cleavage and show a little leg and see
if I can get me a sugar daddy and promotion.”
“It wasn’t like that, Fiona”
“Well tell me how it was George? How did this fatherly
platonic admiration end up with you in bed? I assume you have been screwing
her? Or has the little tramp kept you on a string of promises without putting
out?”
“She, she was ill Fi.
Very ill. Bone cancer. I found her in tears in the stock room and it all came
out. I only put my arms around her to comfort her.”
“And then you ended up kissing her I suppose.”
“No, we never kissed well not on the lips. You don’t understand…”
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