Page 32 of The Work Husband

‘I’m just… I was just shocked, I guess. It’s ages since I’ve had to remember it – it’s always just been in my phone.’

I was starting to cry in earnest now. Sam pulled a square of kitchen towel off the roll and handed it to me, putting his arm around me. I winced at his touch, feeling a sudden pain across my bare shoulders that I hadn’t noticed before.

‘What’s…?’ He jerked his arm away as if my skin felt as red hot to him as it did to me. ‘Jesus. Your back’s bleeding. Does it hurt?’

‘It does now.’ I was properly ugly crying, gulping out sobs. ‘It’s really sore.’

It was, but it wasn’t just the carpet-burn stinging that was making me sob.

Sam fetched cotton wool from the bathroom, boiled water and added salt before tenderly bathing the raw skin. His hands felt gentle on my back, even though the salty water stung.

‘It’s just a graze,’ he said eventually. ‘It’ll probably bruise too, but it’s nothing major. We’ve got some gauze somewhere – I can stick that over the worst bits so you don’t get blood on your clothes.’

‘Thanks.’ I blew my nose and gulped some water.

‘Jesus. Georgia,’ he went on. ‘I was so worried. I knew you wouldn’t have been at your mum’s that long, and then you weren’t answering your phone and I – I thought something terrible had happened.’

Something terrible like me being with another man? Or something terrible like…

‘Something did, I guess. But I’m okay.’

‘Are you sure? It’s just your back? You didn’t hit your head or anything?’

I put my hand up to feel it again. There was a lump on the back of my skull – tender and uncomfortable, but not bleeding. Tomorrow there’d be a bruise there too, but it would be invisible under my hair.

‘I mean… a bit. The women who helped wanted to take me to A&E, but I said I was okay.’

‘Are you sure? We could go there now?’

‘We’d be waiting ages. If there’s anything wrong with me, I’d probably die before I got seen.’

Sam laughed, a slightly manic edge to the sound. ‘Seriously, Georgia. Don’t even say that.’

‘I’ll be okay. Promise. I… The thing is, I’ve had a few drinks and think I should probably just go to bed.’

‘I know,’ he said softly. ‘I can smell.’

‘Oh God. Sorry.’

‘That’s all right. I’m just glad you’re home and safe. But, Georgia…’

I reached out and took his hand. ‘What?’

‘That’s not like you. I know seeing your mum’s always a bit… how it is. But there’s something else bothering you, isn’t there?’

Of course there is, I wanted to shout. Ava. You and Ava. You and Ava and what Jamie and I are doing about you and Ava. ‘Not really.’

He turned my hand over and stroked my palm. There was another graze there where I’d tried to save myself from my fall.

‘Is it because of Ava?’

I answered his question with one of my own. ‘Did you see her today?’

‘No.’ His eyes were candid, but then he looked away. ‘We spoke on the phone, though.’

I felt a surge of the anger and fear that I thought had left me when Sam held my hand. ‘About what?’

‘Just stuff. Nothing… nothing I can tell you.’