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“Tell me, Lydia, do you like him?”
I raised my eyebrows, handing her a mug. “Yes, I like him, we work together. He’s very professional.”
“Don’t be coy,” she said. “Do youlikehim?”
I tried to relax, assure myself that she was Rebecca’s ex-girlfriend and a thoroughly nice person, but there was something off about her. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. “It’s casual,” I told her. “Nothing serious.”
“So, you don’t have feelings for him?”
“No.” I didn’t realise how much of a lie that was until it was out of my mouth, but once I’d told it I knew I’d rather pull my own toenails out than tell her any different.
She flashed me a smile, but it didn’t meet her eyes. “Well, that’s sensible,” she said. “He’s a hard one to love, very hard.”
I fake-smiled back at her. “How so?”
“You could say I have some insider knowledge,” she said. “I’m friends with his wife.”
“Ex-wife,” I said. “You mean Rachel?”
“She’s still his wife,” Jaz said. “They are still married.”
“On paper.” I took a sip of coffee and it tasted like liquid vomit.
“She still loves him. And he still loves her.”
“I wouldn’t know. It’s only casual, we don’t talk about our exes.”
She slurped back coffee, eyes twinkling. “Word of advice, woman to woman. Whatever Rebecca told you about their split, she didn’t do the right thing. I know she thinks she helped out by playing thehonest friendrole, but she didn’t. They were getting better.Rachelwas getting better. A few months and she’d have been through the worst of it, she and James would have made it through.”
My blood ran cold, instinct chilling me to the bone. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
“She told you, right?” Jaz asked. “She told you how she split them up?”
“Rebecca split them up?”
Jaz feigned embarrassment, pretending to slap her own forehead. “Shit, I’m such a clutz. You probably don’t even know. Rebecca split James and Rachel up, told him about Rachel’s little indiscretion, only she was getting better. She’d stopped fucking around, it was her final blow out, her last little moment of weakness. Rachel loved James, she never wanted to hurt him.”
I couldn’t subdue the rage, it bubbled behind my retinas. I saw Stu in the hallway begging forgiveness like a spineless little worm. “Funny way of showing it.”
“People make mistakes,” she said. “Rachel made a few. She regrets them.”
“I guess she’ll have to take that up with James, then, won’t she?” I snapped, meeting her eye to eye.
“Oh, she will,” Jaz grinned. “And he’ll listen, when he’s ready. He’ll have his fun, and then he’ll realise how much he misses her. He does miss her you know, he was crazy about her, you should have seen them together. Gorgeous. He was besotted. Not hard to see why, of course, she’s beautiful.”
“I’m sure,” I said, tipping my coffee down the sink. “If you don’t mind I need to grab a shower. Shall I tell Rebecca you called?”
She put down her mug. “Don’t worry, I’ll let myself out, and don’t worry about Rebecca, I’ll catch her at work tomorrow. I came to see you, actually,” she grinned. “I thought it was about time we met. It’s been so enlightening, we’ll have to do it again sometime.”
Not on her fucking life. I stayed in the bathroom until I heard the door slam behind her.
***
“Jaz was here?” Bex snapped. “On her own?”
“Yep, bold as brass,” I said, pouring a wine. “She seems quite a character.”
“She’s a character, alright. She shouldn’t be in our fucking flat, I want that fucking key back off her.”
