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‘A little bit. Please can we catch up after I shower? You should know, woman from the hotel you stayed called a couple of times. She said they found a document on the pillow after you checked out. She said they will hold on to it until you call.’
She doesn’t look at me once.
‘Did she say anything else?’
‘No. Just that you should call.’
She disappears into her room. Maybe Mel said something when she called. Maybe she’s giving me the chance to admit it. I distract myself by making breakfast for both of us and she emerges just as I take some bacon from the grill for myself, after cutting up her grapefruit.
‘Can I have one of those please?’ she asks, pointing at my bacon sandwich. She still isn’t looking at me. I cut it in two and hand her half.
‘You okay?’ I try to feel her out.
‘Hungover,’ she murmurs, so quietly I barely hear her.
The space between us is so tense, she has to know. When she picks up her grapefruit and returns it to the fridge, she stops in front of me and looks me right in the eye. I open my mouth and nothing emerges. I can’t do this. I am a coward. I can’t bring myself to tell her.
She suddenly shuts her eyes, clenches her fists and takes a deep breath.
‘I slept with Jasper.’
It feels like someone has punched me in my gut so hard, it knocks the wind out of me. At the same time, relief washes over me. She doesn’t know about Melissa. But she slept with Jasper? He must have done…something. Then again, this is Ariella. It’s almost impossible to make her do anything she doesn’t want to. They are back together. They have to be. That’s the only explanation. I’ve been feeling like shit for nothing.
‘What happened?’ I am surprised at the anger in my voice, considering I am the undiscovered pot to her kettle.
She keeps her eyes closed, ashamed to look at me.
‘I went over there to tell him and it just…’ She claps her hands softly and then rubs them together slightly.
‘I don’t need a visual, Ariella.’ I am fucking livid.
‘It was me. It was my fault.’
They are definitely back together. I’m getting dumped.
‘Did you bother to tell him why you were there?’
‘Yes.’
‘Was that before or after you screwed him?’ I spit. It’s rhetorical, dispatched to make her feel like shit.
‘After.’
She ignores my venom. There’s no use delaying the inevitable. I want her out of this flat now. If she thinks she’s going to be kissing Jasper in the kitchen or I’ll be bumping into him at breakfast, she has another thing coming.
‘Let me guess. You’re now back together, all is forgiven and you’ll both be riding off into the sunset.’
‘No. He made me get dressed and drove me home.’
‘So, he kicked you out.’
‘Yes.’
‘Don’t try too hard to make it sound like you want to be here, Ariella.’
‘Idowant to be here, but I knew what I was doing. At the time, I just didn’t know what I wanted. I’m sorry.’
‘Do you know what you want now?’
