Page 63 of The Fallback

Jasmine waved her hand away, ‘It’s forgiven, you’re starting to make up for it with this story.’ Rosie’s eyes started to well up.

‘It’s not funny, Jas,’ she protested.

‘Oh, Rosie I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make fun of you. But really, I don’t think you need to worry, Mitch will come round.’

‘I don’t know,’ said Rosie, ‘it’s a bit more complicated than that. He was really angry with me and…and I might have taken Ben, one of Mitch’s colleagues, home with me on Friday night.’

Jasmine’s eyes lit up. ‘Good for you! But why should Mitch care?’

‘Because he hates Ben. And I wasn't so keen on him, either.’

Jasmine looked baffled. ‘So why did you…?’

Rosie sighed. ‘I don’t know. I was drunk. I was angry at Mitch and I thought this would be a good way of getting back at him.’

‘And now?’ asked Jasmine.

‘Now I think it was stupid, because I don’t want to see Ben again and it didn’t get back at Mitch, it’s just made him more angry with me than before. I didn’t sleep with Ben!’ Rosie clarified. ‘Nothing actually happened. He needed somewhere to stay and I let him spend the night, that’s all.’

Jasmine was looking at her curiously. ‘I don’t think it matters if you did sleep with him,’ she said. ‘But Iamwondering why you wanted to get back at Mitch? I know you’ve got this plan with him but you didn’t seem so invested in it before. It seems strange to me you should be so angry with Mitch for getting a new girlfriend.’ Jasmine paused. ‘Unless there’s something I’m missing?’

There was a long silence.

’You can tell me anything Rosie, you know that,’ Jasmine said earnestly.

Rosie turned away from her and looked out into the garden, immaculate as always, despite the autumnal gloom.

’I think,’ Rosie began turning quickly back around, ‘to be honest Jas…’ Rosie took a deep breath getting herself ready to rip the plaster off.

‘Go on,’ encouraged Jasmine.

‘Maybe I’m a little bit in love with Mitch,’ Rosie blurted out, her face flushing dramatically.

Jasmine’s face remained unreadable, and breathing hard, Rosie then stared down at the beautifully smooth marble surface of the kitchen island. She could hear the clock ticking in the hallway, cars hooting on the main road, and somewhere at a distance a siren set up a wail. But inside the kitchen, everything was silent. Eventually, realising that Jasmine still hadn’t acknowledged her outburst, Rosie looked up.

‘Well?’ she asked. ‘Aren’t you going to say anything?’

‘I’m not going to lie and pretend this is a surprise,’ Jasmine eventually said, coolly.

‘What?’ exclaimed Rosie, ‘I’ve never said anything before.’

‘You didn’t need to. I always wondered whether there was something between the two of you,’ Jasmine said. ‘I mean, you’ve always been so close and I thought there might be something more.’

‘Well, there isn’t,’ Rosie said indignantly. ‘Not on his part, anyway.’

‘Really?’ said Jasmine.

‘No!’ exploded Rosie. ‘Really, no. You didn’t see him Jasmine, he was so angry at me for ruining things with Jenny.’

‘Maybe,’ shrugged Jasmine. ‘Or maybe he’s desperately been trying to put you from his mind and is mad because he’s realised his latest girlfriend isn’t going to do the trick.’

‘I think you’re reading too much into this,’ Rosie said flatly. ‘If he did have feelings for me, why hasn’t he said anything before now?’

‘Like you have, you mean?’ said Jasmine, half laughing.

Rosie crossed her arms across her chest and scowled at her.

‘Look,’ Jasmine said, ‘maybe I’m wrong, it’s not like I’ve been single for a long time. But it does seem to me that you two are as close as two people can be without sleeping together. Neither of you has had a successful relationship since you’ve been friends. And this plan of yours has thrown up all sorts of complicated feelings for both of you that have resulted in this fall out.’ Jasmine held her hands up as Rosie continued to frown at her. ‘Like I say, maybe I’m wrong. I mean it’s not like anything has ever happened between the two of you. Oh!’ Jasmine exclaimed, seeing the change in expression on Rosie’s face. ‘It has! It totally has! When? How? Why am I only hearing about this now?!’

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