Page 54 of The Fallback

‘Yeah, you know. If we don’t meet someone by a certain age we’ll have kids together. That kind of thing,’ she said nonchalantly, feeling anything but nonchalant. Rosie could see a look of horror forming on Jenny’s face but she still couldn’t stop talking.

‘You…you…you’ve talked about this?’ Jenny spluttered incredulously, ‘About having kids together?’

Rosie nodded; she knew this was the wrong thing to do. She knew that Mitch would hear about it and it wouldn’t end well. And even though she didn’t really like Jenny, it went against everything in Rosie's nature to deliberately hurt her – or Mitch – which was what she was obviously doing. But she suddenly had a desperate feeling that she must break Jenny and Mitch up, to keep him for herself at all costs.

Jenny looked like she might cry. ‘I…I don’t understand,’ she faltered.

‘Oh, don’t worry,’ Rosie said smoothly, or as smoothly as she could while slurring her words. ‘I don’t think he’ll need me, now that he’s met you.’ She put what she imagined was a comforting hand on Jenny’s arm. Jenny looked down at it as if Rosie had thrown up on her. ‘Now that you and Mitch are together, I’m sure it won’t be long before you two are settling down and having babies together.’

Jenny shook her arm free of Rosie’s hand, giving her a look of anger and disgust as she stood up from the table quickly.

‘Is this seat free?’

Jenny turned to look at Ben who was pointing at her chair.

‘Yes, take it,’ she said bitterly. ‘I think this conversation is over.’ And she stormed off.

‘What’s up with her?’ Ben asked as he smoothly sank into the seat.

‘No idea,’ replied Rosie, trying to ignore the churning sensation in her stomach.

‘I have to say,’ Ben said, ‘I’m surprised that Mitch seems so into her.’

‘You are?’ Rosie wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol talking but she suddenly felt warmer towards Ben than she had ever done before.

‘Yeah,’ he exclaimed. ‘She’s too young and really not that interesting.’

It was all Rosie could do not to kiss Ben. But she was also aware that Jenny had found her way over to Mitch on the other side of the beer garden. Through the crowds Rosie could definitely make out a heated exchange taking place between them and some gesticulations in her direction.

‘Hey,’ she said, grabbing Ben’s arm, ‘Do you fancy going for a drink somewhere else?’

Ben’s eyes lit up, like he couldn’t believe his luck. ‘Sure! Let me just finish this drink.’

Rosie took the glass out of his hand. ‘No,’ she said, standing up and putting his glass rather too firmly on the table, ‘let’s go now.’

Rosie put her hand out for Ben to take and pulled him up out of his seat and in the direction of the exit.

ChapterSixteen

The pounding in Rosie’s head seemed to be getting worse, not only was it now behind her eyes and up inside the base of her skull but it was operating in surround sound, coming at her from all angles.

Blearily, she raised her head and immediately regretted it as the room span around her. Twice now – twice in the last couple of weeks – she had woken up swearing off alcohol with a terrible hangover, although her current state felt closer to death than just a common or garden hangover. What had she been thinking?

Rosie closed her eyes again only to blink them wide open a second later as she realised the pounding wasn’t just in her head, it was actually coming from an external source. Her front door. Stumbling for her dressing gown and not daring to look around at the detritus in her bedroom, she gingerly picked her way out of the room and crept down the corridor to the front door of her flat.

‘Hello?’ she said pressing the button on the intercom and with her other hand steadying herself against the wall.

Just how much had she had to drink last night? She remembered agreeing to another drink with Ben. Then Mitch and Jenny arriving and her trying to avoid them. But Mitch had tracked her down hadn’t he, and left her to get to know Jenny?

Oh, she thought to herself and thenouchas her head pounded again.

The memories started flooding back, just as the alcohol she had drunk threatened to come flooding out of her mouth. That conversation, what she had said to Jenny and the way Jenny had immediately sought out Mitch and so Rosie had… What had she done? It was something bad, wasn’t it? Something she was going to regret? After that, it had all got a bit blurry.

‘Rosie!’ barked the intercom.

Rosie could hear the fury in Mitch’s voice, coming full throttle at her. She stared at the intercom and groaned, images of last night kept flashing in her mind.

‘Er, hi, Mitch.’ She tried to sound upbeat.

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