Page 6 of The Love Position

Even though he wasn’t there, she felt his strength. Four years older than her, James had always had her back. Sophia loved her parents, but it was her brother she went to first with any problem.

But now?

Breathing slowly in and out, she stared at the pavement, glowing orange under the streetlamps. James would kick Marcus’s arse to Rome and back, but that would only land her brother in even deeper shit than he was already in. Last year, he’d lost his job in London and been barred from working in financial services. Now he was living with their parents in Somerset and struggling to run an entertainment company.

One step at a time.

Pushing to her feet, Sophia got back in the car and drove the rest of the way home. The bigger picture could wait. Right now, she needed to find a pair of rubber gloves and scrub away all traces of the night.

‘Marcus?’

No reply.

Closing the front door behind her, Sophia went into the living room.

Her boyfriend was sprawled on the sofa, asleep, his penis creating a damp patch on a scatter cushion that had the letter ‘S’ embroidered onto it. It had been a housewarming gift from her mother when Sophia had moved in, along with a cushion with the initial ‘M’ for Marcus.

Donning an apron and rubber gloves, Sophia set about clearing the living room whilst her longtime partner snored and drooled. He’d mentioned using opium before in his quest to emulate Marcus Aurelius, but Sophia had shut the idea down. She’d indulged his fantasy of her being his slave girl a couple of times when they’d had sex, but it had made her deeply uncomfortable.

On the coffee table was a polaroid camera and shots of Darcie and Kiera doing things she’d refused to.

I wasn’t enough for him.

Her stomach turned. How many times had he had sex with them? And had there been anyone else? She’d always ignored students flirting with Marcus. Had she been blind?

Running upstairs, she entered his study and rifled through the desk drawers. At the very back of one she found more polaroids, these featuring several former students. Dressed in togas or naked, they had various orifices around the cock Sophia believed was for her use only.

Backing out of the room, she stood in the hallway, desperate to collapse to the floor, but not wanting to touch anything more than she had to. Everything that was so familiar about her home now felt dirty.

Where will I live? What about work? Have I got an STD? How many people know about this? How have I been so stupid?

Her mind was fracturing into a million thoughts and she didn’t know which one to pay attention to first.

Clean the car. Then you can leave.

Sweating with exertion, her nervous system running on empty, Sophia hauled the last suitcase into the boot of her car. She’d lived with Marcus for nearly a decade, and one night wasn’t enough time to unpick the tapestry of their life together. She had the essentials packed. Everything else could wait.

‘Soph?’

Marcus was in the doorway, his face puffy and his slate-grey hair defying gravity. He was still wearing the purple bedsheet, but it was crumpled and stained.

‘Come inside and we can talk.’

She straightened. ‘About what?’

He sighed, his expression irritated. ‘Don’t be like that. Let’s be adults about this, okay? There’s no need to be so reactionary.’

Reactionary? ‘So, how exactly would you like me to behave after finding my boyfriend smoking heroin and having sex with his—and my university students?’

Marcus rolled his bloodshot eyes. ‘It’s opium. Plant medicine.’

‘It’s illegal.’

‘And the girls mean nothing. It’s just a bit of birthday fun. When you turn fifty, you can do the same if you like?’

Sophia’s stomach lurched. When she reached fifty, Marcus would be seventy-one. Would they have had children?

‘Why did you come back early?’ he asked.

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