Page 17 of Cuts Like An Angel: Part 3

She dialled William right away. He answered after a few rings and after enough time to make Rosie’s heart flutter.

“Hey you. Everything okay? Work treating you okay?” he said, his voice cheery. Maybe that was a sign.

“Yeah,” she said.

“You okay?”

“Tired.” She paused, trying to think what to say to him without any accusations, and at the same time, holding in her relief that he’d answered, and he was okay. “Did you have a good afternoon so far?”

“Not bad. I think I might delete the flyer and start again, though, I can’t get the thing right,” he said.

“Ugh. I hate that. Save it and start again. Don’t delete it. You’ve worked on it.” And he’d probably go back to the original at some point.

“I will.”

She paced a little, walking to the door, which she closed. “Is everything else okay?”

“Everything’s fine. I’m just gonna grab a shower and then I was going to start dinner. Will you be home soon?”

“An hour or so. How did it go with Carly today?” She held her breath with that question. Waiting for his oh, shit, because he’d forgotten about it.

“It was fine,” he said. “Same old thing.”

“That’s good.” She nodded, her head swimming with his lie. She pressed her lips together, not wanting to ask him right now. He was okay. That was what mattered. He sounded okay.

“She agrees the lounge is a good place. I told her we discussed it,” he carried on.

“Oh, she did? This Is …” She went to the water machine and filled herself a plastic cup. Something to give her a delay before she said the wrong things and it was her who sent him over the edge. She took it to the counter where her and Martha’s coffee cups waited to be filled. It missed where she was trying to put it and she spilt water all over. It spread to her paperwork and she lifted those. Too late, already sopping. “Ah shit,” she said.

“Rosie?”

“Yeah. Sorry. Knocked over my water. Can I call you back?” The ink began to smudge where she’d got the signatures of the people she’d talked to today. “Shit. No, no, no … oh god. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he said. “I’ll be here when you get home.”

“Okay. Love you,” she said.

“You too.”

By the time she’d got the water mopped up and the papers somewhat dry, her hands were shaking. Not because of the water, but William. She should call Carly back and tell her what William said, but there was a reason he’d lied. There had to be.

Her phone rang again. She answered it without looking. “William?”

“No.”

“Oh, Dad. I’m at work. I told Mom—”

“She told me what you told her and quite frankly, I’m appalled by the way you spoke to her. I--”

She hung up the phone, took a breath and shook her head. “I can’t deal with you right now.” It was such an odd marriage her parents had. In the financial side of things, her father was the one pulling the strings. What he said went with the money, not that he ever really put his foot down, but running the house, the kids, the social events, that was her mother’s area of expertise. He tried to do stern, strict, like now. But it never worked. Never really would.

But right then, her parents weren’t her concern. William was and the fact that he’d just lied to her. She was also pretty sure he wasn’t home. It sounded like he was near a shop somewhere. Her stomach tore itself into knots. She needed to get home.

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