Page 56 of Love Me Till Wednesday

She’d done her homework before phoning then. ‘I used to come here when I was a student.’

‘With Lisa?’

He sighed. ‘That was thirty years ago. You weren’t even born then. I wish I’d never mentioned it.’

‘Are you with her now?’

Had she got his phone bugged as well? ‘What makes you think that?’

‘So you’ve not seen her today?’

‘I ... No.’ He’d last seen Lisa five hours ago. Technically, that was yesterday. And if he said, yes she’d never shut up about it.

‘Liar.’

‘What’s this all about?’

‘I’m engaged to a man who lies to me, and I’ve just found out I’m pregnant. That’s what it’s all about.’ She started to sob.

Nick was silent while he processed what she’d just said.

‘Are you still there?’ she shouted.

‘But you can’t be.’

‘Do you want me to text you a photo of the pregnancy test?’

‘You can’t be.’

‘I stopped my contraception three months ago.’

‘You did what?’

‘You wouldn’t give me a straight answer about having children. And I’m not getting any younger.’

‘I did give you a straight answer - I told you I didn’t want any more children. I made that very clear before you moved in with me.’ What he hadn’t got around to telling her was he’d made sure he couldn’t by having a vasectomy. It had been an easy decision after all the heartache he’d been through with his first wife. He’d barely seen his twindaughters since she walked out on him fifteen years ago when they were three. He was still cut up about that now.

And now he had to face up to the fact that Adrienne was cheating on him, probably with that smarmy tennis coach. It might explain why he hadn’t made any progress on improving her backhand. ‘Who is he? Who have you been screwing behind my back?’

‘No one! How dare you say that when you’re cheating on me.’

‘I’m not cheating on you.’

‘Nick?’ a familiar voice said.

He glanced up to see Lisa looking at him quizzically.

Adrienne’s voice was still shouting down the phone. ‘Oh my god, Nick. How can you tell such barefaced lies? Do you think I’m stupid? I just heard her call your name.’

Lisa mouthed, ‘Do you want another drink?’

He shook his head and watched Lisa head over to the counter.

‘Nick! Are you listening to me?’

‘I can’t talk about this here.’ He ended the call before Adrienne could reply and shoved the phone into his jacket pocket.

Lisa sat down with her mug of tea, looking genuinely concerned. ‘Are you ill? You’re looking grey again like you did in the studio.’

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