Page 30 of I Knew You Were Trouble

‘Big?’ I ask.

‘Yes!Huge!Two and a half carats! A great behemoth of a thing. That’s why it was so easy to believe Jon worked at Gassan. I would have preferred something far more tasteful.’

‘I felt exactly the same way about mine. Margot calls it THE MONSTROSITY – all capital letters.’

Adriana chuckles. She seems to possess a decent sense of humour, which is impressive all things considered. She’s certainly run the gamut of emotions this morning – a bit like me a week ago.

‘I’ll be right back,’ she says, jumping up from the sofa and trotting out to her studio. She returns less than a minute later bearing a ring box.

‘Here,’ she says, opening it and handing it over.

‘Oh my god,’ I say, staring at the ring. ‘That’s identical to mine.’

‘I thought it might be.Kanker!’

‘I couldn’t have said it better myself,’ I say, meeting her eyes. I snap the box shut one-handed and return it. ‘You know, Margot made some preliminary enquiries this past week. Those rings are worth around £30,000 – possibly more.’

Her jaw drops and she slowly sits, clearly dumbfounded. ‘That’s…’ Lips parted, her gaze fixes on the benchtop. ‘I knew he’d spent a lot of money on it but that kind of excess… it’sobscene.’

‘That’s the perfect way to describe it. Will you return it? To Jon, I mean.’

‘I have no idea. You?’

‘I’m keeping mine,’ I say decisively. ‘I’ll sell it, give some money to charity… put the rest towards my mortgage…’

She nods, a far-off look in her eyes. I can only imagine what’s going on inside her head.

‘Can I ask…’ I say, drawing her attention. ‘I know it’s a lot to get your mind around, but I’m wondering if you ever had doubts?’

‘About Jon – our relationship?’ she asks.

‘Yes.’

She nods. ‘I did, yes. All the time, but I ignored them. I convinced myself it was because I’d never really dated amanbefore. Jon’s older, he has this incredible career, he’s worldly…’ I note that she’s still talking about him in present tense and I wonder how long that will take to change.

‘But all my boyfriends before Jon…’ she continues. ‘Willem called them “bad boys” – no money, no ambition, no direction. But allverygood looking,’ she adds with a wink.

‘Jon’s not unattractive, though,’ I say.

‘No, but…’ She shrugs, not saying anything further, but I get it. There are Henry Cavills and there are Simon Peggs. Jon’s attractive in his own way but he’s more of a Pegg than a Cavill.

‘So, you were drawn to how different Jon was from the blokes you dated before,’ I suggest.

‘Yes, exactly. And what about you?’

Not for the first time in this conversation, I sense her reticence. Adriana both wants to know and doesn’t, which I completely understand.

‘I had different reasons for falling for Jon,’ I admit. ‘Mostly that his life dovetailed so easily with mine. I thought we had similar values, wanted similar things. In many ways, it felt simple, uncomplicated.’

‘Uncomplicated!’ She laughs freely at that.

‘Yeah, yeah…’ I say, sniggering along with her.

‘There is something else…’ she says when our laughter dies. ‘And this must be why I convinced myself that this was a real, grownup relationship… It wasn’t all aboutsex, you know?’

‘Same with me!’ I reply candidly, instantly wishing I could take it back.

Adriana smirks at me, her eyes narrowing.

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