Page 101 of The First Mistake

‘Could I have a word?’ she says, whilst nodding her head in the direction of the front room, away from the noise.

Beth forces a smile and follows Alice. The two women walk into the living room and Alice shuts the door softly behind them, playing for time, not knowing where to start.

‘Listen,’ she says, wringing her hands together. ‘I’m finding this all really difficult to deal with. It’s come at me like a rocket and I can’t deny that I’m having trouble processing it all and what it means.’

Beth nods, her lips pressed tightly together, as if they’re the only thing stopping her from shouting out.

‘I’m devastated by Tom’s deceit,’ says Alice, holding herself back from revealing what’s on Facebook. She needs to deal with that on her own, before involving anyone else, as it will only serve to complicate matters. ‘But I will come to terms with it in my own time,’ she goes on, ‘and in my own way, as I’m sure you will.’

Beth nods.

‘And as much as this newfound knowledge pains me, it is the realization that I’ve lost our friendship that pains me even more.’

‘You don’t have to—’ starts Beth.

‘No, please,’ says Alice, holding a hand up. ‘Let me finish. All I’ve thought about is how it affects me and Sophia, not thinking for a second about you and Millie. I’m sorry for that – it was selfish and wrong. I can’t even begin to imagine how this news has affected you, and for any part I’ve played in making that even harder, I’m truly sorry.’

Beth’s eyes widen at Alice’s admission.

‘I hadn’t realized quite how much your friendship meant to me until you weren’t there,’ Alice goes on. ‘We’ve only known each other for what, two years?’

Beth nods. ‘Almost three.’

‘But yet it feels like a lifetime,’ says Alice. ‘I’ve not always found it easy to make friends and, as you know, I’m not the most social mum in the playground.’

‘I’ve never seen you move so fast as when you drop Livvy off,’ Beth says with a little smile.

‘Exactly!’ says Alice. ‘So friends don’t come easy to me, but you ...’ She feels tears spring to her eyes. ‘You and I feel like kindred spirits, and if we allow our friendship to suffer because of someone else’s duplicitous character, then there are no winners in this sorry state of affairs. I lost Tom once, and now I feel like I’ve lost him all over again. I don’t think I can cope with losing you too.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ says Beth, her face crumpling. ‘If I’d known I was about to throw a bomb into your world ...’

The two women approach each other awkwardly until Alice opens her arms and pulls Beth into her. ‘What do they say?’ Alice laughs snottily. ‘You should never allow a man to come between friends.’

‘Something like that,’ sniffs Beth. ‘So, we’re all good?’

‘We’re all good,’ says Alice, acknowledging how different it feels to have Beth back on side. ‘We can work out a plan, going forward, together.’

‘Is everything okay with Nathan now?’ Beth asks as they walk back to the kitchen.

‘It will be,’ says Alice, suddenly confident.

40

‘I thought that donkey would be able to withstand more of a beating,’ jokes Nathan as he comes back into the kitchen, his arms so full of piñata debris he can’t see where he’s going. He staggers blindly towards the bin. ‘I was hoping for at least half an hour of entertainment from that. What’s next, Mum?’ He lets out an exaggerated sigh as he picks up a glass from the worktop and takes a mouthful of red wine. ‘God, this kids’ entertainer malarkey is hard work – no sooner are they on one thing than they want to know what’s coming next—’

‘Nate,’ Alice interjects, feeling infinitely stronger. ‘This is Beth.’

‘Ah, the infamous Beth,’ he says, looking down to wipe his hands on a tea towel. ‘I was beginning to think you were a figment of Alice’s imagination, or a hunky rugby player she’s been seeing on the side.’

He looks up, ready with one of his wide grins that would beguile even the most unwelcome of guests. ‘Pleased to finally meet—’ The rest of his sentence is cut off as his glass flies from his hand and smashes onto the island, splintering into a thousand tiny pieces.

‘Argh!’ shouts Alice, jumping back from the missile.

‘Oh goodness,’ calls out Linda. There’s a splash of red liquid on her white skirt, but her eyes are on Olivia’s birthday cake, sat on the worktop with nine candles, soaked in red wine and pockmarked with shards of glass.

It’s only Beth and Nathan who don’t make a sound, seemingly frozen in time, like someone has pressed the pause button on them.

‘Okay, stay away kids,’ says Alice, throwing an arm out across the conservatory door, where several pairs of eyes are craning to see what’s happened.

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