Page 87 of The First Mistake

Alice’s cheeks flush and her pulse quickens as she scans the room, desperately trying to remember where they’d been seated.

‘Anyway, it was very nice to meet you,’ says the pilot. ‘And good luck with that venture of yours.’ He continues along the buffet without missing a beat.

Her heart’s done exactly the opposite as she sees Nathan heading towards her.

‘What are you having, sweetheart?’ he asks, as he literally rubs shoulders with the man Alice could have had sex with last night.

Shecouldhave done, perhapsshouldhave done, but she hadn’t. Nathan, on the other hand, most probably had, as he certainly wasn’t in the bar where he claimed to have been. Yet, he was only gone for an hour or so. Would that have given him enough time? If the woman who proclaimed to ‘need him,now’ was waiting in a room down the corridor, then it gave him plenty.

Alice can’t help but scan the room as she walks back to the table, picking out any lonesome woman and assessing whether she might have had sex with her husband last night. There are disappointingly few possibilities, but it doesn’t stop Alice fawning over Nathan, just in case they’re being watched.

She puts her hand on his as they talk, careful to give him her full attention. He, in turn, seems to give her his, which confuses her. Why would he do that if he knows his mistress is there, watching?

‘Looking forward to going home?’ he asks, as she leans in for a kiss. He doesn’t flinch.

‘It will be good to see the girls,’ she says.

‘Has it been as hard as you thought it would be? Coming away? Leaving them at home?’

‘Actually, no,’ she says, honestly. She imagines that’s probably because she’s had other things to think about.

‘It would be nice if we could do this again,’ he says. ‘Perhaps a little more often. If last night was anything to go by, I’d like to do it alotmore often.’

She remembers their love-making before she’d seen his phone; the warm tingle of alcohol making her lose her inhibitions, the sense of abandonment as she finally cast off the shackles of the past, content to give her all to the husband who deserved it. The words of the text flash in her mind and it hits her again, hard, that he doesn’t.

‘It’s funny,’ she says, watching his reaction carefully, ‘but this time yesterday, I was so excited about this project.’

His brow furrows. ‘And now?’

‘Now, I don’t feel like I want to do it.’

‘But what’s changed in that time?’

Everything, she wants to say. ‘Nothing,’ she says instead. ‘I just don’t want to do it.’

Nathan sits back in his chair and laughs. ‘Well, it’s a bit late to change your mind.’

‘Is it?’ she asks, tilting her head to one side. ‘What if I wanted to pull out?’

He runs a hand through his hair. ‘Well, you can’t ... we’ve exchanged. We’d lose the hundred grand deposit.’

‘But losing one hundred thousand would surely be better than losing a million?’ she says.

He picks up her hand and holds it to his lips. Any notion of his mistress being in the room evaporates. ‘I understand why you’re nervous, it’s only natural, but it will be okay.’

‘I just don’t know if it’s the right thing to do,’ says Alice. ‘I don’t know if I’m prepared to risk AT’s money ... Tom’s money.’ She thought she’d throw that one in there, just to remind Nathan whose money they were playing with. She doesn’t care if it makes him flinch a little. And ironically, she no longer cares what Tom may or may not think about what she’s doing. He’d lost that right.

‘We can’t back out now,’ says Nathan. ‘We’re too far in.’

Alice reclaims her hand. ‘But there’s not really a “we” in it, is there? This is all onmyshoulders. It’smymoney,myreputation andmyresponsibility if it all goes wrong.’

‘But it won’t,’ says Nathan. ‘This is going to be the best thing that’s ever happened to us and I’m going to be with you every step of the way.’

She smiles sweetly, but she doesn’t believe a word he says anymore.

35

‘Is Nathan not with you?’ asks Alice’s mum, Linda, as she greets her at her own front door with a hug.

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