Page 21 of The Dance Deception
‘Why hasn’t Merle called me back?’ I sob.
Lucy tops up my wine and tries to calm me down. ‘He’s probably just busy and hasn’t seen your message yet. I’m sure he’ll contact you soon.’
Beth and Tammy both ring me, but I let the calls go to voicemail. I don’t want to talk to them. I don’t want to talk to anyone but Merle.
‘You’ll get through this,’ Lucy assures me. ‘It’ll simmer down and you’ll put it all behind you. We’ll probably even end up laughing about it one day.’
But I can’t imagine that day right now. I just want to curl up and hide forever.
Chapter 11
There are approximately five seconds of peace between the moment I wake up and the moment I remember the horror of the previous evening. I lurch out of bed and reach for my phone to check if Merle has been in touch yet. He hasn’t.
I finally force myself to read some of the messages that are piling up from friends, family, some of my old work colleagues and even uni friends I haven’t heard from for months. The early ones are all congratulatory, but they soon adopt more of a shocked tone, with a few questioning whether what they’re reading is true and others checking if I’m all right.
I’d optimistically allowed myself to think that maybe my parents might not have heard anything about it seeing as they’re down in France, but a message from my sister puts paid to that idea.
‘Um, we were just googling you to see if you’re famous yet and we didn’t get quite what we were expecting. Mum’s on her third glass of wine. Call me?’
Oh God, oh God, oh God. I’m going to need more than three glasses before I’m ready to have that conversation.
I scroll to the Fire Dancers chat and open it, dreading what the others might have written – and breathe a sigh of relief when I see there’s no judgement from them.
‘Ha ha, no wonder you came out on top last night.’ This is from Tammy. ‘That’s one way to get the heat into your dancing.’
‘Woo! Go, girl!’ Beth has added. ‘I can’t believe you didn’t tell us, you sly devil.’
‘Yeah, I’d be shouting it from the rooftops. He’s lush!’ Tammy has replied. ‘I’m going to have to up my game next week to compete with that.’
‘Oh yes, I didn’t even think of that,’ Beth says. ‘Unfair advantage alert! Has it been going on all week? I can’t believe you kept it to yourself.’
A little later she’s written, ‘Hey, are you ignoring us?’
‘Yeah, let us know you’re okay,’ Tammy has added. ‘Saw the news this morning. What an arse.’
I switch to the news feed and the trending story makes my heart sink. My prayers that a major world event would have grabbed everyone’s attention and pushed me into obscurity have not been answered, and the headline of the number one story is “Dance Cheat Shown Door by Devastated Wife”.
So it’s true. He really does have a wife.
My heart pounds as I open the link. I’m confronted by a picture of Merle looking all brooding in front of an elegant Georgian townhouse. He looks like a model in a photoshoot with his perfect hair, stylish clothes and leatherholdall by his feet. There’s also a picture of his wife, whose name is apparently Sofiya. She’s wearing big sunglasses that hide half her face but she’s a similar build to me, just with light blonde hair rather than red.
Despite the piece firmly suggesting Sofiya has kicked him out of their marital home, Merle is quoted as saying, “My wife and I have decided to take a bit of time away from each other, but we’re going to work through this. I’ve made a terrible mistake, but I love my wife very much and I’ll do whatever it takes to make it up to her so we can be the team we’ve always been. We’re not going to let one silly mistake ruin everything.”
His words cut through me like a knife. A silly mistake? If it was such a mistake why did he keep coming back for more?
A flash of rage courses through me. That this man, who’s seen every inch of my naked body, who’s touched me and kissed me everywhere and let me believe there was plenty more of that to come, has been married the whole time. The whole time! No wonder he always had to rush off after training.
And just as quickly I’m back to thinking how stupid I’ve been, and fretting about what people are going to think of me now. Someone that gorgeous? Of course he wouldn’t be single. So how did I not see this coming? I’ll probably be branded an idiot or an evil homewrecker. Possibly both. It makes me want to never leave the flat again.
My misery deepens when an email marked urgent pops up from Shane Mitchell at Channel 6, summoning me for a crisis talk tomorrow morning. It feels like I’m being hit by blow after blow.
I drag myself out of bed to go and find Lucy in the kitchen. ‘They want me in at Channel 6 first thing tomorrow,’ I tell her. ‘I guess they’re going to drop me from the show after all.’
‘Do you really think they’d do that?’
‘Haven’t you seen the news this morning?’ I hand her my phone.
‘Oh,’ she says, sinking into the chair opposite mine as she skims the article. ‘So it was true. Bugger. But you didn’t know, so you haven’t done anything wrong. If anything, it’s Merle they should be getting rid of, right?’
