Page 53 of The Price of Love
‘And you invited Cal because you fancy him.’ I turned fierce eyes to Katie.
‘I invited Cal because he likes you and we could really do with an alternative perspective on things here, Will. This guy,Luke, he’s got another girlfriend, definite. He’s lied about it to you, definite.’
‘He’s a cheese face, definite,’ put in Jazz.
‘Er, yes. But you know all this. And look how miserable it’s making you, trying to pretend you’re not seeing what’s right in front of you.’ Katie poured me a drink but avoided my eye.
‘But I didn’tknow.’
‘Bull. You knew as soon as you read those messages. What else has he lied about?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Willow.’
‘All right, so he moved out of the hotel without telling me. Big bloody deal. He had a perfectly valid reason for that.’
‘And his brother? What the hell isthatall about?’
‘I don’t know!’ I stood up and shouted. Everyone else in the Grape and Sprout stopped talking and turned to look. Luckily they were all midafternoon wine drinkers, so their opinions didn’t count. ‘I don’t know,’ I went on more quietly, once the chatter had resumed. ‘Maybe Luke’s ashamed of James, maybe James is a gambler and lost the business on the wrong card. I don’t know, but I won’t condemn Luke without evidence.’
‘Well,duh, darling, but how muchevidenceis it going to take to convince you?’ Ash slouched in the seat next to me. ‘If you’re determined to take his side, you could catch the boy in flagrante and still believe him when he said he was getting a splinter out of her tush with his tongue.’ He downed his vodka in one andwaved a hand. ‘Just dump him. Plenty more fish in the sea, if the holes in your net aren’t too big.’
‘Thank you, any more wise epithets to offer?’ I snapped.
‘Oh, come on, you’re not exactly choosy, are you? I mean, most of the guys you dredge up I wouldn’t poke if my knob was on fire and they had Lake Windermere up there.’
There was a momentary silence as we digested this particular Ash-ism.
‘But surely,’ Jazz began, ‘if your knobwason fire—’
The conversation which broke out was overloud and over animated. ‘Drop the man, Will. No excuses. He’sliedto you.’
‘Don’t give him a reason. Or you could hint that he’s fuck-useless in bed, that always gets them.’
‘But we’re getting married, we’ve bought a flat. Why would he do all that if there’s someone else? And, I mean,Dee-Dee, what kind of a crap name isthat, sounds like a bloody poodle.’
‘Is he into animals then?’ That, of course, was Ash.
‘Not like you mean.’
‘I might be able to help,’ Cal interrupted for the first time and we all stopped talking to look at him. ‘I . . . I mean I could . . . there’s ways . . .’ he stammered as he became the centre of attention.
‘What ways?’
‘Oh, Cal’s into all the arcane practices.’
‘Ash,’ I said warningly.
‘I don’t want to go into it, but there are things I could do, to find out.’ Cal talked to me directly, into my eyes as though we were the only people in the room. The concentration stopped the stammer. ‘Only if you want me to.’ And he held my gaze after he’d stopped speaking, which made my stomach tremble in an all-too-familiar way.
‘’Scuse.’ I dashed for the doorway and the lovely, convenient drain outside.
Chapter Twenty-One
I lay my aching head on the pillow and thought about what a stupid idea it was to try to get over emotional traumas by drinking. I’d stopped analysing whether my raving stomach was down to the effect Cal’s eyes had on my psyche or the more prosaic effects of eight vodka shots per hour.
It was, predictably, three in the morning. A time at which all souls are at their lowest and thoughts immediately turn to picking at the biggest scab on the psychological knee. Me, I didn’t even know where to stick the metaphorical fingernail. My mind felt like one huge raw wound now that Jazz, Katie and Ash had all had a good poke around in it. Even Cal had stuck his oar in, although admittedly only to offer his assistance.
