Page 32 of The Missus
Keira blew out an annoyed breath. ‘Ten seconds to say what you want to say, and then I’m going.’
‘Oh, er, can’t I have a bit long… no? OK, then, well, I just wanted to say that I only threw that package because I wanted to get your attention,’ she rambled, her speech picked up speed. ‘Because I think you’re awesome and we’d be good together. I don’t care if you’re with Alanna because I probably love you, and I—'
‘That’s ten. Sorry, Kelly.’ Keira shook her head. ‘Let it go. I’m not that person.’
‘What does that mean?’ Kelly frowned.
‘If anyone should understand, it’s you. You work for Amazon, right? Zero-hour contracts, no long-term contracts. That’s all this was with us, OK? But I’m not Jeff Bezos. I don’t have any power; I don’t hold anyone’s life in my hands. If you don’t like it, you don’t sign up for it.’
‘Actually, I’m on a rolling contract, so that’s not entirely—’
Keira was getting angry, and though she didn’t like to be cruel, Kelly had run her patience right out. ‘It doesn’t matter. We will not be together, Kelly. You’re not getting what you want. Accept it.’
‘But I love you!’
Keira’s blood temperature was tipping into boiling point. ‘Well, you shouldn’t, Kelly. You really shouldn’t.’
‘What does that mean?’
Keira was so beyond frustrated with Kelly and her pig-headedness that something came out that she didn’t mean to say. ‘It means that love is bullshit. It means that when you grow up in care without a fucking clue who you are or where you came from or who it was that didn’t want you, you know how meaningless this all is.’
Kelly grabbed Keira’s hand desperately. ‘But, but… It wouldn’t be like that… If your girlfriend doesn’t understand you… We could… I could be different. You wouldn’t even have to leave her if you didn’t—’
‘Do youevershut up?’ Keira asked, snatching her hand away.
Kelly began to cry. People turned to look, but Keira didn’t care what they thought. ‘Bye, Kelly,’ Keira said quietly and walked out of the bar. She wondered if she should just walk on down the street, find another bar, and sit there drinking until someone picked her up. It had worked in the past. But Kelly had gotten her so angry, she didn’t think she was in the headspace for that, so she went home.
Alanna was on the couch where she’d left her, watching a crime documentary. She turned in utter shock. ‘Whoa! Not Keira Evans back here before nine, having struck out! Never!’
Keira tutted and sat down next to her. ‘Catfish.’
Alanna was appalled. ‘Really?’
‘Yeah. Fucking Amazon Kelly.’
‘No!’ Alanna cried. ‘Did she try anything, like, violent?’
‘Nah. She was just trying to hook me back in. Didn’t work, obviously.’
Alanna went quiet for a moment. ‘God, I feel really bad for her. She knows you’re in a relationship…’
Keira raised an eyebrow.
‘OK, shethinksyou’re in a relationship, and she’d just be happy to be your mistress? That’s so sad.’
‘Don’t sympathise with her,’ Keira said irritably. ‘She’s selfish, that’s all. She wanted to take me fromyou. She didn’t care how you felt about that, either. It takes a real piece of shit to do that to another person.’
‘But she thinks you already cheated on me. She’s trying to land a cheat. Don’t you see how sad that is?’ Alanna breathed.
Keira was not in the mood to be sympathetic. ‘She likes the drama. She probably gets herself into scrapes like this every month. Bouncing from disaster to disaster, convinced she’s in love with someone new every two minutes. She’s chaos. I know her type. This isn’t my first rodeo as far as having someone try to catfish me after I dumped them.’
Alanna’s eyes widened. ‘How many times has that happened?’
Keira wasn’t sure. ‘A few. I guess I could avoid it with some internet research beforehand, reverse image searching and that type of thing. But in the ratio of occurrences, it seems like a lot of work.’
Alanna snorted. But then her face became serious. ‘You know, the thing about Kelly is… People who create that kind of drama do it because they don’t know what healthy love is supposed to look like. But it doesn’t stop them wanting it.’
Keira knew more about that than Alanna might realise, considering she lived some form of it. Only Keira wanted just the beginnings of it. The first few hours. She was self-aware enough never to take it further than that, unlike Kelly. Of course, she wasn’t about to confess any of that to her shrink flatmate. She’d probably have her up all night asking about her childhood. Screwthat.
