Page 65 of The Missus
Alanna looked at her. ‘My mother has never been able to see the forest for the trees. I’m less surprised by this than I probably should be.’ She looked at Ed. ‘How did you find out?’
‘Well, after she took the money from the account, I think she thought she’d just leave without having to talk to me. But of course, communication went dead silent with the man after that and she was, er, I suppose she was stuck—with me. It didn’t take me long to find out the money was gone. She tried to make up a lie about investments to cover, but as soon as I started asking questions, the whole thing fell apart. I got the details out of her bit by bit.’
‘You’re getting a divorce, I take it?’ Alanna asked.
‘Ihaveto, don’t I? I can’t trust her anymore. I don’t know why I thought I was going to be different from the other husbands. I guess we both got conned.’ He put his hands in his pockets and looked at the floor.
‘Christ, Ed,’ Keira said. She went over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. Her pity for him was enormous. ‘You’re not the idiot here. She is.’
Ed smiled sadly. ‘That’s very nice of you to say, Keira. But I don’t think it’s true. I loved her and I couldn’t hang on to her, that’s all. Otherwise, how would she have been tricked? She didn’t have what she needed from me, so she was willing to believe a lie to get it.’
‘Ed, Ed…’ Alanna groaned. ‘She’salwaysbeen like this. It’s not about you. It’s always about something in her that needs to clamber over other people's backs to achieve some imaginary status. But the truth is, she’s just a miserable little woman who’ll never be happy because she doesn’t know how to be. Don’t believe whatever’s inside you that keeps telling you that’s all you deserve.’
Keira looked at her and back to Ed. She wanted to say something. Something comforting. ‘Love’s a fucking vampire. Drains you dry,’ she said, which didn’t sound that great. But what she wanted to add to the sentiment was that it only applied to the wrong women. Because Keira thought that if she could have gotten Alanna to love her, it wouldn’t have been like that. She didn’t know how she knew that. There was no reason she should have. But she did. It was a shame Keira wouldn’t know what to do with that kind of love if she had it. She’d just fuck it up.
But she never got to the encouraging part of her homily because the front door opened, and Sandra was back. ‘Ed!’ she cried desperately.
Ed looked at her. ‘I just came to tell you I’ve been in contact with my solicitor. I’ve begun proceedings. I thought you deserved to hear that in person.’
Sandra’s face fell. Then she looked at Alanna and Keira. ‘Could we have some priv-’
‘They know everything,’ Ed told her shortly.
Sandra’s eyes bulged. ‘I don’t think it’s fair to talk behind my back like that.’
Ed looked at her. ‘Oh? You don’t want people sneaking around behind your back?’ His face creased into rage. ‘The nerve!’
Sandra looked shocked. ‘Ed, don’t raise your voice to me.’
Ed laughed mirthlessly. ‘I’ve spent the last few years tiptoeing around you. But now, I’ll do what Iwant. You, you bloody…vampire!’
‘What on earth does that mean?’ Sandra asked.
Keira looked at Alanna, and they silently agreed that they would give them that privacy after all. They fled the flat, putting the yelling that was now going on behind a closed door.
But in the hall, the drama didn’t diminish. Benjamin was coming out of the elevator. It was the first time Keira had seen him since she’d outed him as a furry at the anniversary party. He beamed at them. ‘Hi, guys!’
Keira and Alanna looked at him, both baffled at his chipper tone. ‘Hi, Benjamin,’ Alanna greeted him.
Benjamin passed them and, in a further confusing move, knocked on his own door. Alanna and Keira both turned to look in confusion. The door opened, and someone grabbed him by the collar and dragged him forward, meeting him for a kiss. Keira’s eyes popped when she got a good look at the snogger. ‘Kelly!?’
Kelly broke the make-out and turned. ‘Oh.’ She gave a finger waggle wave and smiled lightly. ‘Hi, Keira. Alanna. How’s life treating ya?’
For about the fifth time that afternoon, Keira and Alanna looked at each other to confirm that the other was seeing what they were seeing. They turned back to the pair. ‘Umm, what’s…’ Alanna said.
‘Oh, I brought him a delivery…’ Kelly began.
‘I recognised her from that time with the window,’ Benjamin completed with a grin.
‘So we got to talking, and well, one thing led to another,’ Kelly shrugged.
‘I thought she was gorgeous, so I asked her to go for a drink,’ Benjamin said.
‘He promised I could pump him for information about you two so I could destroy your relationship,’ Kelly added casually. ‘And we ended up doing another kind of pumping altogether.’
Keira tasted bile.
‘We’re in love now,’ Benjamin added for full clarity. ‘She moved in yesterday.’
