Page 14 of Best Served Hot
‘Oh,’ Alex replied, trying to think how to approach this gently.
If this had been anyone else, some old friend, she’d have just said, ‘Why the bloody hell not?!’ But that wasn’t the situation here. They were not friends. She was technically Nicole’s husband’s former mistress. She couldn’t go steaming in. She had to listen to Nicole’s justification for not tackling Ethan first. Andthentell her she was a tit.
‘I was going to,’ Nicole began, and Alex set her face to something as close to sympathetic as she could manage for what would inevitably be a very beaten woman’s reasoning for keeping quiet about her husband’s infidelity.
But that wasn’t what came out of her mouth. ‘I’ve decided that rather than simply divorce him, I’d like to ruin his life and take every last shred of his self-esteem from him first.’
Once Alex had remembered to breathe, she thought she’d better say something. ‘You can do that by divorcing him.’
‘No. He’ll move on from that. But I don’t want him to. I want to hurt him,’ Nicole smiled.
‘Itwillhurt him. Of course it will. Look at the lengths he’s gone to stop you from finding out.’
‘He doesn’t care about this marriage. I think he just knows he’d lose his shirt if I found out what he’s been up to. And that man likes his money. He likes expensive suits, fancy cars, first-class seats,’ Nicole said with deep disdain. ‘But if it all came out and we had a run-of-the-mill divorce? He’d lose some money, sure. But he’d make it back eventually. Long term, it’ll be a paper cut to him, but I want to cut his leg off.’
Alex raised an eyebrow. ‘Beg your pardon?’
‘Metaphorically speaking,’ Nicole clarified.
Alex paused. ‘Nicole, OK… I know you were feeling sad before, and now you’ve found your anger, which is better. But I think maybe you’ve… overshot it a bit.’
Nicole smiled. Alex thought it would have been a nice smile under sane circumstances. Under these conditions, it was mildly terrifying.
‘Maybe you're right. Maybe I’m enjoying being angry. Maybe that will pass. But while I’m in the eye of the storm, I want to make it count. I’m going to hurt him, Alex. Because he’dgladlyhurt us if it benefited him. He sacked you, for God’s sake. And I found out he’s been an incredibly prolific cheater the entire time I’ve known him. And somehow, I missed it. The only reason I know now is that my car broke down and I turned up at my house unexpectedly and saw you through the window. So I’ve been tricked out of ten years, and you’ve been tricked out of your job.’ Nicole leaned back in her chair, looking out of the window at the start of rain outside, spattering on the glass.
Her smile slipped for a second. But then she turned to Alex and the cheery expression came back. ‘So why not square it a bit? Doesn’t that sound like something we deserve?’ she asked her merrily.
‘What can you possibly do?’ Alex questioned. She was far from on board, but she’d entertain the fantasy for as long as it took to walk Nicole off the ledge of whatever the hell she wanted to do to Ethan.
‘I want to torture him. I want him to live in an agony of stress and anxiety that his whole life is seconds from exploding for as long as I can string it out. With any luck, I’ll give him a heart attack. It would save me the trouble of divorcing him.’ The coffee arrived, and Nicole thanked the waitress warmly. She took a sip. ‘Mmm, that’s good.’
Alex was perturbed. She didn’t think this sounded at all healthy. ‘Nicole, I don’t think this is the move.’
‘It is, Alex. And I have you to thank. This was your idea,’ Nicole said happily.
Alex took a very big pause. ‘It was?’
‘I mean, notthis, exactly. But yousaidI didn’t need therapy. I just needed to stop taking shit.’
Alex nodded voraciously. ‘Yes, and I meant that. But I was more thinking you could just leave him and, I don’t know, ruin his reputation or something.’
‘And that was the plan. Until I realised he was Satan. It’s not gonna cut it now. I’ve got to go further.’
‘He’s a bastard, I’ll grant you. But I think calling him Satan is giving him too much credit. He’s a shit-weasel, but he’s no evil mastermind,’ Alex said.
‘Only because he’s not clever enough. But in his horrible little heart, he’d happily destroy anyone that stood in his way. Even just inconvenienced him.’
Nicole had a point there. She was the proof.
‘But you know what? He’ll do terrible things his whole life, and there’ll be no punishment for him. There’s no task force for emotional fuckery,’ Nicole said.
‘What about karma?’ Alex asked weakly.
Nicole frowned sceptically. ‘Do you believe in that?’
‘No. But I was kind of hopingyoudid,’ Alex admitted.
Nicole sighed. ‘It’d be great to think that, wouldn’t it? That the universe would take care of him. We both know it won’t. He’ll just move on. Unless we punish him ourselves. You and me.’
