Page 52 of The Interview
“I’m so sorry, Mum,” Kiki says as she shifts on the bed and squeezes herself between her dad and me. “What was the other thing?”
I look at Cam, wondering now if it’s too much, if it’s not the time, but he simply shrugs. The kids have started a discussion amongst themselves, but I just hear noise, not words.
“While I was married to Sean, me and your dad hooked up,” I blurt out.
The room falls silent.
I watch as Harry’s mouth opens and closes before his eyes dart to his brother and sisters, then come back to me. He closes his mouth and says nothing while my other three kids stare at me, wide-eyed.
“I loved my husband, but I loved your dad. I just hadn’t realised it when I left him and went back to Sean. By the time I did, I was married… but we, me and your dad, we had unfinished business. One night, we bumped into each other, and, yeah, it just happened. It was just the once. We knew we couldn’t be trusted alone in each other’s company so made sure it didn’t happen again. I’m not making excuses, I’m not condoning adultery or any kind of cheating, and I’m well aware that what I did makes me the world’s biggest hypocrite after the way I shut Sean out of my life for what I thought he'd done. I accept all ofthat, but that doesn’t stop it from being the truth. That’s how deep what we have goes.”
“You were married to the world’s biggest rock star, the hottest man on the planet, and you risked it all for Dad,” Lu states quietly.
“I did, and I’ll tell you honestly, if we’d been caught, if Sean had left me, I’d have gone straight back to your dad because I loved him. I loved both of them. Think what you like about me, of me, whatever, but the honest truth is that I’ve spent around thirty-five years in love with two men.”
“Fuck me. Sean McCarthy’s gotta be the unluckiest geezer on the planet. Bags a worldie, gets sexually assaulted, accused of rape, loses the girl, becomes the world’s biggest rock star, gets the girl back, she cheats—sorry, Mum—with her ex, he gets dead.”
I draw in a breath at my son’s short yet graphic, somewhat accurate description of my late husband’s life.
“Would it be inappropriate if I high-fived Dad right now, cos, go fucking you, old man,” Harry says with a grin.
“Totally inappropriate,” I tell him.
“I knew it. I knew there was something between you two you’ve been keeping secret,” Lu says with a headshake and a small smile.
“This information stays between these four walls,” Cam announces firmly. “You tell no one. We all okay? We need to book a family therapy session? We need time to process? A group hug? What? Tell me what you need and I’ll make it happen. You have questions, come to us and ask them. We’ll be open and honest. If there’s nothing else for now, thank you for coffee and breakfast, but you all need to fuck off so I can get my naked arse out of bed and get myself showered.”
The kids scatter, H, George, and Lu with smiles on their faces, Kiks with a frown.
“You okay?” Cam asks me once the door closes behind them, followed by noise instantly erupting on the landing.
“I don’t know what I am,” I reply honestly.
“They’ll be fine. They’ll have questions, especially the girls, but they’ll be fine.”
“Hope so.”
“I know so,” he says as he walks around the bed before he leans across and kisses me gently on the mouth. “Love the fuck out of you, Kitten.”
“Love you, too, T,” I reply, watching his bare and oh-so-perfect arse heading towards the bathroom. “You’re the hero in all of this, I’m just the ho!” I call out.
He stops mid-step, then turns to look at me, shaking his head. “Nah, I think they’re just seeing us in a different light. We’ve just made our kids realise that there’s so much more to us than just being their mum and dad.”
“Okay, then, you’re the hero and a hitman, and I’m still the ho.”
“Georgia.” He says my name on a sigh as he turns and heads back towards where I’m still sitting cross-legged on our bed. “I think you’ll find you’re the hero. You’ve never been anything less to any of them, but what you did just then, laying yourself out there like that? I think you’ll find you’ve reached a new level of respect from Lu.”
“Because I’m an adulterer? That’s worrying.”
“Because you just showed her you’re flawed and not this perfect person she always thinks she has to live up to. You showed her you’re not Superwoman, you’re human like the rest of us, and you risked everything for me.”
“You’re making what we did sound romantic,” I say as warmth grows in my belly at his words, desperately wanting them to be true.
“You don’t think our story’s romantic?”
I can’t hide my smile. “You think us fucking against the office door of a nightclub is romantic?”
“I think”—he places his palms down on the bed and leans into me—“the way we’ve always been drawn back to each other, the way our lives took so many twists and turns only to set us on a path that brought us back together on the other side of the world is definitely romantic. Not that I’m an expert on that kind of shit, but yeah, I think that’s as romantic as fuck. And you know what? Let the kids think what they fucking like. They’re grownups now. Shit happens in life; we’re prime examples of that. I love the fuck out of you, you love the fuck out of me, we love the fuck out of them, and that’s all that matters.”
