Page 37 of Tempting the Player
When I enter the kitchen, I sense deep down in the pit of my stomach that something has gone horribly wrong. The air is heavy and thick. He’s standing at the kitchen counter, fully dressed, drinking a cup of coffee, staring at the floor. When he senses me there, he looks up and smiles at me, but the smile doesn’t reach his eyes.
“What’s up, honey?” I ask uneasily.
“Nothing, why?” He’s lying, he’s being weird.
“Nate, I know there’s something up. What’s wrong?”
He stares at me for a minute and shakes his head. “Nothing’s wrong, I've just got to go - I need to pick the girls up.”
I check the time, it's 8:30 am. “It’s too early to pick the girls up yet, they’ll probably still be asleep from the late night they had. What’s going on?”
His eyes are hard and cold – a way I've never seen them before. “I want to go and pick my daughter up - I want to see her, is that too much to ask?” he snaps at me.
I'm floored.
He’s never snapped at me before.
I walk over and gently put my hand on his arm. Did he flinch?
“What on earth’s the matter?”
He shakes his head and stares at the floor again, but doesn’t say anything.
“OK, I'm getting worried now.” The anxiousness in my voice is obvious
He doesn’t say anything, we’re silent for a while, and I ask, “Are you coming straight back here when you’ve picked the girls up?”
He shakes his head. “I’ll get them both, then come and pick you up to take you home. I want to spend time with Lucia, just the two of us.”
He turns his back to me, putting his mug in the sink. I walk forward and slide my hands around his waist, but instead of welcoming me like he usually does, his body stiffens.
“What the hell, Nathan? Have I done something to upset you? You don’t want me to touch you, do you?” He’s rejecting me, and I have no idea why.
His shoulders droop, and he turns around, putting his arms around me. Why does he seem sad? “Sorry, babe, you’ve done nothing to upset me . . . you’re perfect. I love you so fucking much.” He sighs, “I’ll speak to you later, OK?”
I nod and release him. I want to cry. He gets his things together in silence and comes to peck me on the cheek.
“Bye.”
And he’s gone, leaving me very unsettled indeed. What could have happened between last night when he was in a funny, sexy, loving mood, to this morning acting like a stranger?
***
When he returns with the girls, he doesn’t get out of the car; he waits for me to get in and takes me straight home. He says ‘bye’, but he's like a stranger. I get confirmation that I'm not imagining things and that something is definitely wrong when I don’t hear from him until nine that night. I make a point of not texting him or calling him, but I have a constant knot in my stomach. I call Amanda and Karen, fill them in on what’s happened, which confuses them both as well. They drag me to the cinema with Jess, and we go to Nando's for dinner. What’s going on with him? He’s on my mind the whole time - I try not to let them see that it’s bothering me. I go over everything again and again in my mind, but I'm sure nothing that happened the day before could have triggered his behaviour. I'm certain I didn’t do anything wrong; I got along well with his family. . . I can't understand it.
I get a text from him at nine.
Sorry I haven’t been in touch, Kate. I need to see you in the morning, after the school run. Is that okay?
What? I'm not‘babe’ anymore? I don’t work Mondays, so I text him back
Yeah, that’s fine - see you then. Is everything ok?
It’s a while before I get one back:
Not really, I need to talk to you, see you in the morning. Night x
I reply
