Page 45 of One True Love

“Mr Hart left but said I could remain a while longer?”

“Yes, of course.”

“I find myself without a swimsuit or goggles. I also could go for some lunch, when I get back from the pool?”

“Afternoon tea?” he pre-empts.

“Oh, heck yes, amazing!”

“Wonderful.” He bows and walks backwards. “Oh, it’ll be my pleasure. A size fourteen?”

“You sure you didn’t have a career in fashion before this?”

He taps his nose and clicks the door shut gently.

I’m feeling for a brief moment joyful, when the grief starts to edge its way back in again…

No, no! I will no longer be miserable or made to feel like I’m the one going with the flow.

No!

It’s time to take back control.

This is my life, my party. And I’ll be fucked if I die miserably, like everyone else seems to do these days.

Chapter Eight

With this renewed vigour of mine, I arrive at work on Monday morning with my head held high. Dressed to kill in a tight bodycon dress and heels, I clack through the office while it’s still early, only people like Daisie at their desk, because she needs to finish early for her kid. She gives me a long look up and down and I grin, ignoring the fact she’s registered me in my power dress. I gesture over my shoulder at the kitchen, and that she should definitely join me.

Once we’re tucked away and the kettle’s boiling, I show her the Instagram feed belonging to Miles’s mother.

“Holy fuck,” she says, and I have to try not to give a whoop, or a fist pump.

Daisie rarely ever swears and I can tell this is big news to her.

“My friend found it,” I tell her, “because after I told her about Stacie, well… he’s got a reputation for sure, hasn’t he?”

“Some twit actually went and married him… and…” I watch her zoom in. “Got up the duff?”

“Yup.”

“This is why Stacie went mental. She must have seen his ring.” Her cheeks are aflame with shock and a bit of revulsion, but unlike me, no shame. So he didn’t get Daisie, then?

“Yup.”

“There are so many people who need to know about this,” she whispers under her breath. “This is why he doesn’t have his own account.”

“Yup.”

I’m not going to say too much about how I found his mum’s account (my clever best friend), and at the moment, I don’t even know if I will reveal any of what I saw on his phone, because I haven’t quite decided yet how to fully bring him down. Or if what was on his device is just too disgusting to be shared. He had names for all of them. Except me.

“What a fucker,” she says.

“There’s no other word for it.”

Daisie leaves the kitchen while I make my first drink of the day. I wonder if she liked him too or if she really just can’t believe someone could be so duplicitous. Nobody wants to believe someone as beautiful and as much of a talented lover as he could be this dark beneath it all, but he is. This is a serial cheater of the tallest order.

All I know is that I’ve begun the domino effect. Daisie won’t keep that to herself and anyone could’ve told her about the existence of that account.

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