Page 24 of Crying in the Rain
“Yep. As was Krissi’s biological father, although we didn’t know back then. But that’s a whole other story.” And absolutely not one for a first date.
“I need pics!” Ade snapped his fingers bossily. Kris laughed.
“I think I can oblige.” He opened his photos on his phone and passed it to Ade. “There’re a few on here from the summer. That’s Krissi.” He pointed to her. “And that’s Shaunna.”
“Is this your garden?”
“No. Dan and Adele’s—friends of ours. Don’t tell them I said this, but our garden’s much nicer—completely Shaunna’s doing, I hasten to add.”
“I won’t say a word.”
Ade spent a long time examining the photo, zooming in on Shaunna and Krissi, occasionally nodding or sipping his drink. He flipped through a few more of the photos, all of them much the same—Shaunna and Krissi laughing at something or other,Shaunna and Krissi drinking from their glasses at the same time, Shaunna and Krissi smiling at the camera… If it hadn’t been clear already from what he’d said, the photos confirmed that Shaunna and Krissi were Kris’s life.
“They’re very alike,” Ade said eventually. “Other than their hair and skin tone. I’m guessing Krissi’s dark complexion comes from her biological father?”
“Yeah, and she’s a lot like him personality-wise too. She’s one of those roller coaster fiends, and he’s into extreme sports.”
“Risk-takers,” Ade mused. He handed the phone back. “I may be a little biased, but Shaunna’s hair is gorgeous.”
Kris’s eyes strayed to Ade’s gelled copper spikes, which were a few shades darker than Shaunna’s ‘ginger-nut orange’, as she called it. “It is. It’s beautiful.”
Ade smiled, acknowledging the compliment applied to him too. “You still love her a great deal,” he observed. Kris nodded. “So why are you separated?”
“It’s hard to explain…” Kris wasn’t sure he knew himself, and his rehearsed answer ofwe just grew apartwasn’t going to cut it. “We maybe should have just been best friends all along. I think that’s all it is. We’re really good together as friends and parents. We always have been. And Shaunna is the most amazing mum—she’s one of those people who looks after everyone else, you know? Including me. Last year…” He paused, knowing if he went any further, Ade would probably be out that door in five seconds flat and never look back. But what other option did he have? Build another relationship on half-truths and have it blow up in his face twenty years from now? This felt like the start of something important, and he wanted to get it right, but Ade also deserved to know what he was letting himself in for if they did take it further.
“I had a breakdown a couple of years ago,” Kris said before he bottled out, although that was only the prelude. “Krissi decided she wanted to find her biological father, and it put a lot of strain on us all, but Shaunna…she’s a lot tougher than me. She took care of me, made sure I took my antidepressants, picked up extra work while I was sick. Then I went back to work, and I’m ashamed to say…I had an affair, which I suppose only brought things to a head because we were no longer living as husband and wife, if you see what I mean.
“Even now, our friends question us because they say we act like we’re still together, and on one level, I get it. We’ve got everything we had before, bar the sexual intimacy. But on another… I don’t know. Something changed between us, or we’re not who we used to be. Maybe that’s all it is—we’re different people now.”
“You grew apart,” Ade said, though he seemed lost in thought, a little pensive, staring into the mid-distance. He blinked and looked back at Kris. “Can I ask you a personal question? Or should I sayanotherpersonal question.” He rolled his eyes, and Kris laughed. “You don’t have to answer.”
“Go on.”
“Are you bi?”
“Yes, I am.”
“OK. I wasn’t sure. I’ve always known I’m gay, but some people don’t for a long time, and I wondered if that was why things ended with Shaunna or if I missed something.”
“Missed something?”
“This isn’t meant as a criticism, but it sounds to me like you pretty much had the perfect relationship.”
“We did.”
“But it was a closed relationship?”
“Yeah. I mean, we never discussed it, but I never wanted to be with anyone else, and I don’t think Shaunna did either.”
“Yet you had an affair.”
“I don’t know why I didn’t just say no when he made his move, which isn’t me saying I’m without blame. I guess I was missing the intimacy—not necessarily the sex. Being physically close to someone. But in a new relationship, you don’t usually get one without the other, and he was in the same situation as me, or so he said.”
“He was cheating on his wife,” Ade stated. Kris nodded.
“When I told him we were done, he claimed theirswasan open marriage, apparently forgetting he’d previously said he was in the middle of a divorce.”
“What an arse.”
