Their gasps shot right through her words. ‘Shut the front door!’ Yvie exclaimed.
Emmy nodded, the irony not lost on her. ‘I only wish I had. Instead I let him in and listened to him ranting about how he’s made a mistake and wants the love of his life back.’
‘They’re idiots. They really are,’ Keli said from experience, given that she’d very publicly caught her ex-boyfriend, an actor called Rex Marino, cheating on her the previous year. But that was yet another story.
‘No arguments here,’ Emmy concurred. ‘So yes, he wants the woman that he betrayed back, and she is, I might add, the same woman I’ve been trying to prise out of her pyjamas since their marriage fell apart. I hoped when she moved into her own placeit would get better, but honestly, she still never leaves home except to go to work or see her friends. Anyway, I digress. Back to my shite day, because what does it say about my life that my dad’s adultery-remorse isn’t the biggest issue I’m dealing with today.’
‘My buttocks are actually clenching with fear,’ Yvie whispered. Emmy didn’t stop to check that statement.
‘Because… because…’ Was she actually going to say this out loud? ‘Because I think Cormac is having an affair.’
It was just as well that she was sitting back in her chair, because Yvie almost spat her tea out. In the end, she managed to control it, swallow, and go with, ‘What? No. No way. Why would you think that? Not Cormac. He wouldn’t do that.’
Emmy wondered if her friend was okay, because she suddenly looked a bit flushed.
‘I don’t think he would either,’ Keli offered, but Emmy spotted the slight lack of conviction in her tone.
‘But?’ Emmy challenged.
‘But then, I’m the worst person to give an opinion because I never thought Rex would be unfaithful and then I found out he’d been living a double life and shacked up with someone else for the last three years.’
Yvie gave Keli a murderous glare. ‘You’re not helping.’
‘Sorry,’ Keli said, with a resigned shrug. ‘All I’m saying is that if your gut is telling you something, it’s worth checking it out.’
‘No, it isn’t,’ Yvie blurted. ‘If your gut is telling you something, it’s because we’re human and prone to insecurities. Most of the time, those doubts have no basis in fact whatsoever.’
Both Emmy and Keli were now facing her with the same curious expressions. Yvie responded by lifting her mug and taking a big slurp of her tea.
Keli turned back to Emmy, checking her watch as she did so. ‘Okay, we’ve got seven minutes left, so we’ll need to be quick.Tell us what’s making you suspicious and what are you going to do?’
Emmy ran through the list of factors that had contributed to her growing fears. His distance. His jumpiness when he was on his phone. The coming home late. The oh-so-clichéd smell of perfume. Changing his passwords. She ended the laundry list of weirdness with, ‘Am I being crazy?’
Yvie spat out, ‘Yes’, at the same time as Keli countered with, ‘No.’
‘I’ve never seen you two disagree on anything,’ Emmy grumbled. ‘I’m sorry. My relationship quandaries have exposed a big glaring hole in your friendship.’
Emmy’s attempt to lighten the mood didn’t fool anyone. And they only had about two minutes of tea break left.
‘What am I going to do? I’ve no idea.’
‘Why don’t you talk to him about it?’ Keli came in with the obvious suggestion.
‘Because if this is all in my head, that’ll make him think I don’t trust him and then that’ll expose a big glaring hole in our relationship too.’
‘You’re right. I think speaking to him about it would be a mistake,’ Yvie agreed. ‘There’s no point questioning him when you don’t know anything for sure. That could be really hurtful.’
Emmy nodded. Yvie was right. Best let it be. Maybe this was just a phase and it would all get better.
‘Nope, I think it’s the only way you’re going to get answers,’ Keli argued. ‘And you’re entitled to have your voice heard. Look, if it’s upsetting you so much, you could always nip over to the station to speak to him.’
Emmy bit her bottom lip, trying to buy time. She hadn’t told them the worst of it because she didn’t want her darkest fear to be confirmed. But now… well, she had nothing to lose.
‘There’s something else. He’s supposed to be at work today…’ She was starting to get hot under the heat of her friends’ gazes. ‘But I’m sure I saw him driving past me when I was coming into work. How could that be?’
Their ability to answer was delayed because Yvie began to choke on her tea and Keli had to get up to thump her on the back.
One minute left of the tea break.
