A smile that she now knew had graced the websites of Pretty Little Thing, ASOS and Boohoo flitted across Laurie’s face as she typed the reply.
Me too, baby. Wish I was there right now so I could do something about that. Xx
Laurie pressed send with a murmur of, ‘Urgh, I want to vomit.’
‘Me too,’ Keli replied, and it wasn’t just a throwaway comment. She really, physically did want to throw up.
A one-word answer came back.
Facetime? ;)
And what the hell was it with the wink emojis?
‘Oh shit,’ Laurie said again, before typing…
Sorry, babe. Too many people here…
Keli piped in, ‘Ask him where he’ll be after work.’
Laurie tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, thought for a second, before her thumbs got to work again.
But what about later? Are you going straight home after work?
Another long pause. Damn, this was excruciating.
Ping.
Yeah, but quick turnaround. Going straight back out. Have a work dinner.
Oh cool. Where is it?
Ping.
Not sure. Need to check. Wish you were coming with me though.
Laurie lowered the phone, clearly pensive. ‘I feel if I ask him any more questions, he’ll get suspicious, because I don’t normally check on where he’s going. I didn’t think I had to. Now all I can think about is that his work dinner is probably a date with his next target.’
Keli thought about all the times he’d said he couldn’t make things, or that he was working late, or showed up at her place at midnight, because he’d been at a ‘work function’. She’d never asked questions then either, always just too damn pleased that he was there. What a fool. She immediately retracted that thought. No. She wasn’t to blame here. She didn’t think that Laurie was a fool, so why was she making that judgement on herself? Nope, neither of them was in any way at fault here of anything more than just loving and trusting someone. The blame was all on him for being a faithless prick.
‘What would you normally say right now? Just type that,’ Keli suggested.
Was it getting hot in here or was it just her? As she glanced to the side, she realised that while they’d been transfixed on the phone, the bar had begun to fill up with people dropping in for a Friday night, after-work drink. Normal people. Folk who weren’t sitting with their unfaithful former boyfriend’s current girlfriend manufacturing texts to him so that they could in some way plan to ambush him and call him out on his lies. Again, what had happened to her life?
Okay, text me when you get home tonight, baby. I’ll be waiting. Might be naked. Love you xx
Keli felt the need for a long shower. The last fifteen minutes had confirmed that voyeurism wasn’t her thing.
‘Are you okay?’ Keli asked. ‘I’m sorry. This must be so fricking difficult for you.’
‘And you,’ Laurie countered.
‘Yeah, but at least I’m not having to whisper sweet nothings to him. Laurie, I don’t know how we ever got into this, and I realise I’ve only known you for a hot minute, but we are way too good for this vile excuse for a human.’
Laurie’s laughter made a couple of good-looking, suited guys standing further along the bar turn and look appreciatively at her. If they knew what was going on, they’d probably turn right back round and stare at their shoes.
‘So what do we do now?’
It was a rhetorical question, but Laurie, giving off model-perfect pensive, spoke up. ‘The thing is, we could do something like post a pic on social media – evenhissocial media.’ She held up his iPad to reinforce the point that she had access to his apps on it. ‘But I really want to see his face when he finds out we’ve connected. I know that when all this sinks in I’m going to be devastated that he’s wasted three years of my life, that he’s turned out to be a liar and a cheat and basically pond life, but right now I’m running on adrenaline and revenge and I want to see him squirm.’
