After the One by Cass Lester (e book reader free .TXT) 📕

He hovered sheepishly in the hall, but Pam strode imperiously out of the kitchen to confront him. Taking in the Arctic drop in temperature, Charley turned on her heel and bolted out of the front door to Tara’s.

Pam gave Geoff all of ten minutes before sending him packing, which was ten minutes more than he deserved, as far as she was concerned.

‘Did Zee tell you where I was?’ she demanded tersely.

‘No. Nobody seemed to know where you were. I called Charley but she didn’t answer. I drove round here on the off-chance and saw your car parked up the street, so I decided to sit and wait for you.’

He did try to apologise, desperately and repeatedly, promising to give up ‘the other woman’, who, it turned out, was a former work colleague called Barbara. Pam listened to his increasingly grovelling apologies and his pleading promises in utter silence, for nine-and-a-half excruciating minutes, and then, when Geoff finally ran out steam she said, with icy civility, ‘Do you seriously think a bunch of flowers, an apology and then offering to end your grubby little affair can undo the…’ she struggled momentarily to find the right word ‘…betrayal? The years of betrayal?’

When Geoff didn’t answer, Pam simply showed him the door. How dare he assume an apology could even begin to undo the irreparable damage he’d done – not just to their marriage, but to her? As soon as she’d closed the door behind him, her paper-thin poise disintegrated and, taking herself to her room, she flung herself onto the bed like a broken-hearted teenager and gave in to a wave of rage and sorrow. After which she pulled herself together, blew her nose, splashed her face with cold water and made herself a mug of tea, before calling Luke and explaining the situation to him, as calmly as she could.

‘I don’t expect you to take sides, darling…’ she tried to assure him.

But Luke cut her off, exploding with fury. ‘He’s having an affair, Mum! Of course I’m on your side. I’m bloody livid with him.’

For a moment Pam couldn’t speak, and struggled to hold back tears of sheer relief. She genuinely hadn’t wanted Luke to have to take sides, but she hadn’t realised how deeply frightened she had been, that if he had done so, he might have sided with Geoff, and not with her. And then she would have lost both her sons.

Charley just managed to catch Tara before she took Monnie to her afterschool swimming lesson. She went with her and they sat in the viewing area on plastic chairs while Monnie and the other kids ploughed across the pool in dogged pursuit of their twenty-five-metre badges.

‘The thing is I actually like Geoff, but I just feel so bloody angry towards him.’

‘I feel bloody angry towards the man and I don’t even know him!’ retorted Tara.

‘It’s such a shock. I mean, who breaks up after forty years?’ said Charley.

‘Lots of people. They just drift apart, fall out of love. You don’t even realise it’s happening.’

Charley glanced at her sideways. ‘You and Baz are okay, aren’t you?’

‘Yes. Of course.’ But her friend had turned away to watch Monnie, and Charley didn’t feel she should pry further.

‘I can’t imagine ever having fallen out of love with Josh,’ she said.

‘Yeah, well you really never got beyond the honeymoon stage. Wonderful as it is, it doesn’t last forever,’ said Tara, with an astonishing lack of tact. Charley let it go.

Monnie had just finished her last width of the pool and, spluttering and grinning fit to burst, she hauled herself out of the water and on to the side of the pool. Tara instantly leapt up out of her chair and started applauding wildly. ‘Well done, Monnie-Moo!’ she yelled.

Charley had no idea if the little girl could hear them through the glass, but she jumped up and clapped enthusiastically, too. ‘Go, Monnie!’ she shouted.

Catching sight of them, Monnie grinned even wider, endearingly revealing two missing front teeth, and gave them a double thumbs-up.

When Charley got home a few hours later, Pam’s bedroom door was closed. Tapping lightly, she went in and found her mother-in-law lying on her bed surrounded by discarded soggy tissues. Hastily pulling herself together, Pam sat up and slapped on a bright smile, but her sore, swollen eyes gave her away.

‘Budge over,’ said Charley gently, sitting down next to her. ‘What did he have to say for himself?’

‘Oh, he said he was sorry… and he’ll give her up, and come back to me.’ Her world-weary tone implied she hadn’t expected him to say anything else. Then, reaching for yet another tissue, she blew her nose loudly before saying, ‘But d’you know what? I don’t want him to. I don’t want to be anyone’s second choice; I’m not going to be a bloody consolation prize.’

Charley didn’t blame her.

Chapter Ten

The upstairs room of the pub had been booked for a hen party; about twenty young women, all old enough to know better but too young to resist, were chugging their way through enough Prosecco to fill an Olympic-sized pool. They all sported garish pink sashes which read ‘Team Bride’, except for the bride-to-be, who wore a white ‘Nearly Married’ sash, novelty glasses with the word ‘Bride’ stuck across the top in plastic diamonds and a T-shirt that declared: ‘Saskia’s Hen Night. Last chance, lads!’

There’s subtle, thought Charley. Then she told herself off for being judgemental. It was the bride’s night and entirely up to her how she chose to celebrate it, she reminded herself, but then Charley’s hen night had been a much more sober affair. Well, a bit more sober. Yes, there had been Prosecco – a lot of Prosecco – and yes, they’d all drunk more than they should have, but it had been just her and her best mates, and since they were all married, they’d all just come round to Charley’s for a girl’s night in, while Josh