About a Girl

I was a rubbish woman scorned. Hell totally hath seen fury like me. I’d seen waitresses in Pizza Hut with more fury. I was a complete failure. Back in the living room, I heard the landline ring. There wasn’t a single person on earth I wanted to talk to. But of course I answered it anyway.

‘Hello?’ I steeled myself for the worst. Charlie. Vanessa. My mother.

‘Ohmygodareyouokay?’ garbled Amy.

‘What?’

‘Are. You. OK?’ she repeated. ‘I’ve been going mental up here. Why isn’t your phone on?’

‘I left my charger at my mum’s,’ I answered. ‘Amy, did you know that Charlie has been sleeping with Vanessa?’

‘Um, no?’

‘AMY.’

‘He’s such a cockwomble!’ she shouted down the line. ‘Don’t be angry. I only know because he said something about being in Wales and she said something about being in Wales and I asked him about being in Wales and he admitted it, but I didn’t tell you because he said it wasn’t really a thing and I didn’t want to upset you and—’

‘No, no, no!’ I banged the receiver against my forehead, trying to bash the reality of this into my brain. ‘You knew? And you didn’t say anything?’

‘Look at it from my point of view,’ Amy replied with a whine. ‘You were working, like, a billion hours a day on that pitch for those rank organic lollipops you made me eat loads of.’

I mentally pegged this as six months ago. Those lollipops were rank.

‘Plus you were sort of showing an interest in that bloke you met at Floridita and I didn’t want to distract you, and then by the time I’d got Charlie’s balls in a Vulcan death grip, he swore it was over, that it was only one time and that it was done but he didn’t want to upset you, and—’

‘Only one time?’ I interrupted.

‘Yes.’

‘Even though you knew they’d both been in Wales together. Having sex.’

What was that taste in my mouth? Oh yes, bile. That was bile.

‘Oh. Yeah. Well, I didn’t find out about that until ages after.’

‘Amy. I can’t believe it.’

‘I just couldn’t bear to tell you,’ she said softly. ‘He said it wasn’t anything. I knew it would break your heart, and I thought you were going to move out soon, and … Oh fuck. I fucked up. Fuck fuck fuck.’

It was confusing. I was mad at Amy. She knew about this and she hadn’t told me, but I was so mad at Vanessa and even more so at Charlie that all my reserves of rage were accounted for. After a few beats of silence I found my voice.

‘I slept with him.’

‘You did?’

I had no idea precisely where in the country Amy was, but I was fairly certain there were now some deaf Highland cattle up in Scotland. She could be awfully loud when she wanted to be.

‘Is that why you left? Are you in Gretna Green? Are you married already? Was it amazing? Tell me everything. I always knew this would happen if the two of you got together …’ She was on a roll – there was no way I’d be able to interrupt her successfully a third time. ‘I’ll just cease to exist. It’ll just be like, oh, ha ha ha, let’s have some wine and a dinner party, and, ooh, do you remember that funny little dark-haired girl who used to hang around? I wonder where she is now? Except you won’t even wonder because I’ll be dead and you won’t care.’

‘Are you done?’ I asked.

‘Are you married?’ She countered.

‘No.’ I replied.

‘Then, yes. Hang on, did you sleep with him before or after you found out about Vanessa?’

‘Before.’

‘Ohhh. Shit.’

‘Yeah.’

I held the phone to my ear and we shared a comfortable silence. There really wasn’t anything else to say.

‘Are you OK?’ Amy broke first. As always.

‘Not really.’ I wasn’t any more. I was too tired.

‘Are you mad?’ she asked.

‘I am mad,’ I confirmed.

‘With me?’

‘With everyone alive,’ I said. ‘Except maybe Ryan Gosling.’ Who could be mad at Ryan Gosling?

‘Shall I come over when my train gets in?’ she asked. ‘We can burn pictures of the two of them? Or we could just break loads of her stuff?’

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.