Unfaithful (21 page)

She looked at him sadly, “goodnight Mark.”

Chapter 26

“Alright! Alright! I surrender!” Shona yelled at the phone as she hauled herself up from her comfortable position on the couch. She'd been happily lost in her own little world for the past few hours, over-indulging in her three favourite things; red wine, milk chocolate and “Sex and the City” re-runs.

It was Friday evening and she'd finally finished her first week temping in a new job; or as she referred to it in her own head as “the job from hell.” It had quite possibly been the most mind-numbingly boring week of her life.

Time seemed to stand still at Lease Land. She'd managed to secure a position as junior personal assistant at Lease Land after weeks of searching for a new job. She was much too qualified for the job as junior personal assistant but she didn't think she could avoid her landlord for very much longer, so she'd been forced to take the job.

She was already five weeks overdue with the rent and he'd slipped quite a snippy note under her door last week, demanding to know when she planned on paying the rent. Poor old Harry was usually so friendly and chatty whenever he saw her, but he'd been increasingly curt the last few times he'd seen her.

It was a relief to be able to hand him a chunk of money earlier that day. She was sick of sneaking around and trying to get into her flat without him cornering her. She'd had to give her landlord more than half her wages for that week and grovellingly explain that she'd have the rest of the rent the following week. He grudgingly accepted her profuse apologies and sniffily took the money that she offered him.

Shona had a very frugal week ahead of her, where she would have to survive on beans on toast for dinner every night until next week's payday, but right now, at that particular moment in time she didn't care. She'd blown almost fifty euro of her wages on a Chinese takeaway, a big bottle of red wine, a very naughty box of Marlboro Gold cigarettes and a supersize bar of milk chocolate. She'd pulled out her box set of “Sex and the City” DVDs which her sister had given her for Christmas and poured herself a big glass of red wine.

Then she'd lit her gas fire, drawn her heavy velvet curtains against the outside world and curled herself up on the couch. She'd been happily lost in the decadent world of “Sex and the City” and the antics of Carrie and her friends when the shrill ringing of the phone had rudely interrupted her.

The phone had already rung twice and she'd succeeded in ignoring it, but when it rang the third time, she figured that somebody must urgently want to speak to her. She grudgingly pressed pause on the DVD player and managed to pick up the phone before it rang out.

“Yes,” she answered, grumpily, taking a loud sip of her red wine, which she'd brought with her to the phone.

“Shona?” Mark's voice hissed down the phone at her.

“Who is this?” Shona whispered back, momentarily confused to hear her ex-lover's voice in her ear again.

“What do you mean, who is it?” Mark hissed, the temper rising in his voice, “it's me, Mark.” “Mark,” Shona said flatly. She could feel her heart simultaneously rise and immediately sink at the sound of his voice. She couldn't believe that he still had such a dramatic effect on her.

“Yes, Mark,” he continued to whisper down the phone.

“Why are you whispering?” Shona whispered again.

“Never mind that,” Mark dismissed her question, his voice dripping with irritation. “Have you been speaking to Rebecca?”

“Rebecca?” Shona asked incredulously, “your wife, Rebecca?”

“Yes, my wife!” Mark's voice was beginning to rise again.

“Of course not!” Shona shot back at him, her mind racing, in spite of the wine haze that had begun to engulf her brain. “Why on earth would I have spoken to her?” she spat.

“Well, someone's been speaking to her, because she knows about our affair,” Mark hissed again.

“What?” Shona exclaimed, almost dropping her wine glass, “that's impossible. How could she possibly know about us? I haven't breathed a word to anyone about us and certainly not to your wife.” Her voice trailed off. How could Rebecca have found out about her and Mark? She certainly hadn't told her. If she hadn't told her, and Mark clearly hadn't said anything, then who had? Jackie? Penelope? Oh, God, how she wished she hadn't had quite so much red wine. Her head was starting to throb with the effort of thinking. “Mark, I swear to you that I haven't said anything to Rebecca,” Shona emphasised.

“Well, somebody has, and it certainly wasn't me.” He sighed heavily.

Shona suddenly felt concerned for him. She had been so busy concentrating on hating him and trying to convince herself that she was over him that she hadn't been aware that she still cared for him. “What is it, Mark?” she asked, genuinely wanting to know that he was ok.

“Oh, Shona, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have bothered you,” Mark stuttered, sounding completely defeated. He sighed heavily.

“What is it?” she asked again.

“Rebecca's pregnant,” Mark said simply.

Shona felt her head spin and she almost dropped her wine glass. She leaned against the wall to steady herself. “Pregnant,” she repeated flatly.

“Yep,” Mark said, “she fell last night and spent the night in hospital. She seems to be ok now, but she knows I've been having an affair. She dropped both bombshells on me last night.”

“I see,” was all Shona could manage to say. Not for the first time she felt completely gutted by Mark. “I didn't tell her,” Shona said stiffly, “I must go. Bye, Mark.” She hung up the phone abruptly, not caring if Mark had anything else to say.

She went back to the couch, refilled her wine glass and took another large gulp. Then she deliberately and mechanically opened her packet of Marlboro Gold cigarettes and lit one. She inhaled deeply, waiting for the heady rush to hit her brain. She finished her wine and her cigarette, leaving the DVD still on pause. Then she picked up her mobile phone and rang Penelope. She was absolutely convinced that it must have been Penelope who had told Rebecca about the affair. Shona took a deep breath and waited impatiently for her friend to answer. She finally picked up on the fourth ring.

“Shona, my darling, long time no hear,” Penelope sounded thrilled to hear from her.

Shona couldn't be bothered with niceties. She'd had the day, no, actually, the week from hell, and she really wasn't in the mood for sweet talk. She decided to come straight out with her question. “Did you or did you not tell Rebecca about us?” she demanded of the other woman. “I expressly requested that you not say anything, at least for a while, until we'd had time to think about things.”

“What are you rambling on about?” Penelope asked. Her voice was full of confusion.

“Just answer the question, Penelope,” Shona insisted, “I'm not in the mood to be messed around. A simple yes or no will suffice.”

“Well, it won't suffice for me. I'm coming over. See you in twenty minutes.”

Penelope slammed down the phone, which was left ringing in Shona's ear.

“Ouch,” she cried, throwing her phone onto the couch. She really wasn't in the mood for Penelope. She checked the time, fifteen minutes to her arrival. She reckoned they'd have an almighty argument but she was really beyond caring.

Shona deposited herself back on the couch and lit up another cigarette. The heady mix of wine and cigarettes was beginning to have the desired effect. Rebecca knew about the affair and not only that, she was pregnant. Pregnant! Shona couldn't help tormenting herself, wondering how far along the other woman was.

Their relationship must not have been quite as bad as Mark had been making out,
Shona thought miserably. More and more she was seeing how much of a fool Mark had been making of her for so long. She was glad that she'd found the strength and the courage to leave him, finally, but life without him still wasn't easy sometimes. She missed him tremendously at times and had to use all her will power to resist calling him. After their telephone conversation tonight, she was glad for the sake of her pride and dignity that she hadn't given in to her desires.

Her reverie was rudely interrupted by a loud banging on her door. “Penelope,” she muttered, “right on time.” She got unsteadily to her feet and swung open the front door, all ready for a confrontation. She was lost for words when she saw her sister standing there instead of her friend. She stared at Jackie for a few moments.

“Jackie?” she asked uncertainly, wondering for a second if she'd had too much to drink and her fuzzy brain had managed to superimpose her sister's image over her friend's image.

“Yes, it's me, you nutter,” Jackie laughed, brushing past her sister. “Who else would it be? You're looking at me like you've never seen me before, you daft mare!”

Shona followed her in a daze into the sitting room.

“This explains the confusion,” Jackie smiled accusingly at her sister. “You’ve consumed half a bottle of wine all by yourself? Tut tut tut.”

“Don't tut me,” Shona said snippily, “it's been a tough week.”

“Tell me about it,” Jackie sighed, “mind if I have a glass? If you can’t beat them, join them.” “No, not at all,” Shona grinned. She was glad to have a comrade in arms. “Help yourself.”

Jackie poured herself a glass of red and joined Shona on the sofa.

“So to what do I owe the pleasure?” Shona asked eventually, as the two sisters sat in their usual easy silence.

“I dunno. I just thought I'd drop in on my favourite sister,” Jackie winked at Shona.

“I'm your only sister,” Shona replied, disparagingly.

“Exactly,” Jackie smiled, “and therefore my favourite sister by default.”

“Cheers.”

“Cheers,” Jackie clinked her glass against her sister's. “Colm was irritating me, so I told a teeny tiny white lie and said you were having a crisis and needed me.”

“Irritating you, how?” Shona asked.

“Oh, he keeps telling me he loves me,” Jackie groaned.

“Isn't that a good thing?”

“Sure, in one way, yes, but I feel like he's accusing me in the way that he says it,” Jackie replied.

“What?” Shona looked confused, “that doesn't make any sense.”

“Life doesn't make any sense,” Jackie retorted, knocking back her wine in two quick gulps. “Tell me about it,” Shona agreed.

“Let's hear your problems. I wouldn't mind a break from my own.”

“It's Mark,” Shona started.

“Not him again,” Jackie squirmed uncomfortably in her seat.

“Yeah, he just called me to say that Rebecca is pregnant and that she knows about the affair.” “What?” Jackie couldn't believe her ears.

“Yep,” Shona continued, “it gets better. He thinks that I was the one who told her about the affair.”

“Good God!” Jackie cried. “Did you?”

Shona stared at her in amazement. “What do you think?”

“Of course I didn’t. You wouldn't do such a foolish thing,” Jackie managed to recover her composure somewhat.

They were rudely interrupted by the persistent ringing of the doorbell. “Who the hell is that at this time of night?” Jackie asked.

“It's Penelope, my new best friend,” Shona said, a touch of sarcasm in her voice. “Let's just say that we've both bonded over Mark, and not in a good way.”

“Hmm,” Jackie mumbled. She was supposed to be meeting Mark the following night and really couldn't wait to end their affair officially. She was petrified at the thought of Shona finding out that she had been sleeping with him, albeit against her knowledge, but she didn't think that would make much difference to how betrayed Shona would surely feel if she ever found out. She was counting down the hours to breaking up with Mark for once and for all, and resuming her happy, if somewhat predictable life, with Colm and the kids.

There was a heated debate taking place between Shona and Penelope in the kitchen. The voices were getting louder and louder, so Jackie decided to go and find out what was going on with them. They were startled by her quiet appearance. Their conversation seemed to come to an abrupt end.

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you.” Jackie held out her hand to Penelope in greeting, breaking the awkward silence that had suddenly descended.

“Likewise,” Penelope gave her a strained smile and shook her hand limply. The three women stood looking at each other for a few moments.

“So, Jackie, do you know Mark too or is there only two of us in the Mark's Mistresses Club?” Jackie's heart started to race. She prayed she wouldn't start blushing, which was always an indicator that she was involved in some wrongdoing.

“I'm not in that club,” Jackie laughed a little too loudly, “just you two! Would anyone like some wine?”

She raced off into the sitting room, the other two women following closely behind her.

“What were you two discussing so heatedly in the kitchen?” Jackie asked, desperate to deflect the conversation away from herself.

“Oh, nothing much,” Shona tried to dismiss her.

“I wouldn't call it nothing,” Penelope said snippily. “Shona was accusing me of telling Rebecca, Mark's wife, which I'm sure you already know, that he's been cheating on her.”