Obsession, p.25
Obsession, page 25
‘Well that’s really put me on the spot,’ Gus said. ‘It’s like when someone says they’re a comedian and the other person asks for a joke.’
‘You’ve asked that of a lot of comedians then?’
Gus laughed. ‘Actually, you’d be surprised.’
Silence again. I didn’t take my eye off Gus as he drove. ‘Go on then,’ I said. ‘I’m still waiting.’
He rolled his eyes but was smiling again. ‘Okay. A story about my family. What you said about you and Anya, being close, but only siblings close? That’s the same with me and Hayley. I’m her big brother, so I’ve always wanted to look out for her.’
‘You’ve told me that before.’
‘Yeah. And you shot me down like some feminista on a mission.’
‘That’s not how I remember it.’
Gus shrugged. ‘Anyway. When me and Hayley were young, we had this massive treehouse at the back of the garden. Actually, it’s still there now.’
‘Your dad built it?’
‘He had someone build it for us. He’s not really handy like that. But he did it for us. Anyway, me and Hayley were fighting, like we did sometimes. She didn’t want me in there because she’d already been told off by Dad for something else and was in a huge sulk. He’d really laid into her. I hadn’t gone outside to tease her, but we ended up screaming at each other and I knew I was winding her up and I knew I was bigger than her, so in the end, I just forced myself up there.’
‘Yeah, this is really uplifting.’
‘Comedian, joke, remember? I’m trying my best. Anyway, the argument continued up there, but Hayley was getting really mad. I mean, madder than I’d ever seen her, out of control. She grabs this stick and starts belting me with it and I backtracked and… I fell right off the edge. Fifteen feet, or whatever it is. I landed on my right ankle which caved in.’
‘Ouch.’
‘More than ouch. I can’t even describe the pain. I was in a cast for two months. Hayley got to me a few moments before Dad came out of the house, hearing my screams. I looked into her eyes, and I’d never seen her so petrified. Scared not just because of what had happened to me, but because she knew she was in deep shit.’
‘What did your dad do to her?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Nothing?’
‘I never told him the truth. I said it was an accident.’
‘He believed you?’
‘Yeah. Why wouldn’t he? Me and Hayley never fought again after that. Not properly. It was almost like that moment cemented something between us. A bond.’
He glanced over at me and I quickly looked away. Why?
‘The point I’m making, Natasha, is that I have always protected her. Like I wanted to protect Anya. The people I care about… I’d do anything for them. I really mean that.’
‘I believe you,’ I said.
He’d do anything to protect people he cared about – his family. Friends?
How far would he go to protect me?
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
AMY
Summer
She’d hardly spoken to David all day. Or was it that he’d hardly spoken to her? Only a few hours after they’d left, she strangely missed Brian and Jannette, Matt and Kate. Or perhaps missed the idea of them anyway. Missed the prospect of having their company in the evening.
How had her mindset drifted so far? Days ago she’d been so desperate for alone time with her husband.
She shook her head as she stared in the bathroom mirror. She couldn’t think like that. They were on holiday. They were in one of the most magical of places. One of her favourite places. In a few days they’d be back home, back into their routine. She had to try and make the most of their time here. She couldn’t go back home feeling like this.
She washed her face. Her phone started ringing halfway through. She dried off and rushed out into the bedroom but missed the call. Hayley. David was sitting in a chair, staring at his iPad.
‘You could have got that,’ she said to him.
He looked at her but said nothing before his eyes returned to his screen. Amy sighed.
‘Hi,’ she said, calling her daughter back. ‘You okay?’
‘Pretty much.’ That didn’t sound too convincing. ‘Are you?’
‘Fine.’
‘Haven’t see you for ages. What are you two doing tonight?’
‘Me and your dad are going for a meal.’
‘Oh. I–’
‘Ask her to come along,’ David said, obviously deducing the nature of the conversation from Amy’s responses. ‘We’ve hardly seen her.’
You’ve hardly seen ME, she wanted to say.
Amy sighed. ‘I’m sure we can make the reservation for three. Or four, if Gus wants to come too?’
‘I think he’s busy. But yeah, I’ll come, if you don’t mind.’
‘Not like Hayley to miss a free meal,’ David said, quietly, and a little snidely too, Amy thought.
Another night spoiled? No. It was only a meal. There’d still be plenty of time for her and David afterward, if she could build herself up to be in the mood, and if he didn’t ruin things again. It wasn’t like Hayley would want to hang around until late with her parents while her friends were still around anyway. And with Brian and Matt gone, David had no other distractions.
Well, fewer distractions, anyway, Amy thought as she glanced outside the windows and across the water.
Plans rearranged, she finished off in the bathroom then moved back into the bedroom with the towel still wrapped around her. David was fully engrossed in his iPad once more.
‘What are you reading?’ she asked as she towelled her hair.
‘Just the news.’
‘Anything exciting?’
‘Not much.’
‘Seems to have your attention.’
He glanced up at her, unimpressed by something.
She dropped the towel from around her body as she faced him. Why not? If he wasn’t going to pay her any attention of his own volition, perhaps she needed to go on the hunt. ‘Oops,’ she said with a cheeky smile.
He kind of smiled, and she felt a pang in her heart. Yearning? Or was it more like a nervousness, a prelude to rejection.
She moved toward him. He had his eyes on her but didn’t shift at all in his seat.
What was he thinking?
She leaned over him and reached out for the lacy black underwear still on the back of the chair.
‘I was wondering what that was all about,’ he said, as she took the thin garments in her hand and snapped off the tags.
‘It’s for you. If you’re a good boy.’
He laughed and watched her as she slipped on the knickers. She turned from him, looked at herself in the tall mirror as she clasped the bra in place. She wanted to see his reflection. His reaction. Wanted him to stand up and come up behind her and hold her.
But as she fixed the bra in place his phone rang and he went straight for it without a second thought. ‘Sorry. I need to get this.’
And with that he was up and out onto the balcony, phone pressed to his ear, any fleeting interest he’d had in his wife evaporated in an instant.
The meal was good. The wine was good. The chat was good. Hayley seemed surprisingly relaxed and happy, although they didn’t talk at all about relationship problems – with either Ursula, or that footballer, or anyone else. Amy felt more at ease than she had done at any other point on the holiday. Well, perhaps apart from the night of David’s birthday meal, when she’d been on such an emotional high during the speeches, even if that night had eventually turned sour.
How had everything disintegrated so much since that early promise?
No. Not disintegrated, simply setback. Tonight was the night to get things – her relationship with David, their love life – back on track.
They had a drink with Hayley in a bar around the corner from the hotel then said their goodbyes to her. Amy suggested another for her and David in the hotel bar, but David declined.
Had her earlier display for him finally got him thinking about her for once?
‘Let’s have a drink on the balcony,’ David said as they reached the room.
‘Or we could go straight to bed?’ Amy suggested.
He glanced at her. Not the look she wanted to see. No hunger or desire. He looked… put out. Almost uneasy at the thought. The thought of her naked? Of having sex with her?
But she wasn’t taking no for an answer this time.
As he was taking his shoes off, she slipped out of hers, then undid her skirt as she moved up behind him. The skirt fell to the floor. She wrapped her arms around his waist and reached up to kiss his neck. She moved a hand down to his crotch.
Yes, he was definitely excited. She grabbed his hand and brought it around to her and placed it onto her hip.
‘You like these?’ she said, and his at first still hand began to slowly caress the lacy fabric of her knickers as she slipped her fingers down the front of his shorts.
‘Amy,’ he said.
She carried on kissing him. Carried on playing. She wanted this so badly.
‘Amy,’ he said again, a murmur of pleasure.
‘David,’ she whispered.
He pulled away from her and spun around and she grasped her top, ready to take it off.
‘No, Amy, stop.’
She paused.
‘I…’
‘David? What’s the matter.’
‘Please. I’m just not…’
‘Not what, David?’ she said, sounding as angry as she felt.
‘I’m not in the mood.’
Her gaze fell to her skirt on the floor. In the corner of her eye she could see her reflection in the mirror. She felt so exposed. Vulnerable. Ashamed. Standing there, in front of her own husband, semi-clothed.
‘You mean you’re not drunk enough tonight to want me?’
‘What? No, I–’
She went to storm past him. He looked like he was about to stop her but then stepped out of the way. She grabbed her skirt from the floor and pulled it up and sunk down onto the bed.
‘Amy, come on.’
‘No, David. This is ridiculous. I’ve tried everything with you. What is going on?’
‘Nothing’s going on,’ he said, going on the defensive. The nice guy act was about to wear off. If she pushed him, she’d get angry David soon enough. So what. He’d get angry Amy. Is that what he wanted? It was certainly what he deserved. ‘I’ve got a lot going on. A lot on my mind.’
‘A lot on your mind?’ She stood up and barged past him to the balcony door. ‘Like that woman out there?’ Amy glanced that way and sure enough, there she was prancing about.
‘What woman?’ he said, his acting flawless.
She opened the door and walked into the open air. ‘Her!’ she shouted, pointing.
David slowly moved to the door. He didn’t come out. ‘Amy, you’ve lost me.’
‘No. I haven’t. Every bloody night, David. Every night. You ignore me. You come out here. You stare at her. You think about her. You don’t even know her, but you want her. What about me?’
‘Amy, this is… you’re sounding–’
‘What? Fucking delusional?’
He pursed his lips and shook his head, as though she’d just proved his point. ‘I don’t even know who you’re talking about,’ he said.
‘You don’t see her?’
He looked that way, his acting skills now eluding him as he pretended to struggle to home in. ‘I see someone, yeah, but I don’t understand–’
‘You’re unbelievable,’ she said. She knocked into him as hard as she could as she went inside. He stumbled back and lost his footing. His balance escaped him. He tried to put his hand out onto the side table to stop himself but it slipped off and the table toppled, sending his iPad flying. David went flying too…
His head cracked off the corner of the wooden headboard, he thudded to the ground. Amy cupped her mouth in shock. A whole host of images and thoughts flashed in her mind.
What had she done?
‘David!’ she said, rushing toward him.
Then almost immediately wished she’d gone the other way instead. David rose to his feet. Face red and contorted in rage. ‘You stupid bitch!’
His hand rushed forward and slapped her across the cheek and sent her reeling and bouncing onto the mattress. He stood over her. Menace in his eyes. She’d never been so scared…
She wanted to run. But she was frozen. ‘David?’
His chest heaved. What was he thinking?
‘You want to know what’s wrong?’ he said, seething. ‘You want to know why I won’t sleep with you unless I’m blind drunk?’ He practically spat the words. ‘Because I don’t love you, Amy!’
Amy shook her head. ‘No.’
‘You want to know the truth? I can’t stand you anymore! Can’t stand the sight of you. Can’t stand your stupid whiny voice, and the stupid things you say.’
‘David, please.’ She was shaking.
‘I cringe when you touch me. I feel queasy just thinking about having sex with you; all I want is for it to be over. That’s why I don’t want to sleep with you here. That’s why I can’t bear to even be alone with you most of the time.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she said as tears rolled.
‘I thought I could convince myself to stay. That I had to. For the kids. But I can’t do this anymore.’ He shook his head, not anger now, but despondence.
‘David, please, I’m sorry!’
‘You’re sorry?’ He looked offended by that. ‘You’re ridiculous.’ He stormed past her and out of the door.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
She sat solemnly on the bed for what felt like an age, not moving, not wanting to think even, although inevitably her brain wouldn’t let up. All the mistakes she’d made. Not just here but at home too. She hated herself so much, for so many reasons, but the most prominent thought? How she’d messed up this special holiday so badly.
Yet she also knew damn well it took two of them to get to this position in their relationship. She loved David. With everything she had. Apparently that was a lot more than he loved her. At least, if his last outburst was to be believed.
That’s all it had been, right? An outburst?
Trying to think positively, she imagined at any moment he’d return to their room, tail between his legs to say sorry, to beg for her forgiveness. To blame his mood on his stress, or alcohol or…
‘Stupid!’ she said, thumping the mattress, causing her body to wobble and sway. She imagined the fat around her midriff moving in flow.
No wonder she disgusted him so much.
She wiped the tears from her face and lay back on the bed, curled up on her side, clutching the soft bath robe that was wrapped around her for comfort. She closed her eyes, but that didn’t help matters at all. She could see nothing but her husband’s disappointed face.
No. She couldn’t think like this. She was stronger. She hadn’t come this far in life to suddenly give in. David was hers. He always would be. Whatever or whoever came between them. She’d always dealt with their problems head on in the past. She’d do so now.
She picked up her phone from the side and called his number for the first time since he’d stormed out, well over an hour ago.
The call rang through, but no answer. She called another two times. Same result. He was ignoring her. But where the hell was he, alone, so late at night, so far from home?
She didn’t move from the spot on the bed, but her eyes stayed open, shifted focus. She faced the balcony doors, closed now. But the curtains remained open, the lights around the marina twinkling. Through the bars of the railing she could make out the windows of her apartment.
No lights on there. No signs of that woman.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t there. Or that she was alone even…
Amy called David again. The call didn’t even ring through that time. She scrolled through her apps, looking for…
Found it. The tracking app she’d put onto his phone several months ago when she’d first suspected him of infidelity. A drastic step? Maybe. One she hadn’t taken lightly, and she’d thought so many times about doing away with it. In fact, in all the time it’d been there, she’d used it only twice before. Had hated herself both times. Mainly because both times, she’d realised he’d been exactly where he’d said he was.
What about all the other times she hadn’t checked?
She looked at the little loading bar, slowly filling as the app searched… got it.
‘You bastard.’
He wasn’t in the hotel. But he wasn’t far. Her hand shaking with rage… no, her whole body was shaking with rage as she stood from the bed. She looked out across the water as vile images burned in her mind of her husband with–
‘No, stop!’ she screamed at herself.
She quickly threw on some clothes, headed out of the room. Out of the hotel. Across the marina. Quiet out, at this time of night, except for the distant hum of the few bars that remained open.
She wondered how she’d get into the building. Not too hard in the end. She pressed every intercom button, pleaded with three responders that she’d lost her key and was scared someone was following her before the door finally released.
She smiled to herself and stepped inside. Up in the lift. Along the corridor. She found the door. Had to be this one.
She sucked in a deep breath. Knocked and waited…
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
NATASHA
Autumn
It was dark by the time we made it back to the Patterson home in Harrogate. Gus had phoned ahead to forewarn his mum about me staying, though I still wasn’t sure what kind of reaction I’d get when the front door opened.
Smiles all around. That’s what I got.
‘Hayley, would you take Natasha upstairs to show her the guest room,’ Amy said after I’d taken my coat and shoes off.
Hayley took my bag and I followed her up the stairs. Out of her gym gear now, she wore tight jeans and a smart sleeveless top and her hair was done and she wore tasteful make-up on her face. I got the sense she wasn’t planning on staying in tonight, unless she’d made the effort for me.
