The Other Woman(49)

‘Joined at the hip, those two are,’ my mum had commented to her mum at the school gate. ‘They’ll be together forever.’ Her mum had nodded, smiling, and from then on, not a day passed without us speaking to each other. We’d gone to the same secondary school, been on holidays together, and even got our first jobs just a few streets away from each other behind Oxford Circus. I’d call her mum every few days for a catch-up, as she did mine. It felt like we’d come from the same mould, had the same stamp running through us. But she’d proved we were nothing like each other at all.

Looking at her now, as she wiped the tears from her eyes, I grieved for the times we’d lost. The love and laughter we could have had, instead of the pain and hatred.

‘Okay, so who’s gonna be next?’ cried Seb, as he spun the bottle again.

A chorus of ‘whooaaah’ grew louder as the bottle began to slow down.

‘Emily!’ They all called out, clapping. ‘Totally deserved,’ shouted somebody. ‘The mother hen needs to repent of her sins.’

I smiled unconvincingly. ‘I have no skeletons in my closet.’

‘We’ll see about that,’ Pippa said, laughing.

‘Can I ask?’ pleaded Tess.

I drained my glass and turned to her expectantly. ‘Truth or dare?’ she asked.

‘Truth.’

‘Okay, have you ever been unfaithful?’ she asked.

I didn’t even need time to think. ‘Never.’

There was a collective groan. ‘What, never? Not even when you were younger?’ Tess asked.

‘Nope, never.’ I looked to Charlotte, my oldest friend, to vouch for me.

She shook her head.

‘Well, it all depends on what constitutes being unfaithful,’ said Tess, rather forthrightly. ‘I mean, are we talking snogging, sexual relations, or full-on sex?’

They laughed and feigned shock at normally quiet Tess’s outburst.

‘What are sexual relations even about?’ asked Pippa. ‘They talk about that all the time on Jeremy Kyle, you know, when they do the big lie-detector reveal. “Have you, since going out with Charmaine, had sexual relations with anyone else?”’

‘Well, it’s more than a kiss, but not as much as proper sex.’ Tess giggled. ‘So, it’s got to be anything in between.’

‘Oh, well, that makes it a whole lot clearer, Tess. Thanks for enlightening us,’ Seb said.

‘Maybe it’s about even more than that,’ cut in Pammie. ‘Maybe even having the intention is enough to be deemed as being disloyal?’

‘Crikey, Pammie,’ called Pippa. ‘If just the idea of it means you’re being unfaithful, I’d be the biggest floozy ever known to man.’

I laughed as Pammie crinkled her nose in distaste. ‘I’m not talking about the thought of it in your head. I’m talking about the very real intention of doing something wrong, such as agreeing to meet someone when you know that’s the way it’s going to go.’

‘I don’t know that that constitutes being unfaithful, Pammie,’ stated Pippa.

‘It is if you keep the meeting a secret from your partner . . . regardless of whether you go through with it or not. The mere fact that you went there, fully in the knowledge of what might happen . . . that’s being unfaithful in my book.’

There was much tutting and disagreeing amongst the girls and Seb. ‘That means I’ve been unfaithful to my Dan several times,’ pitched in Trudy, suddenly downcast at the suggestion.

‘So, you’ve met someone, specifically with the intention of going to bed with them?’ asked Pammie.

‘Well, no, but I’ve met guys on nights out that I’ve found attractive.’

‘And have you ever arranged to meet any of them again, on the basis that both of you know why you’re there? Because, let’s be honest, that would be the only real expectation,’ continued Pammie.

‘Well, no . . .’ said Trudy.

‘So, you’re fine then,’ she went on. ‘I’m just saying that if you were to meet someone with the sole intention of cheating, even if you don’t go through with it, are you not being unfaithful?’

There were a few more muted nods than when she’d last posed the question.

‘So perhaps you should ask Emily the same question again,’ she went on.

My ears were starting to burn as I looked at her through narrowed eyes. Images of me and James flashed behind them: us looking cosy in the corner of a back-street cafe; the pair of us perched on stools in an exclusive hotel bar, his hand on mine, the body language that must have screamed, ‘will they, won’t they’. I knew what it looked like in my head, and I could only imagine what it would have looked like to someone else. Had someone seen us? Is that what she was implying?

Tess looked at me. ‘Okay, so I’ll put it to you again, Miss Emily Havistock, have you or have you not ever been unfaithful, by intention?’

Pammie crossed her arms in front of her and raised her eyebrows, seemingly waiting for my response. She couldn’t possibly know, could she? There would be no reason for James to tell her. Why would he? And the chances of someone seeing us and putting two and two together were a million to one. I was just being paranoid.

I looked straight at her. ‘No, never.’