Roses Are Red - Miranda Rijks Page 0,44

and it’s making me blush pillar-box red.

14

I expect Patrick to call me after his lewd text, but he doesn’t. And I don’t call him. I need more time to work out how I’m going to raise the conversation about the receipt. But at 8 a.m. the next morning, his name flashes up on my phone. I stare at it lying on the kitchen table, watching it vibrate, listening to it ring for several seconds. Should I answer? What shall I say? But I’m too late. It stops ringing. I move across the room to make myself a second cup of coffee, but my phone starts up again. I grab it.

‘Sorry, I was in the bathroom. I missed your call.’

‘How are you this morning?’

‘Ok, thanks. And you?’ I sound as if I’m speaking to a colleague in the office, not my lover.

‘Are you sure? You sound… I don’t know, different.’

I plop down onto a chair. ‘There is something, Patrick. When you were in the shower yesterday and I was picking up our clothes, a receipt fell out of your pocket. It was for a dinner in London two nights ago. I know I shouldn’t have looked but–’

‘Hey, it’s no problem,’ Patrick interrupts me. ‘I’d have looked if the shoe had been on the other foot. You’re right, I was in Manchester, but then I had to nip down to London. My client wanted to meet in the Big Smoke. It was really last minute. He’s American and one of my best clients, so I have to wine and dine him whenever he’s in town. It’s really frustrating. He expects me to be at his beck and call.’

‘Oh,’ I say. ‘I thought you said you ate omelettes in your hotel room both nights.’

‘I did the first night, but not the second night. You must have misheard me.’

I am silent. I could have sworn he said he stayed in his hotel room both nights. I pray he isn’t lying to me. After all the lies Adam told, and possibly the lies that Ajay is still telling everyone, I need Patrick to be honourable.

He breaks the silence. ‘Look, Lydia, I get that you find it hard to trust me. Adam treated you like shit. He lied to you and cheated on you with your business partner’s wife. But I’m not Adam, darling. You can trust me.’

‘Oh,’ I say again. Perhaps Patrick is right. I am so bruised from the lies that Adam told me, I’m finding it hard to trust anyone else. But I can’t help thinking about the money. Fifty thousand pounds is a hell of a lot of money to lend to anyone, and it’s not helpful that I hear Adam’s voice in my head, chastising me for being too hasty and too trusting.

‘I’ll call you later, and I’ll come around to yours when I’m back from Maidstone,’ he says.

‘Um, I’m not sure if–’

But Patrick has already hung up.

I lock up the house and drive to work.

It’s mid-morning and I am studying some catalogues from a new supplier when there’s a knock on my office door and Ajay walks in.

‘Can I ask your opinion about something?’

‘Sure, take a seat.’ My nerves are on edge and I can’t work out why.

‘I think I have found a good candidate to take over Adam’s position, but would like your input. She’s coming for an interview at 2 p.m. and I was wondering if you’d like to sit in with me?’

He passes a CV across my desk. This is clearly Ajay holding out an olive branch. He never involves me in staffing decisions on the operational side of the business, but I suppose filling my dead husband’s position is a sensitive issue. And, of course, having an excellent accountant on the team is essential.

‘I trust your judgement,’ I say, handing the CV back to him after a cursory read. But when I look up, a scowl briefly passes over his face. I thought he would be pleased that I am happy to leave the decision to him, but perhaps I made the wrong call.

‘So be it,’ he says as he walks towards the door.

‘How are things with you and Marianne these days?’ I ask.

He freezes and answers with his back to me. ‘We are trying to put our marriage back on track. Why?’

‘No reason.’ But I do have a reason. I want Ajay to know about Patrick. In a weird sort of way, I think I want his approval.

Just a few minutes later, I get a