important...?'
'No. Fucking hell, you're more important to me than anything else, you know that.'
'Do I?'
'Of course you do. I love you.'
'Do you?'
'You know I do. Look, have I done something wrong? Have I forgotten something I should have remembered? If I have then I'm sorry, but...'
Rather than bother to listen to what I had to say, Siobhan instead chose to ignore me.
'Where were you this afternoon?' she asked, her voice cold and uncharacteristically stern.
'What?'
'Come on, I asked you where you were this afternoon?' she repeated angrily. 'I know you weren't at home because I called you. And I didn't just call you once, I tried about fifteen fucking times and I still couldn't get an answer. I came over but the house was empty...'
'Look, I...'
'Where were you?' she screamed.
She's lost it, I thought, completely lost the fucking plot. Why should I stand here and listen to this? Just because we were going out together didn't give her the right to know my every move.
'Does it matter where I've been? I don't have to tell you everything I...'
'Where were you?' she screamed again.
Like a frightened school boy I answered quickly.
'I went to see Clare,' I snapped reluctantly. 'Is that all right with you or should I have checked first...?' 'What were you doing there?'
I took a deep breath. For a second I thought about just hanging up the phone but I knew that would have done more harm than good.
'It's Penny's birthday. I took her card and present over and I took them both out for a burger. Clare's having problems with...'
'Is there something going on between you two?'
'What?'
'I said is there something going on between you two? She's a single woman now. If you didn't have anything to hide you would have told me you were taking her out.'
'I didn't take her out. Anyway it was a spur of the moment thing...'
'Bollocks,' she spat. 'I know something's going on.'
'You've got this all wrong,' I sighed. 'Clare's a good friend of ours...'
'...of yours...'
'She's a good friend of ours who happens to be going through a rough patch at the moment. I'm not about to let her...'
'What about me?' demanded Siobhan, now screaming down the phone at me. 'What do you think I'm going through? How the hell do you think I feel when I find out that my fucking boyfriend's seeing another fucking woman?'
'Don't talk rubbish,' I said, fighting a losing battle to keep calm. 'You know damn well that I'd never cheat on you...'
'That's what I used to believe.'
'So what's happened to change your mind? I've spent time with Clare before and never had any of this from you. What's different this time?'
She didn't answer. The empty silence was deafening. I could still hear faint sounds coming from the other end of the line so I knew she hadn't hung up. I looked around the kitchen helplessly as I waited for her to speak. I still couldn't comprehend the bizarre conversation we were having.
'You could've asked me to come with you,' she sobbed suddenly.
'I've already told you, it was a spur of the moment thing. I went over to Clare's to drop in Penny's present and card. They were on their own and it was Penny's birthday and I decided to take them out. That's all there was to it.'
'I was on my own.'
'You were at work. You told me you were shopping afterwards.'
'I didn't. I came home early. I didn't feel well. Christ, do you know what you've put me through today?' Her voice sounded hoarse and wracked with emotion. I hated it when she cried.
'Look,' I sighed, 'I'm sorry.'
'What?'
I cleared my throat and prepared to apologise again. Christ alone knows what I thought I was apologising for.
'I said I'm sorry,' I repeated. 'Do you want me to come over?'
Silence.
Then she spoke.
'I just don't believe you,' she said, her voice little more than a whisper.
'Shall I come over?'
'Just leave me alone. Just fuck off and leave me alone.'
She slammed down the phone.
What had just happened? I couldn't get my head around any of it. I stood there for a while, just staring at the phone. When I'd said goodbye to Siobhan on Wednesday we'd kissed more passionately than ever. So passionately, in fact, that we almost ended up making love on her doorstep. And now, just a few days later, the same girl had accused me of cheating on her without having any evidence or any reason to doubt me. I couldn't believe that Siobhan - the one dependable