How can you just dismiss it like that? You have an affair for months, and then you say she’ll be ‘mad as hell’. Do you have even the remotest idea what you have done to her? To my sister?’
Max looked totally bewildered.
‘What the hell are you talking about, Leo? What bloody affair? You’ve lost me completely.’
‘You and that PE teacher. Alannah she’s called, isn’t she? You and her. All hush hush and making plans in private.’
Max looked as if a light had been switched on, and that it had illuminated a house of horrors.
‘Oh God. You’re not telling me that’s what she thinks, are you? I know she thinks I fancy Alannah. That’s why I try to avoid mentioning her. I don’t fancy her, though. Not even slightly.’
Max was going to have to be a lot more convincing than that.
‘So you think forgetting to mention that you’ve been to the pub with Alannah so Ellie has to hear it from somebody else is a good idea, do you? Or how about the fact that you’ve recently started telling Ellie she needs to do more exercise, as if she needs to look more like Alannah? Or getting a lift home from the staff party and going half way to bloody Stoke on Trent and back, so you and Alannah could be alone - and then lying about it. Well done, Max.’
Max looked as if he was about to interrupt, but Leo hadn’t finished. ‘Oh, and what about making plans that you’re not ready to tell Ellie about yet because she needs to be kept in the dark until it’s too late for her to stop it - whatever ‘it’ is. How do you think it made her feel to learn about that particular conversation? Jesus.’
Max’s face had drained of colour.
‘Shit. It sounds terrible when you say it like that. Look, I know I’m a brainless bugger but I’m not crazy enough to have an affair. I know perfectly well what that would do to Ellie. I know that her trust issues aren’t on a par with yours, but she doesn’t have the confidence that somebody so beautiful should have, you know.’
‘Don’t bring me into this. I’m not the one who’s lied to her - even if only by omission.’
‘You’re right, and I’m sorry for the jibe. It was unnecessary.’ Max looked straight at Leo, as if to demonstrate that he was speaking the truth. ‘There is nothing going on with Alannah. I was simply helping a friend.’
‘Then why all the sodding secrecy, Max? If it’s no big deal, why didn’t you tell Ellie?’
‘Because Alannah asked me not to, and actually - it is a pretty big deal.’ Max looked down. As well he might, Leo thought.
‘Don’t even think of not telling me, because my sister’s welfare comes way above keeping a promise to somebody else. Get real, Max. Sort out your bloody priorities.’
Max looked as if she’d slapped his face.
‘Leo, don’t ask me to say anything more. I could lose my job over this.’
‘And you could lose your wife if you don’t speak up. For Christ’s sake, you should know you can trust me. How bad is it?’
‘Terrible for Alannah. Pretty bad for me. Promise me you won’t tell Ellie, Leo. I will honestly tell her myself, but it has to come from me.’
Leo gave a curt nod of her head and watched while Max turned a teaspoon over and over in his fingers.
‘Alannah came to me a couple of months ago with a problem. Apart from being a PE teacher, she’s also a marathon runner, and a damn good one at that. But for one reason and another she’d been feeling a bit below par and lacking in stamina, so she started to get a little help.’
Max checked out Leo for reaction, and she had to wonder why. She knew exactly what he meant. Was he expecting her to be shocked?
‘What was she taking?’ she asked.
‘EPO to start with. I don’t know if you know anything about it, but basically it keeps you going for longer, I’m sure you’re not interested in the science. It’s not supposed to be addictive, and she took it to get her over a low patch.’
Max stood up from the table and walked over to the glass doors to the garden, as if Alannah’s shame was strangely his own. Leo kept quiet and waited.
‘She overdid it, and eventually she ended up injuring herself. But she had a big race coming up, so she had to