The End of Her - Shari Lapena Page 0,12

some sleep.

‘Isn’t this great?’ Hanna says grinning, watching Teddy laugh.

Stephanie has to agree with her. She feels a little more rested than usual today and it’s done wonders for her mood. She felt able to reach out to these other women, whom she doesn’t really know well. It’s hard to be social when you’re exhausted. She looks at her two baby girls, their big, round blue eyes, so cute splashing in the baby rings, chortling with glee. She’s lucky, and she knows it. She’s so lucky to have Patrick, and Emma and Jackie – two perfect, healthy babies. She has everything she ever wanted. The colic will pass.

‘Oh, looks like somebody’s getting sleepy,’ Hanna says, smiling at Jackie, who is yawning.

They all start to pack up for the walk home.

CHAPTER SEVEN

TOWARDS THE END of the workday, Patrick gets a call on his cell from Erica. He’s been expecting it, but his heart still begins to pump uncomfortably when he sees her number.

‘Meet me for a drink?’ Erica asks. ‘Same place? In half an hour?’

He briefly considers refusing. But he knows he must meet her. ‘Okay.’

For him, at least, the attraction is gone; if anything, she frightens him a little. He will be absolutely clear that he’s faithful to his wife, and then he will leave. He’s not going to make the same mistake twice. And she needs to know it.

On his way from the office to the bar, he tells himself that things have changed. He’s with Stephanie now. He has a family.

He spies her in the same corner as the day before. He tells himself to relax. He’s got nothing to worry about. He’ll set her straight and he can be on his way. He sits down across from her – he can smell her perfume again, and it bothers him.

She gives him a conspiratorial, seductive look over her beer. For a long moment neither of them speaks. Finally she says, ‘So … you’re probably wondering what I’m doing here.’

He smiles uncomfortably. ‘I am, actually.’

She tilts her head at him. ‘You know, Patrick, we could pick up where we left off …’

He smiles – as if with regret – and shakes his head firmly. ‘No. It was a long time ago.’ He exhales heavily. ‘I’m not going to cheat on Stephanie.’ He leans back, putting distance between them.

‘Really?’ She raises her eyebrows at him as if she doesn’t believe him.

‘Yes, really.’

‘Why not? It didn’t bother you to cheat on Lindsey.’

It hits him like a blow. ‘That was different.’

‘How was it different?’ Her voice has surprise in it, and a bit of an edge.

He hesitates. ‘I was younger then – I was only twenty-three, for Christ’s sake. I was a kid. I only thought about myself.’

‘Aren’t you going to order a drink?’ she asks.

He hadn’t been planning on it, but now he changes his mind and beckons the waiter over. He orders a Scotch and they both wait until the server is out of earshot.

She considers him for a moment. ‘Do you love her, your new wife?’

‘Yes, I do. With my whole heart.’

‘So that’s what’s different,’ she says. ‘You didn’t love Lindsey.’

‘That’s not true,’ he says quickly. ‘Of course I loved her.’

She watches him closely and says, ‘That’s not how I remember it.’

He looks back at her, feeling a chill.

He’d slept with his wife’s best friend. He had behaved badly, but so had Erica. He had betrayed his wife, she had betrayed a friend. He studies Erica sitting across from him in the dimly lit bar. He has to put this to rest once and for all.

‘Look, Erica …’ He tries to read her expression as she looks back at him. She’d avoided him after the accident. He thought it was remorse for what they’d done. He remembers how she’d caught his eye across the room, the casket between them, and pushes the memory away. ‘I’m married, with newborn twins. I’m not looking to have an affair. I should have made that perfectly clear yesterday. I came here today to make sure you understand that.’

She answers him. ‘I see.’ Her mood seems to have changed on a dime.

For a moment he simply stares at her. She can’t seriously be hoping to rekindle what they had. What is she doing here? His uneasiness grows.

‘It’s been almost ten years,’ she says. ‘A long time to think.’

‘About what?’

‘The accident.’ She looks at him intently. ‘Do you still think about it?’

‘I try not to. But sometimes.’

‘I do, a lot.’ A silence descends between them.

‘You