Splintered Memory - By Natascha Holloway Page 0,75

wife though was ridiculous, and the thought of her thinking along these lines made him feel claustrophobic. He was becoming increasingly worried that Emily was fast becoming too committed to their relationship, and that thought made him feel guilty.

Matt knew that Emily felt more for him than he did for her, but he also knew that she’d become an integral part of his life in the last few months. Without her, he’d have lost more than just his marriage. It was likely that he’d have lost his career, and maybe even his life given the amount of drugs he’d been taking when she’d finally gotten him to admit that he had a drug addiction.

Emily had seen him through a difficult time in his life, and she hadn’t – as she probably should have done given the way that he’d treated her, abandoned him.

When he’d come out of rehab she’d looked after him, and in return he’d stayed faithful to her. It had seemed like a fair trade at the time, and the least that he could do for her, but he knew that he didn’t love her. He was fond of her, and she was easy to live with. They had a lot in common, and their lives seemed to all intents and purposes well suited. What had made it even easier to accept her as part of his life was the reaction of his friends. They’d accepted them as a couple without asking any questions, and on top of this they’d seemed genuinely pleased for him.

Matt still hadn’t taken Emily home to meet his parents, even though she’d shown a keen interest in him doing this, but this was partly to do with him not wanting to have to face Charlie’s parents. He could only guess that they wouldn’t be hospitable towards him, but then he couldn’t blame them. He’d hardly been a good son-in-law. Yet aside from this he’d also known that if he took Emily to Cheddar, it’d be tantamount to an announcement that he was divorcing Charlie.

Even though he hadn’t seen or heard from Charlie since he’d walked out on her the morning after they’d had sex, he still couldn’t bring himself to accept that everything between them was over. It was silly and he knew that it wasn’t fair on Emily, but he was doing the very best that he could. She’d also seemed fairly content, well up until these past couple of months at least.

He tried to shake his thoughts from his head. He didn’t want to have to think about having a difficult conversation with Emily about their future tonight. Tonight was Rich’s night. It was his stag do, and he, Ben, and Nick, had a lot planned. He was also hoping that the night would ease some of Rich’s woes. They’d all noticed that he’d started to look stressed over the past couple of months, but they’d just assumed that he was worrying about the wedding, Bex, or maybe both.

“Are you going to be okay tonight?” Emily asked him, which interrupted his musings.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll be fine. I won’t drink too much, and all the boys know not to let me.”

“I’ll wait up for you if you want? I’m on call anyway,” Emily said.

“I’ll be fine,” he said working his feet into his black shoes and checking his reflection in the mirror.

“Gorgeous!” Emily said from where she was sat on the bed.

Matt turned round and smiled at her and said; “a little biased maybe?”

“Not maybe, I’m totally biased. But you’re still gorgeous,” Emily said standing up to kiss him.

He returned her kiss, but as he felt her hands move to the front of his trousers he gently pushed her back. “I’ve got to go,” he said. To which she pouted.

Matt kissed her on the cheek and left the room. Yet as he walked down the stairs he couldn’t help thinking that this was another instance where she’d been about to use sex as away to get him to stay in with her and not go out, even though she knew that he was heading to Rich’s stag do. She really was getting too clingy he thought, and he was definitely feeling claustrophobic despite his best efforts not to.

He was going to have to have a conversation with her, but not tonight he said to himself. Tonight was about finding out what was bugging Rich he thought.

***

The night had started off well. They’d begun with a few drinks in Selly Oak where