ate his flesh, and she closed her eyes, hugged Noah a little tighter.
Soon.
26
It was the dream that woke Olivia. A dream featuring Toby of all people.
With everything going on, why the hell was she dreaming about her ex-boyfriend, especially when she hadn’t seen him in over a year?
In the dream he had been pestering her to get back together. Of course she didn’t want to because she was with Noah now. Except she couldn’t find Noah. She looked frantically everywhere, with Toby in hot pursuit, gradually wearing her down until she agreed to give him another chance. Then she walked into her bedroom and found Toby in their bed with her. The slut with the red hair. She was riding him, just like she had done in the video Olivia had seen, long wild hair falling across her face, but then she shoved it back and looked directly at Olivia, smiling, and her face was Fern’s. Beneath her on the bed, Toby had glanced up to see who Fern was smiling at and his face had morphed into Noah’s.
That was when she had woken with a start, for a split second convinced it had been real, and that Noah really had cheated on her. Relief washed over her as she realised it had just been a dream.
She couldn’t settle after that, lying in the dark for a while, listening to Noah’s even breathing, needing to pee and desperate for a glass of water (damn you, red wine) but too lazy to move, Toby’s betrayal all too clear in her mind.
She didn’t regret breaking up with him, no longer felt that raw aching hurt, but the anger still burned at how he had cheated on her and the crass, humiliating way in which she had found out about it. How the video that had been uploaded on to his Facebook account had been seen by all their friends and family, many of them viewing it before Olivia had.
Toby had of course deleted it as soon as it came to his attention, but by then the damage was done. Besides, people had downloaded it, a few so-called friends helpfully forwarding it to Olivia, just in case she had missed it. She had watched it a dozen times or more. Toby on his back, the redhead riding him.
Of course he had tried to apologise, called it a mistake and a regret, but the damage was already done. She had kicked him out, called time on their relationship, clawed the money together to buy him out of the house.
She had no idea if he was still with the redhead, doubted it, as Toby had been livid about the video, but honestly, she didn’t care what he was doing now or who he was with.
Why the hell then was she dreaming about him?
She checked her phone, saw it was just after 3.30, which meant she had only had a couple of hours sleep. Throwing back her side of the duvet, she eased herself out from under Noah’s leg, which had somehow made its way over both of hers, and quietly crept across her bedroom, careful not to step on the discarded clothes that littered her path to the door.
She had been stressed and a little bit emotional about the notes, her encounter with Fern and talking about the past. Noah’s solution had been to distract her with sex and, to give the man credit, he had certainly managed to do that.
Olivia unhooked her dressing gown from the back of the bedroom door, slipped it on, and glanced back at him. The light from the moon shone through a crack in the curtains and she could see he had his face mashed into one of her pillows and was looking very comfortable in her bed. She had to admit that she liked seeing him there. Letting herself out of the bedroom, she used the bathroom before tiptoeing downstairs, not turning any lights on until she reached the hall. Although Noah seemed dead to the world, she didn’t want to wake him.
The heating having long gone off, the house was freezing, the tiled floor cold beneath her bare feet as she padded into the kitchen, and she wished she had put her slippers on.
She quickly got her drink of water, gulping down a glassful, then refilling it to take upstairs. As she made her way back along the hallway, a loud creak came from the lounge.
Olivia froze.
Was that a footstep?
Is someone in there?
She stayed where she was,