Free Ralph's Party by Lisa Jewell Page B

longer and more comfortable and less sweaty, but it was stil entirely perfunctory, and Karl had wolfed down his dinner afterwards and gone back to his flat to watch tely on his own.
    For his part, Karl wasn't sure why it had dragged on for so long. In a strange way which he couldn't quite explain, he was scared of CherL Her emptiness and coldness frightened him, and he couldn't help feeling that if he tried to extricate himself, he might pay dearly for it - Rosanne in a pot of boiling water sort of thing. She'd been so determined to have him, so determined to make him want her that he hadn't dared go against her wishes. And if he was honest with himself, there'd been something strangely aphrodisiac about that intensity, about his fear — patheticaly, it had turned him on.
    He had truly believed that he would never, ever, in a month of forevers be unfaithful to Siobhan; it was more than unthinkable, it was ridiculous. And he certainly would never have thought it possible that he'd end up having a torrid affair with a bimbo —
    which is al Cheri was, a blonde bimbo with legs up to here and lovely tits, who could dance like an angel.
    He knew he was nothing special to Cheri, but then he didn't suppose that anyone would be anything special to Cheri. It was, had been, purely and simply, fucking as an extension of dancing, a natural conclusion in a way to a traditionaly sexual art form. They danced so wel together that it stood to reason they would fuck wel together.
    It had been much easier than Karl could have imagined, lying to Siobhan, facing her fresh from the Sol y
    Sombra, coital sweat stil drying on the back of his neck, the tang of rubber stil perceptible in his boxer shorts. Funny how he didn't blush now, now that he actualy had something to feel guilty about.

    He'd spent his entire life blushing at inopportune moments, his face reddening for no reason whatsoever, and now, he could walk into his flat, face his faithful and trusting girlfriend of fifteen years, his dick smeared with the vaginal secretions of the blonde bimbo from upstairs, and remain perfectly alabaster white. Ironic.
    It hadn't occurred to him that girls like Cheri got pregnant. She was just so utterly souless, so cold, so vacant and devoid of emotion, so different to how he expected a real woman to be that he hadn't thought for a moment that she even possessed a womb. Cheri was a dancer, a looker, not a mother. The thought of a baby suckling at those perfect rose-coloured nipples was ludicrous, the idea of Cheri pushing a pram, of Cheri changing a nappy, was laughable.
    Siobhan was what Karl imagined a mother to be like. Siobhan was real, she was alive, she had a heart so big she could have mothered the entire country and stil had room for the rest of the world. Karl had never been loved by anyone the way he'd been loved by Siobhan, such clean, easy, honest love, not the possessive, clingy insecure love so many people mistook for the real thing. She had never tried to change him, to alter him in any way. She loved him just the way he was, and Karl didn't think you could ask for much more than that. Except, for some reason, passionate sex with unsuitable, unpleasant women.
    Karl was feeling incredibly uncomfortable now, with Cheri and Siobhan in the same room. And Cheri had a look about her, like she was here for a reason, had a hidden agenda. She turned away from Joe Thomas for a moment and caught Karl's eye - she smiled widely at him and, to Joe's obvious disappointment, started to make her way over towards Karl and Siobhan.
    'Hi!' she beamed, 'Hi! It's Siobhan, isn't it? I haven't seen you around for ages. Haven't you been getting out much lately?' she held out her tanned hand for Siobhan to shake. Karl felt sick as the two women's flesh touched. Tm going to miss your boyfriend so much.'
    'Oh, realy?' Siobhan replied amiably.
    'Yes, Tuesday nights wil never be the same again,' she said, looking at Karl.
    Karl found himself almost glued to the spot,