Free The Birds and the Bees by Milly Johnson

easy!
    Maybe it was because she was one step ahead of him, knowing the ‘game’ that she found some strength. As if she was in Danny’s Harry Potter and had just eaten a slice of rejuvenating pumpkin pie.
    ‘So how do we do this?’ said Ms Chirpy the drugged-up, happy-sounding canary.
    ‘Er, well, let’s think.’
    Like you haven’t thought already, Matthew!
    He tapped his lip with his finger whilst considering the options.
    ‘Maybe if I move into a B&B for a few days, just to give you a chance to get your stuff together,’ he said, as if it had just come to him.
    ‘My stuff?’ echoed Stevie, a little breathlessly.
    ‘Yes. I think it might be for the best if you…er…moved out for a bit.’
    ‘Oh yes, I see–of course “my stuff”,’ she said, stretching her smile that bit further. Her thoughts were screaming at her from the sidelines to think positive and focus on the fact that he hadn’t asked her to cancel the wedding . This was all still salvageable if she stuck to her plan of being ‘nice-accepting lady’. ‘Right. Okay then. Yes, you’re probably right.’ God, this was starting to hurt so much.
    ‘Just for a while,’ he said, which again wasn’t what he meant at all, but it was easier to let her go with a little hope in her heart. It staved off the histrionics, at least.
    ‘I’ll obviously need to take some money out of the Euro-Disney trip account for a room or rent or whatever,’ she said, not letting her face slip and upping the sweetness levels to offset the contentious subject of ‘their’ money. She couldn’t wait to find out what he had to say to that one.
    ‘Oh, er…I had to borrow some of it.’ He wriggled a bit and looked more sheepish than a freezer full of mutton on an Australian farm.
    ‘Did you? What was that for?’ Plastic smile again, but the urge to wring his neck was getting pretty strong too.
    ‘Petrol and stuff in Scotland. I’ll pay it back. Obviously. Emergency.’ He actually had the good grace to go red now.
    ‘Oh, yes, okay. If you could, considering what it was for.’
    ‘Absolutely, straight away.’
    Stevie nodded, although she had heard that one just a few times too often from him to believe it any more.
    ‘Well, right then,’ she carried on, leashing her angerwith desperate effort. She had to be in control, their future happiness together depended on it. This, after all, was a much wider picture than a lost fifteen hundred quid and a couple of lust-driven lies.
    ‘I’ll go and get a few bits together then,’ he said nervously, edging upstairs.
    ‘Yes, why not.’ The smile weighed heavy and was getting painful to keep up. She wanted to let it drop, right onto the floor where she could stamp it flat and vomit all over it.
    Matthew backed off upstairs and at least she took some comfort from the fact that she had rattled him with her coolness and self-possession. She had done something right at least. This time.
    She could hear him padding about upstairs, opening drawers, and she followed him in her imagination. He would pack that beautiful blue silk shirt, and the chinos that always made his bottom look nice, and his best suit so he could take Jo out for a posh meal somewhere. He liked to wine and dine, and he always looked so handsome in a suit, especially by candlelight.
    She found she was not quite strong enough to hold all the tears back. They started to leak out of the corners of her eyes, faster than she could wipe them away, but wipe them away she did as soon as she heard his footsteps coming down the stairs, faster than a small child’s on Christmas morning. Then he crossed to the drawer and got out his mobile phone. He had left it there deliberately, of course, she knew, but she didn’t react.
    ‘Look, I’ll be in touch soon, promise,’ he said, carrying a very large case and some suits in covers.
    ‘Yes, well, you take care,’ she said. She needed three big lads and some scaffolding now to hold up this smile. She came forward