Free The Back Road by Rachel Abbott Page A

glass.’
    ‘Of course. We can toast the house. I know I shouldn’t say so myself, but it does look pretty amazing, doesn’t it?’ Ellie said, pouring two glasses of the delicious sparkling liquid. ‘It’s taking some getting used to. We’ve been here three weeks already, but it still all feels very new.’
    ‘Your builder was quite a guy, wasn’t he?’ Fiona took the drink from Ellie’s outstretched hand. ‘Not only did he make a great job of the house, he had a hell of a body too. Especially when he was working without his T-shirt. I know you think I came round to offer moral support and ‘ooh and aah’ over progress, but it was actually primarily to look at him. Don’t you just love a man with wide shoulders and narrow hips?’
    Ellie’s reaction was instinctive.
    ‘God, Fee. I wasn’t looking at his body. He was here to do a job, that’s all. For somebody who has no time for men, you’re pretty observant all of a sudden.’
    Fiona studied her glass for a few seconds. She didn’t respond to Ellie’s tone, and it was clear that she had another agenda entirely.
    ‘Actually, Ellie, I’m not one hundred per cent sworn off men any more.’ She looked up and straight into Ellie’s eyes, a sly smile playing around her lips. ‘I’m thinking of taking a lover.’
    Ellie felt a wave of irritation at Fiona’s flippant manner.
    ‘
What
? Come on Fiona, this is me you’re talking to. You don’t do sex. Not since…’ Ellie glanced over her shoulder to make sure nobody else was in the room. ‘Well, you know when. What’s all this about? And if you’ve decided it’s sex that you want, why not Charles?’
    ‘Now who’s being ridiculous? I chose Charles precisely because he isn’t remotely interested in sex. But I want to know, before it’s too late, whether I really am frigid or whether what I have is… curable. Look nobody else knows what happened to me. I haven’t even told Charles. He thinks sex isn’t my thing, and I’ve never explained. At least you believed me - which is more than can be said for my marvellously supportive parents,’ Fiona said sourly. ‘Is it so wrong to want to know for sure?’
    Ellie sat down on the chair facing Fiona. She knew she’d been a bit sharp, and it wasn’t Fiona’s fault that she was so stressed. Leaning forward, she looked at her friend and tried her best to show some sympathy.
    ‘No, it’s not wrong. But why now? What’s happened to make you change your mind? I think it would be great for you to be having regular sex. There’s nothing like a mind-blowing orgasm to make the world seem a better place.’ She gave Fiona what she hoped was a supportive smile. ‘But don’t take a lover. Honestly, Fee, it’s so much better when it’s with somebody you love. And it could go horribly wrong. Look what happened to Pat and Georgia.’
    ‘First of all, Charles and I are nothing like Pat and Georgia,’ Fiona scoffed. ‘I don’t think he’d be too impressed if he found out that I’d been unfaithful, but as long as nobody discovered at work or at the golf club so that he could be labelled a cuckold, Charles would be fine. And what makes you think that I don’t have orgasms?’
    Ellie nearly choked on her drink. ‘Okay, I get it. Spare me the details, please! I don’t want to know. But it’s not the same, you know. Not even close.’
    ‘Well you’re right about that,’ Fiona said, with a self-satisfied smile. ‘It takes less than thirty seconds and it’s a good deal less messy.’
    In spite of everything, Ellie chuckled. For somebody who tried to be so posh, Fiona was after all just a girl from the village - and from the rough end at that. She might behave as if she was the queen of Cheshire, but her sense of the vaguely ridiculous had never left her. Except for that moment long ago that altered her life forever. Fiona may have alluded to it, but Ellie knew better than to mention it herself.
    ‘So, do you have a candidate for this aberration of