Free Got You Back by Jane Fallon Page A

sex-filled romp one might think. It was two lots of ‘Have you put the rubbish out?’ and ‘Should we have the Martins round? After all, they had us over last time and we don't want it to look like we're not good hosts.’ Double ‘You never talk to me properly any more’ and ‘Which looks better, the blue one with the tan belt, or the stripy one?’
    James rubbed the back of his hand over his forehead. He was starting to sweat a little. He downed the last inch of his half-pint and took the empty glass back to the bar on his way out.
    ‘’Bye, love,’ the barmaid called. She really was quite attractive, he thought, and she was definitely giving him the eye.
    He put on his best, most dazzling smile. ‘See you soon,’ he shouted, thinking, I must remember where this place is.
    He had no idea, of course, that his life as he knew it was about to take a drastic turn.

13
    Something Natasha had said to Stephanie a few days earlier had lodged in her brain and wouldn't go away: ‘You have to make him suffer. The point is you get to feel better while he gets to feel like shit.’ It made a kind of perverse sense. Why should James escape without any punishment for his crime? OK, so losing both of the women he professed to love might hurt him a little but she doubted now that he would care for long. He clearly had no respect, no real feelings for either of them. He'd just find another woman — maybe even two — to fall for his stories. The question was, what form the punishment should take.
    Natasha's suggestions all seemed to involve some form of physical violence so, for the first time, Stephanie decided to ignore her friend's advice and work this one out for herself. She dug her phone out of her bag. ‘I think we should meet,’ she said, when Katie answered.
    There was a moment's silence as Katie, on the other end of the line, took this in. ‘Really?’ she said, sounding nervous.
    ‘I just think there are things we need to talk about and we should do that face to face. Besides, I'm curious.’
    Stephanie heard Katie's inhalation, could feel her weighing up the idea in her head. She waited.
    ‘All right,’ Katie said finally. ‘Let's do it. I'm curious too.’They had arranged to meet in the bar of a hotel near Peterborough, halfway between Lincoln and London. Stephanie's plan was to leave as soon as James had gone to work in the morning, but by the time she had agonized over what to wear (jeans and a figure-hugging T-shirt with heels that would have been too high for her to drive in — even though she knew Katie was blameless she still wanted to show her that she was in good shape, not the stereotype of the little woman left at home) and whether to wear her hair up or down (up, in a low ponytail), she was about an hour late leaving. She rang Katie to tell her, only to discover that Katie had been in the same dilemma and was running late herself.
    ‘I didn't ask,’ Stephanie said, ‘but what do you look like? You know, so I recognize you.’ She was feeling a bit sick. The reality of what was happening to her was just beginning to sink in. What if the woman her husband had been having an affair with was stunning? She wasn't sure if she could cope with that.
    ‘Well, I'm wearing a turquoise skirt, sort of a long skirt, and a white vest with a light blue cardigan. And I'm about five foot two,’ Katie said, which wasn't the answer Stephanie had been looking for. Was she thin? Fat? Plain? Gorgeous? Twenty-five? Fifty?
    Katie, too, had procrastinated in front of her wardrobe. She wanted to look good but not threatening. She didn't know why but she wanted Stephanie to like her, to forgive her, even though in reality there was nothing to forgive. She had decided to go with pretty but not too much flesh. Flattering, but not too young. She had formed a picturein her head of what Stephanie might look like based on the photos she had seen of Finn. A good-looking brunette with brown eyes, maybe with the slightly