Free Got You Back by Jane Fallon Page B

lopsided smile Finn had and his turned-up nose. She imagined she would be… attractive. Why else would James have been — still be — married to her?
    Every now and then an image came into her mind of the woman she had conjured up and James wrapped round each other naked under the sheets. As hard as she would try to push it away it would push back, threatening to block out all possibility of ever thinking about anything else. She tried to conjure up positive thoughts but her old standbys — images of herself on a sundrenched beach in Thailand, a memory of a particularly happy Christmas when she was a child — weren't strong enough to overpower the negative ones that had taken root. She reached into her cupboard for the Rescue Remedy.
    As the taxi pulled into the hotel car park, she ran her fingers through her hair and checked herself in a small mirror. She felt sick with nerves. She had never been good with confrontation — she always tried to give people what they wanted, to go out of her way to make them happy, and she had a lurking fear that Stephanie might want to pick a fight.
    She took a deep breath and walked into the hotel foyer, looking around for the bar. There were a few people in there. She scanned the room for a woman on her own. No one. She must have got there first. She settled at a table near the window and ordered a glass of mineral water. She wasn't really a drinker, but she was dying fora vodka and tonic. Sipping her drink, Katie stared out of the window. She was beginning to sweat.
    No more than a couple of minutes later she heard a small cough and looked round to see a tall, slim woman, with long, dark red hair tied away from her face, standing beside her. She stood up awkwardly. Stephanie in the flesh was quite an imposing prospect. She had somehow bypassed pretty and gone straight for beautiful, and looked nothing like Katie's comforting mental picture. Her skin, which was an iridescent white, was straight out of a Pre-Raphaelite painting. Katie's own shiny tanned glow seemed cheap in comparison. She smiled nervously.
    Stephanie nearly laughed out loud when she saw Katie. Not because she was relieved to find that Katie wasn't pretty because there was no denying that she was. She was maybe somewhere in her late thirties, Stephanie thought, thankful that at least they were the same age, but that was where the similarities ended. The thing that had struck Stephanie as soon as she had seen her was that they were such complete opposites. It was such a cliché that James had felt the need to seek out everything he didn't have at home. She was tall; Katie was short. She had deep red, poker-straight hair; Katie was all blonde curls. She was slim and athletic; Katie was soft and feminine. Her eyes were brown, Katie's were blue.
    ‘God, you certainly couldn't say he has a type,’ she said, and Katie laughed, although it seemed a little forced. ‘I'm Stephanie,’ Stephanie said, and held out a hand.
    Katie shook it weakly, as if she wasn't used to shaking hands. ‘Katie,’ she said. ‘Obviously.’
    They sat down, and the silence seemed to go on for ever before Stephanie thought I really must say something, otherwise she'll think she has to take charge of the situation. Stephanie liked to be in control. In fact, James had once accused her of being a control freak and she had annoyed him by taking it as a compliment. ‘Why wouldn't I want to be in charge of my own life?’ she'd shouted at him. ‘What kind of an idiot lets someone else run their life?’
    ‘So,’ she said eventually. ‘I just wanted to see you for myself, really. I'm still trying to take all this in.’
    ‘Me too,’ Katie said, sipping her water.
    There was another awkward silence.
    ‘Did you have a good journey?’ Katie asked.
    ‘Fine, thanks. I came on the train. You?’ Stephanie could hardly believe they were having such a banal conversation but she didn't know how to turn it round. She was finding it hard to concentrate,