Free The Third Wife by Lisa Jewell Page B

her hands.
    ‘Small?’
    ‘Yes. You looked gutted.’
    ‘Oh for God’s sake, I did not.’
    ‘Oh whatever, darling. I don’t think it’ll last, for what it’s worth.’
    ‘I don’t care, Susie. I don’t care if it lasts or not.’
    She looked at him sceptically. ‘You’ve never had to experience this before. You’ve never had to properly relinquish a woman. You’ve always been able to keep them there.’ She made the same small shape out of her hands. ‘In stasis. As you left them. Even Maya.’
    Adrian flinched at the sound of Maya’s name.
    ‘Sorry, darling, but it’s true. You’ve been able to stride out into your future knowing that the past is as you left it. When you chose to leave it.’
    ‘I didn’t
choose
to leave Maya,’ he snapped.
    ‘No, no. Of course not. But neither have you had to deal with her moving on.’
    ‘Oh Christ, Suse, you have no idea what I’ve been through these last months. What I’ve been dealing with.’
    ‘No. I don’t. I’ve never lost anyone in that way. But I do know that this is a new one on you – Caroline’s toy boy. On top of what you’ve been through with losing Maya. And I know you don’t really have anyone to talk to. Your wives have always been your best friends.’
    Adrian sighed. This much was true.
    ‘Anyway,’ she said, spearing a piece of pineapple on to the end of her fork, ‘I just wanted to say I know I’m a bit silly and a bit far away and we’ve kind of lost each other over the years, but you can talk to me. If you’re having a hard time.’
    Adrian looked at her. She was smiling warmly and sincerely at him. For a moment he could see her: the waxy-skinned beauty he’d first laid eyes on nearly thirty years ago; the girl he’d lain on the beach with at night looking for constellations in the starry sky; the girl he’d sat outside pubs with on warm summer nights drinking pints, bare feet rubbing together beneath the table; the girl he’d married in a cheap hire suit in Camden Town Hall when he was almost the same age as their son was now. ‘Thank you,’ he said, ‘that’s very lovely of you.’
    ‘I know,’ she said. ‘But you deserve it. You’re a good man. Underneath it all. You need someone to look out for you. You’re all alone.’
    ‘So are you.’
    ‘Yes. I am. But I’m really good at it. You suck.’ She laughed, hard, revealing teeth that needed an appointment at the hygienist.
    Adrian laughed too.
    ‘What about that girl?’ she asked. ‘The one you were telling us about at Caroline’s?’
    ‘Another girl is not the answer to everything.’
    She laughed again. ‘It is for you, darling!’
    ‘Well, anyway, as far as girls go, this is about the most elusive one I’ve ever come across. It turns out that the mobile phone she left behind at my flat belonged to a mixed-race girl called Tiffany.’
    ‘Who I assume is not …?’
    ‘No. Not the same girl. And Cat managed to track her down to a kick-boxing class in Highgate this morning and she lied about her name and ran away from her. So. Brick wall.’
    ‘But if you found her, what’s the idea?
Is
she going to be the fourth Mrs Wolfe?’
    Adrian leaned back into the rattan chair, recalling the disapproving words of both his daughters. ‘No. No, I don’t think that’s on the cards. Well, not for a long time at least.’
    Susie put her empty fruit bowl down on the table. ‘Ah well,’ she said. ‘Fate will sort it out for you. If it’s destined to be, you’ll find her again. I can’t wait to find out why she’s so interested in you. It’s quite fascinating. A whole story just waiting to be told.’
    ‘Yes indeed.’ Adrian gazed past Susie and out at her beautiful garden. He saw ghosts of old afternoons out there, the shadowy echoes of small children, the shrieks of dips in icy paddling pools, the twang and thwack of a ball going round a swing-ball post, half-melted snowmen, barbecue parties that went on into the early hours, failed attempts at