Free Chances by Freya North Page A

could Vita find in this? Was it that he didn’t want to hurt her? If so, did that then imply he had feelings for her still? Or did it mean Suzie meant nothing and wasn’t worth mentioning because in the course of his life she simply wasn’t important? If so, then she really wasn’t the new Vita, she was an opportune distraction. A bed warmer. A drinking buddy. An ego boost. Cheaper than a Porsche but with the same penis-extension factor.
    I hope it’s that she simply doesn’t figure large enough in his life to be worth mentioning, Vita thought.
    And then she thought, if that was the case, it was therefore rather pathetic that Suzie loomed larger for her than for Tim, that Suzie was in some ways a more real presence in her life than in his. What she thought it boiled down to was that she just really didn’t want the woman he left her for to be the true, profound love of his life.
    I auditioned for that role, I put so much effort into it, I loved it. I’m not ready to let it go to someone else.
    But you keep forgetting he didn’t leave you, Vita – you left him.
    And then she thought, is this a skewed version of Aesop ’s dog in the manger? I don’t want Tim – but I don’t want him wanting anyone else?
    And then she thought, For God’s sake, shut up! This is doing me no good at all. All this thinking and wondering that I do isn’t going to change him or the past. What a waste of quarter of an hour – sitting, staring into the middle distance, sifting through all that emotional junk. She knew there was nothing of value in it – she’d been through it with a fine toothcomb over and again.
    Go to London! Go to the trade show! Do something different.
    Vita phoned Jodie.
    Tim was at the bar when his phone rang. Suzie heard it, reached into his jacket pocket for it, saw it was Vita and answered it before she really thought about the ramifications.
    ‘Hullo? Tim’s phone.’ Purr, she told herself, purr. ‘Who is this?’ Just let her think that Tim no longer puts a name to her number!
    Vita felt the adrenalin rise in her throat and dry it out immediately. ‘It’s Vita.’
    ‘Well, this is Suzie.’
    There was silence while Vita scurried through thoughts about what to do in this situation; the pressure of having just a few seconds to frantically sort through a mental filing cabinet for a missing page of instructions of what to do in an emergency.
    ‘Why do you phone?’ Suzie was suddenly asking. She was outside now. Tim would just think she’d gone out for a smoke. Say he came out? And if he didn’t, how would she return the phone to him without him knowing? It was dangerous, mad, exciting – to be on his phone to his annoying ex. But this opportunity was too good. She’d figure it out later. Seen my phone? No. Wonder where it is? I don’t know. Weird. Oh look, Tim, your phone’s in my bag – you must have put it in there on our way here. Later, later – all that could wait. In the here and now she had Vita, cornered.
    ‘Why do you phone in the evenings?’
    ‘Sorry?’
    ‘You heard. Could you not phone us in the evenings. Tim’s got a life, you know, outside of work . It gets on our nerves.’
    ‘Sorry?’
    ‘Oh, come on, Vita – I’m Suzie. The Suzie. We’re together – so back off.’
    Vita was shaking, not just because Suzie had hung up on her, but because the level of aggression had been horrible. People were usually nice to Vita – probably because her line of work was to provide lovely items to gladden the heart. Even the mad old shoplifting lady went about her crime with a genuinely sweet smile and a warm, Hullo, lassie. Vita tried to tell herself to judge a person by the company they keep – so what did this say about Tim and Suzie? And yet part of her felt unnerved, undermined and small. Embarrassed too – because a sappy sorry was all she’d managed and it really was the wrong word to use when what she’d meant by it was pardon . Her mind twisted away from the reality of the