Marry Me Tomorrow: The perfect, feel-good read to curl up with in 2017!. Carla Burgess

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      ‘Are you jealous?’

      ‘No!’ I said, too quickly. ‘Well, maybe a little. But not really about that… Ah, it’s hard to explain.’

      ‘Try.’

      I looked at him, slightly annoyed. ‘Do you think you’re my therapist or something?’

      Sam laughed and shook his head. ‘No, but you look a little bit upset talking about her.’

      ‘No I don’t.’ I scratched my face and went back to watching the TV, but I could still feel Sam’s eyes on me. ‘I just feel like she’s not my mum any more,’ I said, eventually. ‘Does that sound silly? I’m a grown woman, with my own life and everything, so I don’t really need her. And actually, I left her to go off to university so it’s not really fair that I feel that way. But it feels like she’s different to the woman who brought me up.’

      ‘But she isn’t though. Not deep down. And you always need your mum, no matter how old you are.’

      ‘I know, but…I don’t know.’ I shook my head. ‘Is your mum still around?’

      ‘No she died a good few years ago.’

      ‘Oh, I’m sorry.’

      ‘Yeah. I still miss her.’

      ‘What about your dad?’

      ‘He died two years ago.’ Sam’s voice thickened and he looked away. I blinked at the TV, tearing up in response to Sam’s emotions. I wanted to say something to him, but couldn’t find the right words. Sam cleared his throat. ‘He had a heart attack. We were at a football match at the time.’

      ‘Oh no! You were there? That’s awful.’

      Sam didn’t speak for a few minutes. He stared at the TV instead, sipping his tea slowly.

      ‘Were you United fans?’ I asked after a moment.

      Sam threw me an incredulous look. ‘No, fucking City. Fuck off.’

      ‘Sorry.’ I laughed.

      ‘So you should be.’ He grinned.

      The song changed on the TV and Sam flicked through the channels, trying to find another one that he liked.

      ‘Do you want a beer or something?’

      ‘Oh! Okay then.’ He looked startled.

      I got up to get him a beer, coming back a few minutes later to find him dozing off in the chair. He came to with a start. ‘Christ! Sorry.’

      ‘I told you, go to bed if you want.’

      ‘I might after this.’ He yawned as he picked up the bottle and I sat down with my glass of wine. Closing his eyes, he leaned his head against the back of the chair and sighed. ‘It’s so nice to be warm and dry,’ he murmured. ‘I can’t believe it.’

      I smiled and sipped my wine. ‘So, you’ve been homeless for – what – a year and a half? What was your life like before that?’

      He opened his eyes and blinked. ‘I was in the army for years. Went in when I was sixteen, came out at thirty-one and then worked as an engineer in Manchester.’

      ‘Oh really?’

      ‘Hmm.’ He looked across and me and laughed. ‘Go on then.’

      ‘Go on then, what?’

      He laughed again. ‘It’s killing you, isn’t it? I can tell.’

      ‘What do you mean?’ I felt my cheeks redden.

      ‘Go on. Ask me how I became homeless.’

      ‘Oh, well.’ I cleared my throat, embarrassed. ‘Lydia already asked you that so I didn’t think you were telling.’

      ‘That was her, not you.’ He took another swig of beer, looking at me through narrowed eyes. I saw him swallow, glance at the bottle, rest it on his knee. ‘I found out my wife was having an affair with my cousin,’ he said after a moment. ‘So I left.’

      I frowned. ‘You just left? What? Everything?’

      ‘Pretty much. I slept on my brother’s couch for a few weeks, but…’ he shook his head ‘…my head went. I was drinking too much, showing up to work late, or showing up to work still drunk. In the end they let me go, and my sleeping in my brother’s lounge started to become a big problem with his family. He’s got two teenage kids and a wife, so it wasn’t ideal. So one day, I just packed up the car and went travelling.’

      ‘Didn’t you try to sort things out with your wife?’

      He shook his head. ‘I did go back and talk to her, but it was clear things were unfixable. She’d been sleeping with him for years. Way before I’d got out of the army. He used to go round to check if she was all right, you know, when I was away and stuff. He was like another brother to me. We were dead close.’ He gave a short, bitter laugh. ‘Just goes to show, you never can trust anyone.’

      ‘That’s awful.’ I bit my lip, wanting to reach out to him, wanting to make it better, but I didn’t know how. ‘What did she say? Did she say why? I mean, not that there’s any excuse, of course.’

      ‘She said it happened by accident, they never meant it to happen and they never meant to hurt me.’ He took another swig from the beer bottle, shaking his head. ‘Such a fucking joke. I mean, I know I was probably hard to live with when I got out the army. I’d been in there for so many years that I was kind of institutionalised. I couldn’t get used to life without the army and I wished I’d never come out when I did. But I thought that’s what she wanted, and I was working my way through it. She kept moaning about me being away, and when the baby arrived I thought it was the right thing to do.’

      ‘You have a child?’

      He hesitated. ‘No. Turns out I don’t.’

      ‘Oh no.’ I stared at him in horror. It was almost too horrible to comprehend.

      ‘Oh yes. One paternity test later and I’m no longer the daddy.’

      ‘How old was the child?’

      ‘Nearly one.’

      ‘But that’s just awful. Sam! You should be having counselling for this stuff, not living rough on the streets.’

      He shook his head and shrugged. ‘Nah, I don’t need some counsellor sticking their nose in.’

      ‘What about the house? Isn’t half yours?’

      He shrugged.

      ‘So you’re living homeless on the streets and your wife is still living in a house that’s half yours? That’s ridiculous! Please tell me you didn’t just walk away and let him move in with your wife and child?’

      ‘I couldn’t СКАЧАТЬ