Freya North 3-Book Collection: Love Rules, Home Truths, Pillow Talk. Freya North

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СКАЧАТЬ Thea balked, ignoring the chips, which had just arrived. She stared at Alice who was gazing into the middle distance of the restaurant. ‘Alice?’

      ‘Yes,’ said Alice, prodding the pasta without looking, ‘Mark.’

      ‘What’s he done?’ Thea demanded, heaping Greek salad onto her fork.

      ‘Nothing,’ Alice said despondently, twirling the pasta to such a degree that it unwound from the fork completely.

      ‘Nothing?’ Thea repeated, with her mouth full.

      ‘Yes, nothing,’ Alice sighed, lifting her empty fork and putting it in her mouth, ‘and that’s the point. It’s just nothingy.’ She shrugged. ‘All work and no play make Mark a dull, dull boy.’ Though she felt instantly disloyal, she was just a little relieved too. ‘I’m scared that I’m bored,’ Alice confided, looking genuinely alarmed. ‘I’m worried, Thea. Actually, perhaps it’s not Mark. Perhaps it’s me.’

      Thea didn’t want to hear this and didn’t know what to make of it, let alone how to comment. ‘Mark is all that you’ve wanted and he is all that you need, he’s what you never had and you married him precisely for his commitment and his soberness,’ she told Alice sternly.

      ‘But his commitment is to work and he’s so sober it’s a bore,’ Alice muttered. ‘Corporate dinners and bloody opera, Thea, that’s the sum of it.’

      ‘What are his workmates like?’ Thea asked, trying to be positive.

      ‘Mark doesn’t have “mates”, Thea,’ Alice said, ‘he has colleagues and clients. They’re fine – I mean, a similar age – but dull.’

      ‘Well, I love Mark,’ Thea said warmly. ‘Let’s organize some evenings together, the four of us. How about salsa? Or that hysterical pub quiz you and I used to go to? I don’t know, ice-skating at Ally Pally?’

      Alice shrugged. ‘Can you honestly see Mark salsa dancing? Do you really think he’d leave work on time for a pub quiz?’

      ‘Come on,’ Thea said gently, ‘perhaps you’re a little stressed yourself – work?’

      Alice laughed harshly. ‘I have David Bowie as my cover boy – how can I be stressed?’

      ‘Maybe Mark’s stress is rubbing off on you?’ Thea tried, knowing she didn’t sound convincing.

      ‘Mark is ticking along just fine, Thea – it’s me,’ Alice whispered. ‘Suddenly he seems so much older than me.’ She couldn’t say it so she mouthed it, staring at the table. Boring.

      Thea didn’t want to hear this. Mark Sinclair was Alice’s salvation, the yin to her yang. Alice, it seemed to Thea, had done the grown-up thing when she married Mark; she’d set the standard and embraced the rules. Alice being unhappy made Thea feel discomfited. That Alice was bored caused Thea to worry. As her best friend, she didn’t think twice about reprimanding Alice.

      ‘You need to remember all your reasons for marrying Mark,’ Thea told her, ‘and you need to remember that your playboy exes actually made you miserable. You need to think logically about marriage, Alice, because by definition, you’re in it for the long haul. Of course there are going to be fluctuations in temperature – cold currents, heatwaves, warm periods. Maybe you should look on it as just being a little unsettled at the moment,’ Thea concluded, hoping to sound reassuring, ‘and know that it’ll abate and be fine.’

      ‘I’m starting to feel stifled, Thea,’ Alice said quietly, wondering when her best friend had become a meteorologist and marriage counsellor. ‘There seems to be no frisson between me and Mark. No fizz. It’s all gone a bit flat.’

      ‘Alice, I’m the diehard romantic here but even I can acknowledge that there’s more to marriage than raunchy sex or just being in love,’ Thea said. ‘Anyway, I thought you said frissons and fizz were just phenyl-something.’

      ‘Phenylethylamine,’ Alice muttered. She felt irritated. It wasn’t as if Thea was even living with Saul, so on what authority could she lecture? ‘I mean, of course I want to grow old with Mark – I just don’t want to be old while I’m still youngish.’

      ‘It’ll be fine,’ Thea said, because she really couldn’t start thinking it could possibly be anything other. She believed in the mystical sanctity of being in love; she didn’t like the way Alice dissected it into chemical components, albeit light-heartedly. But just then, Thea prayed for surges of adrenalin and dopamine and that phenyl-something for her best friend, so that Alice could feel love flushed and happy to be Mrs Sinclair once more.

      Later that night, after sending a text message to Alice assuring her that everything would be OK and that she was there for her, Thea rang Saul to say goodnight. He wasn’t in and his mobile was switched off. She tried again ten minutes later. And then ten minutes after that, when his mobile was back on.

      ‘Hullo,’ said Thea, hearing traffic in the background, ‘where are you?’

      ‘I’ve just nipped out for a pint of milk and some chocolate biscuits,’ Saul said. Thea was surprised he hadn’t come across the milk she’d replenished that morning and the KitKats and Hobnobs. ‘Oh,’ Saul faltered, ‘did you? Thanks. How was Pilates?’

      ‘Good,’ Thea said, settling into bed for a chat.

      ‘What was it tonight – Rioja and chips?’ Saul laughed, obviously walking briskly.

      ‘Alice seemed a bit tired, actually,’ said Thea, ‘off her chips. Tell you what, why not call me from the land line in a mo’?’

      Actually, it took half an hour for Saul to return Thea’s call when it transpired he hadn’t nipped to that corner shop but actually one further afield.

      ‘Can I ask you something?’ she asked him.

      ‘Shoot,’ said Saul, clattering around his flat.

      ‘Mark –’ Thea started. ‘You get on with him, don’t you?’

      ‘Of course,’ said Saul, ‘who wouldn’t.’

      ‘But you really get on well with Richard, don’t you?’

      ‘Yes,’ Saul qualified easily, ‘Richard’s a really good bloke.’

      ‘Is Mark not a good bloke, then?’ Thea asked.

      Saul paused. ‘Mark’s more of a nice guy than a good bloke,’ he explained.

      ADAM

       June, Issue 13

       1st Anniversary special edition

       Beautiful Britain cover

       Celebrate!

       It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it: Britain’s top-selling men’s mag one year on

       Models, actors, singers, whatever – the best of British

       Power couples – who has the balls may not be who wears СКАЧАТЬ