Freya North 3-Book Collection: Love Rules, Home Truths, Pillow Talk. Freya North
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Название: Freya North 3-Book Collection: Love Rules, Home Truths, Pillow Talk
Автор: Freya North
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Современная зарубежная литература
isbn: 9780008160166
isbn:
‘That was delicious.’
‘How did it go? The work – all done?’
‘Oh. Yes. It’s fine. I just wanted to try to sort something out. Mark – have you any trips booked in the near future?’
‘I’m not sure. Why?’
‘Oh, nothing. It doesn’t matter.’
‘I know what you’re after – a holiday! Good call, Alice – we haven’t been away for ages. Tell you what, I’ll mention it tomorrow. What a great idea. How about the Maldives – ultra luxury.’
‘But are you going away on business at all? Soon?’
‘I don’t think so – no plans to. Anyway, you know what – sod it! I’d cancel!’
u there? X
When Alice’s phone buzzed a message through two hours later, her heart skipped but then slumped at not seeing Paul’s name flash up. Her heart then picked up its pace a little when she saw it was from Thea. Alice read it and then deleted it.
I am here, Thea. But I’m not quite ready yet, lady.
‘Hi, babe – just me. I’ll leave a message on your land line. Call me when you get this. Bye!’
lunch 2day? Film 2nite? Sx
‘Oh, hi hon – it’s just me – I’m wondering if you’ve lost your mobile? Anyway, give me a call as soon as you can. Bye.’
earth 2 Thea, earth 2 Thea … Wheres u???? Fone me!! Sxxxx
‘Hullo, babe – have you been abducted by aliens? Fallen down a well? Run away? I’m slightly worried now – give us a call. OK. Bye.’
r my txts arriving – is your fone on the blink?? Sxx
‘Er. It’s just me – Saul – I think you’ve probably lost your mobile but I’m leaving this message anyway and I’ll call your land line again. If you pick up this message, can you phone me, babe? Speak to you soon, bye.’
‘Thea, it’s gone lunchtime now – can you please phone me as soon as you get this message? Love you.’
‘Alice? It’s Saul. Yes – I’ll be in around three-ish. Listen, I don’t suppose you’ve heard from Thea, have you? No? No – no reason – I think she may have lost her mobile, that’s all – daft thing. OK, I’ll see you later – yes, I’ll bring them in with me.’
‘Thea, it’s Saul – if you’re there can you pick up, please. I popped into the Being Well but you’re not there and they don’t know where you are either. Can you phone me as soon as you get this? Or text. I’m at home – but the mobile is on, too. Speak soon. Love you.’
‘Hi, Alice – it’s Saul again. Listen, do you mind if I cancel the meeting – Thea’s not at work, there’s no answer on her mobile or at home and I’m worried now. Pardon? I saw her two nights ago – I spoke to her yesterday morning and told her about the offer being accepted. She was giggling on the bus. I haven’t heard from her since. What? Yes – the offer on the place we like, it’s all going ahead. Listen, I think I’m going to go up to Crouch End – I have keys. Is that OK about the meeting then? Cool. Yes. Tomorrow’s fine.’
Shit. Thea’s text late last night. Alice grabs her phone and fires off a message.
u ok?
After two minutes too long, she sends another.
u ok? Axx
Thea could cry with relief. Help is at hand. Alice is there. no. Tx
u at home? Axxx
yes – can u come?? need u, v v much Txx
k. on my way – so is Saul
Saul? Coming here? No no no! Shit. I don’t want to see him. I’ve got to go.
When Headfuck Boy had dumped Thea, her heart had been broken and the pain had been terrible and exquisite but in a cathartically Brontë-like way. However, Saul hadn’t broken her heart. If he’d wilfully broken her heart, at least she could hurl herself into a romantic vortex of grieving, sobbing and deluded hope. Instead, Thea was lumbered with his insidious secret and it was asphyxiating. A broken heart was a walk in the park compared to this. All she’d been able to do for twenty-four hours was pace her flat and hyperventilate, rush to the toilet trying to throw up something other than bile-bitter emptiness. She’d been incapable of rationally assessing what she’d seen, the black-and-white facts had been too mammoth for her mind. So, of course she’d ignored Saul’s calls. Of course she’d deleted his goodnight and goodmorning and Thea sweetie, where ARE you messages. And of course she is rushing out of her flat, knowing he is on his way over.
Today, she feels even worse than yesterday; at least yesterday she’d had something to throw up and too much to think about. Today, she feels hollow and doomed and exhausted. There cannot be any explanation, any escape from what she’d seen. The bare facts are emblazoned, as harsh as a neon strip-light; but she can’t close her eyes to them, she can’t flinch away – they are imprinted on her mind’s eye anyway. She feels wretched; beyond distraught. Horror, disbelief, anger and hurt collide cataclysmically. Saul had done something unbelievable but she has to believe it because she saw it with her own eyes. She finds herself alternately repulsed by him yet somehow scared of him too; she swings from yelling out loud that she never wants to see him again, to sobbing silently at the terrifying notion of a future without him.
He isn’t who I thought he was. He is someone else. My Saul is gone. Who is this other Saul? Who is this person? A man who does terrible things.
Yesterday Thea reeled from the shock. However, the surges of adrenalin, the unremitting need to throw up, offered a bizarre respite, a temporary distraction, from deciphering the facts and admitting to the meaning. Today, she is consumed by the deceit, mangled by the hideousness of it all. Reality looms large and there is no escape from the truth.
Saul – do that?
Yes.
Him – with them?
Yes.
How dare he claim love and affection for me while paying for sex elsewhere. You cannot do the one and also the other. It is ethically impossible. It is morally reprehensible. Either love has lost its meaning or he never loved me in the first place. You simply cannot have sex with prostitutes and love your partner. And that’s a fact. And the fact is that yesterday, at lunchtime, when I fancied a sandwich, Saul fancied a fuck.
Thea СКАЧАТЬ