Happily Ever After_ - Benison Anne O'Reilly [100]
Towards the end of the evening, as coffee and petits fours were being served, the band started playing slow songs and couples began dancing up close. It was no place for us singles so we stood at the periphery and observed. It was moving to see how genuinely some couples still cared for one another. Edward and his wife looked at each other in that loving way. With four young kids that was some achievement.
As I watched my eyes filled with the tears I’d been seeking but now was not the time and I blinked them away. And Melanie said, ‘Hello stranger, you’ve been ignoring us all evening.’
It was Alex.
‘No, I haven’t,’ he said.
‘Yeah we believe you. But don’t worry - we haven’t missed you at all. We’ve had a great time, haven’t we Ellie? Anyway you’ve arrived just as I decided I need desperately to pee so I’m off to the loo. I’m sure you two can think of something to talk about.’
Alex joined me in staring at the dancing couples. ‘Okay you win.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You’ve made yourself look so incredibly beautiful that I’m powerless to stop myself. I’ve been trying all night and I can’t do it any longer. I’m like a moth to the flame.’
This, of course, had been my plan all along.
‘I just wanted to talk to you. I don’t want us to part on bad terms. I want to say sorry. If I could say sorry a thousand times I would.’
‘I think you already did, didn’t you? I’d rather dance.’
‘Okay.’
He walked towards the dance floor and I followed him. He moved right through the crowd to the middle of the dance floor, squeezing past the loved-up couples and apologising for our intrusion as he went. When we got there he took me in his arms, and we danced together slowly to the bad 80’s love songs. He leant his face on my shoulder, his lips pressed gently against my bare skin.
‘Come home with me,’ he whispered.
‘I can’t. Tony is at home.’
‘Just for a couple of hours. I’m not expecting you to change your mind. I just want to hold you one more time…to say goodbye.’
‘It’s too risky…’
‘Please, it’s all I ask.’ And how could I refuse?
‘I want to…I do…I’m meant to be going out drinking with Melanie and the girls. Maybe if I told her I was going home instead. That would give us a few hours.’
‘Yes please.’
‘Okay, I’ll talk to her.’
The music finished soon after and the lights came on. People blinked self-consciously when they found themselves exposed in the fluorescent brightness. Women smoothed their hair and searched for their handbags, men downed their last drinks and moved slowly towards the exits. The night was officially over.
I sought out Melanie and she said, ‘The girls want to head up to Oxford Street first. Samantha says there’s is a new nightclub there. Then we might end up in the Cross later…’
At this point I sighed heavily and rubbed a point above my left eyebrow dramatically. ‘You know I have quite a bad headache. I think I might just head home to get some sleep instead. You all go out and have a great time without me.’
Melanie rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t lie, Ellie. I know you are really going back to Alex’s place to have sex with him.’
‘What? You knew?’
‘Duh - of course I knew. You two haven’t exactly been discreet about things. If you wanted to have a secret affair you should have chosen to work in an office with much less glass panelling. And as for that “off-site planning meeting” the other week - I mean how stupid do you think I am?’
‘Does anyone else know?’
‘Well I’m your all-seeing-all-knowing secretary so for a while I thought it was only me, but Karen has since said something and lately I’ve heard a bit of gossip doing the traps in marketing. The rumours will not be helped by the clinch you two were just in on the dance floor, either.’
‘Oh no…well it’s just as well I’m leaving then.’
‘But he’s been upset with you about that obviously.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Anyway I’m not judging you. I know what you’ve been through in the last few years. What I was going to say is that I will head out with