Happily Ever After_ - Benison Anne O'Reilly [115]
Maybe not.
A few days ago, before everything blew up, I received this email from Melanie. Don’t let her jokey, chaotic writing style fool you. I know her very well and I know she chose her words deliberately and very, very carefully. Read it yourself:
Hi babe,
Thanks for the newsy email and the cute pictures of Isabel at HK Disneyland. Sorry I haven’t gotten back to you before now. We are all missing you so much. Make sure you come back to visit us soon. And I’m still waiting for that present you promised me, you stingy bitch.
It was okay over Christmas without you but now it’s all back to work and I think it’s finally sunk in that you’re not coming back. Anyway, we finally have a replacement for you. It’s a guy and get this his name is Wally Patterson. Can you believe it? Some cruel parents named their son Wally! I couldn’t say his name without giggling for ages but I’m getting used to it now. But when I told Bruce about it he didn’t think it was funny at all. I hate men sometimes. He said there was once a famous footballer player called Wally but of course I’d never heard of him because I can’t stand football. Anyway our Wally seems nice enough but it’s not like having you here.
We’ve just come back from a weeks’ holiday down the coast at Mollymook and it rained almost the whole time. We are having a shit summer this year. December was okay but January it’s rained almost all the time. You must have taken the weather with you. I almost killed the boys by the time the week was over. We got stuck in this tiny flat with crap regional TV and I had to let them play their Playstation the whole time and they went completely feral. Fortunately Bruce took them out fishing on one of the only two sunny days so I took myself off for a brand new set of acrylics to cheer me up. So I came back from a week’s holiday without a hint of a tan. Not fair.
By the way I have hidden your ‘secret document’ as requested.
Which brings me to something I have been wondering whether I should tell you about but I’ve decided I will because I thought it might help you a bit with getting on with your life and stuff.
It was Edward’s fortieth birthday party last Saturday night and we were all invited (doesn’t the guy have enough friends or something?). Karen and I went together because Karen’s husband was OS and Bruce would have been bored and I didn’t want to pay for a babysitter. Anyway Alex was there too and he brought a new girl.
At first I thought it was his sister because she looked almost exactly like her, but then I noticed they were holding hands. I get on well with my brother but I don’t hold hands with him! So when I got introduced to her I did some spying. Her name is Natalie and she works with Alex’s flatmate, whatever his name is. They met at some party on New Year’s Eve and have been seeing each other ever since. She seemed nice enough and quite pretty but not a patch on you of course. Alex seemed a bit nervous around me but I didn’t say anything because we’ve always pretended that I didn’t know about you two.
I hope I’ve done the right thing in telling you and you’re not too upset. I figured you’d find out eventually anyway. I’d better get back to work now so I don’t get the sack. Hope all is going well with Issy and Tony and being a full-time mum. Write soon.
Love
Mel xxx
I’ve read this email so many times and lingered carefully over every single word. No matter how many times I read it the final interpretation I come to is never a good one.
‘Eleanor Parkes speaking.’
‘It’s Alex, Ellie.’
‘Oh…hello…It didn’t work out, but I guess you’ve heard that.’
‘Yes, I heard. The question is why didn’t you let me know?’
‘I did. I told Melanie to tell you.’
‘I mean why didn’t you call yourself? And Melanie said you’ve been back for several weeks!’
‘I don’t know. My life is such a complicated mess at present
22
House hunting
I thought you’d be better off not getting involved. Besides, I wasn’t sure you’d want to hear from me after I found out you were seeing someone else.’
‘Yeah everyone kept telling