Happily Ever After_ - Benison Anne O'Reilly [68]
This was true. Even if I had been the vindictive type, which I am not, I was conscious that I had, ever so briefly, kissed him back and thought this embarrassing detail would likely come out if things ever got nasty.
‘Great, so that’s what you think of me is it?’
‘Well, what am I supposed to think? What I really can’t work out is why me? You could just about have your pick of the single females around here and probably a few of the male ones too, if you were that way inclined. Do you get off on cracking on to married women or something? And what about your girlfriend, doesn’t she figure in all of this?’
‘What girlfriend? I don’t have a girlfriend. I mean I did have, in England, but not here. We broke up.’
‘So why do you still have a photo of her on your desk?’
‘Huh, I don’t…Oh, I think you must mean the picture my sister Sophie sent me. We met up for a skiing holiday in France before I came home.’
I felt a bit foolish now. Why was I always the last to know anything around here?
‘Oh my God, I had no idea. What an idiot I am. But she doesn’t look like you,’ I said.
He smiled apologetically. ‘No, I took after mum. She’s looks more like dad. It happens that way sometimes.’
‘Well sorry to accuse you of that - please accept my apologies - but that still doesn’t answer why you picked on me. I mean Rosanna was all over you like a rash - you just had to say the word and you were in.’
‘Do you seriously think I’d be interested in Rosanna? I hope you think I’ve got better taste than that.’
‘Well?’
He hesitated a moment. ‘And to think I thought I was making it too obvious. The fact is…umm…I am attracted to you Ellie. I have a thing for you. I thought you knew. Saying that, I would have never have acted, honestly, if you had not told me your marriage was in trouble and gotten all cuddly at the end. I guess I just misread the signals, although I expect all the alcohol I’d drunk was a factor. So now I feel really embarrassed and need to leave, but promise you I will always act like a gentleman in future and hope we can work together again and put this behind us. Anyway, now that I’ve made a complete fool of myself I’d better go. Have a good weekend.’
And with that he turned on his heels and left.
God, I really was the last one to know anything around here.
How I drove home safely that day I’ll never know. That evening Tony and I were heading out to dinner for Angus’ birthday so I didn’t have time to reflect properly on this new development. I thought some of his friends might detect the tension between us but they didn’t seem to. Most of the other husbands ignored their wives anyway and spent the whole night drinking and discussing sport and business and real estate, whilst all the wives sat around ignoring their husbands and talking about child care and clothes and gossip. God it was deadly. I would have got drunk except I was the designated driver that evening.
The next day Isabel had a whirl of fairy-themed birthday parties to attend, so it wasn’t until that evening that I really had a chance to sit down and think. Tony had headed off to Telstra Stadium to watch a rugby test with his father and after Issy fell asleep I had the house to myself.
Alex! I couldn’t believe it. What was it about me that attracted these good-looking men? I could only assume that I’d started releasing some super-potent, male-attracting pheromone. If only I could find the formula and patent it I would be able to make myself a fortune.
So Rosanna had sensed it, obviously. I wondered why and started to think back on Alex’s behaviour towards me. It was true that he visited my office more often than he probably needed to. That had become obvious in the last week when he had avoided me and we had still managed to get all our work done. He was also always very attentive, making sure I had been saved a seat at meetings and didn’t miss out on morning coffee. So in a way I had been conscious of being a favourite, but in a ‘buddy’ sort of way. I’d never dreamed that there was any other motivation.