Happily Ever After_ - Benison Anne O'Reilly [96]
‘Oh well, if you want to waste your time I suppose that’s your business.’
Anyway, I’ve had a reprieve. My new improved, super-duper husband has decided I look tired and thus volunteered to take Isabel to Hong Kong Disneyland, which is just up the road from here, without me today. I have to finish this memoir today, email it off to Melanie’s safe keeping, and expunge all records from my computer.
So to continue.
18
Glass slippers and unlikely fairy godmothers
The following Monday Tony confirmed his transfer with Cathay. Then he headed off overseas for several days.
My stomach was performing a triple somersault with pike as I walked into the office on Tuesday, but I found Alex was out on the road all morning. I left a message on his voicemail, asking him to meet me for lunch at a coffee lounge in the local shopping mall.
I received a text in reply: Ok what’s up?
Tell u later, was mine.
The décor of Rosa’s Coffee Lounge has seen better days and the coffee is almost undrinkable, but I wanted to go somewhere where we’d be unlikely to run into anyone we knew and in that regard it fitted the bill perfectly. There were a few other diners, mostly aged over sixty. Well they looked about that old, as far as I could make out through the gloom. The place could certainly have done with a few extra light bulbs. It seemed an appropriate venue for what I was about to do.
Alex walked in a couple of minutes late, looking tense.
‘What’s going on?’ he asked, as he took the chair opposite.
‘Do you want to order coffee first?’
‘No, I want to know what’s on your mind.’
The waitress approached us but I politely waved her away. It looked like I couldn’t stall any longer. ‘Tony is transferring to Hong Kong with work. I’ve decided I’m going with him.’
‘No you’re not.’
‘I’m sorry, but I am. I’ve thought about it long and hard and ultimately it’s the best decision for all of us.’
‘And are you including me in your all of us? Because it’s not the best decision for me.’
‘I think it is. You’ll be better off without me.’
‘Have you been leading me on all this time? Did you never have any intention of leaving your husband?’
‘No, no…please believe me. It was just as I said it was. But Tony really has changed. I can’t explain why but for Isabel’s sake I have to try and make a go of it.’
He crossed his arms and shook his head. ‘No. I’m not giving up that easily.’
‘I’ve already handed in my resignation to Edward this morning. It’s happening, Alex. I’m so sorry. If there was any other way…’
In his anger his pupils had dilated. ‘Don’t say that. There is another way - you just haven’t chosen it. The fact that I’m in love with you doesn’t come into this at all, does it?’
‘I’m sorry but I’ve lived more than you and no longer buy this love conquers all stuff.’
‘Really? I happen to think I’ve lived quite a lot actually…’
‘Anyway, I seriously doubt you can be as much in love with me as you say. We’ve known each other such a short time.’
‘Oh and you can get inside my head now can you?’
‘I just can’t see how you could have gotten over Julie so soon. It’s barely been a year. She was your great love, not me.’
‘No, you are the one who keeps saying Julie was my great love. I never have. You don’t want to deal with the possibility that it might actually be you.’
‘Now you’re just rewriting history to make me feel guilty.’
‘No I’m not - and that’s a terrible thing to say.’
‘Okay, okay, I’m sorry. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. I care for you so deeply.’
‘But not deeply enough it seems…I could tell Tony about us, you know. What would happen then?’
‘You would be ruining my life, Alex, and if you love me as much as you say you do, you could never choose to do that. I would never forgive you.’
‘So that’s it, is it? You are going to waltz off to your new life in Hong Kong with that husband you claimed you no longer loved so you can have boring sex with him for the rest of your life.’
I think the old lady in the lawn bowls uniform at the next table must have heard this. Certainly she dropped