‘Oi!’ Gracie smirked as she walked through to the lounge.
On seeing the jumper Lewis had been wearing last night scrumpled on the floor, she folded it and went to put it on the arm of the sofa. As she did so, she noticed something sparkly sticking out of it.
Looking closer, she gulped. And as her heart began to beat at one hundred miles an hour, she felt physically sick. For there, staring back at her, was a diamanté earring in the shape of a butterfly.
TWELVE
Still flushed from their love-making earlier, Gracie stood in the kitchen trying to control her emotions. There was no doubt this was Annalize’s earring. Stuck right there in her boyfriend’s jumper. The jumper he had been wearing last night. The night that Annalize had gone out and got drunk, too. It all made sense. Her over-generosity, her helping with her make-up! She would never be able to look at a butterfly as a creature of beauty ever again.
Sinking her face into the jumper, her worst fears were realised, as the undeniable scent of ‘Eau de Bitch’ filled her nostrils.
As she marched through to the bedroom, she found Lewis laughing out loud at an old episode ofFriends.
Dropping the earring from a height onto his duvet-covered crotch, she knew his face would tell her the truth. It took all of her mental strength to remain calm. ‘I just saw this stuck to your jumper, and it’s not mine?’
To her despair, his face had guilt written all over it.
He sat up abruptly. ‘It’s not what you think. I can explain.’
Gracie started to pull on jeans and a jumper.
‘Where are you going, Gigi?’
‘Nowhere, until you tell me what the fuck is going on. I bloody knew you fancied her. You bastard, Lewis.’ She tried her hardest not to cry. ‘I work with the woman. I have to look at her every single day – what the hell were you thinking?’
Lewis got up and clumsily pulled on his joggers. He took a huge breath and ran towards Gracie and held her by the shoulders. ‘It was a silly mistake, Gracie. I was drunk. We’d had a row. I was horny! She was there. Randomly, in the same pub as me after football. We got talking. She came on to me.’
Gracie pulled herself away, her voice now a growl. ‘We had a row and you were horny! What the fuck!Nois a very short word to remember, Lewis.’
‘It meant nothing, I promise you. In fact, it’s made me realise how much I love you, Gigi. I don’t want her. I don’t want anyone else. I love you, Gracie. I really do. So much. And I swear on my mother’s life that I have never done anything like this before and I promise I willneverdo it again.’
‘Cut the Gigi and the crap, Lewis. Did you have sex with her?’
Lewis jumped up and held Gracie by both arms again.
‘Look at me, Gracie, you have to believe me. It was a one-off, it was nothing to me. It was purely physical.’
‘Did you fuck her?’ Gracie growled.
‘She’s fake, she has nothing to offer me. You are far more beautiful.’
‘Just answer me, Lewis, I have to know or I can’t deal with it. I have to know everything.’
Lewis paced over to the window and put his head in his hands.
‘Yeah, we had sex. It was shit. I amso, sosorry, I really am. You have to forgive me. It meant nothing.’
‘Did you arrange to see her again?’
‘No, of course I didn’t. It was what it was. Sex. Plain sex. Nothing more, nothing less.’
‘To you it was, Lewis. To me, it spells the end of our relationship. I thought nothing could hurt me as much as losing the twins but – do you know what? – I think you’ve matched it.’ She wiped her eyes clumsily with her right hand. He went over to her and tried to hug her.
‘Get your filthy, philandering hands off me. I trusted you, Lewis. I trusted you.’
She started throwing things into a bag.
‘Where are you going?’ Lewis was crying now.
