‘He tried. Why am I not surprised. At the Christmas party? I knew something was off,’ I say. She nods back at me. ‘Why are you telling me this now?’
‘Because Steve knows about Bea.’
I feel as if someone punched me in the solar plexus. I manage to squash a couple of my little succulents as I collapse down onto the little wall.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. I just wanted to be honest. And I wanted to talk to you about Bea. She’s very proud, she wouldn’t ever say this to you herself. Nate really took advantage of her at a very weak moment, just after something had happened with Luke,’ she says.
‘What?’
‘It’s true. I know because Finn and Steve have talked. Now Finn is different to Steve. Steve idolises Nate, he thinks he is wonderful. Mind you, if Steve ever tried to emulate Nate, I’d be gone so fast, he wouldn’t know what had hit him. Now about the other women, I don’t know much – but Bea was aone-off.’
‘Aone-off that got him in hospital,’ I say, my voice rising. So there had been others.
‘She was shocked the first time, but she was at a very weak moment and he totally took advantage of her. But he went back for more and she screamed at him, called the cops. And then he had a heart attack. Which serves him right,’ she says.
‘I doubt he’s learned his lesson.’
‘Are you keeping him?’ It was like she was talking about a dog who’d just peed on the rug. But you can also train a dog not to pee on the rug. You shouldn’t have to train a person who’s supposed to love you not to cheat on you. Humans are who they are. They act their better selves if they really want to. Nate just didn’t want to.
‘How do you know about the other women?’ I say.
‘I saw him once, with another woman, not Bea.’ She looks down. ‘I am so sorry, Marin. I didn’t know how to tell you. I should have. She was blonde, they were walking out of a hotel in town together which, in itself, means nothing but -’
In the pause, we both think of the ‘but’.
‘Did Finn know?’
‘No. Finn’s a straight arrow. I told Steve but Steve never told him.’
‘So how do I find out about the other women?’ I say.
‘You could ask him but I’d say he’ll lie. So check the bank statements,’ says Angie. ‘You need a forensic accountant and a decent lawyer for the divorce.’
‘I wasn’t going to divorce him,’ I say. ‘I thought if he was going to leave, he’d have left.’
‘Yeah,’ Angie gets up and pats my hand, ‘I wouldn’t bet on it. You deserve so much more, Marin. I don’t want you to think I’m experiencing any happiness telling you this, I just wanted you to know. I’ve always hated the way he treated you and you’re a good woman, Marin. And I’d like it if we could be friends. Somehow we haven’t really managed that in all these years.’
‘I felt intimidated by you,’ I say, ‘yourmake-up, your hair, your clothes, you always look so amazing.’
‘Clothes are nothing,’ laughs Angie, astonished.
‘No, no they’re not; clothes are fabulous. I love clothes. Clothes are armour and they’re the armour I just can’t get right.’
‘You’re so much more than clothes, Marin. I don’t see your clothes when I see you, not like with some women. On some women, all I see are the jeans or the shoes or the handbag. With you, I see you. We give clothes too much power.Wehave the power – they just emphasise it if we’re in the mood.’
I’m considering this when Angie gets up to go. She’s right – clothes have too much power.Wehave it.
‘I’ll leave you and please, let’s do that coffee. Oh, I meant to say, your sister, April, she’s changed, hasn’t she? I love her. She was telling me that Nate is sleeping in a separate room in case he hurts his groin.’ Angie has a slightly wicked look on her face. ‘If he was my husband, I’d hurt his groin.’
I laugh and it feels good. I’m so lucky to have all these other women in my life.
45
Bea
Three months later...
The introduction to Sean comes by stealth. Not an attack by Shazz from herhow-to-find-a-hot-man dating app, which was a small mercy. No, Mum organised this one, although, as she insists, it’s just by total accident that he happened to be there when I was.
