Ri: I’ll be fine. I have some funds saved from my swim coach job. It’s enough to get me through until semester finishes.
Stefan: And when is that again? Have you booked a flight home yet?
I left him on read.
“What have you told them?” she asked.
I shrugged. “That I failed a class and the professor got me an extension on my visa so I could take it again this semester.”
Kat’s forehead creased. “Is that even a thing?”
“Who the fuck knows? It’s been enough to keep them off my back so far.” But they were losing their patience, and I wasn’t legally protected here in Australia yet.
“What happens when the semester is over, and you still don’t go home? Ri, you’re going to need a better story than that.”
Fixing my eyes just above her head, I muttered, “Hopefully by the end of the semester I’ll be safe from them.”
“Buthow?” Kat insisted. “What are you up to? Where have you been all year? You hardly ever come home, you’re so reticent whenever I ask where you’ve been. You’re not caught up in something criminal, are you?”
I gaped at her. “Fuck no!” As I said it, I realised it wasn’t exactly true. What Henry and I were doing could be called breaking the law. But that wasn’t the sort of crime Kat was referring to. “I’m just … working on a more permanent solution.”
“You’re not going to give me even a scrap more information on this, are you?” Kat muttered.
“It’s better for you not to know,” I managed, feeling like the worst sort of friend. “Not yet anyway.”
Kat watched me, a worried frown on her beautiful face. “Alright,” she said eventually. “I won’t push. Now, do you happen to know French at all?”
I pulled back from her quirking an eyebrow. “Because …?”
She blushed. “Because Dom’s French, and he said something to me on the phone just before, and I’m desperate to know what it was! He refused to tell me, but I’m pretty sure the word ‘delicious’ was in there somewhere, and?—”
I cackled, relief at the change of subject flooding me. “He likes the taste of you! I can guarantee that’s what Dirty Dom was talking about!”
“You’re probably right,” she admitted, her fingers tracing gently back and forth on her lower lip, a distant smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
“Ooh! You really like him!” I gasped, gripping her knee. “And not just for orgasms!”
Kat shrugged, as if she could trick me into thinking she was nonchalant about all of this. “No, it’s not like that. He’s just … is it weird that I feel like I can confide in him?”
A pang jolted my chest. “Of course it’s not. The kind of sex you two are having, that requires trust, from both of you. And it breaks down emotional barriers too.”
Kat nodded, as if that made perfect sense. “Idolike him. But it can’t ever be more than what it is now …”
“Says who?” I demanded, reaching for my vodka glass, only to remember I’d drained it earlier watching her text her new man. “Relationships have developed out of far more bizarre starts than sex, you know.”
“Hmm,” she mumbled. “Anyway, I’m absolutely exhausted, and I have a full day of classes tomorrow.” She stood, tucking her hands into the pocket of her Oodie. “I better get some sleep.”
I nodded, took our glasses into the kitchen and dumped them in the sink. By the time I looked up again, Kat had disappeared.
Another pang of sadness tore through me. Lying to her had always been hard, but I’d justified it with the knowledge that it was better for her not to know the sordid details of my life.
Her remark about confiding in Dom had stung because I used to be the only one she confided in. I had no one to blame but myself—I’d been pushing her away all year. It was only natural she would find someone else she could talk to the way she had me.
It was only going to get worse, too, because there was no way I could keep my marriage a secret forever. And when she found out, she was going to resent me for all the lies. And I couldn’t even blame her, because if our roles were reversed, I’d be furious.
And then there was the added guilt that there was a part of me, a not small part, that didn’t want to be here, in this cold apartment, but back on the yacht, cuddling Abernathy and teasing Henry … and maybe practising more kisses …
And that part of me felt relieved that Kat had gone to bed so that I could retreat to my room and finish reading that message he’d sent me earlier.
