“Well then …” Shane stood up and took something out of his back pocket. “I suppose I have no choice but to leave this here.” He handed Jenny a small white envelope addressed to Karen. “Maybe if she won’t listen to me, I can explain things another way.”
Now Karen held the envelope in her hands. “I hope it’s not from that lying, cheating bastard,” she said vehemently, though Jenny saw that it had piqued her interest.
“Why don’t you go into the bedroom and read it in private?” she suggested, busying herself with the washing-up.
Karen saton her bed and carefully tore open the envelope, her heart pounding. Was it from Shane? What should she expect? Was this good or bad?
She had spent night after night lying awake and tossing and turning, trying to get the image of him with Lydia out of her head. She had thought about little else in the ensuing days and couldn’t face talking about it with anyone either, unwilling to let anyone know how much he had hurt her.
Finally, she opened the note and began to read. Then read and reread the words in their entirety a few times before going back out to the living room.
Jenny looked at her expectantly. “Well?”
Karen rolled her eyes and handed her the piece of paper. “He’s just feeling sorry for himself - of course,” she said airily, but her lip wobbled.
Jenny read the heartfelt note and her eyes were glistening when she looked back up. “Ah, Karen, he’s really suffering.”
“Just because he comes up with this sappy nonsense doesn’t mean that I should run back into his arms though,” she stated vehemently. “He said in the letter that I deserve better and he’s right. Idodeserve better.”
Jenny shook her head as she handed the note back. “Sometimes, I just don’t understand you at all. I mean, the guy has told you pretty much everything any girl would want to hear and …” she said, hesitating a little, “youdiddump him, remember.”
Karen slumped down onto the sofa and defiantly folded her arms. “That’s not the point and you know it. How would you feel if Roan went off and shagged someone else and you caught them in the act?”
“But you didn’t catch them in the act. Plus according to this, they didn’t sleep together, did they?” Jenny retorted. Her friend really was too stubborn for her own good sometimes. She could only guess how hard it had been for Shane to pour his heart out in that letter and it still wasn’t enough. In truth, Karen was partly to blame. They had both made mistakes but clearly still had feelings for one another, so what else mattered?
The two were quiet for a while until eventually Karen stood up and stretched her arms out above her head.
“Ah sod this,” she said, “I don’t want to talk about it any more. He’s leaving anyway, so that’s the end of it. What’s the story with you and Roan?” she asked, deftly changing the subject. “Are you two OK after that whole thing about the money?”
Jenny shrugged. “We’re fine. I haven’t seen much of him lately though – he took on a lot of extra hours so he could pay for this Venice trip.”
Karen smiled, feeling consideringly more gracious toward Roan these days. “The break will do you good – you must be looking forward to it.”
Jenny nodded. Shewaslooking forward to spending time with him on the trip and knew that he too would need the break after all the overtime. He’d also promised to repay everything he owed once he got paid at the end of the month.
“It’ll be so nice to be able to spend a bit of time together on our own. Still,” she said, winking, “this little hiatus you and I are having at the mo might work to our advantage. We should give Tessa a ring and arrange another night out in town, just the three of us.”
“No men? Suits me down the ground,” Karen agreed, rubbing her hands together.
With that, she tore up Shane’s heartfelt note and tossed it into the bin.
17
Jenny examined the contents of her wardrobe wondering what she should pack. She wasn’t sure what kind of weather to expect in Venice at this time of the year.
Maybe she should pop down to the shops and pick out a few new bits and pieces. But money was tight and she’d need cash to spend on the trip too.
She certainly couldn’t expect Roan to pay for everything.
But she still wasn’t sure what she should bring. This capsule wardrobe that they were always talking about in magazines looked easy from the outset, yet didn’t seem practical. For one thing, Jenny wasn’t sure whether they would be going out to formal restaurants, or casual pizzeria-type places for dinner, and what about sightseeing? She would need to bring comfortable clothes and footwear for that and dressier stuff for the evenings.
Maybe the likes of Tessa, who was so tiny that she could fit most of her clothes in her back pocket could get away with a capsule wardrobe, but for Jenny, putting the whole lot in a freight container would be more like it.
She’d give Roan a ring and ask him about the kind of weather to expect, to say nothing of their departure time, because - typical man - he’d been scant enough on the details so far other than they were due to fly out the following morning.
His flatmate answered the landline on the first ring.
“Kevin, it’s Jenny. Is Roan there?”
