What was it they said about the best-laid plans?
57
Later, Mike slammed the door behind him and called out a greeting into the kitchen where Jenny sat nervously awaiting his return. “We’re home!”
She looked up as he came through the doorway and despite her heavy heart, couldn’t help but smile.
“There’s Mummy….” he sang and the little girl’s face lit up in a beaming smile as Jenny stretched out her arms.
“Hello honey.” She took the baby from Mike and embraced her, kissing the top of her head. “Did you have a good time at Auntie Rachel’s, Holly?”
“She was great,” he soothed. “Rach said she slept through lunch and spent the afternoon glued toPaw Patrol. I’m not quite sure if I’m happy about our girl watching so much telly, but I didn’t say anything to my darling sister.” Mike removed Holly’s nappy bag from one shoulder and his laptop case from the other, beforebending down to kiss Jenny hello. “So did you get everything squared away today?”
For a brief moment, she started, confused. Then she remembered – the exam, she was supposed to have spent today studying. Rachel had taken Holly the night before and babysat today to give Jenny time to do so.
“I did as much as I could,” she answered, which was something that resembled the truth. Since this morning, she hadn’t been able to concentrate on anything other than what Mike had told her over breakfast.
“You must be zonked,” he said. “Why don’t you go and take it easy for a while and I’ll organise something for dinner.” He removed Holly’s coat and sat her in her high chair, before taking her favourite teddybear out of the bag and handing it to her. The little girl began playing happily with the toy, banging it up and down on the plastic table in front of her.
“No, it’s fine, I was just about to start,” Jenny said. She got up from the table and took some carrots from the vegetable trolley beside the sink. “You go on up and have your shower.”
“Are you sure?” Mike said gratefully, taking orange juice out of the fridge and drinking it directly from the carton. “It was a tough day, to be honest. And battling traffic from the other side of town wasn’t much fun either. I don’t know how people endure having to sit in that every single day.”
Rachel lived on the north side of the city, close to the hospital in which she worked. Mike had left the officeearly, but with the inevitable motor congestion, the journey had taken a couple of hours.
She nodded distractedly. “I can imagine.”
“I called earlier to see how you were getting on, but you must have been so immersed in the books that you didn’t answer.”
Jenny thought quickly. She couldn’t tell him she had spent the day at Karen’s. “I had the phone switched to silent. Sorry.” She hated herself for lying to him and even more for deceiving him, but Mike noticed nothing amiss.
He tickled Holly in her chair and the baby chuckled, enjoying the attention.
“Oh,” he added then, remembering, “I booked a table at that new Thai place tomorrow night. I asked Rach and she said she’d be delighted to come over and spend time with her favourite niece again. Remember I told you this morning that I was planning to bring the new guy out?”
Jenny nodded, wondering why he didn’t ask her what was wrong, certain that he could hear the blood gushing through her veins.
“I think he’s bringing his girlfriend – or is it his wife even?” Mike pondered. “I’m not sure. I haven’t had a chance to get to know him since he started and I’m keen for all of us to start off on the right foot. After all, he’ll be the one running the show when I’m on leave for the honeymoon.” She tried to relax as he came up and put his arms around her, nuzzling her neck. “You should wear that dress you got for the christening. Your man would be impressed as hell if he saw you in that.”
Mistaking Jenny’s silence as fatigue after a tough daywith the books, he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and then hummed a little tune on his way upstairs.
Jenny was stricken. She couldn’t do this, couldn’t pretend any longer.
She had to tell him – tonight.
58
“Firstly, you need to know that I never planned this … I never intended to lie or attempted to deceive you. It was … well it was just the way things happened.”
Later that evening, after they had put Holly to bed, Jenny decided that it was time to come clean since an upcoming encounter with Roan was imminent. Swallowing hard, she took both of Mike’s hands in hers and led him over to their bed, sitting on the edge of it.
“Deceive me?” Mike chuckled nervously, “What are you talking about? Hey, you’re shaking, what’s wrong?”
“What I’m about to say may well mean the end of our relationship, but it’s something you need to know.” Jenny clasped both of her hands tightly around his, steeling herself to tell him the truth and wishing that she hadn’t lied in the first place. “The new guy you’ve taken on at the company – Roan. He was - is - my ex, the one I was getting over when I met you.” She waited anxiously for his response.
“OK,” Mike stated, evidently a little bemused still. “But that was ages ago. You’re hardly still carrying a torch?”
She swallowed hard. “There’s more. Remember I told you we met again last year when he turned up at Shane’s funeral? We hadn’t seen one another since … well, since the breakup.”
