“Hi, Libs. How are you?” His voice sounded thin and edgy.
“Simon.”
“You okay?”
“Fine, thanks. You?”
“Yeah, okay, okay.”
He’s not okay, Libby realized, and that gave her a flush of triumph. Good, let him suffer like he’d made her suffer.
“How’s things with the family? Hex okay?”
“Simon, I’m eating dinner. What do you want?”
“Oh.” She could hear his confusion at her sharp tone. “Well, I need to tell you something.”
This is it, Libby thought with a lurch. This is the moment he either asks me to move back or says he wants to break up for good.
“What is it?”
“Well, the thing is... I wanted to tell you before you heard it from anyone else...”
“Tell me what?”
She heard Simon inhale at the other end of the phone line.
“What, Simon?”
“Ivemetsomeoneelse.”
The words came tumbling out so fast that it took Libby a moment to decipher what he’d said.
“She’s called Olivia,” Simon continued. “We met running.”
Libby realized she was still holding her forkful of curry, and she put it down with a clatter. Another woman. Running. She thought of the Instagram photos of Simon, his eyes glowing as he looked at whoever had been taking the shots. Of course. How could she have been so stupid?
“I’m sorry to tell you like this over the phone,” Simon continued. “But we’re going to the Lamb tomorrow and people are bound to see us and—well—I didn’t want word getting back to you from someone else.”
Libby and Simon used to go sometimes to the Lamb on a Saturday—his family had been drinking there for years and they knew most of the regulars. If Simon was taking this woman there, it meant they were meeting his parents, which meant things were getting serious.
“How long have you been seeing her, Simon?”
“What? Oh, not long. It’s nothing serious, Libs; it’s very casual.”
But she could hear it in his voice. It was the same one he used when he’d double booked a gardening job and tried to pretend it wasn’t his fault, or when Libby had caught him watching porn and he’d claimed it came on by accident.
There were so many things Libby wanted to say right now, angry, hurtful words she wanted to scream at Simon. But instead she took a deep breath and hung up the phone.
•••
WHENRebecca and Tom got home later, they found Libby sitting in the dark at the kitchen table, an uneaten curry in front of her.
“What on earth are you doing?” Rebecca said as she switched on the kitchen lights.
Libby looked around her as if waking from a daze. She had no idea what time it was or how long she’d been sitting there. All she knew was that she’d wanted to cry, but no tears had come.
“What’s happened?” Rebecca said.
