A Very Unchristian Retreat by Giles Curtis

Author:Giles Curtis [Curtis, Giles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B008AV2AEA
Goodreads: 19103572
Published: 2012-06-11T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Forty-Seven

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s okay,” Paul sobbed.

Trish and Sal looked at each other and tried to soothe him. It clearly wasn’t okay, and he started to sob again.

“There, there love. It’s all right,” Trish stroked his head. Sal cooed sympathetically. Between the two of them they had some experience with cheating partners. They understood how he felt.

“How long have you two been together?” Trish asked. She was attempting to understand the depth of the infidelity, but she knew very little about gay relationships. Paul’s reply was punctuated by so many sobs, she couldn’t decipher the duration of their partnership.

Sal tried a more direct approach. “Have you ever shared partners before?” She’d heard this was common, and eventually Paul nodded.

“So what’s different now?”

Paul struggled to regain his composure.

“Have this, love,” Trish said and passed him a small brandy.

“I don’t normally,” he muttered, and then drank it all. Trish topped it up.

Paul was not obviously gay. He was neither camp nor theatrical, and certainly not prone to tantrums. He couldn’t remember the last time he cried, apart from Billy Elliot. But that didn’t count as everyone cried at the end. He had to ask himself what was different? Why was he so upset?

He tried to articulate it. “It’s different.” They nodded. He thought again and had another go. “It’s different because at the beginning, it didn’t matter. Then after a while it was still fun, but the men didn’t matter. They were like sex toys. They were forgettable and disposable. There was no,” he pointed to his head, “connection.” Trish and Sal looked at each other. The idea of men as disposable sex toys rather appealed to them. It would spark a debate later.

“How do you know,” Sal asked cautiously, “that Eric has a connection with the Vicar?” She waved her hand around, “what’s his name?”

“Michael.”

“Yes, how do you know there is a connection?”

“It’s all he talks about. Ever since he laid eyes on him, he has talked continuously, unceasingly, and without fucking stopping.” Trish and Sal got the point.

“Maybe it’s a passing obsession,” Trish suggested.

“Do you know where we went yesterday?” They didn’t.

“We went to Bordeaux.”

“Really, it’s quite nice there, isn’t it?” Sal asked.

“Do you know why we went there?” They didn’t.

“Eric didn’t tell me until we got there. Do you know how long it takes to get there?” They didn’t.

“It took two hours to find a book shop. Do you know what he bought there?” They didn’t know that either.

“A bible. He bought a bible. He bought a bloody bible. He took us on a round trip of four hours to buy a sodding English language bible.”

“Religion’s not a bad thing,” Sal ventured unconvincingly.

“He hates religion. He hates church. He doesn’t believe in God. In fact if he could be bothered to think about God, he wouldn’t believe in Him.”

“Oh,” Trish and Sal said.

“I wanted to go rock climbing. Do you know what he said?” They didn’t.

“He said it was too tiring. I said let’s go skiing. Do you know what he said?” They had no idea.

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