Replacement Wife by Rowena Wiseman

Author:Rowena Wiseman [Wiseman, Rowena]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2015-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

21

Rita must have worked a lot, because I never saw her around at school drop-offs or pick-ups. I was beginning to think that her boys were probably in afterschool care. I was keen to see her so that I could have a similar conversation with her as the one that I had with Suzi: the kind where I let her know that I would be fine with Luke hooking up with someone else, that in fact it would be a blessing.

Once again, I let my impatience get the better of me. I had been keeping my eye out for Rita for a few weeks, to no avail, so when I saw her at the school sports day I bounded up to her straight away and stole a position, uninvited, on the concrete step beside her.

‘How have you been?’ I asked.

‘Good,’ she said.

‘How’s Evan?’

‘Fine.’

‘What’s he in today?’

‘The relay, long jump.’

‘How’s the business? The bags and stuff?’

‘All good.’

‘Things aren’t great with Luke and me,’ I said. It was a bit of a leap from handbags to marriage dramas when we weren’t really friends, but I didn’t know how much time we had before she would need to leave to watch an event. ‘I sometimes wish that he would find someone else. You know, go off and be with another woman. Did you ever feel like that?’

‘Never. That’s what my husband did. He found someone else.’ Eek, my foot was so far down my throat I was practically gagging. ‘You should be careful what you wish for, because it’s actually not very nice at all.’ She gathered up her aqua-blue bag, swung it over her shoulder and started moving away.

‘Sorry, Rita,’ I said, walking after her. ‘That was incredibly insensitive of me. I didn’t know. Truly, I didn’t know. I would never have said that—’

‘You should be grateful for what you have with Luke. He seems like a very nice guy,’ she said, striding down the steps. ‘Don’t go destroying it. It’s hard on your own. I probably should have even stayed with my lying, cheating husband. It would have been easier than being on my own.’ Suddenly she paused and composed herself. ‘Sorry, Luisa. I wasn’t listening to you. I was making it all about me. Relationships are tough. If you’re having troubles you should get some counselling, see if you can get your marriage serviced before it gets too far out of control.’

‘I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said anything—’

‘Don’t worry. It seems as though everyone who has a rocky relationship wants to speak to the divorced woman. You’re not the only one. You’d be amazed at how many people want to talk to me about this sort of stuff: even women I hardly know.’ She stood there looking thoughtful, as though she was about to say something else, but she must have changed her mind because she didn’t say anything more.

‘Let me know if you ever need any help with the boys. We live so close; I could help with drop-offs and pick-ups if you like.

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