The Secrets of Married Women by Mason Carol

Author:Mason, Carol [Mason, Carol]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-01-30T15:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

‘I’m dying to give you the updates on the shag of the century, but first, how was your anniversary?’ It’s Leigh. I’m in Boots filling a basket.

I can tell she has little interest in my anniversary so I give a basic answer. ‘It was nice Leigh. Very nice.’ I find myself, coincidentally, in front of the condom shelf, my eyes going over colours, textures, sizes. I walk further up the aisle to get away from them and find myself staring at men’s deodorant. Old Spice. A sea of it.

‘Was he impressed with the nurse’s outfit and the bubbly?’ She’s giddy, giggly and annoying.

I wish I’d never told her. ‘Very.’

‘Did nursey-nurse and her medicine chest mend things in the old penis department?’

‘There’s nothing wrong with his penis Leigh. His penis has never been the problem.’ I say it a bit too loudly. A fellow shopper looks at me with startled fascination.

‘So I can assume you did it then?’

Oh, I can’t have my sex life reduced to this level. I walk off down another aisle to get away from people. ‘We did.’

‘Thank God,’ she says. ‘For a moment you had me really worried for you two.’

I tell her I’m at the till so I have to go. I hang up, abandon my basket in the aisle, and flee. I keep running until I’m half way down an unpopulated side street, bending over in a painful pant, allowing the crowds of shoppers to dissolve into a blur behind me.

I can’t go home. So I walk around the town, full of the ailing state of my marriage, wondering if I’m blowing us out of perspective, if there’s a bright, light side I’m not seeing because I’ve convinced myself I can’t. It’s a sunny evening. Stores are closing, metal shutters clanging to the ground. Somebody is picking expensive watches out of a jeweller’s window, and the barrow boys are loading their things-unsold into vans. Suddenly, the sky goes very dark. In about three seconds my white T-shirt looks like it’s been lifted out of a pail of water. I pelt past Grey’s Monument, as people who’ve been sat there soaking up the sunshine, run into Eldon Square for cover. Under the awning of a pie shop, I stand and watch it coming down in one long spectacular sheet, bouncing noisily off the ground like grey lightning. Behind me, people disappear down the slippery steps of the Metro. Everybody going home. To their families. Why don’t I want to go home to mine?

My phone rings. I want it to be Rob, telling me that he’s suffering like I am, but it’s Wendy. Her voice anchors me again though. ‘Actually, Wend, I’ve been ringing you all day but your mobile’s been switched off,’ I tell her.

‘Oh I’ve just bought a one like Neil’s,—a fancy one with all the bells and whistles—only like everything we seem to buy, there was a problem so it’s being fixed. How was your anniversary?’

‘Not great. We had a fight.’

There’s a pause. ‘I thought you sounded flat.

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