The Woman Who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes

Author:Marian Keyes
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
ISBN: 9780718179571
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2014-11-05T13:00:00+00:00

Monday morning, first thing, Karen and I were getting set for our day when we heard a person coming up the stairs to the salon.

‘Already?’ I said. ‘Someone’s in a hurry.’

Karen saw the visitor before I did and her face became hard and unfriendly. ‘Can I help you?’

It was him. Mannix Taylor. Not in his hospital clothes but in the grey expensive-looking coat that he’d been wearing the very first time I’d seen him, when I’d driven my car into his.

‘Can I see Stella?’ he said.

‘No,’ Karen said.

‘I’m here,’ I said.

He saw me and the shock of our eye contact made me dizzy.

‘What happened to you on Friday?’ he asked.

‘I … well …’

‘I waited until nine o’clock.’

‘Oh.’ I should have rung. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Can we talk?’

‘I’m at work.’

‘Do you get a lunch break?’

‘Have it now.’ Karen sounded angry. ‘Go and have your talk. But remember, mister,’ she stepped between Mannix Taylor and me, ‘she’s married.’

‘– Actually,’ I said, apologetically, ‘Ryan and I have separated.’

Karen’s face blazed white with shock. Never before had she been so wrong-footed. ‘What? When?’

‘Over the weekend. He moved out last night.’

‘And you didn’t tell me?’

‘I was just about to.’

She rallied with aplomb. ‘Just remember.’ She narrowed her eyes at Mannix, then me, then Mannix again. ‘You two, and your little hospital romance – it’s all in your heads and in real life you’d never be suited.’

Out in the cold blue March morning, I suggested we go to the pier. We sat on a bench and stared at the boats and I asked, ‘What’s going on? Why did you show up at my work?’

‘Why did you make an appointment with me on Friday? And then not come?’

‘I heard that you and your wife have split up –’

‘It’s true.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘It’s okay.’

‘I wanted to see you. But then I was too scared.’

‘Right.’ After a pause he said, ‘Isn’t it strange to be actually talking to each other in words and not blinks?’

‘… Yes.’ It had just dawned on me that we were communicating with our voices. ‘We were very good at the blinking.’ Suddenly I was exasperated by all our pussy-footing. ‘Just tell me,’ I said. ‘What happened? With us. In the hospital. I didn’t imagine it, did I?’

‘Nope.’

‘So explain it.’

Staring out to sea, he was silent for a long while, then he said, ‘There was some sort of connection. I don’t know how it happened but you became … the person I liked the most. Seeing you, it was the bright shiny part of my day, and when our appointment finished, all the sparkle went.’

Oookay …

‘On the home front, Georgie and I, we’d been trying so hard for a baby … babies. The IVF wasn’t working, but even without kids I wanted to give me and Georgie my best shot. But I couldn’t be fully with her while I was thinking about you. So I had to stop seeing you. I’m sorry I didn’t explain. If I’d tried, it would have opened up too much stuff; it would have made it worse.

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