Things We Never Said by Alexander Nick

Author:Alexander, Nick [Alexander, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781503904378
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2018-09-03T16:00:00+00:00

Snapshot #17

35mm format, colour. On a pub lawn, two women in summer dresses lie either side of a handsome man with slicked-back hair. He’s wearing a waistcoat and rolled-up shirtsleeves. A small girl stands behind them holding a glass of orange juice. Of the four people in the photo, only the man is smiling.

Ouch, Sean thinks, the second he sees the photo. Because something had gone wrong that day between Catherine and Maggie. Despite the summer sun and the alcohol, the ambiance had been bitchy and glacial – so difficult, in fact, that Sean had been forced to abandon the whole mission and drag Catherine and April away.

It was a shame because Sean, for his part, had been feeling on top of the world. The Marble Drama, as it had come to be known, was over, and he was working on a new sheltered housing project out in Chesterton. The building did not require cladding.

Maggie had met Stéphane, the man in the photo, and was as happy as he had ever seen her. Actually, thinking back on it now, Maggie had been unreasonably, hysterically, irritatingly happy, and he had thought that it was this that had put Catherine’s back up that day. Of course, knowing what he knows now, she must still have been fuming, quite simply, over their supposed affair.

But Catherine should really have felt reassured. Because Maggie could only talk about one thing. Stéphane. Bloody Stéphane. She had talked about him for weeks at work and she had talked about him that day, as well. Stéphane who had a gym in his London flat; Stéphane who knew all the best restaurants. ‘And guess who bought me these gorgeously tasteful earrings? Why, Stéphane, of course!’

If the truth be told, even though he hadn’t even considered having an affair with Maggie, he had, once Stéphane came along, felt vaguely jilted. There was something about the guy that just really annoyed him.

Cassette #17

Hello honey.

So here’s a photo of Maggie and me with Stéphane keeping us from each other’s throats by lying in the middle. He actually seemed to think that all the bitching that was going on was funny. Perhaps he thought we were fighting over him. He had that kind of outlook on the world. And look at little April there scowling at the back. She looks like she’s about to glass him with her orange juice. God though . . . I had forgotten how good-looking he was.

I had worried about you and Maggie for most of the summer. Your moods seemed to be all over the place and I was constantly trying to decode if you were still having a dalliance behind my back or not.

Once I knew that Maggie had split up with Duncan, I avoided her like the plague. It was bad enough that you worked together and rowed together. I was damned if I was going to be the one to organise little get-togethers for you both at the weekends.

But it was a difficult time, that’s for sure.

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