And What Do You Do? by Sarah Long

Author:Sarah Long [Sarah Long]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2004-05-20T04:00:00+00:00

NINE

‘Go on, say it,’ sobbed Laura. ‘Say “I told you so”, why don’t you?’

Lorinda sighed and reached across the table for her friend’s hand. Laura had abandoned all pretence of anger with Lorinda after last night and had summonsed her for an emergency morning meeting in their favourite café.

‘You knew too, Laura. You just didn’t want to face up to it. And now you know for sure, which is good. Come on, it’s not the end of the world. You should see this as an opportunity.’

Laura glared at her, wiping the tears off her blotchy cheeks.

‘Are you mad? An opportunity to realise that I’ve been a stupid docile cow who has driven her husband into the arms of someone thin and gorgeous with far more to say for herself than his fat wreck of a wife whose only conversation is homework and paintings at the bloody Louvre!’

‘Two perfectly good topics, I’d have said. And let’s face it, Jean-Laurent isn’t exactly overburdened with interesting things to say, unless you’re looking for a human wine compendium, that is.’

‘Of course he’s interesting! Why else would I have married him? I know you’ve never liked him, but I won’t hear you slagging him off – he’s my husband and I love him, and it’s my fault that I’ve bored him into adultery!’

‘Laura, you’re suffering from poor self-esteem. It’s very common when people discover they’ve been cheated on.’

‘Stop it! You sound like Asa spouting all that loony psycho rubbish! I’m sure she knows. You should have seen the way she was looking at me this morning – a horrible mixture of pity and triumph, as though she couldn’t wait to enrol me in one of her damned classes!’

Their coffee was brought to the table and Laura stirred six cubes of sugar into her large crème. She was struck as usual by the pallor of the waiter’s skin. She now knew, of course, that Parisians were pale because they spent all their time indoors having sex with people they weren’t married to. Silly of her not to have realised earlier.

‘The thing is, Laura, you need to decide what you’re going to do about it,’ continued Lorinda.

‘You mean, like cutting off his dick then throwing myself off the top of the Eiffel Tower?’

‘That’s one option. Or you could go for a more controlled form of revenge.’

Laura’s face crumpled once again.

‘I don’t want revenge, I want him all to myself! I’m going to tell him I’m sorry, I understand why he did it and that I’m going to improve myself – lose weight, get a job, do anything he wants, so he won’t be forced to seek his thrills with that . . . bitch-face.’

‘Laura, stop making out it’s your fault! He’s the one who lied to you, remember. And there’s no point in grovelling after him – what good will that do? As I see it you have two options. Assuming you’re not prepared to leave him, that is.’

Laura shook her head.

‘Right, so you want to stick with him, though God knows why.

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