The Happy Couple by Samantha Hayes

Author:Samantha Hayes [Samantha Hayes]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838887469
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2020-05-05T18:30:00+00:00

Twenty-Nine

You OK? Jo had texted again, before everything had gone black and she’d shut out the world.

Unintentionally.

It was as if something had swept over her – a thick, dark blanket hiding her. She wasn’t even aware of it happening.

Sleep.

She was exhausted, and had woken on the sofa. But she hadn’t rested well – she’d been agitated, sweaty and filled with dreams she didn’t want to be a part of. She was concerned about Louise, of course – though not in a way that had her panicking or phoning hospitals or interfering by telling Archie what had happened. Besides, if Louise hadn’t actually arrived home last night, Archie would have called her, asked her what she knew.

And while Louise might be heavily pregnant, and not without medical complications, she wasn’t stupid. Far from it. She was a high-achieving woman who knew how to look after herself. If Jo had had to be concerned about either Louise or Archie, she’d have chosen Archie every time. He might bring new life into the world virtually every day, his big hands cradling tiny newborns, but he didn’t come without his own Venn diagram of complicated emotions. Past hurt caught up with vulnerability, crossing the line with pride. He seemed to move from one intersection to another – and he’d often chatted it out with Will. Jo wondered if he confided as much in his other male friends, if he had anyone to talk to now – apart from Louise, of course.

Similarly, Louise had Archie for support. A good man in her life. Someone to notice if she wasn’t back home from work or was upset or struggling or simply in need of a hug. Someone who could read the little signals, decipher the tiniest of expression changes or the way she moved, the lightest of sighs. Plus she had her colleagues to watch out for her while she was in the office. People who would notice if she was ill or in trouble or if she didn’t show up when she was meant to. Louise was ensconced in life. Wrapped up in it. She will be fine. The baby will be fine.

‘But will I be fine?’ Jo whispers, stretching out, wishing she’d made it upstairs to bed.

And that’s what hurts the most, she’d thought as she’d tossed and turned through the night. Jo didn’t have that any more. She’d been stripped of her cheerleader. The one who understood her the best. Her go-to person when her feelings got the better of her. Happy or sad, or anything in between, the one person she’d always want to tell first about anything that happened to her was Will.

And he didn’t even have the decency to take his bloody phone so I could call, keep sending him messages even if they weren’t being read.

It would have been some kind of connection, at least, until perhaps, one day, he found the courage to reply. Part of her wanted the chance to make him annoyed and switch off his phone or let his battery run out on purpose.

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