Twin Truths by Jacqueline Sutherland

Author:Jacqueline Sutherland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780861544066
Publisher: Oneworld Publications

Two days after Felix had turned up at the house, I agreed to see him. The texts were constant and every ping of my phone put me more on edge. They didn’t even slow down much at night; there was only a few hours, between about 2 a.m. and dawn, when there was silence. He must hardly sleep. I remembered him in the hotel room, perched at the end of the bed, writing words as I slept. David was now well enough to sit downstairs and watch TV, and was already talking about going back to work on the Monday, but I put off leaving the house, wanting to stay in the security of it with him. I tucked blankets around his knees, brought him supplies of water and painkillers, before forcing myself to go, shut the front door. I didn’t want to face up to the situation. What I’d done.

I met Felix at Amelie’s, a tiny bar outside Aldeburgh. He was already there when I arrived, tapping his index fingers against the tabletop in the corner, drumming a tune in his head. He was beautiful to look at, lost in his own world, but I felt strangely detached. Something inside me had shifted – or rather, was back to where it should be. He saw me and raised his hand, the concentration falling from his face, leaving it open, expressive. The table in front of him was empty, so I bought myself time by ordering two drinks, and took them over. As I sat down, his hand found my thigh under the tabletop and squeezed, proprietary, hard. I fought the urge to push it away.

‘Got a new idea for some lyrics,’ he said. ‘Think this could be the one, Bella. The song that makes it big.’ He wrapped his hand round the bottle and took a big slug of his beer, swallowed two, three mouthfuls before lowering the bottle. His fingernails were dirty and there was an ink stain on his thumb.

‘So, I’ve planned the tour,’ he went on, still without a hello, as though he’d seen me yesterday, or I’d just come back from the loo. ‘We’ll start in London, work our way round the UK’s big cities – Manchester, Leeds, Brighton – and then finish again in London. It will give time for word to spread in the capital and all those that missed out the first time can book the end dates.’

He showed me a scrap of lined paper, well wrinkled by his hands, which listed ten or twelve locations.

‘I’ve starred the ones where I think we might need extra capacity,’ he said, pointing at Leeds and Southampton, ‘got quite a following there.’

He showed me the underline beneath London. ‘And that means extra security,’ he said with a nod.

‘I didn’t know you’d been asked to tour,’ I said, happy to small-talk for a bit, put off what I had really come to say.

He shook his head, then nodded it.

‘It’s coming, I can feel it.’ He took another gulp of his drink.

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