You Spin Me Round by Natasha West

Author:Natasha West [West, Natasha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-12-14T16:00:00+00:00

***

Sometime later, Alex awoke.

It took her a moment to realise where she was, but when she saw Leigh’s sleeping face, it all came back to her. They’d slept together, and now everything felt different.

She watched Leigh sleep as the sun rose, entranced, wondering what came next. Would Alex change? Become gentler, more open, a gooey, love-up softy? Alex was amazed to find that the thought wasn’t terrible.

Her phone beeped. It was her mother.

Call me.

Alex was immediately pissed off. Reality couldn’t give her a day off, could it?

She crept carefully out of the bed, grabbing a throw blanket off a chair and wrapping herself to cover her butt-nakedness. She took her phone out of the room, down the hall, and into an open bathroom. The bathroom was gross, but it wasn’t hard to figure out why—boys.

Alex rang her mum. ‘Everything OK?’

‘I’m so, so sorry for texting this early,’ her mother said immediately. Her mother was always apologising and rarely had anything to apologise for.

‘It’s fine. What’s up?’ Alex asked.

‘It’s, umm…’ She lowered her voice. ‘I need to borrow some money. Just until payday.’

Alex tensed. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Umm, I lost some money,’ her mother almost whispered.

Alex was instantly furious. ‘How?’

‘It just went missing.’

‘Where?’

‘In the house,’ her mother said vaguely.

Alex pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘That fucking bastard.’

‘Alex, come on. It wasn’t necessarily—’

‘Didn’t you change the locks after he moved out?’ Alex interrupted.

Her mother sounded embarrassed. ‘Well, no. It seemed excessive.’

‘No, Mum. It’s never excessive. Not with Dad.’

‘But I don’t think we can assume it was your dad, Alex,’ her mother said weakly.

‘You do know it was him, don’t you?’ Alex asked, frustrated. ‘You’re just saying it might not be him for my benefit, right? Tell me you know it was him.’

‘No, Alex,’ her mother said, matching Alex’s anger. ‘He promised me when he left. He said he was sorry for it all and he’d leave me in peace. He meant it.’

‘Yes, of course he meant it. He always means it. And then he gets itchy.’

‘It’s a disease,’ her mother cried.

Alex gritted her teeth. ‘I know.’

‘Like cancer.’

‘Not like cancer. You get cancer, you get treatment. He hasn’t. So it’s not the same, is it?!’ Alex realised she was yelling, and she was yelling at the wrong person. And that person was quietly sobbing. Alex felt fucking awful. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘No, no, it’s OK. I’m sure you’re right, and I’m being stupid. I guess it’s always been hard for me to accept who he is. Even now.’ She sniffled. ‘He wasn’t like this when we met. I guess I can’t let go of that man. Who he was at his best. I know that he’s still there, underneath it all.’

Alex wanted to scream at her mother. She wanted to call her a naïve idiot. But what was the point? Her mother was born without the ability to see who people were. She preferred the fantasy. Alex loved her mother but hated that part of her. Because she would get screwed over again and again. She was her own worst enemy, convinced she could save everyone.

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