Page 87 of Five Things I Love About You

There’s that ‘at last’ again.

‘We thought the affair would put other women off for good,’ Helen adds.

‘The… affair?’ I manage. ‘Oh, when Amy cheated on him. Yes, he told me about that!’ A bud of relief blooms in my chest, but withers again almost immediately when I notice the look that passes between Leah and Helen. What aren’t they telling me?

‘I think you should leave it,’ Jo says, her voice almost a hiss.

‘But I’m just talking to Miranda.’ Helen slurs. More wine splashes onto the carpet as she turns to Leah. ‘We never thought Amy was good enough for him, did we, Leah?’

‘No, snobby cow she was,’ Leah agrees.

Helen shakes her head. ‘I know I shouldn’t say this, but we were glad when he finally did the dirty on her.’

My blood runs cold.

‘Sorry, what…’ I swallow. ‘Hedid the dirty onher? He told me…’ I stop, not wanting to finish the sentence.

Across the room I see Jay disentangling himself from Rich and heading our way.

‘Hello, ladies,’ he says, as he approaches. ‘Thank you for looking after Miranda for me.’

‘James!’ Helen leaps up and drapes her arm around Jay’s neck and plants a kiss on his cheek that leaves a lipstick stain. He gently moves away and she and Leah pick up their glasses. ‘We were just telling Miranda here how much we love you and how glad we are that you’ve met someone at last.’

‘That’s nice,’ Jay says, but I see him wince, his body tense.

‘All right then, we’ll leave you two love birds to it,’ Leah says, tucking her arm through Helen’s. ‘You coming, Jo?’

‘In a minute,’ Jo says. Leah shrugs then they teeter off together towards the bar.

‘Sorry about them, love, they do go on sometimes,’ Jay says as they disappear. ‘I thought it was time I came and rescued you.’

‘It’s fine,’ I say, trying to keep my voice normal. ‘They seemed lovely.’

He rolls his eyes and says, ‘In small doses,’ and normally I would laugh and agree with him that, actually, they were quite annoying. But I don’t.

‘Are you coming over to sit with me?’ he says, flashing a look at Jo as he holds out his hand.

‘Actually we were just having a chat.’ Jo is smiling sweetly at me, her hand on my forearm.Were we?

‘Oh right.’ Jay looks from me to Jo and back again and steps back. ‘Well, I’ll leave you to it for a bit longer then, if you want to stay…?’

‘Yes, we’ll just finish our conversation,’ Jo says, and her tone invites no argument.

I nod. ‘Sure.’

‘Okay then, I’ll see you in a bit.’ He flashes me one more uncertain look, then walks slowly back to rejoin his friends.

‘So, what was it you wanted to talk about?’ I smile sweetly at Jo as soon as Jay is out of earshot. She clearly has a problem with me and I’m too old for beating about the bush.

‘I saw you,’ she says, her voice clipped.

‘Saw me?’

She nods tightly. ‘On the TV, a few weeks ago.’

It takes a second for the penny to drop.

‘Oh! On Look North? Yes, that was me.’ I laugh, but her face barely twitches. She’s watching me so intensely I feel like I’m under scrutiny at passport control. Guilty, even though I haven’t done anything wrong.

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