Page 111 of Between Us

‘Do you mind me telling Joe what I know, and saying you told me? I don’t have to.’

Beatrice exhaled. ‘… God, sure. Having nothing to hide any more is such a good feeling. If you know, then he has nothing to threaten me with. Give him hell.’

Beatrice looked like she was momentarily assessing whether she dared, then pulled Roisin into a hard, wine-fuelled hug.

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The formality of a forwarding address for mail now provided her with drone-strike coordinates. Roisin checked her WhatsApp from Joe, bashed the flat’s postcode into her satnav and drove straight from York to his new place in Chorlton.

She pulled up at gone eight p.m. and thought he might well be out, on a Friday night. Yet when Roisin got out of the car she saw he was walking down the street, holding two pizza boxes, chatting with Dominic. It was unfortunate for Joe that Dom was there, yet not unfortunate enough to change Roisin’s plans.

It might even be useful for him to bear witness. Women would come and go, but his best friend would always have an eye on Joe. Or so you’d think.

‘Hi, Joe! Hi, Dominic,’ Roisin said, nodding to them as they drew near.

They both looked discomposed.

‘I’ve come from York. Had a drink with your ex, Beatrice,’ she said to Joe. In a moment Roisin mentally filed away for many future replays, he looked like he was going to drop the pizzas.

‘I say “ex”. I should say, “other girlfriend”. I think when you carry on having sex with someone who loves you for ten years, they deserve the same status title. Don’t you?’

Joe was frozen still. Dominic had eyes like saucers. By rights he should leave them to it, yet Roisin could tell that the tea was simply too piping hot for him to resist.

‘I begged you to tell me ifHunterwas based on your life, and you not only said it wasn’t, but that I was paranoid and nasty for contemplating it. Thanks to Beatrice’s stories of sex in pub bogs, and even behind the glühwein tent at a Christmas market – your willy must’ve been freezing – my curiosity is finally satisfied. Amazing scenes. On television, and off.’

Joe was still incapable of speech. Dominic wordlessly relieved him of the pizzas, perhaps thinking as Roisin had that his Pepperoni Extra Cheese might hit the pavement.

‘Bea is a great woman, by the way, and deserved infinitely better than you abusing her devotion and using her as your plaything.’

‘Yeah, the thing is,’ Joe said, sounding weedy, a poor facsimile of his usual glib self, ‘you ended our relationship, Roisin. We’re not a couple. Now you’re sleeping with one of our closest friends. I’d rate your right to throw accusations around and get judgmental as absolutely nil.’

‘A very key thing about the sex I am having with Matt …’

She let that bomb land, and crater. Joe, who had declared himself certain of this anyway, clearly hadn’t been, as he looked like he wanted to be sick.

‘… is that it startedafteryou and I had ended. You andBeatrice were doing it behind our back from our first Christmas. There has, in fact, never been a time you were faithful to me.’

A beat passed. Roisin was grateful Dominic was here, as Joe didn’t quite dare issue a fully callous dismissal.

‘I’m not saying I’ve been an angel, but you don’t know the context,’ he said, in a low, terse voice.

‘Some of it involves you supporting her through an abortion and leaving her for me, shortly after. Don’t worry. I didn’t come to you for answers. The next layer of lies have no value to me. I just wanted to tell you that the power trip you get from lying – from people believing things you’ve just pulled out of a hat in order to mess with them, to get them to do what you want – it’s abusive, and it damages lives. You need to stop.’

Dominic opened his mouth and Roisin said, ‘Don’t bother to talk across me unless you have aphenomenallygood insight, Dominic.’

Dominic closed his mouth again.

‘I’m not a liar,’ Joe said. ‘I lied about this, because being in love with two people at once isn’t something you can get help for. It’s what happened, and it was wrong.’

‘In love with two people at once, haha. Inside your head must be a very strange, cold place. I would talk to someone professional if I were you. But thank God I’m not. Lastly, I’d never have been with you if I knew about Beatrice, and you knew that. You stole consent from me. You stole ten years of my life from me. Our whole time together was a form of fraud.’

Joe could barely meet her eyes. Dominic no longer lookedlike he wanted to say anything. He no longer looked like someone who’d take Joe’s side. He was staring sidelong at him.

‘So yeah, I will take your half of our property, Joe – thanks for that. It doesn’t come close to what you owe me. Which is my freedom, from your mendacious shit, back when I was twenty-three. Goodbye.’

She turned to walk back to her car.

‘Hey. There might be an unexpected plot twist in this, for you,’ Joe called.

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