Page 4 of Not That Complicated

“Thirty-two.” I sighed. “It’s all over for me. Downhill from here. Life is done.”

“Raymond,” Paulina said. “I’m forty-five. Am I over the hill?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “No, I’m not. But I won’t bully you into dating if you’re not ready. There’s always Plan P.”

“Plan B?”

“P. Pity party. Ice cream. Lots of ice cream.”

“That wouldn’t end well. I’m not technically lactose intolerant, but dairy and I have a very finely balanced agreement. I agree not to eat too much dairy in one sitting, and dairy agrees not to make me sprint for the bathroom.”

She swatted me with the menu. “Comfort food of your choice, then. You get my point!”

I did get her point. I still had no intention of indulging myself. I didn’t need a pity party. I didn’t feel sorry for myself.

At least, I hadn’t felt sorry for myself. Until I ran into Adam. That surprise encounter really shook me up.

So, really?

Absolutely everything that happened next was all Adam’s fault.

CHAPTER TWO

I’d thought that I wasover the breakdown of my relationship with Fraser. I’d thought that I was cool with it. That I’d shaken it off, moved on.

Apparently, all I’d been doing was repressing. To my absolute disgust, seeing Adam brought it all roaring back to the surface. I was hurt all over again.

It wasn’t the loss of Fraser I was mourning. It was the loss of my youthful optimism about love and happily ever after. He’d killed it stone dead. Fraser was an arsehole, and I was relieved to be shot of the bastard. If I never had to lay eyes on or hear from him again, that would begreat.

He hadn’t even tried to fight for me. For us. I wouldn’t have taken him back…but he hadn’t tried.

That fateful day, I’d walked out of the bathroom and kept on walking, all the way down the stairs and out of the house. I ended up sitting in my car with no memory of getting there. I was staring blankly at the steering wheel, theplease fasten your seat beltnoise binging softly in the background, when the loud slam of the front door wrenched me out of my dazed reverie.

Adam stalked down the drive and stopped right in front of the car.

It was a stupid place to stand. The engine was running, my foot was on the gas pedal, and he was a beautiful boy who had just shattered a (supposedly) stable relationship. I’m not the vindictive type, butAdamdidn’t know that.

We locked eyes through the rain-speckled windscreen.

His face was pale and tight with anger, eyes burning dark. He put out a hand and opened his mouth to say something. I didn’t want to hear it.

I backed sharply out of the drive and didn’t even look in the rear-view mirror as I drove away.

The initial shock was followed by sheer anger. Fraser agreed to go without any fuss, saying that we’d come to the end of the road anyway, and really, hadn’t we been more friends and housemates for the last couple of years?

If we’d been housemates, I’d snapped at him, then he’d have been paying rent rather than letting me carry the mortgage on my own.

Fraser swanned off, rented a flat in town for a couple of months, got a job offer in Wantage, and that was that. I found out about it from Amalie at the coffee shop. Three months after leaving my house, he was all moved in to some other chump’s house. And this chump’s house had a deck with a hot tub, a garden the size of a small park, and stables.

Whereas here I was, a sucking void of romance, living in my shabby little house in Chipping Fairford where the dating pool, as I had said to Paulina, was barely deep enough to float a paper boat.

Yeah.

A pity party was sounding pretty great right about now.

Since I was feeling spicy, I went with curry.

I should have left it at stuffing my face like a giant pig, but no. I threw in a few bottles of Cobra beer. I almost never drank, and for good reason. That was my big mistake. Actually, my big mistake was getting into bed with my curry and my beer and my favourite comfort movie,Pride and Prejudice.

(Mr Darcy made a big impression on young Ray. I won’t apologise for it. It’s a rite of passage.)

---