Page 69 of The Last Saturday In July
‘She died last year. We went to her funeral!’
Jess gasped. ‘That’s whose funeral we were at! Oh my God, I totally mixed Liam up with someone else.’
‘Who? Never mind, I don’t want to know. I had to tell Liam that you’ve been on very strong antibiotics, and they’ve made you delirious.’
‘What?’ Jess massaged her forehead. ‘Actually, that’s quite good. Did he believe you?’
She thought she heard him swear.
‘If he does, it’s because he knows I couldn’t make that up.’
‘But you did.’
‘Kate did.’ Simon spoke stiffly.
Jess gave a nervous laugh. ‘What?’ Why would he talk to Kate before her? And ask her to help? ‘When did you talk to her?’
‘Earlier this morning. That’s not the point.’
‘You’re right.’ Jess’s mouth dried. ‘Did you phone her?’
‘Kate phoned to talk to me about something just after Liam called me into his office. When I told her ...’
‘You told her before you told me.’
‘Because I happened to be talking to her!’ Simon sounded furious. ‘Why are we arguing about something so stupid?’
‘We’re not.’ Jess felt like she was free-floating.
‘Fine.’ Simon took an audible breath. ‘Please, don’t do anything else.’
‘I wasn’t going to. I have to go, bye.’ She hung up.
The phone dropped to the carpet with a soft thud, and she buried her head in her hands. She was such an idiot. But how the hell was she supposed to remember the personal details of everyone Simon worked with? And now Kate was involved. Again. She couldn’t believe he’d told her.
It didn’t matter that Kate and Simon were friends: there were things that should stay between Simon and her. Hypocrite: the word slid into her mind. Determinedly, she pushed it out and phoned Simon back.
‘What now, Jess?’
She flinched. ‘Sorry.’ She had no right to ask. Not after she’d cheated. She went to hang up but instead she blurted out, ‘How often have you confided in Kate instead of me?’
There was a long silence on the phone.
‘You can hardly blame me if I didn’t ask for your advice after what you did,’ he said finally.
‘I’m not talking about that.’ Jess took a shallow breath. ‘I’m talking about usually.’
Simon’s tone was cool. ‘Kate’s a good friend, Jess. She’s intelligent and reasonable, and I trust her.’
‘And you don’t trust me?’Why would you? I cheated on you. But you don’t know that. Jess felt close to tears. ‘Why would you undermine me by running to Kate?’
Simon’s voice rose. ‘I didn’t run to Kate.’
She gripped the phone, forcing herself not to hang up as Simon continued, his voice laced with hurt and anger.
‘You undermined me when you screwed up my business dinner. And you made things worse with that bloody voucher.’
He was right to be angry. But he’d had no right to drag Kate into it. Maybe once the two weddings were over ... she stopped. Then they’d be married. How would things be any different?
