Page 114 of Fling

‘WELL, I DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE CLAIRE!’

‘Hold on, I feel dizzy. Are you saying that for the past few weeks, we’ve been on Fling talking to each other?’ she said, the irony hitting her like a ton of bricks.

‘No, this doesn’t make any sense. Claire and I have been chatting for ages!’

‘At 11.11 every night?’ Tara asked, knowing the answer.

‘Oh my God, while I was on the couch, I was texting you upstairs in bed? No way, Claire sent me these sexy photos of her in lingerie! You don’t own anything like that!’ Colin said.

‘I bought that lingerie to try and look sexy for Jack. But Jack sent me photos of him in the gym. There’s no way that was you in those photos!’

‘Rory brought me to the gym so my pics would look more attractive.’

‘Oh my God, that’s why you were on the Luas outside The Vine on Dawson Street! You were coming to meet me!’ she gasped.

‘You were there? I thought Claire stood me up!’

‘I saw you and I was afraid of you catching me with Jack so I ran for my life!’

‘Wait, that’s why you saw me going into the hotel! You were on Harcourt Street to meet Jack!’ Colin said, figuring everything out.

‘So you were booking a room for you and Claire?’ Tara asked.

‘YES!’

‘So you were cheating on me . . . with me? I’M THE TRAMP YOU WERE MEETING?’

Suddenly everything had changed.

Tara had been so deeply hurt by Colin’s affair. But he had been telling the truth about not sleeping with another woman. And the other woman was her! She was the home-wrecking harlot she had cursed!

‘Hold on just a minute. You had a fit when you found out I was having an affair. But you were having an affair too! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black,’ Colin said, pointing out the hypocrisy.

‘I never meant to have an affair! I only downloaded Fling because we were handling their advertising campaign,’ Tara explained.

‘So you’re telling me our countless late-night conversations were just research? Give me a break,’ Colin said, not buying her story.

‘It started off like that. But when I matched with Jack, I got the same gut feeling that I felt the moment I first met you.’

‘Go figure,’ Colin said.

‘I thought my gut feeling was a sign I was destined to be with Jack.’

‘Well . . . maybe you are,’ Colin said, his heart on his sleeve. ‘You dyed your hair.’

‘Do you not like it?’ Tara asked, trying to tame the flames in the wind.

‘No. I love it. You look like yourself again. The Tara I fell for in O’Malley’s,’ Colin said, his voice warm.

‘The O’Malley’s in Galway or the one in our shed?’ Tara smiled.

‘Oh you saw that, did you?’ Colin said, smiling back at her.

‘How the hell did you pull that off?’

‘You’d be surprised what you can find online.’

‘And you already had all the pub signs,’ Tara said.

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