Page 46 of Fling

Jack: Exactly. We need to know

Claire: OK. Yes x

Jack: I’ll make all the arrangements.

Claire: You certainly know how to sweep a girl off her feet x

Jack: Leave it all to me. All you have to do is be there

Claire: Today is only Tuesday. The anticipation is going to kill us all week haha

Jack: Well, we’re just going to have to continue our late-night rendezvous every night until then

Claire: 11.11 p.m. every night work for you? x

Jack: I wouldn’t miss it for the world

Chapter 16

The moment Tara woke up on Saturday morning, she immediately began preparing for her date with Jack that evening. She thought back over their multiple late-night rendezvous over the week, which played like a montage in her mind. She loved getting to know Jack on a deeper emotional and sexual level each night. Although they were two faceless strangers on the internet, their connection felt more and more real with every interaction. Their conversations at 11.11 each night felt like a completely different world, an escape into a shared fantasy.

Things with Colin had remained the same during the week. They both avoided each other as much as physically possible while living in the same house. They had continued their game of pretending that everything was wonderful and that they were much happier not spending time together. But in a way, Tara felt like she wasn’t pretending. Everything really did seem wonderful with Jack in her life. He had re-vitalized her, spiritually and sexually. She knew it was possibly just a form of online escapism, but her emotions felt so authentic.

Now Saturday had finally come and her fantasy realm was about to collide with reality. She knew it would either be cosmic bliss or a complete catastrophe.

They had agreed to stick to the rules of Fling and not exchange face pictures before meeting. She was to meet Jack at The Vine at 8 p.m., just for a casual drink. She did, of course, feel a pang of guilt for meeting another man, but she kept reminding herself that it was just a drink. She felt she wasn’t actively trying to cheat on Colin, she was merely trying to discover the meaning behind the synchronicity. She felt herself being spiritually drawn towards Jack and she needed to know why. He was an itch she had to scratch.

Tara needed to pull out all the stops to make a good first impression. After finishing shaving in the shower, she slipped on a royal blue bodycon dress and a pair of D&G silver heels. She always had to hide the heels from Colin. He would have a fit if he knew how much she paid for them. But she loved the idea of wearing them for Jack, sneaking out for their secret date in her very own pair of glass slippers. She applied the final touches of dark rouge on her lips and a splash of Gucci Bloom on her neck and suddenly the entire look came together. But as stunning as she looked, Tara still found a way to home in on her insecurities the moment she looked in the mirror.

She didn’t like her neck. It made her seem older than she actually was. Why hadn’t she spent her life up until now loving her neck? Because now there was nothing she could do about it. She had diagnosed herself with EOTN, or Early-Onset Turkey Neck, a condition she invented in her head after discovering it didn’t exist on WebMD. She had tried every neck cream under the sun to fight EOTN but nothing worked. She had even considered Botox but learned it was really only a temporary solution that required more treatments every few months. She was afraid that if she got Botox once, she would be paying the piper for the rest of her life.

And then there was the pouch. That stubborn piece of fat that refused to leave her lower stomach. In her desperation, Tara had even bought several exercise gadgets she saw on teleshopping channels. But to her shock, the PerfectCore didn’t give her a perfect core and Six-Second Six-Pack didn’t give her a six-pack in six seconds. Trends made it easy enough to conceal the pouch with the right outfit, but she still lived in perpetual fear of low-waisted jeans coming back into fashion. But in the bodycon dress she was wearing, there was nowhere to hide the pouch. It didn’t help that she was bloated either. Why had she eaten so much cheesy garlic bread this week? She had completely ballooned. Maybe she should wear a black dress instead, it would be much more forgiving.

‘No,’ Tara said aloud, in an attempt to snap herself out of her critical daze. She had spent her twenties thinking she wasn’t attractive enough and then spent most of her thirties wishing she was as attractive as she was in her twenties. If she didn’t break the cycle of self-criticism now, she never would. Emily had told her during the week that when women look at themselves, they focus on what they like the least. But when men look at women, they focus on what they like the most. If Jack really was the man Tara thought he was, he wouldn’t care about her neck or her pouch. Their connection was deeper than that.

Tara looked at her watch. 7 p.m.

The date wasn’t for another hour but she knew she’d go mad if she sat around waiting. On top of that, Colin had left the house hours ago to get a haircut and he still wasn’t home. It was perhaps the first time Colin had gone to the barbers without Tara begging him to. If she left now, maybe she could avoid having to make up an excuse for where she was going so dolled up.

Tara ordered a taxi on an app and saw that it was two minutes away. Perfect.

She hurried downstairs and took one last look at herself in the hallway mirror. But as she brushed a piece of her hair behind her ear, she suddenly became hyper-aware of the fact that she was wearing her wedding ring on her finger. It felt strange to wear the symbol of her eternal bond with Colin while meeting another man behind his back. She took off the ring and looked at the inner inscription.

Forever and Always.

She felt a lump in her throat as she realized how impulsive the entire situation was. She was jeopardizing her marriage for a date with an anonymous stranger she had met online. But even when confronted with the sheer audacity of her actions, she was still willing to risk it all. What was it about Jack that was so intoxicating? How had she become so drunk with reckless abandon?

But this feeling wasn’t completely alien to her either. It was the exact same feeling she felt before getting on the back of Colin’s motorbike all those years ago. Although she knew that she was playing with fire, she had to trust her intuition. Her gut feeling had never led her astray before and she needed to know why she was feeling the way she was feeling. There had to be a rational explanation for her irrational behaviour. She slipped her wedding ring into her handbag.

Tara opened the front door and, to her shock, saw Colin standing on the other side with his keys in his hand. She had come so close to avoiding him.

‘Colin!’ she said, caught off guard.

‘Wow, look at you,’ he said, acknowledging her appearance for once. ‘Where are you off to?’

‘Oh . . . I’m just off to meet . . . Emily from work . . . for ladies’ night,’ Tara improvised.

‘Oh, that’s handy because I’m actually meeting Rory for boys’ night,’ Colin said. ‘Which bars are you heading to?’

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