Читать книгу Freya North 3-Book Collection: Love Rules, Home Truths, Pillow Talk - Freya North - Страница 40

Cold Shoulders

It was strange for Thea to experience something as momentous as exchanging contracts yet have no Alice to effervesce and celebrate with. And it was peculiar for Alice to be totally disinclined to contact Thea though she knew she could well benefit from her advice and support. As high as Thea felt, Alice was low. This zipless-fuck concept wasn’t as carefree and uncomplicated as she’d planned. She was unnerved that her sassiness could have been so easily replaced by irritable insecurity directly accountable to the time it took Paul to send a text, to the length and tone of his abbreviated words. She’d even started feeling jealous of Paul’s new groups, imagining some gorgeous woman or other sashaying across the Pont du Gard in front of him, or seducing him in the Cathédrale d’Images, or sharing knowledge about the dietary preferences of the flamingo. And though she’d urge herself to practise what she preached, or obey the editors of Lush at the very least, she often found herself forsaking the ‘play hard to get’ or ‘treat him mean, keep him keen’ philosophies to send Paul texts that sometimes simply said did u get my last txt?? Her mood towards her staff depended entirely on whether or not Paul had replied. If she was awaiting a response, she was impatient and unfocused. If he replied, she fizzed with energy and creativity. Mark, though, bore the brunt of the length and frequency of Paul’s messages. If Alice was expecting a reply, she was sullen and distracted. If his reply was of pleasing length and raunchy content, she’d be offhand with Mark because she resented him for not being Paul. If Paul’s text was short and mundane, Alice was even more moody with Mark, begrudging him for being all she had.

Alice needed Thea, she knew how she’d benefit from the two of them ‘workshopping’ her dilemma through, blasting away unreasonable misgivings, deciding on a constructive way of thinking, a realistic path forward. More than that, Alice just missed Thea. It was lonely confiding to her own reflection; she couldn’t give herself any astute answers and if she didn’t want to hear certain advice, she could just turn away from the mirror and strop off. Without Thea, Alice didn’t have the confidence or the motivation to confront the state of her relationship with Mark, the situation now developing with Paul and what to do with one, the other or the both of them.

Thea quite simply missed Alice; she wanted to have a second opinion when she browsed around the White Company store on Marylebone Road, she wanted Alice to take her to that place she knew near Westbourne Park that did stunning antiqued mirrors. However, Thea was still bristling with indignation that Alice should behave like a careless tart. And Alice was exasperated at what she perceived to be a sanctimonious arrogance and complete lack of understanding on Thea’s part. How could they be best friends if their moral codes were indecipherable to each other? What connection could they truly have if their ethics and standards were so diametrically opposed? There was absolutely no attraction in such opposites. The only comfort to Alice was that, despite feeling detested by Thea, she knew her secret was safe. Even through the silence and dislike, she knew Thea was unwaveringly loyal. She doubted whether Thea would even confide in Saul.

Mark and Saul both knew their partners had fallen out. But neither of them knew the reason. Even without a reason, it seemed so daft for two grown women, two childhood friends, two soulmates, not to be speaking. But when Mark tried to ask Alice, and when Saul asked Thea, both men were given such short shrift that they decided not to mention the friend until she was back in favour again. Mark, who came back to Thea for another massage on the osteopath’s advice, dared to begin: ‘Thea, why aren’t you and Alice—’ at which point it felt as though his skin was being pinched into corduroy and he thought better of finishing his sentence. Certainly, he didn’t dare voice his concern for his marriage to Thea. Anyway, if she wasn’t on speaking terms with his wife, she probably wouldn’t know why Alice’s temper was as it was. Saul, over a brainstorming lunch with Alice, filled her wineglass for the third time and said, ‘When the fuck are you and Thea going to kiss and make up?’ but Alice had narrowed her eyes and shot steel-cold daggers which told him most emphatically to back off.

Sally knew her two friends weren’t speaking but neither Alice nor Thea would tell her any more than a non-committal shrug would permit. Pilates became a place where Alice and Thea, if their sessions had to overlap, tried to out-Pike, out-Elephant, out-Mermaid each other. Sally could only watch – and actually wish her roll-ups were half as good as Thea’s, her Swan-dives anywhere near as fluid as Alice’s. So everyone around them kept quiet about the situation though they all thought it was bizarre and really quite childish.