Читать книгу Suddenly Single Sophie - Leonie Knight - Страница 7

‘YOU’RE better off without him.’

Sophie Carmichael’s body-racking sobs began to subside as her best friend Anna put her arm around her shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Sophie reached for a handful of tissues and noisily blew her nose. Venting her distress in a tearful outburst definitely helped ease the rawness she felt. She took a deep breath and managed a wilted smile.

‘I still can’t understand how he could be so cold … and two-faced,’ Sophie said. ‘He didn’t even have the courage to tell me to my face.’

‘It could have been worse. He might have broken up with you with a text message. Vanessa’s boyfriend—’

‘I know, I heard. But they’d only been together for two minutes, not nearly two years.’ Sophie wiped away the last of her tears and felt her fighting spirit begin to return. It made sense now why Jeremy had stopped pleading with her to move in with him. He apparently wanted a live-in lover, not a wife. And he’d found one—who was now pregnant with his child. She’d wondered if the two of them had planned the whole scenario.

Sophie clenched her teeth, not wanting to believe her ex was capable of such blatant and calculated cheating. She wasn’t going to let a two-timing, deceitful rat like her ex-fiancé ruin her life, though.

‘Didn’t Jeremy make it quite clear he didn’t want kids until he’d finished his training and set up in private practice?’

‘That’s right. And muggins me went along with it.’ Sophie slumped back in her seat and sighed. She tried to stand back from her churning emotions and look at the situation objectively. ‘You’re right, you know. I’m glad I found out about Jeremy’s unfaithfulness before we actually tied the knot. I am better off without him.’

The women sat in silent contemplation for a minute or two before Anna finally spoke.

‘What are you going to do now?’

Sophie had asked herself that same question a hundred times over the past weeks since she’d found out about Jeremy’s infidelity by overhearing a conversation at the hospital where he worked. She had naively believed it was purely unfounded gossip. When she’d confronted him, though, he’d not wasted words in telling her the brutal truth. It seemed everyone had known before she had. She’d never felt so humiliated in her life and was grateful the news hadn’t spread to the staff of her father’s general practice where she worked.

At least she’d been able to choose the time and place to tell her parents—but it hadn’t made it any easier. Her father’s attitude had left her firstly stunned and then outraged. Ross Carmichael still thought the sun shone from Jeremy’s nostrils and seemed to believe they’d get back together again. She couldn’t believe he could be so insensitive to her feelings. Her mother had hardly disguised her disappointment. She’d often reminded Sophie of her relentlessly ticking biological clock and didn’t like the idea of the mob of grandchildren she so dearly wanted being put on hold. Of course Sophie still wanted a family but now, at thirty-one, unceremoniously dumped and unexpectedly single, she was in no hurry.

‘I really don’t know. I haven’t had a chance to think about it but one thing I do know for sure.’

‘And what’s that?’ Anna was stroking Sophie’s cat, which had jumped up on her lap, probably sensing the calmer of the two women was Anna.

‘I’m going to steer clear of men for a while.’

Anna smiled. ‘They’re not all rotten, you know.’

‘I didn’t say they were, but—’

‘You need a break. I can understand that. It’s early days.’

Max, Sophie’s Burmese bundle of masculine feline charm, gracefully stretched, began purring loudly and rubbed his chin on Anna’s thigh, as if defending the male of the species.

‘Maybe you need a holiday,’ Anna continued.

‘A permanent holiday.’ Sophie suddenly realised what she really needed was a working holiday; a complete break from her predictable life. She’d always had her father, or Jeremy, or the expectations of the high-flying social set she moved in to make the big life decisions for her. Or at least nudge her in a certain direction. It hadn’t bothered her in the past, but now … She felt manipulated, controlled and wanted a taste of freedom. If she made mistakes, at least they would be her own.

‘I might look at leaving Sydney for a while, maybe head north.’ She paused and felt her heart pumping faster. It was a lightbulb moment and made a great deal of sense. She would only stagnate in her father’s practice and was tired of listening to the woes of the affluent, worried well-to-do. She remembered when, as an enthusiastic new graduate, she’d wanted her work to make a real difference to her patients’ lives. There was little chance of that happening if she stayed where she was. Her mind started to work in overdrive.

‘Or even west. I’ve heard there’s a shortage of GPs over in Perth.’

Anna looked only mildly surprised, as if she’d been expecting it.

‘Well, good for you, Dr Sophie.’ She lifted Max from her lap and dumped the protesting cat on the floor then added, ‘How about we open that bottle of wine I brought?’

‘Great idea. And I’ll see if I can rustle up some comfort food,’ Sophie said with a grin. She felt renewed, ready to take on whatever challenges life presented.

While Anna uncorked the Chardonnay, Sophie loaded generous serves of chocolate cheesecake on plates.

When they sat down again, Anna raised her glass.

‘To your new life,’ she said as they clinked glasses.

‘Without the complication of men,’ Sophie added.