It May Rain

Chapter Twenty Three

"Hugo, I need to talk to you."

"Well, I'm right here so take the stage," he smiles sweetly.

I pull away from him and down a big gulp of whisky. I'll need all the Dutch courage I can muster. But either way, there's no easy way to come out with this.

"When we were in Copenhagen I overheard you and Konrad talking."

"It's rude to eavesdrop, Mae," he tuts jokingly.

"I heard Konrad explain that Chantelle is your ex-girlfriend and that you got her to fire me so I would come and work here." His face falls faster than a lead balloon. "Why did you never tell me that? Why did you lie to me again?" I say softly.

"That's not...it's not what it sounds like. She's not my ex at all," he stutters.

"Really? Then why would Konrad be under the impression that she is? And why did you say you've never slept with her, when Konrad says you have?"

He hangs his head and pinches the bridge of his nose. "It's not what you think, Maeby, honestly. I can explain everything." His mouth opens but nothing comes out, instead he just stares at me open-mouthed. His eyes look pained as he tries to articulate his thoughts, whilst I patiently wait for his response.

"Chantelle's not my ex. And I've never slept with her."

And out comes another lie, just like that.

"Stop lying! Please! If you have any respect for me at all, please just tell me the truth," I say, raising my voice.

"I'm telling the truth, Mae! I swear! You have to believe me," he cries desperately.

"That's the trouble though Hugo, I don't believe you. How can I after all the lies you've told me in the past?" I uncurl my legs and begin to get up, but he places a hand on my thigh as I'm halfway up.

"Don't go, Mae! Let me explain everything from the beginning. Please?"

I sit back down and watch as he takes my whisky glass and finishes it, then scratches his head contemplatively.

"The thing is, when I was a teenager I was this gangly, geeky kid, and none of the girls ever paid any attention to me. Least of all a girl like Chantelle. She was always the popular girl at my school who never even knew I existed, until this one day when we got put into groups for a sustainability project."

"We had to collect data and suggest improvements the borough could make to become more sustainable, and write an article for the local newspaper. Chantelle being Chantelle was thrilled about being in the local paper, and she wanted to make sure we did a good job on the project. She saw it as an opportunity to build her reputation. The problem was that no one else cared about the project as much as she did. But she couldn't do the whole thing on her own, so she started leaning on me for help, and we ended up going around each other's houses after school and going out to different places at the weekend to collect data."

"Konrad spent that winter in London and he was staying at my mum's house, like he usually does when he's in town. Sometimes he would offer to drive me somewhere, Chantelle in tow as well. And other times he picked me up from her house after school, or he would bump into her at home. Ever since I can remember, he's always teased me about my inability to get a girlfriend. You know, like older siblings always do. So when he started teasing me about Chantelle being my girlfriend because I spent so much time with her, I just went along with it. And when he assumed the reason we spent so long in my bedroom was because we were having sex, I never set him straight. After that he saw me in a different light, I was no longer a kid anymore."