Chim - Turn To Stone

Chapter 35

Thirty-Five

I watched her roll out of the bed and walk in to the bathroom, she turned around once she had reached the door and smiled at me, a satisfied smile that told me she was happy.

I waited until she had vanished in to the en suite bathroom before getting out of bed myself and pulling my jeans and top back on. I tried to push the feeling of dread to the back of my mind, surely there couldn’t be anything too bad in the newspaper article.

I wasn’t even sure that it was a good idea to read it. who wants to read about how good the sex was between somebody else and your own girlfriend?. But I knew that at some point, I would have to read it, for no other reason than I’d probably go mad if I didn’t.

I had to know why. It was the one question that Cheryl just couldn’t answer for me, so maybe I would find it out from him. Or at least from what he had to say to the tabloids.

“we should get going soon” Cheryl shouted from the bathroom, in the middle of brushing her teeth.

“going where?” I shouted back, frowning to myself. We had another day off before we were due back on the road for the tour.

“I thought I might take you out for dinner” she said, appearing at the door, still brushing her teeth. It was a nice gesture but I knew she was only doing it to take my mind off the newspaper.

“do you think that’s wise?” I asked her, getting up and walking over to her. The paparazzi would no doubt be following us all night thanks to the stories in the paper.

“we cant shut ourselves off forever Kimberley” she replied with a sigh before finishing off in the bathroom. I followed her in and sat on the edge of the bath while she started her moisturising ritual.

“sorry” I apologised, she was obviously trying, and maybe  going out together would do us both some good.

“its okay babe. I just want to show you how special you are to me” she said stopping what she was doing to look at me.

“I know” I replied quietly, before tapping her lightly on her a***, I got up to leave.. She laughed before going back to the mirror.

X

“I’m just nipping to the shop” I shouted up the stairs to her. It was already half past six and the car needed petrol if we were going to be going anywhere for dinner.

“okay” she shouted down to me. I heard the hair dryer being switched on and rolled my eyes to the ceiling, knowing it would take her at least another hour to be ready.

I drove to the nearest petrol station and filled up the tank. The rack of newspapers caught my attention as I went to pay the man in the kiosk. Without even thinking, I immediately picked the paper up and paid for it with the petrol before getting back in the car.

I was back in our drive way, the whole trip taking me less than ten minutes. I glanced down at the paper which I had put on the passenger seat and forced myself not to pick it up.

No good could come of reading its contents, I already knew what it would say, if anything he would probably have embellished the truth, trying to make himself feel better.

I flicked it open, assuring myself that I would only read the headline, and maybe look at his photo. I had to know.

‘she chased me for months’

‘the sex was amazing, she knew what she wanted’

‘we met up about 5 times for sex’

‘she wanted more but all I wanted was a good time’

‘I made her happy’

I shut the paper quickly, feeling the overwhelming urge to be sick. I felt as though somebody had taken a knife and stabbed me through the chest. Surely he was lying.

Cheryl had promised me it was the one and only time. He must have been lying. But who was I supposed to believe? I believed Cheryl when she told me she was ill and wanted to be left alone, I believed Cheryl every time a story came out in the paper about her and other men. What if she had been lying to me all this time, and in fact it had been going on for months? What if the papers were right about the other men, because they were certainly right about him.

-

“you look like you’ve seen a ghost” she laughed as I walked in to the hallway. I should have told her she looked gorgeous because she really did, I should have smiled and told her I was okay, but I really wasn’t.

“are you okay?” she asked me, sensing that something was wrong, she grabbed me by the arm as I passed her.

“yeah I’m just going to get dressed” I lied, and headed off upstairs. A part of me wanted her to follow me, even though I didn’t really feel like talking to her at that moment.

She didn’t though, it seemed that my lie was more convincing than I thought it was because all she did was walk in to the living room and sit on the couch.

-

I pulled a black dress on and ran a comb through my hair. It didn’t take me long to get dressed, I had already done my hair and make up before leaving for petrol. I was ready in half an hour, but instead of going downstairs, I sat on the edge of the bed and thought back to the article.

She never answered me before when I asked if he knew about us or not. She never answered me why she had done it in the first place. Cheryl was good at talking her way out of things, she did it to the press all the time. Telling them things they wanted to hear, rather than answering questions they actually asked was always a talent of Cheryl’s, I never thought for one moment that she might try it with me as well.

The problem was all mine this time. As hard as I tried to believe her side of the story, I couldn’t get the thought out of my mind that maybe this wasn’t the first time. Maybe he was just one of many, and I was a fool for wanting to believe her. She had lied to me before, I don’t know why I thought she wasn’t capable of it now.

“are you ready babe?” she asked, appearing at the door.

I looked up at her for a few seconds before nodding with a half smile. Pretending to be happy was something that I had gotten used to over the past month or so, yet no amount of experience in it could have helped me tonight.