No Ordinary Love - A Gary Barlow FF

Chapter 15

It was 11.50pm on New Years Eve and Jack sat on the old musty couch in his small, damp flat and looked at the pile of 10' x 12' photographs sitting on the tea stained coffee table in front of him. How his life had changed over the last few months, all because of that stuck up bitch, he lifted the top picture and looked at it closely, she was smiling as she held onto his hand. The pictures were not professional by any stretch of the imagination, but he had earned a fair price from a not so reputable national newspaper.

When she had left him in the summer he had gone a little bit off the rails, drinking, one night stands and he even dabbled in drugs. His wife had disowned him and most of his family felt the same. Apparently having an affair for 13 years is unforgivable. He understood that really, he didn't care that Donna had threw him out of their marital home or his Mother and Sister no longer spoke to him.

He sat back on the couch and rested his head, a lot had happened over the last few months. It could have been so different, he closed his eyes as he thought about the day he first saw her. He and his brother Pete had gone for a couple of drinks one Friday night, Donna was working late, so he didn't have to rush back. They had ended up in a trendy new bar in town called Vine, they had found a seat and that's when he saw her, she was standing at a high table with her friends, she was laughing, she laughed a lot in those days, she was beautiful. That was the night that changed his life forever. He knew he should have played it differently, he should have left Donna in the early days and he did not know why he hadn't.

His thoughts came back to the photographs in front of him. He had lots of them now, he first started taking photos of Sandy, going in and out of Ali's house until one day he followed her to her new home, then to work. He didn't know why he started taking them but it seemed to be an obsession now. That changed a couple of weeks ago when he got a text from his old friend Terry.

Text to Jack - In NYC. Just spotted that bird you have been knocking off, looks like she is with another fella

Jack text him back, his blood was boiling, he shouted to the phone, "that bitch globetrotting with someone else while I'm sat here with nothing"

Text to Terry - Can you e-mail me a couple of pictures of them, Thanks mate speak soon

The photo's arrived within the hour, Jack could not really see them on his phone. He opened the laptop to view them in more detail. The photo's where not that clear but he could tell it was Sandy, but her companion was looking directly at the camera. Jack smirked to himself as he flicked through the five photo's and spoke out loud "Yes that's her, but oh my god" he laughed to himself "that's Gary Barlow" he continued talking to himself. "well well well Sandy, that's a turn up for the books" he added still with a smirk on his face.

Still feeling hurt, angry and sorry for himself, Jack contacted a couple of National newspapers and to his surprise everyone was interested in the photo's. After a small bidding war, the photo's had been sold to The National Globe. Jack had felt pleased with himself but thought this was not enough, she deserved to suffer.

He knew the photographs where being published on New Years Day, and to be honest if you didn't know Sandy that well, you wouldn't know that she was the girl in the photo's so just to frighten her, earlier on in the day, he had drove to Manchester to put copies through her letter box. He got a shock as he pulled up outside her apartment block, she was walking across the car park with 'Piano Boy' and what looked like her overnight bag, he looked at them for a second before he got his phone out and started taking pictures.

As they left, he got out of the car armed with a brown envelope containing copies of the New York photos.

He pushed the envelope carefully through her letter box and headed back to his car and down the M62 to Liverpool, quite pleased with himself.

He reached for his bottle of beer, sitting next to the photographs on the table, he took a long drink of the ice cold liquid. He could hear the loud cracks and bangs of fireworks being set off. "Happy New Year to me" he said as he raised the glass bottle high into the air " and Happy New Year Sandy and Piano Boy I have one more surprise tucked neatly up my sleeve for you two" he sniggered to himself " you both won't forget me or this coming year in a hurry, I can assure you of that"