Shattered Hearts

Chapter 43

John tried to push the thought of Darlene from his mind as he made his way to Marsha's Diner, or more pertinently, his way to his rendezvous with Rosalind. However he remembered her face, marred with a frown as he told her he was grabbing a quick beer with some workmates, and it troubled him. He pulled into the parking lot and spotted Rosalind's car near the diner's entrance. He was briefly tempted to turn back, the meeting was futile, but he had to draw a line in the sand if he was ever going to move on.

He stepped out of his car and strode purposely into the diner, not looking for Rosalind. She could find him. Only a few seconds passed before he felt her tugging on his arm, dragging him into a booth away from prying eyes.

"What do you want John?" she asked, her voice strained.

"I wanted to order something to eat."

She scowled at him. "Don't you dare get sarky with me."

He sat back in his seat, regarding her. She was as beautiful as ever, perfectly made up, but her face was twisted, anxiety written all over it. "Relax, I just wanna talk," he said, attempting to reassure her.

"Why?" she demanded. "Why now?"

"We never had a proper breakup conversation, we never had a conversation at all."

She mouth dropped open. "Go back to twelfth grade when I dumped you, that conversation ought to cover it."

Louis was right, she always was a bitch. He sat back in this chair, slowly stretching out. "I think this time, I dumped you," he said with a wry smile.

She gawped at him. "You dumped me? You think you dumped me." She laughed, a high pitched tinkly tone, that was far from genuine. "I thought your wife found out about us, and you skulked off home like a good little schoolboy."

He looked at her, seeing the scorn on her face. "Yeah, I was a good little schoolboy putting my wife and family first."

She had the decency to look ashamed. "I didn't mean it like that. Look we both betrayed out partners, we're both guilty."

"It's not quite the same," he said shaking his head. "I have a family so what I did was worse. If you and Dale break up no one else gets hurt. It's no big deal."

"No big deal?" She gave a mock laugh. "No big deal to betray my husband with someone who is so much lesser than him. I couldn't have hurt him any more if I'd tried. You're deluded, John."

"Deluded? No, you are. I have a family with Darlene, what I did was way worse." He couldn't help the laugh that escaped. "Jeez Ros, I'm giving you the get out, I'm taking most of the blame, and it's still not good enough for you."

She met his eyes, her face furious. "No, it's not good enough! You told Darlene you were having an affair out of some misplaced sense of loyalty. You should have spared her feelings and lied." She took a deep breath. "Okay, that was your decision but you didn't have to bring me into it. You ruined my life."

"You ruined your life," he fired back.

"Bullshit, we had a deal. It was just a bit of fun, Darlene and Dale were never supposed to find out." She took a couple of deep breaths but he could see she was shaking. "You put a bomb under both of our marriages. If you wanted to confess to Darlene, you should have left me out of it. That wasn't fair John."

He paused, gathering his thoughts. "She already knew Ros," he said softening his voice. "She knew I was having an affair and she'd pieced it together. Darlene isn't the dumb bitch you think she is."

"I've never said she was," Rosalind said pulling a face. "But you should have covered for me, not throw me to the wolves. I bet you knew Darlene would blame me and let you off the hook."