Devoted (John Shelby)

Part 8

After waiting for a while, Cynthia snuck out of Benny's room and into her's and John's room. She managed to pack a few sets of clothes into a bag, before going into Benny's room and collected a few things for him. She held the bag of clothes in one hand, before grabbing Benny with the other.

She made it onto the street after checking no one was there, before walking quickly in the direction of Rose's house. When she was there she placed the bag on the floor so she could knock. It took a couple of minutes and a couple tries before Rose came out with a flustered look. "Oh, Cynthia. It's nice to see you and little Benny," Rose then looked down at the bag of clothes and noticed the red circles under her best friend's eyes, "oh no, what happened?"

"Can we speak inside?" Cynthia said, feeling the tears about to fall from her eyes.

"Of course, I'll make some tea," Rose picked up Cynthia's bag and set it inside the house while Cynthia went and sat on the sofa with the sleeping Benny on her lap.

She patiently waited for her best friend to finish making the tea and accepted a cup. "So what happened, Cynthia?" Rose asked curiously.

"While he was in London, he kissed another woman," she said quietly.

"He didn't!" she said in shock.

"He did, and I know I'm probably overreacting but I feel betrayed. I married him and I thought we were happy, but I guess not," Cynthia sniffled and wiped a tear from her eye.

"You have every right to feel betrayed! If David kissed another woman I'd kick him out until he apologised properly," Cynthia giggled at her friend, "and as for you and John, I really thought he was happy. I knew you were, well, maybe not at the start."

"Definitely not at the start of our relationship," Cynthia shook her head, "I still love him though."

"And that's okay, I'm sure he'll apologise soon," Rose reassured her.

"I hope so, but I don't think I'm ready to face him yet," Cynthia bit her lip, "that's actually why I'm here, do you think Benny and I could stay here for a night or two?"

"Of course you can, I'll help get you settled in upstairs. Benny can borrow my Harry's old crib," Rose lead Cynthia up the stairs and into the spare bedroom, which looked like it was slowly becoming a child's bedroom.

"David and I were trying to decorate the place so that Gwen can have her own room. It's really slow work," Rose said, noting her friend's expression.

"If you need help with anything, I'm not really busy," Cynthia said, "wait, where are David and your children?"

"Oh, they went out for the day in the countryside. I had to stay behind because I had work but I got let off since I was sick."

"Sick? Are you okay?" Cynthia questioned.

"Yeah, I think I just ate something bad."

The two women chatted well into the night when they were disrupted by a knock at the door, it wasn't David and the kids as they arrived hours before and they all were asleep upstairs, alongside Benny who slept in the crib. "Rose, it's me, John, can I come in?" John's voice sounded muffled on the other side of the door.

Rose looked at Cynthia, who looked slightly afraid. Rose shooed her upstairs as she went and opened the door, apologising to John and letting him inside the house. He looked stressed and worried. "Are you okay, John? Would you like a drink?" Rose asked the man, she peeked up the stairs and saw her best friend listening in, Rose made gestures for her to move, so John couldn't see her. Thankfully, John didn't see that as he sat down on the sofa with his head in his hands and asked for a whiskey.