J & P Book 6 - Remember Me And Smile

Chapter Eight

She'd gulped down another glass of wine while she was waiting for Patrick to come back downstairs. She could hear him upstairs; laughing, chatting freely on the phone. He couldn't talk like that to her anymore, why was it okay for him to talk like that to his ex-wife? The answer, it wasn't okay. Claire was furious.

When he hadn't come home on Tuesday night, all sorts had been going through her mind. She understood he'd seen a lot of Jenny in recent weeks, with the medical tests Andrew was having bringing them together. She wasn't comfortable with it, as she sensed Patrick had some lingering feelings for his ex-wife. It hadn't bothered her for most of their marriage; it bothered her now that Jenny was single again. Especially now some time had passed; it had been a year now since Paul's death. Claire didn't know how long it generally took for someone who'd been bereaved to start looking elsewhere, but she thought a year was probably about right.

Finding him then, the next morning, passed out in his car on the driveway, covered in vodka, had been a bit of a shock. Clearly, he'd not had good news, and he had eventually told her that Andrew's prognosis was not good. She'd seen him gradually relapsing over the last few weeks; to start with she'd tried to test him a little bit, see how he'd cope with temptation in his way; but perhaps that hadn't been such a good idea on reflection. Like he'd just said, he needed to get back to his AA meetings, he'd done so well when he'd attended them in the early days of their relationship. He'd stopped going a good few years ago, citing work pressures; and to be fair he'd been so in control back then. It was a long time since she'd seen him in such a state.

She needed to lighten up with him. He frustrated her, and he annoyed her, and he made decisions that she didn't agree with, but he was still the only man who had ever loved her completely. She knew how lucky she was to have him; she saw the looks of envy on the faces of other women when they were together. Not only was he a high earner, but he was a great Dad to Dexter, and without a doubt the best lover she'd had, and she'd had a few.

Few saw his flaws; she of course did. His stubbornness, his air of superiority, his jealousy. And of course, his drink problem. But she could understand the jealousy after his past wounds. The drinking could be controlled, he was disciplined enough, he had done it before. And the other traits were just part of what made him the man he was, the man she'd fallen for and married. But it was her turn to feel jealous now.

She finally heard him get up and head downstairs. She wiped her eyes, poured some more wine into her glass, and picked up her book that she'd been pretending to read for the last two days whenever he was in her vicinity.

"That was a long chat," she snapped as he came back into the room.

"Oh, I called my mum as well while I was up there. Gave them an update on Andrew."

She knew it was a lie. "Fair enough."

It didn't look as if he was going to hang around, and he headed back towards the lounge door.

"At least you can talk to someone," she called. Once, he would have told her everything. She could be the one he told everything to again, if they tried a bit harder. But it was getting harder to try. And it seemed he'd chosen Jenny to talk to over her. She couldn't look at him directly, continuing to look at her book until he left the room. Once he'd gone, she stared at the door.

***

Claire hated the school run; never more so than in January. It was dark, cold, and everyone she saw had miserable expressions on their faces. At least it was Friday. She sat in her little sports car, parked up in her usual spot waiting for Dexter, who was old enough to walk down to meet her now. At least she didn't have to get out of the car these days. The school mums irritated her beyond belief. And there was the added annoyance of sometimes having to bump into Jenny and her little gang, with their various annoying children. Two of which were in the same year as Dexter; Ryan Young and Elliott Jones, thankfully he didn't hang around with them.