The Husband's Secret(57)

            “You’re pathetic.” Tess turned away from her reflection in the mirror. “You’re both so pathetic.”

            “I know,” said Felicity. Her voice was so low, Tess had to press the phone hard against her ear to hear her. “I’m a bitch. I’m that woman we hate.”

            “Speak up!” said Tess irritably.

            “I said, I’m a bitch!” repeated Felicity.

            “Don’t expect any arguments from me.”

            “I don’t,” said Felicity. “Of course I don’t.”

            “You want me to be all right with it,” marveled Tess. She knew them so well. “You want me to make everything all right.”

            That was her job. That was her role in their three-way relationship. Will and Felicity were the ones who ranted and raved, who let the clients upset them, who got their feelings hurt by strangers, who thumped the steering wheel and shouted, “Are you kidding me?” It was Tess’s job to soothe them, to jolly them along, to do the whole glass-is-half-full, it-will-all-work-out, you’ll-feel-better-in-the-morning thing. How could they possibly have an affair without her there to help? They needed Tess there to say, “It’s not your fault!”

            “I don’t expect that,” said Felicity. “I don’t expect anything from you. Are you all right? Is Liam all right?”

            “We’re fine,” said Tess coldly. “Liam is starting at St. Angela’s tomorrow.”

            “Tomorrow? What’s the rush?”

            “There’s an Easter egg hunt.”

            “Ah,” said Felicity. “Chocolate. Liam’s Kryptonite. He’s not being taught by any of the psychotic nuns who taught us, is he?”

            Tess thought, Don’t you chat with me, as if everything were normal! But for some reason she went on talking anyway. It was too ingrained in her psyche. She’d chatted to Felicity every day of her life. She was her best friend. She was her only friend.

            “The nuns are all dead,” she said. “But the PE teacher is Connor Whitby. Remember him?”

            “Connor Whitby,” repeated Felicity. “He was that sad, sinister guy you were going out with before we came to Melbourne. But I thought he was an accountant.”

            “He retrained. He wasn’t sinister, was he?” said Tess. Hadn’t he been perfectly nice? He was the boyfriend who had loved her hands. She remembered that suddenly. How strange. She’d been thinking about him last night, and now he’d reappeared in her life.

            “He was sinister,” said Felicity definitely. “He was really old too.”

            “He was ten years older than me.”

            “Anyway, I remember there was something creepy about him. I bet he’s even creepier now. There’s something unsavory about PE teachers, with their tracksuits and whistles and clipboards.”

            Tess’s hand tightened around the phone. Felicity’s smugness. She always thought she knew everything, that she was the superior judge of character, that she was more sophisticated and edgy than Tess.

            “So I guess you weren’t in love with Connor Whitby, then?” she said, brittle and bitchy. “Will is the first one to take your fancy?”

            “Tess—”

            “Don’t bother,” she cut her off. “Is there anything else?”

            “I don’t suppose I could say good night to Liam, could I?” said Felicity in a small, meek voice that didn’t suit her.