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This Man Confessed(84)

By:Jodi Ellen Malpas


“And married life? Good? Honeymoon?”

I stand for a few silent moments, wondering how this turned around on me and where her usual genuine tone has gone. “All great,” I lie. “Maybe we’ll catch a holiday soon. Jesse’s busy.” I lie again, but Sal is one of the few people in my life who hasn’t worked out my bad habit, so I’m confident that I’ve not been rumbled. I leave her before she can pry any further and rush back to my desk, hoping to find a mass of missed calls from Jesse. I’m sorely disappointed. It’s Ruth Quinn. I haven’t spoken to her since I abandoned our meeting, and I’m not sure I want to, but it starts wailing again in my hand. I don’t need to call her back. She’s going to call me until I answer, and I can’t avoid her forever.

“Hello, Ruth.” I sound normal enough.

“Ava, how are you?” She sounds normal, too.

“Good, thank you.”

“I was waiting for you to call. Did you forget about me?” She laughs.

Actually, I did. Her lesbian crush has made way for other more important things. “Not at all, Ruth. I was going to call you later.” I’m lying through my teeth.

“Oh, well, I beat you to it. Can we meet tomorrow?”

I sink into my chair, my mind whizzing through a million excuses to put her off, but I know I have to face this head on. I can be professional. “Sure. How about one-ish?”

“Perfect. I look forward to it. Bye!” She hangs up, and I hang my head, but soon snap it back up when Tom coughs.

He lowers his fashion specs to the end of his nose. “She’s been dumped?” he asks.

“It’s complicated.” I brush him off and start to mark up some drawings, but something catches my attention outside the office.

My brother.

He’s standing on the pavement looking into the office and after what seems like an age of us staring at each other, he pushes his way through the door. “Hi.” He smiles.

My hand comes up in a little wave. “Hi,” I whisper. We’re in that awkward place again.

“Lunch?” he asks hopefully.

I smile and collect my bag, joining him at the front of the office. My simmering anger has cooled, but I’ll restoke it later. Right now, I want to fix things with Dan, get things on track before he goes back to Australia. He’s been a complete arsehole, but I can’t hold grudges, not with my brother. “Tom, I’ll be back in an hour.”

“Hmmm,” he replies. I look back and see him staring dreamily at Dan. “Bye, Ava’s brother,” he croons, waving a limp wrist. I purse my lips and shake my head, especially when Dan’s eyes widen in alarm and he starts walking backward.

“Urm, yeah.” He coughs and straightens his shoulders in an obvious attempt to make himself look more manly. “See ya.” His voice has gone deeper, too.

I laugh. “Come on.” I push Dan through the door. “You have an admirer.”

“Great,” he quips. “Not that I’m homophobic or anything. You know, whatever tickles your fancy.”

“I think Tom wants to tickle your fancy.”

“Ava!” He looks at me in horror, but then breaks out in a grin. We’re going to be okay.





Dan sets down the coffees and his sandwich, and I immediately tip three sachets of sugar into my cup, momentarily unaware that what I’m doing is completely out of character, until I look up and see Dan’s brow all knitted as he watches me stir it in. “Since when have you taken sugar in your coffee?”

I freeze midstir, frantically searching my brain for a viable excuse. We’ve not talked, but things are comfortable. Advising him that I’m pregnant will catapult us straight back to awkwardness. “I’m knackered. I need a sugar hit.” It’s the best I come up with.

“You look tired.” He sits down, eyeing me suspiciously.

“I am tired,” I admit. No hair twiddling needed.

“Why?”

“Work stress.” Half true, but now I’m fighting my hands to keep them on the table. “So, you’re okay?”

“Kate told me to take a leap, but I’m sure you know that already.” He unwraps his sandwich and takes a bite.

“You should never have gone there, and you really shouldn’t have gone there on my wedding day.”

“Yeah, I was out of line. I’m sorry.” He reaches over and places his hand over mine. “We’ve never had cross words.”

“I know. It was horrible.”

“It was my fault.”

“It was.” I grin, and he dips his finger in the froth of my coffee and flicks it at my nose. “Hey!”