Chapter 17

David and Siân decided they would sleep together all night and get up early. In any case, David was going to work. This time she came to bed in her bra and knickers and invited him to strip her of them, which somehow made her nudity more erotic. They made simple missionary love that night and fell asleep in each other’s arms. They rose at six, and were in the kitchen with Siân feeding Bethan at six-thirty when they heard Celia’s key in the lock.

Celia must have seen the lights on, and so came directly to the kitchen, where she stopped short at the sight before her.

“Siân! This is a surprise! You been here long?” her eyes searching for clues as to why Siân was there at all.

“Happy New Year, Celia!” Siân retorted gaily. “Family came over for New Year; I stayed on to help with the kiddies, going back by train this morning.”

“Oh. Well, you seem to be in perfect control, so I’ll get my stuff in and sort out the wash. You two had breakfast?”

“Finishing off Beth first,” David said. “You?”

“Had some before I left,” Celia replied and wandered off to sort herself out.

David and Siân had breakfast and washed up while Celia put her washing in the machine and saw to Evan while David got ready for work and Siân packed and brought her case downstairs.

David’s day was busy. It was the first day back after a long break, and there was a long queue of phone calls to be answered, urgent meetings to be chaired and some queries from the Board.

He did manage to inquire of HR about the response to the jobs advert, and found that the numbers were not as large as usual, their reasoning being that the advert had gone out just before Christmas. He was assured that letters would be going out the next day, after the short list had been agreed.

The Chairman of the Board, who had come up for the day from London, arrived in David’s office as he was packing a small mountain of work into his case to take home. He wanted to discuss the financial crisis and ask David’s views on some resulting matters concerning the overall health of the company. David phoned home and told Celia he would be late, and got a very cool response, which made him wonder what had happened.

He arrived home in time to read Evan his story and tuck Bethan in, and then returned downstairs, wondering what was left for his evening meal. He did not get as far as the kitchen. He was faced with an irate Celia, her face like thunder, and wondered what had got up her nose this time. It did not take long to find out, as she shut the door of the living room and turned to face him.

Dangling from the little finger of her left hand which she was waving at him, was a pair of tiny knickers.

“What the fuck is this?” she said with distain.

“That is a pair of knickers,” replied David, now annoyed.

“Don’t be clever with me. They were in your bed.” She seemed almost to gloat at that.

“And what pray, were you doing rooting round in my bedclothes? It’s not the week for changing the bed. Looking for something were you? Stains on the sheet?”

“You’ve been fucking Siân.” It was an accusatory statement. David wondered why she was so irate. Her upset feelings seemed so out of proportion.

“That has absolutely nothing to do with you,” he snapped. “Mind your own business.”

“I don’t believe this!” she said scornfully. “Seducing a young girl; your own wife’s sister! It’s incest! Disgusting!”

“You seem full of righteous anger about something that has nothing at all to do with you,” he said disdainfully. “I wonder why?”

“You’re such a hypocrite, acting the bereaved spouse, that’s what’s the matter. Using a young girl’s pity, just because you’ve not been getting your rocks off anywhere else. Thinking with your cock!”

“Celia you’d better be careful! This is getting serious.”

“I’ll say it’s serious. You, a father of two young kids, and you’re fucking around.” Then she stopped, and a nasty grin spread over her face. “I know why you seduced Siân. It was so you could pretend it was Gwen! You’re sick!”

David felt it like a punch to the stomach, and his face must have looked horrified, and deeply distressed, for she stopped and looked uncertain.

“David, I–”

“I think you’ve said more than enough, Cecilia.” This was delivered quietly and contained all the hurt she had inflicted, in his use of her full name.

“D-David–”

“Oh, shut up!” he barked. “You’ve gone too far. OK. You asked for this.

“One. Siân is not a naïve young schoolgirl. She’s twenty-three years old. She’s been through university, and is no virgin. You might like to think how many cocks you had up your whoring fanny while you were at university, and you’ve kept your cunt busy ever since.”

She flinched at his coarseness, but he was on a roll.

“Two. She and I had long talks about Gwen, and that comment about my pretending Siân was Gwen is despicable. Also, Siân is not my blood relation, so it’s not incest either.

“Three. She seduced me, after long talks about my bereavement and what Gwen would have wanted for me. She preceded me to my bedroom, and stripped before I could object and believe me Celia, that seductive strip showed me she’s no innocent virgin. But just as surely, she actually loves me.

“Four, she made love. She made love after I found out that my best friend from way back has been lying to me by omission over a considerable period, possibly over decades, about who he’s been fucking, and has involved a considerable number of my so-called friends in his deception. Though why he needs to keep it from me I don’t understand.

“Did you know Alex was deceiving me about his girlfriend? The one he’s been shagging for weeks or even months, the first woman he’s ever gone steady with?”

She was silent and he could see she was disconcerted and most uncomfortable.

“Well? Did you know?”

“Yes, obviously I knew,” she said reluctantly.

“Yes of course you did. You were consciously party to the deception as well. Why keep it from me?”

Her reply was now much quieter. “It really isn’t any of your business who Alex is seeing, David!”

“There you go again: it’s not my business. Not my business? He’s my friend, and up to now we’ve shared all our experiences with women. He always shared his dalliances, always. Every woman he went with, I heard what she was like. Until this one. This one is suddenly none of my business. I wonder why?”

His sarcasm was acerbic. Again she flinched at it.

“It wasn’t your business what Siân and I did while you were away either, but that’s not stopped you from trampling all over my private life, has it? When I ask you about your life, friendly questions, suddenly we’re in a solely professional relationship: I’m to keep my nose out of your business. When you ask me about mine though, you’ve no such inhibitions then have you? You don’t accord Siân and me the same courtesy do you?

“So you can tell your devious boyfriend that he’s no longer welcome in my house. In fact he’s no longer my friend. I can’t abide liars.”

“My boyfriend? Alex?“ She looked aghast.

“Oh Celia! Of course your boyfriend. You thought I didn’t know? You’ve been fucking him for weeks, probably months or even longer. Your pathetic attempts to keep it secret from me obviously failed. What did you expect? It’s why you should be so intent on keeping it from me that I fail to understand.

“Have you any idea what it was like sitting in that pub on New Year’s Eve while all my so-called friends tried to cover up why Alex wasn’t there? Falling over themselves to warn you we were coming to the club, so the pair of you could scurry away to his bed before we arrived!

“It’s not as if knowing you two are shagging each other senseless is going to hurt me – you’ve made it clear enough we’re not friends any more, haven’t you? Do what you fucking like, the pair of you! It’s irrelevant to me what you do!”

She stood under the torrent of his diatribe with an expression of what amounted to guilt and bewilderment, while David then brushed past her and went to his study.

He sat at his desk with the latest report in front of him, and stared at the paper, seeing nothing. His seething emotions were swilling around and his mind was blank. His mind, if it was functioning at all, was occupied with one question that obliterated all others: why was all this happening? Why were they both getting so angry? Why was she looking guilty when he revealed he knew all about them? At first she had even tried to deny it!

He could not focus on his work after what had just happened. He sighed, and put the papers away. There would be nothing done that night.

There was a tentative knock at the door. He did not answer.

“David?” came her querulous voice. “You haven’t had your dinner. I’ve put it out in the kitchen. I’m off to bed now.”

He heard what he thought might be a sob, and wondered why she was upset: she had been angry, nay livid about Siân’s underwear. Why upset now? Could it be she believed he had only just found out about her and Alex? He felt a twinge of guilt about the severity of his attack on her and her relationship with Alex.

He waited a count of fifty, then went to the kitchen and ate the delicious stew she had left for him. How her cooking had improved since they used to live together!

The meal quietened him down, and after washing his pots and putting everything away, he set out the table for breakfast the next morning, and going to the living room, poured himself his favourite cask strength Aberlour malt, added a dash of water, then another generous dash since it was cask strength, and sat in his armchair, using his remote to select some quiet music. This calmed him further.

He wondered what the atmosphere would be like next morning. He shrugged, perhaps there would be some sort of talk next evening. At least he knew now why she had been so touchy about him knowing of her activities on her day off.

It raised the question how long the two of them had been an item. He now suspected it really was long standing and it came as no surprise to think it could even have been before Celia had arrived to help him. They certainly seemed to get together often enough.

The thought brought on a feeling of intense sadness, because he had lost touch with her. The memory of their six years together, their intimacy and his happiness at having her love, mingled with that of her coming to him to look after the children, and their resulting closeness at the beginning until that night after the pub.

Nights at the pub always seemed to undermine what relationship he had with Celia, he thought wryly. But she was so good to him when his loss of Gwen was acute, and wasn’t she perfect with the children! And now look at the pair of them! Always cold or in a shouting match.

As the whisky calmed and warmed him he began to admit to himself that Celia would need relief from looking after the children, and, he admitted, from him. He remembered she had calmly admitted she still loved him, yet she had to live with him platonically. She had said she would never make a move on him. How could she relieve that stress? Alex was the obvious candidate, so why did he feel so aggrieved that they had paired off?

He knew the answer of course, or thought he did. It was the deception. Why couldn’t they be open about it? Why lie, or at least conceal the truth? That brought a resolution that she was too good for him to allow this belligerence to continue.

He stood and went to bed to find Celia had changed the sheets. He felt a warm glow. He stripped and climbed in between their freshness. Clean bedding was the only good thing to come from the day, he thought wryly.

Then he wondered what Siân was doing, if she was sliding her firm hot curvy nude young body into her bed. Was she thinking about him? Was she touching herself remembering their time together? He began to fondle his cock and then masturbated thinking of her. He wiped himself up and lying down again fell instantly asleep.

Next morning, it was as if the altercation had never happened, except that Celia seemed subdued rather than resentful, and was burying herself in catering for the children, leaving David to eat his breakfast alone. She did not seem angry, but simply avoided him.

On leaving he kissed and hugged the children, and made for the front door, noting that Celia had taken herself to the kitchen.

“‘Bye!” he called, and heard a response, but it was not loud enough for him to tell what it was. On his journey he wondered in a desultory way what he should do. The atmosphere was uncomfortable: apart from his called farewell and her muttered response, he had not spoken a single word to her that morning.

He sighed, wondering if things could ever settle down again, or even if they could survive living in that fashion? He had forgotten his musings over the whisky the night before.

Work took his attention, and if the day was not quite as frenetic as the day before, it was certainly busy enough to keep his mind off the trouble at home. One thing that cheered his dull spirits, was Siân’s text:

Hi, gorgeous! Can’t let 2day go by without saying ta for wonderful time w u. Much luv S. XXX.

He tested back: Gorgeous yrself. Missing yr lvly body and happy face, Luv u back. D. XXXX.

He smiled for the rest of the morning.

On his way home, the situation to which he was returning dominated his consciousness afresh.

He had another unprovoked vision of the history between Celia and himself, remembering their first meeting and feeling second best as she was clearly attracted to Alex. Then the change when after returning with Gwen from the ‘Ladies’ it was Celia who had come on to him. He had a vivid recollection of how besotted he had been with her.

Then came a clarity that made him pull over and park. That was it! She had always preferred Alex, she had always yearned for Alex rather than him. Then came a suspicion that she been seeing Alex all along, perhaps even during the six years David and Celia had been together – apart from what he now knew was a brief interlude with the footballer?

She used go to her ‘parents’ place’ overnight or at weekends, leaving him at home, saying that that they would not approve of him since they were not married, but on the occasions he did go they actually welcomed him.