Chapter 3

David met Gwen at a nearby park and they ate their sandwiches together.

He told her about the abortive lunch and she laughed. He told her about the weekend and she gave him a look of admiration.

“Well,” she said, “you’ve certainly made her decision a lot harder. When we had our talk over lunch, I told her she’d been seen by a few of our friends, I said she was already cheating by seeing him behind your back. She didn’t like that. I told her that it would get back to you and that would finish you as a couple. She said she would have left you by then. I affected amazement. I told her she was throwing over a dead cert. for a very dodgy relationship.”

She took a sip of water from her bottle before continuing.

“I asked her why she was throwing away her life with you and she came out with that crap about your relationship losing its spark. I told her that always happens, but she didn’t take it on board.

“So I asked her did she understand what she had to lose. She said she would always wonder what it would have been like with Gary. I asked her if she wouldn’t always wonder what the rest of her life with you would have been like.

“I told her you would never have her back when Gary dumped her. She didn’t think Gary would ever dump her, and I don’t think she believed me that you wouldn’t have her back. She thinks her devastating good looks opens all doors.

“David, why do women always think that it will be different with them when they date a playboy? I just said that she was making the biggest mistake of her life, and that there would be no going back when her world fell apart.

“I even gave her a list of the girls I know who have been dumped by Gary. She looked worried at that, but I think she’s too far gone. I’m sure Gary has told her she’s different. She isn’t. Sorry my love.”

“Well, you’re right about taking her back,” David said, “That won’t happen. It’s funny, Gwen, but this whole thing doesn’t feel real. Splitting with her doesn’t worry me and I know it should. I know it’s inevitable. But I’ll tell you this; when she was phoning him about the weekend, and then saying she’d leave it about two weeks before moving out, I decided that was enough. I’m confronting her tonight. She’s not dumping me, I’m dumping her.”

“I think you’re right.” she said, and then had an idea. “Finished your lunch?”

He nodded.

“How about we drop by Celia’s company, and see if she’s had another lunch with lover boy?”

It seemed a good idea, and she drove them in her car to Celia’s office.They parked at the back of the car park and waited. Sure enough, the Porsche arrived, stopping outside the door. They could see them in the car quite clearly. The lovers were locked in a prolonged kiss before Celia left the car.

In retrospect, David thought that was the moment it became real. It was the moment when his emotions and his head came together. He felt the yawning churning gap in his stomach. Celia and he were finished. He would never again wake up with her, go to sleep with her in his arms, make love with her, laugh and joke with her. He felt real fear and loss. He’d got used to living with her, how would he manage living on his own again?

Gwen saw David’s face change and grasped his thigh.

“Don’t be hopeless about this. You’ll get through it,” she assured him, “There are lots of women who would be delighted to make a life with you. Not many as pretty, but that doesn’t last, and really it doesn’t matter too much. Hold on and be strong.”

She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “I’m here for you David. Don’t forget that.”

She took him back to his car, and he returned to work but got little done. He went to see Michael Simpson, his boss, and told him what was happening. Michael was sympathetic.

“Take what time you need,” he said. “I know what it’s like.”

David remembered his boss had been through a vicious divorce. He felt some relief that divorce was not necessary in his case, but it didn’t lessen the hurt. From time to time he had felt anger, even rage but not any more. All that had gone. He just felt so sad; he wanted it over.

He went home.

He got out the three biggest suitcases they had and left them in the bedroom, then sat and thought back over the past six years. Holidays together, Christmas and New Year, some of the parties they had, and also the ordinary times: washing up together, gardening, her ecstatic response when he got tickets for her favourite singer’s concert. They were good times, and he reminded himself that they would always be good memories, once the suffering had lessened with time. That little touch of philosophy did nothing for his present feelings.

He made plans about how he would deal with her when she arrived from work. That provoked a dead feeling inside; a certain hopelessness. He decided that the less she was allowed to say the better. What could she say anyway that would not be untrue, or hypocritical, or vacuous? But David would have his say, indeed he would.

So he was sitting in his chair when she came through the door, happy as Larry.