Quicklinks:
|
Great Writing - Home > Extended > Three accounts of events - part 20
| READING ROOM | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| COMMUNITY | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
| ABOUT GREAT WRITING | ||
|---|---|---|
|
| WORK AWAITING REVIEW |
|---|
|
| GW IS... |
|---|
|
Great Writing creative writing community is designed to prompt ideas
and provide inspiration and motivation within aspiring and amateur
authors. Whatever your topic; from love poetry to Doctor Who or Harry
Potter fan fiction, Great Writing's online writing group is where you
can make new friends and improve your creative writing. |
| WHO'S ONLINE |
|---|
| We have 1637 guests online and 11 members online |
Extended Work
| print friendly version | |
| Three accounts of events - part 20 | |
| By teddy | ||||||
| 13 August 2007 | ||||||
|
‘Well, which one?’ I twist and tilt my head so I can see Paul’s face. It’s Friday night and we’re in the living room, sitting on the floor, and I’ve cocooned myself between Paul’s widely parted legs, with my back leaning against his chest, his arms folded around my waist. His head is bowed over my shoulder, his eyes following my hands as they turn the pages of a wedding cakes brochure laid open on my lap. The brochure has arrived by post this morning all the way from Kent with strict instructions to make up our minds as soon as possible as there are only two months left until the wedding and we don’t really want to do everything in a rush, do we? Paul’s mum is still lamenting over our ‘stubbornness’ to keep the wedding a low profile when there are so many people who’d be thrilled to share the day with us. Well, call us selfish, but Paul and I would like to keep the moment for ourselves as much as possible. ‘As long as it has lots of chocolate in it, I don’t mind, sweetheart.’ He ducks his head down and kisses the side of my neck.‘But you don’t like chocolate.’ I raise a questioning eyebrow. ‘I know. But you’re addicted to it and that will keep you happy for the day.’ He smirks and I swing my bowed arm to poke him in the ribs with my elbow. ‘Very funny.’ I scrunch up my face in a mocking grin. ‘Ouch! That hurt,’ he puts on a complaint, puckering his brow. I stretch my arm behind and rest my hand on the back of his neck pushing his head forwards so that my mouth can reach out to place a quick kiss on the corner of his mouth. ‘Good. Now pay attention.’ It’s late October and the weather’s been coughing and spitting at us cold drizzles of rain and long crispy evenings. Tonight is no exception, but Paul has put the heating on and lit the fire in the fireplace, and the room’s embalmed in an auburn glow that’s been oozing inside me, filling me with warmth and happiness. Ok, I admit, the one and a half glasses of red wine I’ve gulped down since dinner have helped shift my mood to this euphoric stage. I know it’s early days yet and there are still lots to put behind us before we could entirely move on, but things have changed so much since Vicky and I moved back a couple of weeks ago. There’ve been no shouting, no swearing, not even the slightest attempt of a raised voice, and Paul’s been treating us both with the most utter consideration I’m almost frightened to think how happy we could, after all, be. While before dinner with clients, drinks with people from work and friends used to keep him away at least two or three nights a week, now he has stopped going out without us all together. I didn’t asked, didn’t expect him to, he has a business to run and I’m fully aware that comes with entertaining nights he has to spent away from us, it’s been all his choice. I mean, even tonight, it’s Will’s birthday and the guy’s been taking everyone out for a drink. Paul’s asked me two days ago if I wanted to go, and of course I would’ve, but Vicky’s been sneezing and sniffling signs of a cold for the last couple of days and I didn’t want to leave her with anyone else so I said no. I expected him to grumble as he’d done so many times before when I refused to submit to his requests, but he just smiled mildly and said ok when I reasoned my refusal. I didn’t think for a second Paul wouldn’t go, Will is an old and close friend, but just before seven o’clock I heard his car rumbling its way inside the garage. ‘Hey,’ I cocked my head and looked up at him as he entered the bathroom where I was stooped beside the bathtub, shampooing Vicky’s hair. ‘I thought you were going out tonight.’ He knelt down next to me and leant forward to peck my cheek. ‘Nah,’ he shrugged, ‘I didn’t feel like.’ Then he dipped his hand into the bubbly water, stirring it slightly to enhance its volume. ‘Hey, baby girl,’ he looked at Vicky, a tiny wet being beaming at him from the middle of the huge bathtub, ‘you’re having fun?’ He withdrew his hand from the water and brushed his index finger against her nose, leaving a splash of foam on its tip. ‘Pau!’ Vicky shrieked, flicking the palms of her hands against the water, splattering everywhere and covering Paul and me in excited wet bubbles. ‘Paaaauuu!’ Her vocabulary hasn’t acquired the word ‘daddy’ yet, the closest she’s got to it is ‘dada’ but that’s entirely reserved for George. Thank God Paul doesn’t know that, he seems quite amused when Vicky refers to him as ‘Pau’, she must’ve heard me call him by his name. Paul actually doesn’t know about me seeing George at all, I haven’t told him yet, I thought I’d let things settle down a bit. But I will very soon, he seems so much more understanding and I have this feeling he will no object to it anymore, he must’ve realised by now George’s no threat to us. Especially since he’s got back with Anne. ‘How about this?’ I’m just about to point my finger at a white chocolate covered cake displayed on one of the pages my hand has stopped at when Paul's mobile starts chiming at us from the coffee table it’s sat on. I free myself from his arms, leaning forward, and get on my hands and knees ready to scramble towards the phone, but Paul loops his arm around my thighs, pulling me back. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’ I stumble before dropping down flat on the floor, like an idiot, my whole body shuddering with laughter. ‘Let go off me, you pillock!’ I manage to articulate, sighing and wheezing. ‘Someone’s trying to get hold of you, it might be important.’ ‘Nothing that can’t wait.’ To make things worse, he rolls on top of me and his lips start nibbling my ear. ‘Paul!’ I gasp for air, my eyes all a watering chuckle. ’Let go.’ He sniggers, chafing the tips of his fingers against my ribs, tickling me. I somehow manage to shrug him off and speed towards the coffee table before he has a chance to get hold of my legs again. I instinctively glance at the flashing screen as I grab the phone and my grin freezes while a chill prickles inside my chest when I see the name displayed on the lit screen. Lisa! I’ve almost forgotten about her in the last few weeks. How dare she remind me she’s ever existed? Why now when Paul and I have just started to warm up to each other again? I stare at Paul who’s stretched out on his back on the floor, watching me with worry as I hand over the phone to him. I examine his face warily, trying to resist the doubting thought creeping inside my head. Has he been playing me for a fool all along? No, no, that’s impossible, he’s been here with me every single night, he’d have had no time to mess around even if he’d been tempted to. Yeah, how about during the day, at the office? The awkward thought sneers at me. You haven’t been there with him to know what he’s been up to. ‘Answer it,’ I almost growl, pain whizzing inside my throat, as I stare at the phone in his hands. ‘She seems determined to speak to you.’ He throws me another worried look before pressing the answering key. ‘Hello?’ The crease emerged between his eyebrows the moment he picked the phone from my hands deepens with every ‘yes’ and ‘ok’ his mouth lets out and his eyes are locked onto my ones which haven’t left his face for a second since he’s answered the call. ‘I have to go out,’ he jumps up to his feet after he puts the phone down. Liquefied helium starts rushing through my veins instead of blood as I stagger up. ‘Why?’ He ignores me and makes a move towards the door, but I manage to get there before he’s about to leave the room. ‘Paul,’ I whisper in a husky voice I barely recognise as my own, ‘do you realise if you leave now you won’t find me and Vicky here when you come back?' He stops and stares at me as if I’ve just whacked him over the head with a baseball bat. ‘Adi,’ he mumbles running his hands along my face, ‘Adi, I have to go.’ He looks very pale, his eyes drowned in fear, I’ve never seen him like this before . ‘You must trust me on this, sweetheart. I’m begging you, please, wait for me here. I’ll explain everything when I’ll come back.’ And I wait, I don’t know how long for, the minutes have prolonged into hours as I’ve been lying in dark, the fire has lone gone out, motionless on the sofa. I know it’s very late, most probably past midnight, when I hear the key sliding in the door lock. I wait for him to come into the room but he doesn’t, I can hear him passing by the open door and striding up the stairs. I cringe, clinch my hands and press my nails hard into my palms until my eyes cram up with stinging tears. Why is he doing this? I let another two or three minutes pass before I get up and go look for him. I can’t bear this anymore, I need to know. I target our bedroom first but he’s not in there. I check the bathroom and the two guest rooms lined along the corridor, but he’s nowhere to be found. There’s only one room left, but I know he can’t possibly be in there, he never goes in there this time at night. I crack the door open and sigh when my eyes fall onto his shadow, dropped down to his knees by Vicky’s cot, his hand slid between the wooden rail clung onto hers. ‘Paul.’ I call silently. He turns slowly, showing off a pained, tired face, and I feel like someone has just run the edge of a knife across my heart when he smiles wearily as he gets up. ‘I thought I check up on her before coming to find you.’ I keep staring at him, he never checks up on Vicky, why now? He comes across and takes my hand, leading me out of the room, shutting the door behind us. The landing’s lurking in a faint light sneaking up from downstairs and I narrow my eyes to look at him. ‘Paul.’ My throat feels like sandpaper and I have to swallow hard before letting the words out. ‘What’s going on?’ He lets my hand go and moves to the banister, his hands grasping the rail as he speaks, back turned at me. ‘Lisa’s pregnant. She claims the baby’s mine.’
Only registered users can rate and write comments. Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
||||||
Next item
|
|---|