Page 60 of Five Gold Rings
My heart hurts to see her so sad. ‘I’m sorry… I—’
‘Please don’t apologise to me,’ she cries, tears streaming down her beautiful face. ‘If I’m so kind and caring, then why did he do something so awful like this?’
‘Because he’s a knob?’ I suggest as she blows a huge snot bubble out of one nostril that I wish I hadn’t seen. ‘You spoke to Noel this morning, right?’ I ask her.
She nods, weeping gently.
‘So did he tell you how Chris fed him a bunch of lies about how your relationship ended?’
Again, she nods, sadly, tears trailing down her cheeks.
‘That was a coward’s move. That’s not how someone behaves towards someone they care about.’ I grab her into a massive hug, trying to infuse some security and love into her. I care. Please don’t be so sad. I’m here.
‘I just don’t get why he came back then? Just to leave me that note?’ she sobs. ‘If you found that note on the fridge then why was in here? Noel said he was in our bedroom, looking for something. I just can’t…’
It’s only then that Eve catches sight of something at the back of the wardrobe. A cream and forest green Fair Isle jumper. She pauses for a moment before scrambling over, grabbing it and then burrowing through the rest of the clothes there like an angry mole.
‘The absolute fucker.…’
‘This is true,’ I confirm.
‘No, it’s why he came back here,’ she says, staring at handfuls of clothes, shaking her head. ‘He came back here to get his jumper for his family Christmas party. We were going to match. There was me thinking maybe he came back to see me, but he came back to leave me his note and for his bloody jumper… The bastard…’
I’m half following her line of thought, half trying to placate her, but I see her tracing her finger across the patterns of the jumper and something is simmering, fizzing under her skin.
‘AAAAAAARGHHH!’ she screams, picking up a piece of the dismantled bed and throwing it at the wall opposite, leaving quite an impressive dent. She covers her mouth with her hands. ‘Oh my god, I’m so sorry.’
‘Did you just apologise to a wall?’ I ask.
She cry-laughs maniacally. ‘I did. Why am I apologising to a wall?’
‘Because you’re nice. He’s less nice…’
‘HE’S A SHIT!’ she squeals.
‘Let it out…’
‘He’s a cowardly, horrible, piece of piss.’
I’m not sure you can quantify urine in that way, but I like this process, this catharsis.
‘And I want to say this to his face. NOW! I want to see him in his jumper that I bought for him and end this… properly,’ she says, angrily waving a finger in the air, her face contorted with rage.
‘Now?’ I question.
‘Now.’ And with that she storms into the next room. The note lies there on the floor, and I pick it up, glancing over the words. She’s angry now? I can only imagine her reaction if I’d read out what it really said. I scrunch the note up and throw it on to a pile of scrap wrapping paper. Were there any kisses? No, there weren’t. Not at all.
Eve, I don’t know what you think you did this morning but the management company has called me and fined us for littering and damage to the gardens outside. I’ll send you the bill because that was all you. You can buy me a new phone, too, and that ring cost me £1K so think about how you’d like to pay me that back. We could have had a reasonable conversation about all of this. If you want to know why we finished, it’s because we got boring. I don’t want a life like that. I’m only twenty-nine and I just want more out of my life. I’ll get a solicitor to chat about how we split the contents of the flat. That rug in the bedroom is mine.
FIFTEEN
Eve
‘Do you want a shot?’ I ask Joe, still here, like some loyal faithful chauffeur, as he stops the engine of his car. I pass him the bottle of vodka that was a Christmas gift for someone else that now belongs to me as I sit in the passenger seat, my knees jittering with nerves. I told him to drive to Chris’s family home. I reeled the postcode off by memory and even gave him directions and now we’re here. Fuck.
‘I thought you were going dry today?’ Joe asks me, raising an eyebrow.
‘Just one shot for Dutch courage.’