Chapter Sixteen
Anouska
Wednesday 5 February
Now that her mum had returned to Stockholm, Anouska felt she could breathe more easily in every respect. She was gearing up once again to tell Zach about the baby, and wishing she was in a position to confide in the girls. It felt almost deceitful not to tell them, but until Zach knew, she couldn’t tell anyone else. It was bad enough her mum knew.
She was feeling more positive generally, and since she had an early meeting in Edinburgh, she decided to see if she could meet Ellie for lunch.
There was no immediate reply from Ellie, so she figured she’d play it by ear, and if she heard from her before lunch, they’d find a way to meet, otherwise it wasn’t a problem. She’d eaten lunch often enough on her own not to baulk at the idea.
By eleven o’clock, Anouska had secured another two-year contract and she came out of the meeting feeling elated that she still had it. Who said women couldn’t have it all? Career, motherhood…oh yeah, she still had to address that, and soon the proposal, with Zach. Yes, maybe she should wait before getting all smug.
Her phone pinged. Ellie. Hi, Anouska, yes, I can meet, but I’m not in a good way, so I’ll understand if you’d rather not. I could do with some advice though and a friendly face. Sorry for garbled text, Ellie x
What the heck? She immediately typed back, Hope you’re OK. Yes, I’ll definitely meet you and hopefully I can help, Love, A x
Her phone pinged again almost at once. Thanks, Anouska. Can you meet me at Cirque at 12? Ellie x
See you then, and hang in there, A x
Anouska arrived at Cirque early. There seemed little point trying to go anywhere first, so she parked close by, had a chat with Marion, sat in the only booth, at the back of the café, as she guessed Ellie might want some privacy, and made some calls.
Ellie arrived on the dot at twelve, wearing sunglasses and a puffy jacket with a collar so high it almost completely obscured her face.
‘Ellie.’ Anouska rose to greet her.
Ellie began to smile, but tears slid out from beneath her sunglasses and ran down her face.
‘Oh, Ellie, what’s happened?’ Anouska asked, guiding her to a chair.
Ellie gulped several times, took her sunglasses off, used one of the café’s napkins to wipe her eyes then blew her nose and blurted out, ‘Scott’s been cheating on me.’
Whoosh. It was like a sucker-punch to the stomach. Anouska had not anticipated that revelation.
‘Oh my God, Ellie, I’m so sorry. Are you sure?’
Ellie gave a bitter laugh. ‘Unfortunately, yes. Chloe and I caught him red-handed last night.’
The colour fled from Anouska’s face. Surely Ellie hadn’t caught him having sex with someone else? How horrific.
‘What happened?’ she asked.
Ellie filled her in, stopping only to burst into tears, wipe her eyes with her sleeve or blow her nose in a tissue every so often. Marion, sensing something was sorely amiss, wisely kept her distance.
Anouska couldn’t begin to comprehend the pain Ellie must be in. She’d never been in that position. All she could do was be here for her, be a sounding board, allow her to vent.
Ellie rubbed her eyes. ‘I can’t take it in. I barely slept last night.’
‘Not surprising. Any idea what you’re going to do?’
‘Not really.’
Anouska thought for a moment then laid out her suggestions. ‘You could wait for him to contact you and explain why he didn’t meet you, or call it all off, or go and see him.’
Ellie pursed her lips. ‘Hmm, I don’t know. I thought after I slept on it, I would know. The only thing I know for sure is that I won’t ever take him back, no matter what the lying, cheating scumbag says. And to think I wanted to marry him…’
‘The one consolation in all of this is that you weren’t married.’
Ellie gave the briefest inclination of her head, although Anouska felt underlining this would provide her friend little comfort at the moment.
‘It’s the betrayal and the why that gets me.’
‘Have you heard anything from him yet?’ Anouska asked.
Ellie shook her head. ‘I haven’t checked since this morning.’
‘I thought you’d have been checking every five minutes,’ confessed Anouska.
‘So did I, but I can’t bring myself to.’
They talked some more about the events of the evening before.
‘Never mind me, what about you? Seriously, I am so sick of hearing the sound of my own voice. Have you made any progress with your proposal?’
‘Are you sure you want to talk about this? You don’t have to. We could talk about something else.’ Anouska felt uncomfortable touching on the subject when Ellie’s pain was so raw, and it wasn’t as if she had anything to report.
‘Don’t worry. I’m not so bitter I can’t be glad for you two. Oh no, I haven’t told Jess yet.’ She looked at Anouska. ‘I don’t suppose you could fill her in for me. I don’t think I could cope with going over it all again.’
‘No problem. Leave it with me and I’ll message her later.’
Ellie sat bolt upright. ‘Do you know what? I’m going to wait until the cheating bastard contacts me, if he does, with whatever pathetic excuse he comes up with for standing me up last night. Then I’ll arrange to meet him somewhere public, and calmly tell him exactly what I think of him. I won’t rant or rave; instead I will be dignified in my exit from his life.’
Anouska raised an eyebrow, but Ellie held up a finger as if to stop her from saying anything.
‘To have proper closure this break-up has to be done in person. Otherwise, it’ll always feel as if there are loose ends to address. And I want to embarrass him the way he embarrassed me.’
Anouska frowned. ‘Are you sure that’s wise?’
‘Nothing too dramatic. No shouting or swearing, but I’m still working on location. I could do it at Caprese, then he’d never be able to show his face there again, as I know Luca would take my side. Or I could go to his work, which is my preference at the moment, and diss him in front of his colleagues. He would look a right tit then. But I’m still playing around with ideas. So all suggestions are welcome.’
‘I’d suggest doing it at Caprese. You said it was his favourite restaurant, as well as being yours. That would be a good punishment and also, you’d be on neutral-ish territory, and if this were tennis, it would be advantage Ellie, but if you go to his work, you might come across as some crazy ex-girlfriend. And…’
‘What?’ Ellie asked.
Anouska hesitated a moment, then blew out a breath. ‘Has it occurred to you the woman might work with him?’
Ellie hesitated. ‘No. I hadn’t got that far in my thought process.’
‘Or that their colleagues might already know, so it wouldn’t be a surprise or the showdown you’d hoped? That’s if they let you into the building.’
‘Hmm, that’s a good point. They do have quite advanced security at the uni. Maybe Caprese is the best plan then.’
Anouska set her empty cup down on the saucer. ‘What will you say to him?’
‘Don’t know yet, but I won’t make a scene, just let myself be overheard so people know how much of an asshole he is. Then I’ll get up and walk out, leaving him sitting there like a prat on his own.’
‘That sounds revenge enough– classy too.’
‘That’s cos I’m a classy chick!’ Ellie grinned. ‘In fact, now I’ve decided upon a course of action, I feel so much better. I’ve turned this victim scenario around. I’ll tell him straight, albeit at a decibel level that won’t shatter windows.’ She smiled.
‘Good for you. I’m glad you’re not taking this lying down,’ said Anouska.
‘No way is that happening. The more I think about it, the more I realise we haven’t been in a real relationship for some time. The fact that he couldn’t commit, that we never lived together, that six years on, my thirty-six-year-old boyfriend never suggested we move in together, until last week, or get married, proves that.’
Anouska nodded, silently allowing Ellie to continue.
‘How could I have been so blind? The good news is, I’m not mourning the death of our
relationship. I could so easily have found out further down the line. Crikey, what if I’d proposed, he’d said yes and then I discovered after we got married what he’d been up to? That would have been catastrophic– divorce settlement, solicitors’ fees, the works. I have some things to be grateful for.’
They were on their second cup of coffee and Ellie was even managing a bacon roll, at Anouska’s insistence, when Ellie’s mobile rang. ‘It’s Scott.’
‘Answer it then,’ urged Anouska.
‘I haven’t worked out what I’m going to say yet.’
‘Be unamused but suggest he takes you out for dinner ASAP, as in tonight or tomorrow to make up for it.’
Ellie nodded her agreement, then accepted the call and put it on speakerphone. ‘Yes?’ Her tone was clipped.
‘Hi, Els, sorry I didn’t get back to you yesterday, I was tied up at work. So, what time are we meeting at Caprese tonight then? I accidentally deleted the text.’
Ellie let silence hang in the air for a few seconds then said, ‘It was last night, Scott.’
‘What was last night?’
‘Our dinner.’ Ellie rolled her eyes.
He was smooth, Anouska would give him that.
‘No way. You didn’t go to Caprese, did you?’
‘Yes, I did, and sat like a right lemon for half an hour waiting on you. Didn’t you get my messages?’
‘I’ve only now charged my phone. In fact, there have been a few pinging noises since we started this call. I wonder if that’s your messages.’
‘Whatever.’ Ellie gestured at Anouska as if to say ‘Can you believe this guy?’
‘S-s-orry?’ Scott appeared confused.
‘Look, Scott, I’m busy. I wasted enough time last night sitting in the restaurant waiting for you, so if you don’t mind…’
‘Ellie, I’m sorry, it was a genuine mistake. I need to buy one of those fast-charging units. My bloody phone is always dying on me. Can I take you to Caprese tonight to make up for it?’
‘I’m busy tonight.’ She tapped her fingers rapidly on the table, a coping mechanism perhaps.
‘Tomorrow then?’
‘Fine. Check with Luca if he can fit us in.’
‘Sorry again. You know what I’m like when I’m working. I was so immersed in this new genome editing project we have on the go that I didn’t even think to check my phone or anything. We’re so close to a breakthrough on it, it’s all-consuming at the moment.’
‘Text me the details,’ she said curtly. ‘I’ll see you there.’
She hung up. It was difficult to figure out what was going through Ellie’s mind. Anouska had noticed her squeeze and open her fists repeatedly whilst on the call, as if she was perhaps choking the life out of Scott.
Ellie gave a tight smile. ‘Can you believe the nerve of him? Tied up? Really? Yes, what with, duct tape? I swear if he’d been in front of me, I might’ve strangled him.’
Anouska remained quiet. Ellie needed to get this out of her system, vent, rage at Scott.
‘And he thought it was tonight? I mean, seriously? How dim does he think I am? God, I hate him!’
Yep, she definitely needed to vent.
‘And all that crap about his phone being out of charge. Utter bollocks. I want to smash him to a pulp!’
Marion was approaching at that moment, and swiftly about-turned, clearly deciding to choose her moment later.
‘Ha! It was so satisfying saying “Whatever” to him. I’m always so easy to please. He’s not used to me being bolshie to him. Probably why he stuck around so long, albeit he was seeing other people.’ Tears filled Ellie’s eyes.
‘Six years we dated. Six years! And does he honestly think twenty quid or so towards a pizza and a bottle of wine will cut it for standing me up? Do you know, we still go Dutch, except at my birthday. Well, he’s in for a shock.’
Anouska murmured her agreement.
‘I’d have held out and asked for something else, like concert tickets or a night at the theatre or something that would have hit him in his pocket, but that would mean spending more time with him and living a lie and I’m not prepared to do that. I want this over, and as soon as possible. I just couldn’t do it tonight.’
‘That’s understandable. It’s been a very stressful experience for you.’
Between clenched teeth, Ellie said, ‘How easily the lies fell from his lips. He makes me sick.’
‘I know it’s hard to process right now, but you really are better off without him.’ Anouska grimaced. ‘And I’m sorry if that sounds like a platitude, it’s not meant to.’
‘Oh, don’t you worry, I know I’m better off without him. And do you know what, just for the sheer hell of it, I’m going to end this relationship with a bang.’
Anouska looked at her quizzically and Ellie said, ‘I’m going to dress to impress. I have the perfect figure-hugging red dress in my wardrobe. Very vixen. I want to show him what he’ll be missing– forever.’