Chapter 24
ROSALIE
Rosalie reached them, hands on her hips and scoffed, staring at Sofia. ‘So I guess you did know all along.’
Sofia, who was clearly fizzing with anger, now also played at looking confused. ‘You guess I did know what?’
Rosalie pointed to Andrea. ‘That she has been screwing my dad.’
Sofia recoiled. ‘What are you talking about?’ She looked from Rosalie to her sister. ‘Andi?’
Andrea was motionless but for the movement in her neck as she swallowed deeply. ‘Ros, can we go somewhere and talk, please? Let me explain.’
‘Explain?’ Rosalie yelled. ‘Are you going to tell me you weren’t having an affair with my dad?’
‘No,’ Andrea said.
Just like that. Just that simple. Wasn’t everything just so simple to precious Andrea. As Rosalie’s chest began to heave, Sofia appeared to process what was being said.
‘Yes,’ Rosalie told her, her hands firmly planted on her hips. ‘Your sister has been sleeping with her so-called friend’s dad.’
‘What the fuck, Andi?’ Sofia shot out. ‘Is this some kind of joke? Hunter? You’ve been… How could you do that?’
Then something came over Rosalie. Something she had never truly felt. It gripped her with the force of a superhuman and wouldn’t let go. As Rosalie launched herself at Andrea, Seth grabbed hold of her, but not before her hand connected with Andrea’s cheek.
Andrea raised a hand to her cheek but didn’t retaliate. What Rosalie saw in her expression was shame and remorse. But it couldn’t change the facts and it couldn’t stop the uncontrollable rage that had swept Rosalie up.
‘Rosalie, I’m more sorry than you could ever imagine,’ Andrea said. ‘It was wrong. Terrible. Believe me, I hate myself for it.’
‘You should hate yourself!’ Rosalie yelled the words that were so desperately unlike her and ended in sobs. The force that gripped her had been replaced by the arms of Seth and as she watched Andrea’s eyes fill with tears, a small part of her wanted to go to her friend and wrap her arms around her.
But the biggest part of her felt disgust.
‘You’ve betrayed me,’ Sofia snarled, ‘and you’ve lied to everyone. When did you become so hateful, Andi?’
‘Sofia, please,’ Andrea pleaded.
‘No!’ Sofia snapped. ‘Look at her!’
Rosalie felt, rather than saw, all eyes fall on her as she turned into Seth’s chest, letting him hold her as she cried.
Because there was no one else whose arms she wanted to fall into.
And she had no other options even if she did.
She had lost her best friends. Her only true friends.
And the image of her parents she had always believed in had been shattered.
She gripped Seth’s T-shirt as he stroked her back, whispering soothing words into her hair.
‘You need to go,’ Sofia said. ‘And, Andrea, I never want to see you again.’
Andrea’s usual stone-faced expression was replaced by a sob. Covering her face, she turned and walked away.
‘Do you have your car here?’ Seth asked.
Rosalie pulled back from his chest and looked up to him. She must look horrendous, she realised, but she remembered Nashville, how Seth thought she was beautiful with no make-up on, crazy hair and ill-fitting clothes. But perhaps her mascara-stained cheeks were a bridge too far.
Yet Seth wasn’t looking at her like he was judging her, he was looking at her like someone who understood the heartbreak of cheating. And in that moment, as he held her face in his palms and wiped away her tears with his thumbs, she had more in common with Seth than ever before.
‘Why don’t you let me drive you home?’ he asked.
Rosalie could only nod.
‘Ros,’ Sofia said, approaching her side. ‘I know you must feel like everyone was in on something except you, but it isn’t true. I swear on my li?—’
‘Don’t do that,’ Rosalie said, cutting her off. ‘Don’t ever swear on your life.’
Sofia nodded. ‘I didn’t know. None of us guys knew, okay?’
Sniffing, Rosalie turned to face Sofia. ‘I believe you but if you weren’t arguing with Andi about the affair, what were you fighting about when I turned up here?’
Sofia inhaled, looking as sad as Rosalie had ever seen her. ‘Maybe that’s a story for another time. Suffice to say, I just lost my husband and my sister in one day.’
‘Oh, Soph, I’m sorry,’ Rosalie said.
Sofia tried to smile but the corners of her mouth barely moved. ‘Let Seth take you home and if you need a friend you can call me or come to see me anytime. In fact, I’d like that, okay?’
‘Okay.’
* * *
‘Come in,’ Rosalie said, holding open the door to the brightness of her park view apartment.
Placing her purse on the sideboard and swapping her heels for the spa slippers she kept by the entrance, Rosalie glanced up to Seth, watching him scrutinise her home. For some reason, she cared what he thought of her favourite interior project to date.
‘You can leave your boots on if you like, or I have guest slippers in the velour seat there.’
As if he had just remembered Rosalie was in the room, Seth looked to her, then to the small blue seat that was hidden storage by the door. He slipped off his loosely tied scruffy boots and popped his feet into a pair of spa slippers that were a match for Rosalie’s.
Phew, she thought, not wanting her recently revarnished hardwood floor to be at risk of damage.
‘Would you like a drink? Tea? Coffee? Something cold? I have fresh juices or champagne. I’m afraid I don’t stock beer.’
Seth offered her the half-smile she now considered deadly, making her knees wobbly. It reminded her of Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice , when he finally sees Elizabeth and her ‘fine eyes’. Mr Seth Young’s smile was also quite fine on further acquaintance.
‘Coffee would be good, thanks. Would you like me to make it? You’ve had a pretty rough day already.’
For the first time in days, Rosalie smiled. ‘You have no idea how particular I am about my coffee.’
And when Seth told her, ‘Oh, I can imagine, Ros, believe me,’ Rosalie chuckled for the first time in days too.
‘I’ll make coffee. Feel free to look around. Make yourself at home. I usually take coffee in the window, overlooking the park. Oh, and put some music on if you like. I’m not sure we’ll have the same taste; I mostly have soundtracks and jazz, but there’s some country in the collection too.’
Seth nodded and she watched him move about her home before she remembered she was supposed to be making drinks.
‘Ah, a compromise,’ Rosalie said, coming into her lounge with a bronze tray set with coffee and its components. ‘I love the Walk the Line soundtrack. I generally prefer instrumentals but who doesn’t love Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix as June Carter and Johnny Cash?’
She set down the tray in her window table where Seth had obligingly taken a seat, overlooking Central Park. ‘You know, Joaquin gets some bad press but he’s actually a very nice man.’
Seth gave a short laugh. ‘Why am I not surprised that you know Joaquin Phoenix, Ros?’
She wasn’t entirely sure of his point but as she took a seat, she told him, ‘I know a lot of people from the music industry. As it happens, when he and Reese were recording the soundtrack to Walk the Line, that’s when I met him.
He’s just a person, Seth, just like you and me.
Just like Randy is your brother first and a rock star second.
And in a few months’ time, when young girls are screaming your name and throwing their panties at you on stage, you’ll tell me you still just feel like Seth.
The guy who lost a bet one night and ended up on the stage of an open mic night, where Sofia found you.
You’ll tell me you’re just a soldier, a son, a brother’ – she handed him a full cup of coffee on a saucer – ‘and a friend, first.’
As he met her gaze, his fingers resting gently against hers as he took the saucer from her, Rosalie said, ‘Thank you. For today. And for things you said to me in Nashville. You probably didn’t realise at the time but you’ve given me a few things to think about, maybe just at the right time, too, as things have worked out. ’
In typical Seth fashion, he silently sipped his coffee and they sat in what felt like companiable silence for minutes.
It was odd to Rosalie, and she found herself wondering when she ever simply shared silence with anyone.
Suddenly, birds were singing outside. The trees of the park seemed greener.
She could hear car horns tooting as far away as 59th and Fifth.
And she could feel Seth’s presence next to her.
How nice it was to have someone sharing her home.
‘I’m sorry about your dad and Andrea, Rosalie,’ Seth said, taking it upon himself to top up his own coffee and Rosalie’s. ‘I know what it’s like to have the image of a parent shattered, no matter whether you’re young or older.’
Rosalie tried to smile but she knew it was sheathed in weariness. ‘Thank you for saying that. I think people probably think it’s just typical Rosalie, over the top and as dramatic as ever, but it’s not just my dad, it’s Andi.’ Her eyes began to feel heavy and clouded over.
She thought about Hannah and Andrea and how much she already missed them, no matter how mad she was with them.
‘I have other friends, women I grew up with. Kaitlin, Clarissa, Madeleine. But they aren’t like Hannah and Andrea.
Recently, I’ve realised the sad truth that they aren’t my real friends at all.
They’re part of a fake life that I couldn’t let go.
‘I challenged Daddy about his affair with Andrea and found out some other things about my parents in the process. Things I’ve just… overlooked, somehow. And it made me see that I’ve been striving for something false for a very long time. My ideals and values have been based on a lie.’
She turned the cup on her saucer with her fingertips.
‘Would you like to talk about it?’ Seth asked.