Chapter 8
EIGHT
It was 3 a.m. Lewis sat in the black cab with his head in his hands. He was in that awful stage when the drink was wearing off and the hangover was beginning to start. What had he done? In seven years he had never been unfaithful to his beautiful Gracie. And he had been so unkind to her yesterday, too.
Losing the babies had not only made them drop the ball on their relationship, but on real life as they knew it as well. They had never been very good at communicating and last night, something just snapped. How could he have been such an arsehole?
‘You all right, mate?’ the cabbie enquired, noticing tears in his fare’s eyes as he looked in the rear-view mirror.
‘Yeah, yeah. Got an allergy, you know.’ Lewis stumbled out onto the pavement and handed a twenty-pound note through the half-open window. ‘Keep the change.’
‘Thanks, mate.’ The cabbie put his thumb up. ‘And women, eh? They’re not worth it, most of ’em, you know that.’
Thinking that Gracie wasn’t most of them, Lewis forced a lopsided smile. That woman, she was one in a million.
He clambered up the stairs and put his key as quietly as he could in the door. He undressed in the lounge and quickly hand-held the shower over himself. He’d never had to do anything like this before and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit.
He crept into the bedroom and put his hand over his mouth. For there was Gracie, fast asleep, spread-eagled on top of the covers, wearing the underwear he had always adored her in. The bedside light was still on and an empty bottle of wine lay on the floor. Her make-up was perfect, apart from the tracks of her tears down the middle of her cheeks.
Never before had he realised just how much he loved her.