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Adjusting my cufflinks, I make a point of letting Julian feel the weight of my gaze.
‘It’s not going to happen because you’re going to leave Sadie alone. Stop whatever game you’re playing and walk away.’
‘Aw, William.’ Like a cartoon cupid, he clasps his joined hands under one cheek. ‘I didn’t know you cared.’ His expression turns dark. ‘About anyone. Other than yourself, obviously.’
‘I care for my friends. And my friends don’t mess with scum.’
‘Here’s the thing,’ he replies, rising himself. We’re matched even in height, though I’m fitter. Bigger in build and in nature.In length and girth where it counts.‘I think you’re wrong. See, she was a heartbeat away from inviting me upstairs.’
‘For a junky fuck up, you’re a pretty accomplished liar. And that wasn’t a compliment,’ I add, holding up a forestalling hand. ‘But liar’s always make mistakes. And it’s going to happen. You’ll fuck up and she’ll find out what you really are.’
‘You’re right. It’s bound to happen sometime.’ He makes a show of his shrug—a self-conscious gesture. ‘Tell you what; seeing as you’re an old mate, and one who doesn’t seem to have made any headway with the lovely Sadie, you have my blessing to console her after the fact. You know—after she’s had my head down her throat,’ he says, grabbing his crotch. ‘You can pick up the pieces after my fuck and dump.’
‘That’s not gonna happen.’ The thoughts of him being inside Sadie is enough to make me want to snap him in two. But not here. Not now. I have to work smarter than that.
Sure, I could take him outside, fuck him up. Make him look like the scum he is, rather than some fucking investment banker enjoying a quiet evening. But it wouldn’t stop him. It might even have the opposite effect. But what I don’t understand is why.
‘Come on, man.’ My Scot’s accent thickens. ‘She’s a nice girl,’ I say changing tack. ‘Leave her alone.’
‘Why? Are my sloppy seconds not good enough.’
‘Listen, you fucker,’ I growl, my temper rising as the words escape from my mouth.
‘Did she tell you how we met?’
I shrug, because I don’t trust myself with words right now.
‘I met her in an airport on my way back from rehab in the states. Only, the minute I got out of the place, I was looking for somewhere to score. She didn’t even realise how fucked up I was—how high I was. Who can talk to a woman for that long!’ He laughs, and my heart hardens on Sadies behalf. ‘I can’t remember what the fuck she said—what I even said. I didn’t even recognise her at my own fucking party. At least, not until the next day when I woke up with Candy’s tits in my face.
‘But then I remembered you. You were there,’ he says, his face suddenly contorted by anger, his index finger prodding the air between us. ‘You... ’
‘Me what?’ What the hell have I got to do with this?
‘You know that saying—love is blind? Well, let me tell youfriend, there’s nothing like marriage to sort out a man’s eye sight.’
‘Say what the fuck you mean.’ My words are expelled through gritted teeth.
‘It’s likeserendipity.’ As angry as my words are, his weigh equal in satisfaction, his hand painting an invisible rainbow in the air.Still coming down?‘Like the universe is readdressing the fucked up balance of my life. See, I fuck up in rehab and come back to London early, to find you’ve been fucking my wife.’
‘Hang on a minute—’
‘But wait; there’s more,’ he says happily. ‘Then I find out you shagged my sister last year.’
‘Well, yeah. That one’s true,’ I respond, because there’s no point lying. ‘You were at the same wedding when it happened. I didn’t realise Emma reported into you.’
‘You fucker—’
‘And as for your wife, I didn’t even know you were married, so if I’ve fucked her you can bet your arse it wasn’t out of spite. And more to the fact,’ I add, ‘I don’t do married women.’
‘You did this one,’ he replies evenly, scooping his jacket from the back of his chair. ‘And it looks like I’ve just found the perfect payback.’
Chapter Twenty-Seven
SADIE
Sadie, are you there?
I stare down at the text; Will’s first contact since he’d left me in the kitchen, half undressed and falling apart. It’s been days. And with each day that has passed, my resolve has been strengthened.
