“What good would that do?”
“It would make sure he wouldn’t do it again. Not ever.”
“Yes, but it would hurt people, too.”
“You’re trying to protect him, are you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“That’s it,” Sophie said with a devilish gleam. “That’s why you’re sounding me out, to see how I’d react. My God, Annabelle, you’re so much atrocious. I don’t believe it. You want to shag Jeff.”
“I do not!”
“You just said it. He doesn’t look eighty. I mean, he looks barely a couple of years older than Tim. It’s actually spooky how similar they are. You want to trade up, don’t you?”
“No.” She was trying to laugh, but it came out more like a guilty snort.
“Makes sense to me. I mean, think of the advantages. He’s rich and famous; it’s like he was his generation’s Sir Mitch. He’s experienced, which has got to count for something in bed. Hey, I bet he knows all sorts of tricks that’ll ring your bell. The age difference obviously doesn’t bother him. I mean, he must have been sixty-plus when he married Tim’s mum. How old was she back then? She only looks about a couple of years older than us now. And we all know he certainly doesn’t have a conscience, so he’s not going to plague you afterward.”
“Are you saying I should?” Annabelle had the uncomfortable recollection of the Rutland nonworking mothers club, and their discussion along similar lines.
“I’m not saying anything. You’re the one who has to decide.”
“There is nothing to decide.” Annabelle shoved herself back into the bench, and resumed her lifts. “Nothing.”
26. END OF A BEAUTIFUL ARRANGEMENT
IT WAS HALF PAST FIVE in the afternoon when the computer informed Jeff he had an incoming call from James. Did he want to receive it?
Jeff sat back in the black leather chair, putting his hands behind his head. He could hear tiny cracking noises as his shoulders stretched. “Let it through.”
There was an intricate molecular structure playing on the desk’s main screen, coiled streamers burning green and tangerine like alien DNA. The arrangement was one of the latest nano filaments produced by Caltech, which he was studying to see how much progress they’d made on bonding alignments. It was replaced by James’s chubby features.
“My God, I actually got through,” James muttered; it wasn’t entirely good humored.
“Sorry. I’ve been getting myself back up to speed on the superconductor project. There’s a lot of techniques I need to learn about.”
“Well, I hope Martina Lewis appreciates the effort.”
“Who?”
“The one down at Knightsbridge.”
“Oh, her.” Jeff flinched a smile. “Yeah, right.”
“Jesus, Jeff. You forgetting their names already?”
“Not with everybody reminding me, no.”
“Ah. How is Sue?”
Jeff pulled a face. “Unhappy. Is that what you called to ask?”
“No, actually. If she ever allows you out again, Alan and I were going to meet up on Thursday for a pint. Strictly boys only; you can tell her she has my word on that. You game for it?”
It was the third time Alan and James had asked him out over the last week. Each time he’d refused. This was going beyond impolite. “Ah crap, no, I’ve got a whole load of teleconferences with the Americans on Thursday. Can’t make it, sorry.”
James stared at the top of the screen, where his return camera was. “Okay, Jeff,” he said in a level voice. “When you want to come out with us, you give us a call.”
“Sure. Won’t be long. Just got a bit of a backlog on right now.”
James’s image vanished.
“Bugger it,” Jeff muttered. He’d invested decades in those friendships. It was painful for him to watch antagonism and hurt erode them away. But he simply couldn’t stand another miserable night in the pub listening to the same conversation they’d had for the last twenty years being replayed with tiny variants. Not again.
One thing was for certain, he needed to get laid, but good.
He told the Europol team to get ready for an evening in Peterborough. Tim had said there were plenty of clubs there. A girl for the night would be easy enough if Martina Lewis was anything to go by.
SUE FOUND HIM as he was getting dressed for a night clubbing. He’d already chosen loose cream trousers, a geometricist’s ideal of a Hawaiian shirt in black and chrome yellow, gray jacket with a contemporary cut so it didn’t meet across the front. Which just left him puzzling over which shoes to wear when she rapped lightly on the door frame and walked into his bedroom.
“Off out?” she asked.
“Yeah, I thought I would.” His voice came over as too defensive.
“I thought we should talk, but it can wait a while.”
“No, that’s all right.” He abandoned the shoes and sat on the edge of the bed.
Sue came over and sat beside him. She was very prim and composed, a light mauve cardigan drawn around her white blouse; long ocher skirt. “It’s not working, is it, me being here?”
“I was stupid,” he blurted. “She was young, and eager, and I was by myself, and it was easy. That sounds so old, I know. But that’s the truth of it.”
She gave him a sorrowful little look. “Maybe that’s the way it was that night. But if it hadn’t have been then, it would have been another night. I think that’s what upset me the most. Me of all people, I should have known better.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You and I. It was only ever sex. This time round. I mean, were you really expecting us to stay together for another fifty years till death do us part?”
“I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought about it.”
“I have…. Well, I have now. Let’s face it, we barely made it through the last nineteen years, and we only managed that because we didn’t spend any time together. All we did was live under the same roof occasionally, which meant we could be polite when we did bump into each other. That’s how we survived so long, no emotional entanglement.”
“You’re being too negative.”
Her hand rubbed his leg. It was as if she was stroking a pet. “Did you love me, Jeff, nineteen years ago? Were you smitten and besotted, and ready to lay down your life for me?”
“You know why we got together back then.”
“I do. And I’m not saying it was a bad thing. We both got Tim out of it, even though he’s more yours than mine. But it was never meant to last. We would have shaken hands and finished in a civilized fashion; then this treatment came along and buggered our arrangement to hell.”
“Men and women can never be friends. Good quote.”
“What?”
“It’s a line from
“You certainly did, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.” He sighed. “Like you said, everything changed.”
“I can’t believe I was so stupid. Sex always ruins everything.”
