‘I think I’ve changed my mind,’ Sam said, surprising both me and, judging by the wine splutter, Megan.
‘You can’t give up now!’ she burst out. ‘When I found out about Mike I was shocked, hurt, and embarrassed, but I was still glad I found out and that he could no longer play me for a fool. Charlotte and Kate helped me through it, and I wouldn’t turn the clock back to living with Mike while being blissfully unaware he was cheating on me.’
‘But what if I’m wrong?’ Sam asked. ‘What if she isn’t having an affair and finds out I’ve been a part of this ridiculous charade? She’ll leave me anyway and who could blame her?’ He downed his entire glass of wine and Megan looked across the table, willing me to do something, but I wasn’t about to beg Sam to let me catch his cheating wife.
Sam looked at Megan. ‘Would you have done all this if you suspected Mike?’ I watched her carefully, interested to see what she thought about the whole trapping thing.
She threw her arms up in the air. ‘I don’t know. Probably. It’s hard to tell because I never suspected anything – I caught him by pure chance. Charlotte was taking me for a drink at a nice hotel and there he was on a dirty weekend away that his mistress had won in a charity raffle.’ She snorted. ‘How tacky.’ Her words pierced me like a dart.
Sam’s eyes turned to me, and my heart started to race. ‘A charity raffle?’ he repeated. My chest started to feel heavy and I willed him to shut up. I knew where he was going and it was such a long time ago, it didn’t matter any more. ‘Like the charity raffles Charlotte does?’
‘I guess so,’ Megan said. ‘I haven’t given it much thought.’ She hadn’t caught Sam’s insinuation. But I had. I’d sold Sam many a raffle ticket in the past when we were fundraising. My mouth felt dry and my heart was pounding. I racked my brain for something to say to change the direction of the conversation but the words wouldn’t form. Talk about Lauren’s charity ball, vajazzles, anything!
‘What a coincidence,’ Sam continued and I was too late. I looked at Megan’s confused expression, which was slowly melting into a look of understanding.
‘Okay, Sherlock!’ I found myself blurting out before I could stop myself. What are you doing, Charlotte? Shut up. Tell them the vajazzle story. It was no good – coming clean was the right thing to do and it was something I should have done from the start. ‘I sold the raffle ticket to Mike’s waitress on purpose and I knew they’d be at the hotel when I took you there, Megan, because she was the only raffle entrant. I bought all the other tickets.’
I paused to let Megan speak, to say that it’s just water under the bridge or some other old saying that would make me feel better but she didn’t. Instead, she glared at me.
‘I’m sorry,’ I whispered, pleading with my eyes. Sam looked taken aback, perhaps he wasn’t insinuating after all, maybe I just felt guilty because I’d grown close to Megan. She stared at me with wide eyes that as the seconds passed, began to fill with tears. After she didn’t brush it off, I was expecting a bit of anger or a rant about dishonesty, but that didn’t come and being glared at through watery eyes felt much worse. It was hurt combined with crushing disappointment.
My throat felt all scratchy and I couldn’t swallow. ‘Megan, I . . . I’m sorry. I saw Mike with the waitress and didn’t feel like I knew you well enough then to just drop a bombshell like that. I thought you’d be better finding out for yourself. I thought it would help save face for you a little.’ It didn’t sound like as good a plan as I’d initially thought when I said it out loud.
‘So, shopping for the Pilates machine was just a ploy to get me to that hotel?’ she asked, giving nothing away in her tone.
I nodded. I could barely look her in the eye. The whole thing seemed so ridiculous in hindsight.
‘Wow, that’s calculated.’ She shook her head and gave a hollow laugh. ‘And expensive.’
‘I just wanted you to know the truth.’ My voice was a whisper, scared to come out.
‘Meanwhile, you’re telling tall tales, pretending to be shocked when I told you about Mike and then—’ Her words caught in her throat. ‘And then pretending to be my friend.’ She let out a heart-wrenching sob. ‘You’re a spoilt, rich, wife-brat with nothing better to do than use decent folk as your puppets! No wonder the only person in the world that will be friends with you is Kate. Get out.’ Her jaw was clenched together and her eyes wide open. I’d never seen her like this – timid Megan didn’t shout. This is what I’ve done.
I scrambled to my feet. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this,’ I said glancing at Sam for support but got nothing; instead, he stood up and placed a supportive arm around Megan. I made my way to the door and let myself out into the cool night air, climbing swiftly into my car. Before I started the ignition, I sat for a moment picturing Megan’s face as I left. The twisted hurt was etched in even deeper than it was when she came to tell me Mike was cheating on her. Barbed wire had coiled around my stomach and I felt physically sick.
Becoming friends with Megan had been one of the highlights of what could be construed as a pretty crappy year. She was so sweet and genuine, such a far cry from the Emmy and Lauren types I used to think were my friends. What’s more, she put up
