“I saw him flirting with a few of the regulars, so I figured he was available, and we got talking.” She shrugged. “He looked cute, so I went home with him. He said this was his place too.”
The words twisted in her gut like a knife wound. “I don't need to hear this,” Kathy said. “Why are you telling me this?”
“I feel sorry for you, okay? I've been cheated on too, and it sucks. I know he's going to come back and spin some line of bullshit to convince you it's all just a big misunderstanding, and he'll try to make me look like a crazy bitch, as if the fact that I like to sleep around makes me nuts.” Gina sneered into her coffee. “Fuckwads like him don't deserve a second chance. I'd like to make sure you don't give him one.”
“What did you do when you found out your boyfriend was...?” Kathy asked.
“Piled all his stuff in his front yard, threw petrol all over it and lit it up,” she replied. “Nobody fucks around on me and gets away with it.”
Kathy was appalled. She stared at Gina, forgetting her own pain for a moment. “Did you get arrested?”
“Nah, he wasn't gonna press charges. He knew he deserved it.”
“...Would you really have had Mark beaten up?” She was starting to wonder whether Gina had a criminal record or something, and whether inviting her in was a good idea or not.
Gina laughed. “Not really. My buddies are just good at scaring people. Real useful when I don't want to do the scaring myself.”
Kathy smiled a little. Gina was a million miles away from her and Mark's friends. Her and Mark's... her face fell. “All of our friends are going to want to know what's happened,” she said quietly. “I don't even know if he's told any of them...” She was usually so busy with work that Mark handled their social life. Her friends were all mostly his friends, and she had drifted out of contact with many of the people who she had known before they got together.
“Have you checked your phone?”
Kathy hadn't. She forgot to switch it back on after the flight. It was as good a time as any to go find out. She went back to the hall for a moment to collect it from her case, and hit the power button as she returned to the kitchen.
A flood of messages appeared as soon as it picked up the signal, from regular texts to Facebook updates. Kathy flicked through them with a rising sense of horror; Mark had publicly posted a long, heartfelt letter about how she had thrown him out after he brought a friend home. She saw herself presented as a mean, unfeeling, jealous harpy who had over-reacted because he wouldn't let her control his life. She saw their friends commiserating with him. She saw message after message asking her for an explanation, and those were the kinder ones.
Kathy placed the phone down on the table, her head dizzy from the shock. This couldn't be happening. Someone would believe she wasn't capable of this, wouldn't they? Gina picked it up and read a little, and her eyes widened.
“Oh my god... He's made you look like the Anti-Christ.”
Kathy nodded, biting her lip and trying desperately not to break down again.
Gina left the phone on the table, shaking her head in disgust. “I can't believe it. I've seen some shitty moves, but this beats everything. Are you okay?”
“No.” Kathy swallowed another sob, almost curling up in her chair in pain. “I can't handle this, I just can't.”
“Come down to the bar with me.”
“What?” She looked up at Gina, but the redhead was being completely serious.
“You don't want to deal with Mr. Shitface and whatever he's saying to your friends, you come down to my bar,” she said firmly. “You can hide out there and chill for a while until you're ready for this. I'll call a guy I know who can change the locks – I mean, once I find my phone, that is.”
Hiding... it was cowardly, but she had never felt so hunted. Still... “You don't have to help me,” Kathy said. “I mean, I don't even know if I can trust you. No offense.”
“None taken. I just feel like I owe it to you, you know? Anyway, he lied to me.” Gina's face darkened. “No one lies to me like this. Anything I can do to fuck his shit up is good.”
She seemed sincere. Kathy still hesitated. “What kind of bar is it?”
Gina grinned at her. “The loud kind.”
*****
Only two hours, a change of clothes, and a hot shower later, Kathy was pulling up to a rather seedy-looking building with a row of motorbikes parked outside, and feeling even more ambivalent about her decision. A rusted sign saying GUN METAL hung over a set of double doors. There was no way to tell if it was even open for business.
Gina was as good as her word. The locks were changed in record time by a soft-spoken man called Lucas, who had refused payment and said he'd square it with Gina later. Then she had had to find some black clothing – faded black top, black skirt, black jacket, and a pair of boots she hadn't worn in years – just to avoid looking out of place.
Gina directed her around the back, to the little employee parking lot. Kathy's respectable silver Prius would actually be bad for business, she explained. There was already a giant black pickup truck there, as well as a little Mini Cooper with a skull decal on the bumper.
She turned off the engine and sat there for a minute, staring at the steering wheel and wondering what the hell she was doing. She was a business analyst, for god's sake, and this was the
