Yours Unfaithfully (22 page)

After a short silence Nina spoke again.

“How is your thing with Ratty now?”

Melanie was shocked at the mention of his name.

“What do you mean Neen? Ratty’s nothing to me. Never was. Only someone I had to put up with at that law seminar thingy for the sake of my work.”

The dismissal of Ratty in this way confirmed to Nina that they had really made up on holiday. Even if Tim did come round with news of Ben, it wouldn’t be like the last time he’d comforted her.

“I’ll be all right now, Mel, you go back and finish your unpacking; I’ll see you later when I’ve sorted myself out.”

“If you feel down, Nina, come round to me, promise?”

“I promise, thanks Mel. Sorry I was a bit uppity just now.”

“You were fine; it was me and my big mouth. I’ll see you later.”

As she started to cook a meal for five she reflected on the way Nina had acted. Quite unlike her normal self. But then things weren’t normal, her husband had left her.

“Tim, you need to find that mate of yours and see if he’s still got the hots for that young thing. I promised Nina you’d talk to him and then go round to her, hopefully to give her some good news on him coming back, try to cheer her up a bit.”

Tim thought about the last time he’d cheered Nina up. His head filled with guilt as he looked at Melanie, sweet unknowing Melanie. God she must never find out what he’d done in a moment of weakness. He loved his wife more than anything in the world, always had. How then had he behaved like that, with her best friend of all people?

“I won’t have time tonight Mel, I’ve got to get myself ready for tomorrow. Ready for my new job. I’ve also got to go down to the yard and collect my tools. That’s gonna be a bit embarrassing. I’ve really shit on my firm. I go off on holiday and then phone up from France and say I’m not coming back. You know how hard it is to get fitters, they’re gonna be well stuck until they can replace me.”

“That’s not your problem Tim. You’ve done what’s best for you and for all of us. I’m proud of you.” She moved close to him and put her arms around his waist.

He knew she was right; it hadn’t been like this in a long time.

“Ben, it’s Tim. I’m back from our two weeks in the sun, and I’ve got loads to tell you ... are you going down the Globe tonight?”

“I don’t go down there much now, Tim. Beckie and I prefer to go into town but yea, OK, why not? I certainly wanna hear your news, and I’ve got some news to tell you.”

“I’ll be there about eight’ish. See you then?”

“Looking forward to it, Tim, see you later.”

Tim pushed his mobile back into his pocket and went in search of Melanie.

“I’ve arranged it, Mel. He’s meeting me at the Globe at eight. He also said he’s got some news for me. Let’s hope he’s had enough of Beckie and is planning to get back with Nina.”

“Did he hint at that?”

“No, he didn’t. In fact if I think about what he said it’s hard to fathom out what he’s up to. He said they don’t go to the Globe much because Beckie prefers to go into town. Maybe that’s the key to it, she wants the clubs and her young friends, but he can’t keep up the pace and misses his pool games and wants to get back to his old routine. After all, it can’t be easy satisfying a young twenty something... can it?”

“I don’t know and you are not about to find out, so take that smirk off your face Tim Fisher and get back to satisfying this almost forty something before I find someone more capable...”

They laughed as Tim scooped her into his arms, easily picking her up. He carried her to the bedroom and pushed the door shut behind him with his outstretched foot, placing her carefully on the bed. “What did madam have in mind?” he enquired.

“Madam prefers to have a surprise.”

They played for a while until inevitably the chemistry manifested itself into a frantic scramble to make love. They lay together for some time afterwards, Tim with his arm around Mel’s naked body, confining her to his caress.

“You will grill him tonight, Tim, won’t you? Nina needs to know when he’s coming back; she’s broken up at having lost him. Strange when you think of how she used to go on about him all the time. I often thought she would be glad to be rid of him; in fact I’m sure she said as much to me, but now she sees only loneliness for her future. She won’t accept that she might meet someone new, someone better suited to her than Ben. Let’s be honest, they weren’t suited were they?”

“That’s the trouble with women, you moan about us when we’re with you, but it isn’t until we’ve gone off with some young attractive enticement that you realise how lucky you were to have us. I can’t help thinking Nina brought this on herself. I mean, I’m not saying I don’t feel sorry for her, but she could have treated Ben a hell of a lot better than she did.”

“Trust you to be on Ben’s side. He’s a shit and you know it. OK, so he’s your mate, but I haven’t forgotten how he nearly broke us up just weeks ago with all his phoney marriage guidance advice, which
you
followed to the letter. You gave me serious shit, Tim Fisher, thanks to that prat, and you are lucky that I didn’t bugger off and leave you. Don’t you ever try all that eating at the pub stuff again or I’m warning you this bed will go cold and stay cold.”

Tim didn’t like the way that the slightest mention of Ben stressed Melanie. This conversation was rapidly undoing the good work of the holiday and the subject needed changing fast.

“Well, tomorrow’s my big day, my new career. What do you think I should wear?”

“Not too difficult a choice for a man with hardly any decent clothes. You could wear the suit you got in France or you could wear those bloody awful trousers that you wore to the Walnut Tree. If you do, your career with Simon Stonewood might end before it gets started.”

“I don’t know what you hate so much about those trousers. They weren’t cheap.”

“Remind me, Tim, who were you with when you bought them? Whose fashion advice did you seek on that momentous occasion?”

“You know who I was with. Ben and I went shopping after football… oh that’s it isn’t it, you hate them simply because Ben had a say in choosing them?”

“Tim, you can be quite stupid sometimes. You know my feelings on Ben, yet you insist on defending him. If you don’t want a row, I suggest you shut up about him and take those trousers to Oxfam, got it?”

“Mel, it’s a deal. There’s no way I want a row with you about anything, especially Ben.”

“Good, but I do want you to meet him tonight to sort him out and get him to go round and see Nina. Even if he won’t stay get him to talk to her, promise?”

“Well, I promise to try, Mel, but please don’t blame me if he’s not ready yet. I’ll do my best”.

The pub was unusually busy for a Sunday evening. Tim saw Ben standing at the bar with Beckie. He observed them for fully a minute before making any attempt to go over and say hello. Beckie was quite stunning, a good looking girl ...was she a woman? She was certainly very young. She had her arms around Ben’s generous waist in a display of affection intended primarily to let female predators know that he was hers. He remembered that he’d been sent here to persuade Ben to dump her and get back to Nina, but that seemed like an impossible task. She was smiling, bubbly and not the slightest bit embarrassed by the obvious age difference between them. How could he mention Nina in her presence? She didn’t look like she was about to be separated from Ben, even for a second. He threaded his way towards the bar.

“So, Ben, how’s it been?” Tim shifted his glance to Beckie, “Hi Beckie, you’re looking good.” She held out her hand and he took it without thinking, she shook it enthusiastically. She was full of life, brimming over with vitality. He could see how it would be fun to wake up with her every morning and go to bed with her every evening. He experienced a pang of jealousy at Ben’s good luck. He knew every man in the pub was taking notice; he wasn’t the only one who envied Ben.

Beckie finally let go of his hand and turned to her partner, “Tell him, Ben, tell him our news”.

“OK, but I don’t want to tell the whole pub, it’s too important for that.”

“OK, I’ll tell him,” she said and taking hold of Tim’s shirt, she dragged him out of the pub to the roar of his mates... “Trust Fisher to nick her off you, Ben. You don’t want to trust him with her. Five minutes outside with him and she won’t want you back anyway.” The raucous remarks continued, but Ben smiled and took a sip of his pint. He knew exactly where he was with Beckie.

Outside in the car park, Beckie was still holding Tim by his shirt.

“I know your Ben’s best mate, he’s told me loads about you, and so I want you to be the first to share our news,” she said.

Tim was excited by her presence, by her hold on his shirt. Her relaxed attitude to intimacy was something he wasn’t accustomed to and it had a profound effect on him. He was willing to listen to her, he would follow her command to the letter; he was under her spell and loving every second of it.

“Ben and I are going to try for a baby.”

He was speechless. This was going to change his script entirely, the script in which he was supposed to reason with Ben about going back to his wife, that slightly overweight, respectable lady next door who made a hobby of moaning at Ben throughout her waking hours. He laughed inwardly at the thought of any man letting Beckie slip from his grasp in favour of Nina. Right now he would have thought about leaving Mel if Beckie had asked him to try for a baby. Christ, pull yourself together... he remonstrated with himself for having lecherous thoughts, thoughts about the girlfriend of his best friend, the best friend whose wife he had slept with just a couple of weeks ago. You bastard ... how can you even begin to call yourself his best friend?

“Well, are you happy for us? Ben said you would be made up at our news.”

“I am, I am, I promise, it’s just a bit of a shock that’s all.” He hugged her, as was expected of him at a moment like this. She responded with exuberant enthusiasm by squeezing herself tightly to him. As he let go of her he wished he hadn’t enjoyed the contact as much as he did. They made their way back inside with her leading him by the hand. The cheers began again amid innuendoes that they had been intimate in the two minutes they had spent outside. To Tim it felt as if they had been intimate. If only he could experience the same thrill from Mel, when she had something to tell him.

“Congratulations, Ben.”

He was forced to hug his mate, although he knew if Nina or Mel found out how enthusiastically he had received this news he would be in it up to his neck. Ben leant forward until he was within an inch of Tim’s ear. “This is it, Tim, this is the real thing. I love this girl, with her I feel like I can fly.” Tim could understand that, he had been almost airborne just talking to her.

“Ben, you need to go and see ‘her’ ...you’ve got to mate. She has to be told, she still thinks you’re coming back. She’s in a hell of a state, crying and blaming herself for driving you out. I’m in the middle of it. Mel sends me round to convince Nina that you’ll soon be back and Nina cries constantly... I’m running out of things to tell her. Please will you go and sort it out, you owe her that much”. Beckie had heard most of what he’d said.

“Tim’s right, Ben. Nina is your wife. You have to treat her with a little dignity at a time like this. We’ll go there together and explain how happy we are and tell her what we’re planning. Once she understands that it’s over she’ll be glad for you, glad that you’re happy and that she can move on with her life. It’s the uncertainty that is upsetting her, making her cry. I’d be the same in her shoes. She needs to know exactly how things stand and you’ll need to work out access for the kids, that sort of thing. She’ll need to be reassured that I’m fit to look after them when they come to stay. These things are crucial to a woman at a time like this.”

Tim was trying to picture Ben and Beckie sitting in Nina’s front room telling her their news. It was too bizarre to contemplate. Nina would kill both of them, her only difficulty being to decide which to kill first. Beckie seemed to think it would be tea and biscuits and a friendly little chat to sort out the details. She didn’t know Nina. And if that wasn’t enough to think about, he had to work out what he was going to tell Melanie when he got home. This was enough to stop her speaking to him for a month, and probably worse. Despite the problems that lay ahead, Tim couldn’t bring himself to be unhappy for Ben. This was a good relationship, one in which they were both incredibly happy. He couldn’t spoil this by any more lecturing of Ben on his responsibilities to Nina or his kids.

“Tim, you said you had some news for me?”

“Yes, it seems pretty unimportant now, after hearing yours. I’ve chucked my job at the yard and I start as a Personal Assistant tomorrow for a guy who’s got more money than you or I could ever dream of.”

“You’re joking... you a personal assistant? What, you mean like you do his typing?” Ben laughed at his joke and made typing impressions with his hands. “Take a letter, Miss Fisher, sorry Mr Fisher, will you...”

“Ben, please don’t take the piss. This job means a lot to me, not least because it’s got me and Mel back together again, properly I mean.”

Beckie admonished him, “Ben, Tim didn’t treat you that way when we gave him our news, you say sorry. I think its brilliant Tim; I hope you love your new job. I’m made up for you. She pulled his shirt again and reached up to kiss him on the lips then gave Ben a scornful look, “He is sorry, aren’t you?”

Ben knew he’d overstepped the mark. His humour had fallen flat this time. He put a huge arm around his pal and pulled them together. “I’m chuffed for you, Tim, you know that. I’m glad you and Mel are sorted and this job sounds good. What
do
you have to do?”

“Well, firstly I drive him around. I’m also there to look out for him in case of any problems – not that I’m expecting any, he’s a good bloke. I’ve spoken to him on the phone, and he sounds really nice. He’s going to kit me out with some decent clothes, none of your peaked cap nonsense, it’s not like I’m a chauffeur. I don’t really know myself what I’ll be doing but I do know he gets around in a Mercedes Maybach, half a million pounds worth of it, how about that?”