‘Yes, Mr Glover!’ The waiter smiled conspiratorially and scribbled the order down.
Only good manners prevented her from arguing the toss, but once the waiter had gone Shelley felt like hurling the contents of the bread basket at him. She leaned across the table towards him. ‘I can’t believe you just did that,’ she hissed. ‘But then I’d forgotten just how over-bearing and domineering you could be!’
‘Don’t make a scene in public,’ he answered mildly.
‘Well, you started it!’
‘Trust me.’ He looked at her. ‘When did you last eat?’
She thought back. ‘I had breakfast.’
‘Which was what?’
‘The usual. Fruit and yoghurt.’
‘Exactly. And since then you’ve driven from London to Milmouth, walked on the beach, had the trauma of going to your mother’s house, driven up here, bathed—’
‘You really have been spying on me, haven’t you, Drew?’
He ignored that. ‘You can’t function properly if you don’t give your body the fuel it needs.’
‘What’s wrong with my body?’
‘I told you before. It’s too skinny. Now drink a glass of this.’ And he poured out a red wine which smelt enchantingly rich and powerful.
Shelley took a sip. It was.
‘Better?’
‘A bit,’ she answered grudgingly as she felt herself beginning to relax.
‘Now.’ He leaned back in his chair and looked at her. ‘Where do we start?’
She heard the slight edge in his voice and looked down at her cutlery, deliberately misunderstanding him. ‘I think you just work from the outside in.’
‘Very amusing!’ He studied her from across the table. ‘Though I suppose it wouldn’t surprise you if I picked up my soup plate and started slurping from it?’
‘Oh, there we are on the defensive again!’
‘Only with you, kitten—only with you.’
She sighed and reached out for a bread stick. ‘Just tell me what you want—’
‘In full and aching detail?’
‘Though maybe it’s time I told you.’ She snapped the bread stick cleanly in half and saw him wince. ‘Shall I explain exactly what happened that night with Marco?’
‘Why? Do you think it will change things?’
No, she didn’t. Not change things in a fairy-story kind of way. But maybe change the way he felt about her. Eradicate some of the contempt. ‘What did you imagine happened, Drew? It was an innocent evening, followed by an innocent kiss. That’s all.’
‘That’s all?’ The blue blaze of his eyes lanced her like a javelin. ‘But you lied, Shelley. You lied to me. Didn’t you?’
‘Yes, I did!’ she admitted. ‘But think about why I lied! Because I was afraid of what you’d say if I told you the truth! I should have had the courage to do that, but I didn’t. And don’t you think that says a lot about the inequality in our relationship, Drew? That I didn’t dare tell you I had made a stupid mistake?’
She had run from Marco’s car and into her mother’s house as though there had been demons on her heels. Which she supposed there had. And her mother had come downstairs to ask her what on earth was going on, alarmed when she saw Shelley’s white face.
‘Shelley, what’s happened? What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing’s wrong!’ Shelley snapped. ‘Nothing!’
‘But—’
‘Just leave me alone, Mum,’ she begged. ‘Please.’
Shaking uncontrollably, she locked herself in the bathroom and stripped all her clothes off and washed every bit of her body, scrubbing at her skin with soap and tepid water, like a punishment.
But the clothes felt tainted—she knew that she would never be able to wear them again. She stuffed them into a plastic bag and was just bundling them into the garbage when a tall figure appeared from out of the shadows in front of her.
She started with guilt. ‘D-Drew,’ she stumbled.
‘What’s the matter, Shelley?’ His voice sounded low, soft, deadly. She had never heard him speak like that before.
‘N-nothing’s the matter,’ she answered, much too brightly.
‘Really? But your face is very white, and look…your hands are shaking.’
‘Well, it’s…it’s cold.’
‘Yes, it is,’ he agreed. ‘Far too cold to be putting the rubbish out, surely?’
She should have come clean then. Should have blurted out the truth and taken all the disdain and condemnation he was prepared to throw at her. Then maybe she would have earned his forgiveness. But she was frightened. Frightened of what she had done and how Drew would react if she tried to explain that one mad moment of stupidity. So she did the worst thing possible.