Better Than Easy by Nick Alexander Read Free Book Online Page A

weekend. So …” She sighs. “I think maybe I don’t trust my judgement anymore,” she says. “And anyway it’s just temporary. I think. Maybe I have commitment issues … anyway, we’ll see. Plus, I keep waiting to find out what’s wrong with him, you know?”
    I laugh. “Yeah, I know that one,” I say.
    â€œAnyway, it’s just good to have sex to be honest,” she says. “And good sex at that. I was worried that my vagina was gonna heal over.”
    I pull a face.
“Jenny!”
I protest.
    â€œOooh, never use the V word with a gay man,” she says mockingly. “We have to listen to all
your
gruesome details! At any rate, it’s good at the moment, so I’m just trying to enjoy it while it lasts.”
    â€œWell, I’m intrigued,” I say. “I’d like to see him.”
    Jenny nods and squints. “Yeah, I’d like a second opinion really. I mean he’s very sweet, but … Oh, I don’t know. I’ll arrange a dinner or something so you can meet him and judge for yourself. If it lasts that long.”
    I frown at her. “You don’t sound very convinced.”
    Jenny shrugs and laughs. “Anyway,” she says. “What’s up with you and Tom? I mean, I’m assuming that if you’ve finally remembered my existence it’s because you two have had a row.”
    â€œThat’s
so
unfair!” I protest.
    â€œBut you have?” she asks.
    I shake my head. “It’s so not true that I only come and see you when …”
    â€œTom
told
me,” Jenny interjects. “I saw him at the
boulangerie
this morning and asked how things were, and he pulled a face. And now here you are. That’s all.”
    I frown at this news. “This morning, we hadn’t
had
a row,” I say. “Anyway, it’s not really a row.”
    â€œBut?”
    â€œOK. Ready?”
    Jenny nods and settles into her chair. “Ready,” she says.
    So I tell Jenny about Tom and the gîte. I try not to exaggerate his words, nor to make myself sound better by deforming my own. I’m honestly searching for understanding, not just an ally.
    â€œSo you see,” I finish. “It just worries me – it seems important to me – that our motives are so different. For me it’s about Tom – I don’t really give a damn about the gîte. And Tom …”
    â€œTom doesn’t really give a damn about
you,”
Jenny says.
    I roll my eyes. “I
so
didn’t say that,” I say.
    Jenny nods, seriously. “I know,” she says. “I’m just pushing things to extremes to think about them more clearly.”
    â€œIt’s like that Dante character,” I say. “You remember?”
    Jenny nods. “The serial killer psychopath mafia guy?”
    I nod. “Yeah. That’ll be the one. Well,
that
was all about Tom’s mid-life crisis and his need for change too. He was far more in love with the farm, with the idea of a new life, than he was with anything Dante had to offer.”
    Jenny nods. “I see what you mean.”
    â€œDante was like a complete package deal,” I say. “I’m not sure I
want
to be Tom’s life changepackage.”
    Jenny frowns, then smiles. “Why not?”
    I shrug. “Why not what?”
    â€œWell, if he’s the man you love, if it’s
all about
him like you say it is, then why
not
be the life change package he needs?”
    I laugh. “Yeah, I suppose you have a point.”
    â€œAnd of course it doesn’t mean he doesn’t
love
you,” Jenny says. “It’s like Nick. You know he was, well, pretty loaded really. And I used to sit and think – it’s a terrible thing to say – but I used to sit and try to work out what I liked about him. And part of it, quite a big part really, was the nice house and the holidays and the car. And sometimes I