Thursdays in the Park by Hilary Boyd Read Free Book Online Page B

everything I said.’
    He smiled back at her, touched her arm before he turned away, just fleetingly, but it felt suddenly very intimate. And she found she liked it.

6
     
    Rita bent to gather her racket cover, ball tin and jacket from the corner of the court.
    ‘What’s wrong with you, Jean Lawson?’ She sounded cross but Jeanie knew better. ‘You can’t keep letting me win like this. I mean, I know I’m unbelievably good, but you’re making me look like a superstar!’
    Jeanie was leaning against the court netting, swinging her racket back and forth. She had thought about nothing for three days but Ray and what she had said to him. ‘Bench?’
    She waited till they’d settled themselves. The long evening shadows were creeping closer, and with them the spring chill, but they still had about fifteen minutes of the dying, dusty sunlight.
    ‘Well?’ Rita was staring at her friend. ‘Something’s up, I know it.’
    ‘I’ve met this man,’ Jeanie said quietly.
    ‘Darling . . . no!’ Rita’s eyes widened with shock. ‘What, you mean a real man?’
    Jeanie laughed. ‘Well . . . yes, to all intents and purposes, he’s very real.’ She outlined their three meetings, but there wasn’t much to say. ‘Look, it’s nothing. I don’t know him, I don’t even know what he does . . . although he did mention “the club” on the phone.’
    ‘What, a nightclub?’
    Jeanie shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘A nightclub’s not good.’
    ‘Not good for what?’
    ‘He might be sleazy.’ Rita looked concerned.
    Jeanie felt instantly defensive. She laughed. ‘You mean he might be after my body, perhaps hoping to sell me to the white slave trade for a tidy profit? He’s most certainly not.’
    ‘It could be a sports club, or a health club, or. . .’ Rita mused.
    ‘I don’t know. What difference does it make? I’m telling you, there’s nothing to it. I’ve only met him twice, three times, but it’s just . . .’
    ‘Do you fancy him?’
    Jeanie snorted. ‘Rita! No.’ Yet as she said it, she knew it to be a lie. She did find him very attractive – how could she not? – it was just that she wasn’t in the zone, and hadn’t been for so long, where she flirted. It was a muscle that had wasted away. She realized she was blushing under her friend’s knowing gaze.
    ‘Don’t be daft, I’m married.’
    Rita nodded wisely. ‘I had noticed, darling.’
    Jeanie took a breath. ‘No, you don’t understand. I . . . I told him . . . told him something . . . God, it makes me cringe to think about it. I don’t know why I did it.’
    ‘Told him what?’
    ‘Told him that George hasn’t had sex with me for ten years.’ Jeanie spoke in a rush.
    If Rita’s eyes had been wide at the mention of Ray, this piece of news threatened to derail them altogether.
    ‘What? What?’ she shrieked. ‘No! It can’t be true?’
    ‘Shhh!’ Jeanie looked around at the last remaining stragglers on the nearby grass.
    ‘You mean not at all, not ever? For ten whole years? Christ, darling, why didn’t you tell me?’
    ‘I suppose I kept thinking it would be OK, and then the years went on and . . . well, here we are.’
    Rita was silent.
    ‘I don’t know why I told Ray. I didn’t mean to, it just came out.’ She wished Rita would say something. ‘It’s probably not such a big deal,’ she went on quietly. ‘Maybe there are millions of couples out there who never have sex.’
    ‘So what happened? Why did it stop so suddenly?’
    Jeanie sighed. ‘That’s the weird thing, I still don’t know. He absolutely refuses to talk about it. I did try. When it first happened, I tried everything in my power to get him to tell me what was wrong. But he just clammed up, wouldn’t say a word. He got really angry with me in the end, so I stopped. But it’s driven me mad, not knowing.’
    Rita shook her head.
    ‘He was never that keen, it was always me.’ Jeanie paused. This was new territory for her and Rita; they discussed every