Two-Way Split by Allan Guthrie Read Free Book Online Page B

began distributing drinks to a large family group seated at an adjacent table.
    Sheila made a clicking sound with her tongue.
    "Boss?" Robin asked.
    "Yeah," she said. "Better take your order."
    "You need me to move?" Robin started to stand up. He bent his knees and rested one hand on the edge of the table. "Thing is, my wife's meeting me in a couple of minutes and I told her I'd get a window table. She's bringing a friend, too, and I don't want to disappoint them. I don't suppose I could—"
    "Stay where you are." She tucked her notepad and pencil into the pocket of her apron, reached over and picked up two of the "reserved" signs. Robin handed her the other two, which she clutched to her chest. "You want a drink while you're waiting?"
    "Double espresso," he said, sitting down again. "Thanks." He watched her shuffle into the centre of the room and drop the signs on one of the two empty tables. She hastily positioned them, turned and smiled at him. He gave her a little wave.
    "New girlfriend?" Carol waggled her blue fingernails at him in imitation of his gesture to the waitress. He didn't look up. He couldn't look at her face. Something about it made him feel like bursting into tears. The face of infidelity. The face of a liar. "Nervous?" She sat opposite him, lit a cigarette and slid the packet across to him. He ignored her silent offer. She shrugged. "Talking about it helps, Robin."
    "Not in public," he said.
    He turned his head and looked out the window. Talking about it helps. Talk. Don't talk. Her eyes mocked him. Her mouth sneered at him. When she spoke, her tone was laced with irony. She was sleeping with Eddie. Eddie's hands had been all over her breasts. He'd tasted her, been inside her. Robin glanced at her. She was sucking a cigarette, lips twisted as she blew smoke out the side of her mouth. He'd never seen anything so ugly. He hated her. He hated her so much it made his teeth hurt.
    She caught his eye and he managed a flicker of a smile. She might as well have scraped out all his fillings with her fingernails. Her face was pale and cold as porcelain. Her and Eddie. Robin had photographic evidence. Jesus, he wanted to reach out and stroke her cheek, touch her lips, trace the straight line of the one part of her body she liked. But he couldn't. Instead he imagined ramming his knuckles into the slender bridge of her oh-so-cherished nose. Wham. The surprise in her eyes. Wham. Blood spurting out of those pinched slits of nostrils. Wham. Blood running down her face, wham, through her fingers, wham, on her lips, wham, in her mouth, wham, wham, wham.
    Like the PI. Oh, shit. He groaned aloud and disguised the sound with a cough. His shirt clung to his back. The music was suddenly too loud, the urgent glissandi of the sax like the wailing of a tortured animal. He felt cold. He looked at Carol and she smiled, her nose as perfect as always.
    Someone punched him lightly on the shoulder and said, "Robin."
    Carol moved over and Eddie sat next to her. Eddie had too many teeth, otherwise he might have been considered handsome. His cornflower blue eyes and blonde curls made him look at least five years younger than his thirty years. Without asking, he removed a cigarette from Carol's packet on the table and said, "What's been happening?"
    Carol started to talk. Let her, Robin thought. This was for his benefit. As if they haven't been fucking each other's brains out. She was telling Eddie what she'd been doing since the last time they'd met. Right. Eddie was pretending to listen, interjecting her monologue with an occasional grunt or two, straw-coloured eyebrows raised in mock surprise, sucking his teeth now, lips retracted, slowly shaking his head.
    Clouds of smoke drifted between them.
    A waitress – not Sheila – came over to their table and Robin ordered another coffee. A single, this time. Carol asked for a cheese and tomato toastie and an iced mineral water. Eddie wasn't hungry, but he agreed when Carol suggested he might