Slowly he turns to Anna, blinking, and only still half believing it himself he says, ‘I think Abi and Seb had an affair.’
Anna laughs, loud and involuntary, but then one look at Eddy and her face falls.
‘Oh God,’ Anna groans, lifting her hand to her mouth. ‘You’re serious.’
He tells her everything Seb told him on Court Five, starting with Seb’s uncontrollable sobbing and then his half-confession. How it felt to Eddy that there was more to the story, more that Seb wouldn’t share.
‘I mean, why, after months of keeping this all to himself, does he choose right now to tell me? The timing’s too convenient, and now all this strangeness with Abi …’
Anna’s eyes are round with wonder; she reminds Eddy of eight-year-old Albie last year when he discovered the truth about Santa. ‘Sebbo wouldn’t, I mean, he couldn’t …’ she’s mumbling, pouring herself more wine, sloshing some on the table but not bothering to wipe it up.
‘Anna, he literally just told me tonight. They haven’t had sex for a year. He said he got desperate; he met her online.’ Since his own indiscretion, Eddy usually cowers away from any conversation about infidelity, especially if Anna’s within earshot, but he can tell from Anna’s rapt expression that for once she’s not thinking about what he did.
She shakes her head and stares at Eddy as she says, ‘Online? He planned it?’
Eddy nods his head. ‘And he was sober.’
‘Is he going to tell Rosie?’
Eddy looks away from Anna, catches his own eye in the photo Anna had slung over the hook where they hang aprons. ‘He said he wasn’t going to.’
‘What?’
‘I know. I know,’ Eddy agrees, looking back at her shocked face, and, while it doesn’t feel entirely unpleasant for his perfect, handsome best friend to fall a few thousand feet in his wife’s estimation, Eddy can’t completely eviscerate him, so he shifts the perspective. ‘It makes you think about what the hell is Abi playing at? Turning up in Waverly – is she blackmailing him or something? That’s what I keep thinking.’
Anna shakes her head and says, ‘She could be a psychopath.’ The force of her words takes Eddy by surprise and then suddenly, out of nowhere, Anna starts crying again, and again Eddy feels useless.
He takes her in his arms, his muscles remembering Seb’s weight as he clung on to him. Anna’s voice is soggy as she says, ‘Oh, Rosie. Poor, poor Rosie.’
Eddy steers them through to the sitting room. Anna sits on the sofa first and by the time he’s brought her wine and the vape she keeps hidden at the top of the dresser ‘for parties’, she’s calmer. Her eyes are glinting and alive as Eddy sits next to her, and he knows she already has a plan.
‘What are we going to do, then?’ she asks.
‘What do you mean, sweetheart?’
‘Well, I have to tell Ro. Obviously.’
‘Really?’ Eddy sits up; he needs to see Anna’s face.
‘Eddy. There’s no way I’m keeping this from her. I mean, we really don’t know what Abi’s up to. You’ve seen Fatal Attraction. We have no idea what she’s planning. It’s not safe.’
Shit. This is getting out of control.
‘My God, he could have been talking to her that time you and Blake went into his office and slammed his laptop closed, remember? You know, when you first called him a spy?’
‘Wait. Anna, slow down. Look, the first thing I need to do is talk to Seb, see if our suspicions are correct. Then …’
‘Then we have to tell Rosie …’
‘Let’s give Seb the chance to tell her himself first? I’m sure he’ll tell her when he finds the right time. We owe him that much, at least.’
‘He’s had months, Ed! How much time does he need?’ Her pitch has crept higher and higher. She can’t maintain it; she pauses, resets herself and comes back steadier, lower as she says, ‘When all that shit happened in Singapore, one of the only things that made it easier was knowing you’d told me straight away, that it only happened once and that it was you being drunk and out of control. Seb knows that. I remember telling him that.’
Eddy almost reminds Anna of the Seb he’s known for more than half his life. Seb, the boy who swapped his brand-new bike for Eddy’s old one when they were thirteen because Eddy was trying to impress the first girl he fancied, Seb who literally dragged Eddy across the finish line at the London Marathon, Seb who occasionally leaves them home-made loaves on their doorstep, Seb who writes Blake, his godson, beautiful letters every year for his birthday. But somehow, Eddy knows reminding Anna of that Seb now will only make him fall from her grace harder.
Instead, on the sofa, Eddy keeps his arm around his wife and they talk through their shock, each asking questions they know the other won’t be able to answer. They stay like this until they’ve finished the wine and then they lie back, their bodies pressed against one another, stretched along the full length of the sofa.
Eddy feels weary in both heart and body, but still, sex is probably a good idea. It’d reassure Anna, remind her that they’re OK, that they’re solid. He pulls her hair to one side, starts kissing her neck until she makes those little sighing noises he loves, and she reaches for him. When they’re finished, they lie back again on the sofa and Eddy strokes her hair and she massages his hand as she says, ‘I think it was Blake, by the way.’
‘Blake?’
‘Who took those condoms.’
‘Ahh, of course!’ And Eddy adds, because he knows Anna will like it, ‘I’ll chat to him.’ Even though he probably won’t.
Against his chest, he feels her smile. He’s glad they’ve shared their secrets with each other tonight, and their unscheduled sex reconnected them. The dynamic between Eddy and Seb has changed, in a way he could never have anticipated, but Eddy’s never been able to function on his own – now he’ll need Anna more than ever.
He kisses the top of her head and says, ‘Love you, A,’ and he feels her smile again so he closes his eyes, content and safe, knowing he is loved.
Just after midnight they go to bed and Eddy wakes in the morning with his arms still around Anna. She’s the only woman he’s ever been able to cuddle while he sleeps, one of the things that made him realize she must be ‘the one’. He’s working from home today, so he’s in no rush to get out of bed. Eddy pretends still to be asleep as Anna gets up and pads downstairs. He listens to her unloading the dishwasher, boiling the kettle, and then hears her chatting to Simon, the postman.
‘Morning, Si. Heard about your back, you poor thing.’
A couple of minutes later she walks back upstairs, putting a cup of tea on Eddy’s bedside table. He’s about to talk to her, but she’s on the phone already. She likes to call her sister, Sami, who lives in the Lake District, first thing in the morning. His eyes only open a sliver, he can see she’s still in her dressing gown, staring out of the window, as he listens to her leaving a voicemail.
‘V, it’s me, Anna. Listen, I need to ask you a favour – would you be able to collect Albie after school and have him at yours for about an hour today? I know it’s last minute, but I can explain everything when I see you, and Albie would love to show Luca his new Lego car. Sorry to ask, but I have a meeting and predictably all the after-school clubs are booked …’
Eddy’s eyes fly open. What the hell is she doing? Albie is supposed to be going over to Abi’s, isn’t he? She turns around as he sits up in bed and mouths, ‘What the fuck?’ which makes her stumble and rush her sign-off: ‘Message me to let me know this is all fine.’