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.‘What were we talking about?’ Lisa went on breezily.‘Oh yes, our sex lives.’ Her eyes rested on Josie.‘Well, it sounds as if I’m the only one who’s getting my rocks off these days.’Her words felt like an attack, and Josie blinked.‘But you’re not in love,’ she countered before she could rein herself in.‘And haven’t been for years, according to you.So I know what I’d rather have.’ Her reply came out sharper than she’d intended it to.‘What, a loveless marriage, and two brats? No career, no life? Stuck out in Dullsville, with your wardrobe full of jeans and boring tops?’ Lisa’s words were sharper still, cutting right to the quick.‘They’re not brats!’ Josie cried, her voice rising in indignation.‘And it’s not a loveless marriage!’ she added hastily.‘That’s not what I heard,’ Lisa muttered.Nell held up her hands.‘God, calm down, you two! It’s not a competition!’ she said.‘What do you mean, that’s not what you heard?’ Josie demanded, ignoring Nell.She could feel the blood surging around her at Lisa’s criticisms.‘Who’s been saying that, then?’Lisa looked tired suddenly.Her make-up was smudged, her top was crumpled and her hair had lost its sheen.‘Oh, nobody,’ she said, waving a hand as if in surrender.‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.Below the belt.’‘Yes,’ agreed Josie, stung, ‘it was.’ Way below the belt – below the bikini line, actually – and totally out of order.‘And they’re not brats!’ she felt like saying again.She knew Lisa didn’t particularly like kids – she hadn’t been interested in Josie’s two from the start – but to call them that, when she didn’t even know them.It was a swipe too far.She shook her head angrily.The CD ended and there was an uneasy silence in the room.‘This is still about Nick, isn’t it?’ Josie burst out, unable to stop herself.‘You still carry a grudge! Just because he fancied me, not you.Just because I went out with him, not you.Admit it, Lisa.You’ve always held it against me.’‘No!’ Lisa protested, but her cheeks were flushed.‘This has nothing to do with Nick.That was years ago.’‘Exactly,’ Josie said.‘Which is why I can’t believe you’re still resentful about it now, after all this time.’‘I am not resentful!’ Lisa shouted.That silence again.Josie didn’t know where to look.The truth was, she had always felt bad about what had happened with Nick, even though it was going back ten years at least.Nick had been Lisa’s friend originally, she’d met him through the legal firm where she’d worked.He had been one of the junior lawyers there, and he and Lisa had had a few post-work drinks where they’d gossiped about their colleagues and compared notes, but nothing more had happened.Josie could tell that Lisa wanted more, though.It was nothing specific she’d said about him, but Josie had noticed a particular look in her eyes, a little smile playing around her mouth whenever she mentioned Nick’s name.And then, almost overnight it had seemed, Lisa – who’d always been a bit of a scruff back then – had started wearing perfume to work, had taken to spending ages applying her make-up first thing instead of slouching in front of GMTV with a coffee, had revamped her wardrobe and hair.Josie had known it had been for Nick’s benefit.It was screamingly obvious that Lisa had a fullblown whopper of a crush on him.A month or so later, it was Lisa’s birthday and she’d organized a pub get-together for Saturday night.She’d invited Nick and a couple of others from her work along, and Josie and Nell were both nosily looking forward to meeting them, especially Nick.What Josie hadn’t counted on, though, was the overwhelming whoomph of lust she’d experienced when she’d seen him come in through the door.It was like a match dropped in petrol, the suddenness of it, the heat and intensity.Nick was something special.He sparkled with charisma.He walked into a room, and people noticed him.He was sexy without seeming to know it, carried himself with an effortless kind of grace.He had strolled straight up to Josie at the bar and given her such an easy, friendly grin that she’d literally had to hold tight to the wooden ledge to stop herself keeling over.Less than two hours later, she was back at his flat, being shagged senseless, tingling from head to toe with lust.Lisa had never said anything – anything at all – about Josie and Nick leaving her birthday do so blatantly early.And when Josie had returned to the girls’ flat the following morning, bright-eyed and loved up, it only took one glance at Lisa’s face to give her the guilty feeling of having trespassed on her friend’s property.Lisa had barely commented on Josie and Nick’s relationship, even when it had progressed to a serious thing lasting over a year.But the gleam had faded from her eyes, Josie noticed.The post-work drinks ended abruptly, to Nick’s surprise.(He, being a bloke, hadn’t got a clue about Lisa’s feelings, of course.) The make-up was toned down, the skirts went back into her wardrobe and her boring trouser suits reappeared.Lisa threw herself into her blossoming career as if it were the only thing that mattered.And Nick had always been the unspoken, taboo subject that stood between them, even after all these years.Lisa got up to change the CD.‘I am not resentful,’ she repeated in a quieter voice.It was almost as if she was trying to convince herself, let alone the other two.‘It all happened such a long time ago,’ Nell said.‘To be honest, I’d totally forgotten about Nick.’Josie glanced over at Lisa, who was flicking intently through her CDs [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]