Page 33 of Tears of Glass

“Whoa, back up.” I wince. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sneak anything past her. “What do you mean you had words? I’m assuming you mean because he stuffed you over and is marrying someone else after promising you unicorns and rainbows.”

I have to snort at her words. That’s exactly what he did. “Well, he seemed like he was upset with me.” I strain through my misty memory, sifting through what actually happened and what the wine has put there.

“How fucking rude. I’m going to punch him the next time I see him.”

Laughing, I shake my head and drag on my smoke. “You won’t need to worry about that. You won’t be seeing him again.”

“Good. I hope you punched him.”

“Mm-mm.”

“What aren’t you telling me? You didn’t screw him, did you, Faith? Come on.”

“No! Give me some credit. I got really drunk and then when I got home...” I decide if I say the words as quick as I can, I won’t need to try to decipher what they mean. “I found out he’s not engaged at all.”

“Say what?” Some banging comes from the other side of the phone.

“What are you doing?”

A confused pause meets my question and then Abi says, “Oh, I was jumping up and down. I knew it, Faith, I just knew it!”

“Knew what?” I lean back on my sofa and pinch my fingers over the bridge of my nose.

“That he loves you. That this all must have been some awful mistake, a misunderstanding.”

I shake my head. “At what point did you say that?”

There’s a beat of a pause. “I said it in my head.”

“You speak total bollocks.” I light another cigarette; this conversation warrants two, and my stomach is gurgling as I haven’t eaten a damn thing all day.

“So what happened?”

I stare at the ceiling for a long moment. “Then I walked about London, he found me, and then we sat in the street.”

“None of that makes sense.” She sighs. “So what did he say?”

“That he loves me.”

I can remember that—why-oh-why do I remember that, but large chunks of the rest of the evening are missing, if not killed-in-action?

She sighs and it’s a little too whimsical for my liking. “What are you going to do?”

I stub out my smoke, grinding it into my ashtray. I’ll need to air the place before Tabitha comes back. “Nothing. I’m going to do nothing. It’s over.”

“Another one of your rules.”

“Don’t start, Abi. This is the exact reason why I have rules in the first place.”

“He broke the last one.”

“Yeah, well, I won’t give him a chance to even try this time. If he wants to bank roll a TV show, then that’s just bloody fine. But that’s it. I want nothing to do with the Faircloughs. Not now and not ever.”

“Okay, Faith.” She sounds sincere, but that means nothing. Abi always agrees with me no matter what. “Listen, Dan was here yesterday, drunk.” My stomach drops.

“He’s going to take it hard, Abs.”

“Yeaaah, I don’t know. It seemed like there was something else eating him. He told us that Aiden came past the shop and was giving you attitude.”