White Lies: A gripping psychological thriller with an absolutely brilliant twist, page 14
‘What are you doing?’ I said, following her. ‘You can’t just go off on your own?’
‘I need to go back to my hotel. I don’t feel so good. I’m going to get a taxi, that’s all.’ She held out a hand defensively and carried on. I could see immediately she was one of those really annoying pissed people who looks in control, but isn’t, won’t listen to a word anyone says, thinks they’re sober – then randomly steps out into the road and gets instantly flattened by a car.
I sighed crossly and went after her. ‘I’ll help you find one, hang on.’
Luckily, it was so early we didn’t have any problems, and, even better, her hotel was only ten minutes away. I didn’t exactly have her down as a San An girl. She sprawled in all over the back seat when I opened the door though, dress riding right up. I glanced at the taxi driver looking in his mirror at her and I thought about how I’d feel if some strange bloke looked at Mum or Ruby like that. I couldn’t leave her in the car on her own.
‘Fucking hell, Alex!’ I said furiously and got in next to her. She instantly leant on me and closed her eyes, snuggling in. I messaged Ruby en route to tell her I’d bumped into a pissed friend and was taking them to their hotel – and she messaged back to say Bea was in a right state out of nowhere; crying and wanting to go, so they were going to have to take her back.
What a mare! Should have listened to you and not bothered with Pacha!! Message me when you’re back so I know you’re safe.
I slid my phone back into my pocket, wondered what Bea had lost the plot over and hoped it had nothing to do with seeing Alex’s attempt to get off with me. That was going to be fun to explain in the morning.
I just about managed to wake Alex up when we arrived back at her hotel. ‘Can you please take me up to my room?’ she whispered. ‘I don’t want to fall over and make a scene.’ Given how much I’d already done, that didn’t seem much more of an imposition, so I led her up a flight of stairs and along a corridor until we arrived outside a door.
‘You’re sure this is yours?’ I said, and she nodded before sliding a card she’d pulled out of the inside of her mobile case into the slot. Thankfully, it turned green and opened.
She sighed and walked in, immediately kicking her shoes off and pretty much flinging herself onto the double bed. ‘Praise God for that,’ she said. ‘And thank you so much for getting me back safely.’
‘You’re welcome,’ I said. ‘Drink some water.’ And I turned to go.
‘No, really. Thank you.’ She turned on her side to look at me. ‘It’s not many men that would walk a woman up to her room and leave without trying it on. You’re a gentleman, I can tell.’
‘Alex,’ I said tightly. ‘Please, can we stop the “stranger and damsel in distress” act, please? I know that’s what you said you wished that’s what had happened, but—’
‘What’s your name?’ she spoke over me. ‘Actually, don’t tell me. I’d rather not know.’
‘Alex,’ I said warningly. ‘Seriously?’
‘I’m leaving tomorrow, and I won’t ever see you again.’ She got up slowly and started peeling off her dress.
I couldn’t not look. The now familiar sick loathing and excitement began. It was like watching porn. I didn’t particularly want to, but it was there, and once it had started…
She didn’t break eye contact, just reached behind her back and unhooked her bra, bent down and climbed out of her knickers, and waited.
* * *
Someone knocked on the door just after we’d finished. I sat up in alarm, but Alex put a hand on my chest.
‘Ignore it. They’ll go away.’
But whoever it was, didn’t – and knocked louder. Alex swore, and got to her feet, dragging the top sheet round her and leaving me with nothing on. I couldn’t see round the corner, but heard a whispered voice and Alex say: ‘I’m fine, honestly. Yeah, in the morning. OK. Night.’ Then the door closed, and she returned. ‘All sorted. I need a wee.’ She yawned, stepped out of the sheet and walked casually into the bathroom.
I took the opportunity to message Ruby that I was safe, and still at my mate’s. When Alex came back out, I went in, before coming back into the room and reaching for my clothes. The now typical comedown had already begun, and I was not feeling good about what we’d done.
‘You don’t have to go.’ Alex watched me. ‘It’s so late. Just stay and sleep for a bit.’
I shook my head.
‘We’ve never done that,’ she said, ‘just lie next to each other in bed. Please? Just this once?’
‘I can’t, Alex.’ I pulled on my boxers.
‘You don’t want to?’
I exhaled, feeling stressed and she held up a hand.
‘OK, OK – I’m sorry. Could you just do me a favour though? Wait ten minutes until the others have all gone back to their rooms and don’t see you coming out of here?’
‘You’re unbelievable. Were you even that pissed earlier, or was that part of the game too?’ I lay back on the bed suddenly, hands on my head. ‘Alex, I can’t do this any more. It’s fucking me up.’
She reached out and started tracing my tattoo sadly with a finger. ‘I know,’ she whispered. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘You keep saying that and then you start doing this sort of thing.’ I gestured at her stroking me. ‘It’s gone beyond sex now, I feel like I’m in some sort of weird non-relationship with you.’
‘I know,’ she said unhappily. ‘It really does have to stop. I meant it – this really is it.’
I sighed again, got off the bed and climbed in next to her. The air con was freezing my bollocks off. ‘I was so flattered when you turned up at the house that Monday. I couldn’t believe my luck. But this isn’t good for either of us, any more. Please.’ I was basically begging her, for the first time, to leave me alone. It can’t have been easy for her to hear. No one wants to be dumped.
She put a brave face on it. ‘Of course,’ she said. ‘Anything else that happened back at home after this would just feel like a cheap version anyway.’
‘Yes, it would,’ I agreed. ‘I’m glad you feel that way.’
She smiled at me and deliberately pulled the sheet down slightly. ‘We’re still here now though?’ She shrugged. ‘Go out on a high one last time? Ibiza 2017?’
That really was the last time. We haven’t had, nor ever will have, sex again.
I passed out afterwards though, exhausted, but also partly because we’d turned the aggressive air con off and the room quickly became sleepy and stuffy. I woke up to see sunlight coming through the curtains as my phone pinged with a text message.
Where are you??!! And don’t give me the “at your mates” shit. Are you still with the girl Bea saw you getting off with last night? Get your arse back here pronto. Dad thinks it’s funny. Mum going mental.
Girl? She must have only seen Alex from the back then.
On my way.
I should have just gone back after the first time. That was always our problem, we never knew when to stop.
Alex groaned, turned over and looked at me blearily. ‘Oh God. This wasn’t part of the plan.’
‘I know. I’m going now.’
There was a knock at the door, and Alex’s eyes widened.
‘Shit. Stay there.’ She got up and grabbed a towel from the bathroom, then quickly kicked our clothes under the bed. Especially, I noticed, mine.
I listened to her open the door, then heard a woman’s voice say loudly: ‘You got rid of him then?’
I don’t know what Alex said or did in response, but the door shut again and she came back in, looking really uncomfortable.
The crazy thing is, it was THAT comment which finally tipped me over the edge. I’d thought what we did was just between me and Alex. That no one else in the world knew. It didn’t make it right, but it felt somehow special and secret. We had a connection. I fell for her stupid ‘fate is pushing us together’ story. But some stranger whose face I didn’t even see had summed up the entire thing perfectly. Alex had no respect for me whatsoever. It made me feel dirty.
Used.
And ashamed.
It made me feel like shit.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Alex said. ‘My friend, she…’
I forced myself to smile. I was determined not to let her see how it had hurt me. ‘It’s OK.’
I dressed quietly and then I left. I didn’t touch her. I didn’t say goodbye.
I didn’t owe her anything.
12
Jonathan Day
We flew home on Sunday; Dad still teasing me and calling me a chip off the old block, Bea all puffy-eyed, and Lindsey’s lips pursed crossly like a cat’s bum. Mum didn’t hold back and gave me a comprehensive recap of effective alcohol and diabetes management, followed by a lecture on sleeping around, which boiled down to a bunch of Loose Women soundbites.
‘I did not bring you up to disrespect women, Jonathan. I don’t care that men can do that sort of thing without any feelings involved. A woman isn’t the same. There’s always an emotional cost when she has sex with a man that is not to be abused – and you’re not to take advantage of looking the way you do. That’s before we think of Cherry, who is a lovely girl and doesn’t deserve to be treated like this.’ She glared at me.
I said nothing as I swallowed that completely unfair assessment of me, and gross generalisation about men AND women. She couldn’t have been more wrong if she’d tried, and I felt angry that she’d tarred me with such a shitty brush. Mum, of all people. She knew I wasn’t like that. It really hurt. I wanted her to see how wide of the mark she was, but I didn’t know where to start and the more she went off on one about women’s rights, I began to wonder if perhaps what I’d done with Alex had made me into the kind of man she was talking about after all, and it WAS my fault. I could have said no. Yes, Alex and I had done a lot of stuff I now wasn’t comfortable with, but I wasn’t sure if I could honestly say it had happened every single time because I didn’t feel like I had a way out. Part of me had wanted it too, hadn’t I?
But mostly, I couldn’t stop thinking about what her friend had said.
You got rid of him then?
‘Jonathan, are you listening to me?’
I looked up at Mum and nodded. ‘It won’t happen again.’
* * *
I went back to school the next day, which felt weird as well. I’d missed the start of term and everyone else had already done the settling back in bit.
‘That’s probably why it’s a good idea not to throw over the first few days because you’re on holiday,’ my psychology teacher said bitchily, when I complained about only having three days to do an essay when everyone else had already had a week. ‘Turning up to lessons does benefit students funnily enough, Jonathan. Even you.’
Luckily Cherry took pity on me when – by Thursday – I still hadn’t done it. My mind was all over the place, so she offered to help me pull something together using her class notes. We went over to hers – I wrote it quickly – then we drove back over to mine so I could email it from home. It would look too suspicious if the email was sent from my iPhone. I wasn’t going to be caught out by poor attention to a detail like that.
Right away as we pulled up on the drive, I saw Alex’s car. Fear enveloped me like a plastic bag and shrank to fit my skin; the air simultaneously sucking out of my body.
What The Fuck?
I saw her lying – in every sense of the word – on the hotel bed, smiling at me.
Go out on a high. Ibiza 2017. Last time ever!
How could I have been so stupid as to believe her?
I climbed out unsteadily, staring at the black BMW, as Cherry chattered away alongside me – I didn’t hear a word of what she said. All I could concentrate on was Alex’s empty car. She was inside the house. She had to be. Had she come to see Dad after all? She’d said she wouldn’t. I thought all that was done with.
LAST TIME! We said that. We agreed.
I opened the front door, my hands shaking, as I tried to hold onto my key. I could hear voices in the kitchen. Cherry was in front of me drivelling on about a selfie she’d taken and wanted to show me because it was so bad it was hilarious, apparently. She was laughing and holding up her phone in my face. I just wanted to tell her to shut up and get out of the way. I needed to hear what was being said. Whatever lies Alex was in there telling, I needed to know exactly what was going on. This had changed and become something much darker. It was harassment, it was clear to me now. She was stalking me.
Cherry stopped to try and find the picture, and, in my frustration, I practically shoved her into the room. She slightly stumbled in surprise and I had to yank her back by her bag, slung around her body, to stop her falling over. We burst in through the door and there they were, stood in an odd line: Mum at the back with her arms crossed and looking really angry, Dad next, frowning, and Alex at the front, dressed in her work gear – looking right at me.
I stared back and watched as Alex let go of her bag, which thudded to the floor with an ominous crack. She did it to break the silence. It was a deliberate diversion. Everyone came to life as she bent to pick it up. Dad reached out and put a hand on her arm. Why was he touching her? Was that why Mum was looking so angry?
Perhaps he just liked the sound of my voice.
I remembered her taunt when she’d come to meet Dad privately, at his request. Had that gone ahead at a later date after all? Was she having a relationship with him too? I felt sick.
She lifted up the bag.
‘Oh for fuck’s sake!’ Mum lost it. ‘Look what she’s done!’
I couldn’t though. I was transfixed by Alex.
‘I’m so sorry!’ she said not breaking my gaze. Her eyes were wide, and she looked manic. ‘It was an accident. I’ll go. I’m sorry.’
She shoved past Cherry as she ran out of the room, violently enough to make Cherry exclaim ‘hey!’ in surprise as Alex bashed into her.
Mum and Cherry looked at each other in amazement; Mum shouted: ‘And what the fuck was that?’ before rushing after Alex.
I was torn between following them and needing to find out what had happened.
‘What’s going on?’ I turned to Dad immediately, but he didn’t admit to anything.
‘Just a minute, all right?’ He put his hands up. ‘Your mother’s having a bit of a set-to. I’ll be right back.’ And then he belted off down the hall.
Cherry was rubbing her arm and looking confused. ‘Who was that bitch?’
I hesitated. ‘She’s the doctor who looked after my AstroTurf burn.’ Even at that point I was still protecting Alex. I have no idea what I was thinking.
Her eyes widened. ‘You know her?’
Luckily, Mum and Dad returned to the room and I was able to avoid having to say anything else.
‘Those chips in the paintwork are going to need to be buffed out.’ Dad looked furious now too. ‘Well what do you want me to do, Chris? Phone the bloody surgery and complain about her? I can’t exactly do that after what YOU did, can I?’
‘The snobby cow.’ I’d not seen Mum so angry in a long time. She was shaking. ‘I’ll chat to anyone, but the second that woman strutted in like she owned the place, I knew we’d made a mistake. And did you see her shove Cherry like that? Cherry, sweetheart, do you know that woman who was just here? She’s a local doctor.’
Cherry glanced at me and then shook her head. ‘No, I don’t.’
‘Someone tipped us off that she was very good at Botox, and we thought we’d try and get her to come and work at the new spa.’ Mum snorted in disgust. ‘But I wouldn’t let her so much as clean my shoes now. She just pushed past you for no reason whatsoever then? How dare she?’
‘Do you know her, Jonny?’ Dad asked suddenly, and my heart thudded.
‘Me?’ I said and looked up.
‘She was looking at you,’ Dad said. ‘Not like most women, like she’d met you before, I mean.’
Cherry crossed her arms and stared hard at me.
I cleared my throat. ‘She’s the doctor who patched me up after that Astro-burn. Who did you say tipped you off about her?’
‘A friend of mine is a friend of hers, apparently.’ Mum almost spat out the last word.
Dad wasn’t listening and carried on watching me suspiciously. I felt myself starting to blush guiltily under his gaze.
‘Could I have some water please, Gary?’ Cherry stepped between us. ‘I feel a bit faint all of a sudden.’
‘’Course you can, sweetheart.’ Dad turned abruptly and walked over to the cupboard, getting a glass and shoving it under the filter dispenser in the fridge door. ‘Ice?’
Cherry nodded gratefully. ‘Thank you. Sorry for asking.’
‘Don’t be daft.’ He handed it over to her with a smile, and she took a delicate kitten sip.
‘Thank you so much.’
‘You’re very welcome. Jonny, get Cherry a brandy if she needs it, too. Christy, can I talk to you a second, please?’ Dad beckoned Mum and walked grimly out of the door.
Cherry waited until they were out of earshot, then shoved her glass down on the side. ‘OK, I got you out of that one with your dad, but you better tell me the truth. What’s really going on?’
I closed my eyes for a moment. For the first time, I wondered if I should just do what she said and come clean. She’d go ballistic, but I was scared. Alex had somehow manipulated her way into my house. She had been stood here with my parents in my house. I’d seen that old movie Fatal Attraction. Alex’s actions had become more than just reckless, they were chilling. I saw her again in my mind, shouldering Cherry violently as she left. Was that what this was about? Hurting my girlfriend? Or my family? She didn’t want to share me with anyone? She wanted in on every part of my life?
‘I’m not sure, but it’s possible my dad might be having an affair with that woman,’ I said, not entirely untruthfully. Nothing would shock me about Dr Alex Inglis any more.
