‘Whoa. Back up there. I’m not Rhys’s girlfriend,’ I protested.
Mel shook her hand as though batting away an annoying wasp. ‘It’s just a word. Anyway, she sees that the two of you are looking pretty cosy together, plus Rhys seems happy to let them all think that you’re an item.’
She was right there, so I nodded.
‘She is obviously going to report all of that back to Annalise. That’s just standard best-friend protocol. It wouldn’t surprise me if she even took some covert photos of you to pass on.’
I remembered the camera flash and realised Mel could well be on the right track.
‘Then you both emerge from making out on the balcony.’
‘Do people in this country call it making out?’
‘Stop interrupting me. Helen obviously knew exactly why you and Rhys were leaving the event early and what you were planning on getting up to afterwards.’
‘You’re making this all sound really sordid and dirty.’
Mel reached across the table and squeezed my hand. ‘Sorry, hon. But I actually think you’re long overdue some dirty sex. Unless you’ve been at it like a rabbit during the months of radio silence.
‘Anyway, the obvious thing for Helen to do is call her friend the moment you left the event. And then the obvious thing for Annalise to do is to find a reason to pull Rhys right back in again. And nothing was more likely to do that than a phone call saying that their little girl was sick.’
I shook my head. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘But it could have happened. At best, she could have been exaggerating the symptoms. In half an hour the kid was miraculously well enough to be fast asleep again. And Annalise had the man who was meant to be giving you the best sex you’ve ever had in her house instead of yours.’
She made a compelling case.
Mel got to her feet, miming a letter T through the window and a very hot and sweaty-looking Steve nodded gratefully. While Mel started to make her husband a drink, I stared at the whirls in the wood of her kitchen table as though they held the secret to the mystery of life.
‘It doesn’t really matter if Annalise fabricated, exaggerated, or plain-out lied about Tasha’s condition last night,’ I said, with iron-clad conviction.
Mel paused at the open fridge door. ‘Why is that?’
‘Because it could have happened, even if it didn’t last night. One night there will be an emergency, and Rhys needs to be there when it does. He needs to be on hand to soothe Tasha, help hercalm down, use her inhaler properly, and take charge if things get worse and it turns into an emergency.’
‘He doesn’t need to live under the same roof as them to do any of those things,’ Mel pointed out reasonably.
‘Well, I think he does. Fathers who love their children as much as he does shouldn’t have to live apart from them.’
Mel shook her head and bit her lip. Half of me really wanted to know what it was she was refusing to allow to escape. The other half of me was too scared that I already knew.
‘That’s not what he has ever said to you though, is it? That he has to move back?’
‘Not in so many words,’ I admitted, starting to feel cornered.
Mel abandoned the tea and crossed the kitchen again and gave me a hug.
‘The only person using those excuses isn’t Rhys, hon, it’s you. You’re the one setting up these roadblocks. You really need to get out of your own way, Ellie, or you’re going to miss the chance to see where this thing could actually go.’
There were three missed calls from Rhys on my phone when I finally checked it. I’d put my mobile on silent as I’d stood on Mel’s doorstep that morning, carrying a bag of brownies still warm from the bakery, and was quite proud of how I’d kept my phone tucked away in my pocket throughout my visit. But each time it had vibrated soundlessly against my hip bone, I could feel my resolve weakening.
When Rhys had called that morning, I hadn’t been entirely honest with him. After confirming Tasha’s flare-up hadn’t been serious, he’d asked if he could come and see me, but in a knee-jerk reaction that took me by surprise, I said I’d already made plans for the day. Had he believed me? Perhaps not, because we both knewthat just twelve hours earlier the only plan in my head had been to wake up in his arms.
But things change. They have to when life sends you the kind of reminder that it had done so effectively the night before.
I stared at his name now on my phone screen and felt a tug of longing. You’re doing the right thing, I told myself determinedly. You’re stepping aside to let a family find its way back together again. That was a good thing. So why did it make me feel so terrible?
‘How about after you’ve been to Mel?’ Rhys had asked, with a persistence that would have given me a warm glow if only things had been different.