Shopaholic & Baby

“Right,” I say after a pause. “I see.”

Suddenly the evening has taken on a totally different slant. It wasn’t Luke being introduced to Venetia’s long-term boyfriend. It was a newly single Venetia crying on Luke’s shoulder.

“So…did Venetia break it off?” I ask casually. “Or did he?”

“I’m not sure which of them ended it.” Luke heads into the bathroom. “Apparently he’s gone back to his wife now.”

“His wife?” My voice shoots up like a rocket. “What do you mean, ‘his wife’?”

“Venetia thought they were separated in all but name.” Luke turns on the taps and I can barely hear him. “She’s had a tough time, romantically, poor old Ven. She always seems to fall for married men and get into complicated situations.”

I’m trying to stay calm here. Shallow breaths. Do not overreact.

“What kind of situations?” I ask lightly.

“Oh, I don’t know.” Luke is squeezing toothpaste onto his brush. “Divorce proceedings…some scandal with a senior doctor at the hospital where she worked…There was an injunction in LA….” He frowns at the tube. “We’re nearly out of this stuff.”

Divorce proceedings? Injunctions? Scandals?

I can’t reply. My mouth is opening and shutting like a goldfish. Every instinct in my body is on red alert.

She’s after Luke.

I watch Luke cleaning his teeth as though with Venetia’s eyes. He’s wearing only pajama bottoms, and he’s still tanned from the summer, and the muscles of his shoulders are rippling faintly as he brushes. Oh God, oh God. Of course she’s after him. He’s good-looking and he owns a multimillion-pound company and they had a romance when they were much younger. Maybe he was her first love and she’s never given her heart to anyone else.

Maybe she was his first love.

There’s a hollow kind of feeling in my stomach. Which is ridiculous, bearing in mind how much is in my stomach right now.

“So!” I try to sound confident and lighthearted. “Do I need to be worried?”

Luke’s splashing water on his face. “What do you mean?”

“I…” I can’t bring myself to say it. What am I implying, that I don’t trust him? “She could maybe try going after single men!” I change tack. “Then life wouldn’t be so complicated for her!” I give a small laugh, but as Luke turns, he’s frowning.

“Venetia’s made some…unwise choices. But none of them were deliberate or out of malice. She’s just a hopeless romantic.”

He’s defending her. I feel totally wrong-footed.

A bleep suddenly comes from Luke’s jacket. He comes out of the bathroom, drying his face, and takes his phone out of his pocket.

“It’s a text from Venetia.” He looks at it and smiles. “Look. It’s a picture of this evening.”

I take the phone from him and study the display. There’s Venetia, dressed for off duty in long, rangy jeans, a leather jacket, and high, spiky boots. She’s gazing at the camera with a confident smile, her arm round Luke like she owns him.

Home-wrecker flashes through my brain before I can stop it.

Well, she’s not wrecking this home. No way. Luke and I have been through a lot over the years, and it’ll take more than some swishy-haired, spiky-heeled doctor to break us up. I’m 110 percent confident.

INTERNATIONAL OMBUDSMAN

BANKING AUTHORITY

Floors 16–18 Percival House Commercial Road London EC1 4UL

Mrs R Brandon 37 Maida Vale Mansions Maida Vale

London NW6 0YF

10 September 2003

Dear Mrs. Brandon,

I regret to inform you that your application to found an online bank, “Becky’s Online Bank for Girls,” has been turned down by the committee.

There were many grounds for the decision, in particular your statement that to run an online bank “you just need a computer and somewhere to put all the money.”

I wish you success in any further ventures, but suggest that banking is not one of them.

Yours sincerely,

John Franklin

Internet Business Committee

TEN

MAYBE I’M NOT 110 percent confident. Maybe just 100 percent.

Or even…95.

It’s a few weeks since Luke went out for that evening with Venetia, and my confidence has wobbled ever so slightly. It’s not that anything has happened, exactly. On the surface, Luke and I are as happy as ever and nothing’s wrong. It’s just that…

Well, OK. Here is my evidence so far:

1) Luke keeps getting texts and smiling and sending replies straight back. And I know they’re from her. And he never shows them to me.