Read Online A Thousand Small Explosions by John Marrs - Free Book Online

of course,’ he answered and beckoned the waitress for the bill. He paid in cash, like he always did, and within ten minutes they were driving back to her house.

CHAPTER 18
     
    BETHANY
     
    Bethany removed the phone from her ear and glared at it lying flat in the palm of her hand.
    She had travelled for almost two days from England to surprise her Match Kevin at the Australian farm where he lived and worked. But as she stood at the top of his driveway gearing herself up to meet him, he’d informed her by phone that she shouldn’t have come.
    She must have misheard Kevin, she told herself, so she called him back. When it went straight to voicemail, she called again. And once more, he failed to answer.
    ‘WHAT IS GOING ON?’ she texted in angry capital letters, then held the phone in front of her, waiting for a response. None came.
    Bethany felt the oppressive heat of the midday sun burning her exposed shoulders and neck so she climbed back into her car and turned the air conditioning on full. She had come so far and Kevin was so close, and she couldn’t understand why he was rejecting her.
    She contemplated the farm ahead, then turned over the car’s ignition, performed a U-turn and began to drive slowly along the highway back in the direction from which she had come, feeling hurt and humiliated.
    Bethany pinched the skin between her thumb and forefinger to stop herself from crying and speculated on what she had done that was so wrong to make Kevin cruelly turn her away. She began coming up with excuses for him, such as that he was too nervous to face her and that she’d backed him into a corner. Then she considered what her reaction might’ve been had Kevin suddenly turned up unannounced on her doorstep. She told herself off for her spontaneous stupidity and became angry towards work pals Shawna and Lucy for having encouraged her to buy into the “Meet-your-Match-and-live-happily-ever-after” ideal. All it had done so far was put Kevin in a very awkward position and he needed time to process.  She would give him that and then try again later. So she drove in the direction of a small town she’d passed some twenty miles back and once there, she would check into a hotel. Later, maybe even tomorrow, she would text Kevin again in the hope of talking him around.
    ‘Are you stupid?’ Bethany suddenly said out of the blue, even surprising herself. She blinked hard and furrowed her brow. ‘Why are you blaming yourself for this? Kevin’s the one in the wrong here, not you.’
    Her mind raced as she began questioning if his refusal to meet her was not as simple as it seemed. She had watched enough episodes of MTV’s Catfish to know that people are duped all the time online by those pretending to be someone they’re not. Maybe Kevin was actually a woman putting on a deep voice when they spoke by phone or maybe he was old enough to be her father and hadn’t wanted to say? Or maybe he didn’t live with his parents on the farm and lived there with his wife instead.
    The latter seemed like the most likely explanation – Kevin was married and it was why he hadn’t wanted to Skype or FaceTime Bethany, in case his wife caught him. And he was probably talking to Bethany on a secret, second mobile phone his wife had no idea he owned. Maybe he had a child too, or even several children with several wives like the TV shows she’d watched about polygamists.
    The more thought Bethany gave it, the more credibility her outlandish theories held and the more furious she became. What a nice cosy set up Kevin had with his loved ones here in Australia and a girlfriend he could hide away and string along in another country. As long as he was cautious, how could he ever get caught out? It wasn’t like his Match would travel to the other side of the world and turn up at his house out of the blue, was it?
    ‘She sure as hell would,’ Bethany muttered, feeling her temperature rise along with her confidence. She jammed on the car’s