Read Online You, Me and Him by Alice Peterson - Free Book Online Page A

‘Come on, six months and not one fling?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Have you ever been in love with him?’
    ‘I thought I was in love with him when I was about twelve. He was the only one who stuck up for me when I had to wear my ugly head brace at school.’ I step into the water and Finn and his questions join me. I lie back, resting my head against his chest. ‘Tell me about your day?’
    ‘So you never loved him?’
    ‘No!’
    He picks up a handful of water and soaks it into my hair. I shut my eyes, feeling the water trickle down my back. He takes the shampoo bottle and squeezes a little into the palm of his hand. I begin to relax.
    ‘One last question,’ he says, ‘and this is important.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘I hope he was pleased about the baby?’
    ‘Uh-huh. He thought it was great news.’ I make ripples of water with my fingers. ‘Are Alessia’s tits as good as mine?’
    ‘It’s a close contest.’
    I turn and splash water into his face. He grabs my wrists to stop me. We’re both laughing. ‘Yours are better, OK! I have no eyes for anyone except my beautiful wife.’
    ‘Yuk. Quit while you’re ahead.’ I take his damp face in my wet hands and kiss him.
    He pulls away quickly.
    ‘Finn!’ I implore. ‘What now?’
    ‘Hypothetically, let’s say you did sleep with him …’
    ‘OK.’
    ‘So you did?’ Finn jumps in.
    ‘No, you said hypothetically.’
    ‘Right. We weren’t married; we weren’t even going out. But the thing about Clarky is …’ Finn struggles for the right words. ‘I could cope with you sleeping with anyone but him. Does that make sense?’
    ‘Finn, you know I love you. You trust me, don’t you?’
    He nods. ‘When Mum and Dad were going through their divorce, I remember my father saying it wasn’t so much what Mum had done, it was all those filthy lies. She made him feel so humiliated and worthless.’
    ‘I’d never, ever do that to you.’
    ‘I know. I’m sorry. It’s the last time I’ll ask you, but can we cut a deal?’
    ‘Go on.’
    ‘You promise to tell me any news about us
first
. Me, not him.’
    *
    Finn is fast asleep.
    I’m panicking because I know I’m going to be tired tomorrow. It’s two o’clock in the morning, I have to be up by 6.30. I need to sleep.
    Forget it. I get up and tiptoe downstairs. I sit and drink a cup of herbal tea, staring at the strawberry magnets on our fridge. Under one of them is the picture George drew of the tarantula he saw at London Zoo. He’d made Finn hold it. There are passport pictures of us all: George sticking his tongue out, Finn wearing his cap backwards.
    A sleepy George walks into the kitchen, clutching his Harrods teddy bear that Uncle Ed gave him. He climbs onto the stool next to mine. ‘Why aren’t you in bed?’
    ‘Why aren’t you?’ he answers simply.
    ‘Good point, but you need your beauty sleep.’ I ruffle his hair.
    ‘So do you,’ he says with a giggle.
    ‘Another good point.’
    ‘My brain won’t let me sleep, Mum. I hate it when I can’t sleep. I hate the dark. I bet everyone in my class is asleep. Am I handicapped, Mum?’
    ‘Where did you hear that word?’
    ‘Jason said I was. What’s a spasmo?’ We had trouble with Jason last term. He bullies George but, ‘Stay away from him,’ is all the teachers suggest.
    ‘I’m stupid, aren’t I? I can never finish my homework.’
    ‘Now, you listen to me. There are things you can’t do as easily as others, but you are not stupid.’
    George nods.
    ‘You’re special.’
    ‘I don’t want to be special. I want to be like everyone else.’
    I take his hand and we walk back upstairs. I tuck him up in bed.
    ‘You promise to tell me if Jason says anything like that again?’ He nods.
    ‘You must never lie, George,’ I had once said when I knew he’d stolen a ten-pound note from my purse to buy some Lego.
    ‘Why?’ he’d asked so innocently.
    ‘Because lies hurt the ones you love. Makes it hard for them to trust you again.’
    But this is