“Have a good time yesterday, did you?” He asked in his deep, rough voice.
“Yeah. Where were you anyway? This is our most important week in the last two years and one of the people in charge wasn’t there,” I said, followed by a moments hesitation.
“Did you forget about my wife?” He asked. I looked at him blankly. “The one that was over nine months pregnant?”
“Congratulations! Have you come up with a name yet?” I asked.
“Yes, his name is Nathan,” he replied, “named after my grandfather, his great grandfather.”
Whilst walking into the office I began to think. I had always wondered what to call my child, if I ever had one. Having a child has always been one of my greatest desires but Kate wasn’t particularly interested in having one. Her greatest desire was to keep herself beautiful, and that’s why I'm going on a date with Gemma. I’ve been friends with Gemma since University and she’s very pretty too, but her life wasn’t based around her looks. She also wants to have children but I'm not sure if it would work if we had a relationship. I’ve always liked her and she said she thinks I'm handsome and have a nice personality but she’s unsure about ‘us’ too. She told me if I split up with Kate she would like to go out on a date to see if it would work between us. Even though I lied to Gemma about our break up I’d love to catch up with her anyway. She started her three-year Bio-Medical Engineering course in my second year of Law School. The reason I met her is she was dating one of my housemates so we became friends through him. By the time their relationship had finished mine and Kate’s had already started, but we then made the agreement. Luckily for me though, Gemma and Kate had only met once or twice and didn’t particularly like each other and have never spoken to each other since I left Law School.
As Rob and I walked through the entrance hall he remembered that he had left his briefcase in the car. “I’ve left my briefcase in the car so I’ll meet you around lunch” he said as he began to run.
I can’t believe he had to come into work the day after his wife gave birth but then remembered how busy the schedule is. I know he’s one of my best friends and that we have been friends since we were eighteen and both were accepted by the area’s leading Law firm, but I still felt jealous of him for having a child.
The rest of that morning went with a blur until my lunch hour came. Rob and I started talking about his marriage and his child and I confessed to him of my date with Gemma that night.
“From what you’ve said I sort of understand why you’re doing it, but its wrong. Would you be happy if Kate went on a date with someone else?” he asked.
“No, but my marriage to Kate will lead to nowhere and I want to have children like you, and have a naturally beautiful wife that doesn’t even care too much about her looks.” I responded. Knowing he still wouldn’t think it was right. “But please don’t tell Carol, if she tells Kate then our relationship will be over without knowing if there would be any point in a relationship with Gemma.”
“Okay, I won’t tell her so long as you stick with one or the other. Carol and Kate aren’t the greatest friends anyway as Carol thinks more or less the same of her as you do.”
At least I'm not the only one that thinks of her that way, I thought to myself.
That evening I went around to pick Gemma up to go to an Italian restaurant, Giovanni’s. It wasn’t far from her semi-detached house, bought for her by her parents. She looked even more stunning that she used to. She was wearing an amazing deep red, well-cut, silky, halter-neck dress. So stunning I told her so, too.
She smiled, “You don’t look too bad yourself.”
The food was delicious, the dessert was luscious and the company was even better than that. We got on so well and one waiter even asked how long we’d been engaged for.
After the meal when we we’re walking over to my car I stepped in front of her and kissed her. At first just gently but then she started to respond passionately. We then leant on my car and couldn’t keep our hands of each other. I had never experienced a kiss as astounding as this, off a girl I had been friends with for a length of time. We carried on kissing for what seemed like a lifetime, and I wish was a lifetime. After around ten minutes we had just started talking, so we got in the car and left the restaurant car park. I pulled up to her house she asked me to come inside. After a kiss that good I was hardly going to refuse. In her living room I kissed her again and was experiencing deeper desire for her.
The next morning I woke in a completely unexpected environment. I looked across the bed to see Gemma lying there, sleeping gently, and I smiled. She looked even more angelic than Kate did when she was asleep. I rolled over and kissed her. She woke but seemed happy to see me, as I was her. I decided to get up, as I should have been home the night before.
“Do you mind if I have a shower?” I asked.
“Do you mind if I join you?” she then asked.
“Not at all.” I replied.
After I had had a shower I decided it would be best if I left. As I was leaving she asked if we could meet again on Monday night, three nights away. I drove home as quickly as I could but still it felt like slow motion to me. I finally got home and went through the door at sometime after nine. I crept through the house to the kitchen where I found Kate sitting at the table.
“Where did you stay last night then?” she asked abruptly.
“At a friends house. Did you know tha…”
“Where did you stay?!” she said angrily.
“Do you not trust me?” I asked.
“Well not when you say John is leaving and Rob says Hugh is,” she said with both anger and annoyance in her voice.
“Let me guess. You were out with another girl, Gemma maybe?” she asked, obviously knowing somehow. “Yeah, guess who went to Giovanni’s with her friends last night? And guess who saw you two? And saw the two of you drive off? Oh right, me!” she shouted.
I looked down, and by her feet I saw a suitcase, full. “Are you leaving me?”
“What do you think I'm going to do? Stay here with you?” she yelled. “Someone who deceived me into believing he was faithful. Was she as good as me?” she screamed as she slapped me as violently as she could, then ran out with her suitcase to her car. She drove off like a maniac, without a care in the world about the safety of her driving.
I stayed sitting down in my kitchen holding my face where she hit me. Tears began to fall down my cheeks. I had never cried over a girl before and I was confused as to why it was I was crying. Was I upset to have split up with Kate and maybe I should never have even doubted our relationship? Or maybe I was glad to have split with her because now I could stay with Gemma and start a family. Even though I wasn’t sure I still felt that Gemma’s a lot more beautiful than Kate and her personality suits mine better than anyone I have ever met.
I sat in silence for around an hour, trying to work out who my heart is falling for. I thought it was most likely going to be Gemma but still the thought is not knowing for sure who my heart is with. My heart has been with Kate for the past three years and now it has supposedly changed to a friend of four years but a lover for a night. I wish I knew who it was but I guessed I’d have to see them both before I knew. I thought for a while longer and then decided to go and visit Gemma.
On the drive to her house my head was spinning with visions of both Gemma and Kate. Seeing what Kate was like made me miss her but still Gemma was close to her lead but I had only been with her for one night.
As I pulled up to her house I saw a different car on her drive and thought that obviously it was from the garage. I got out of my car and walked to her front door, where I then stood for a few minutes thinking of what to say. ‘I couldn’t stand being away from you,’ no, it sounded too much like something from a movie. ‘Wow, you look even better than last night,’ that sounded fake too. I decided just to knock and just see what I said. I knocked and no one answered so I knocked again, waited for a minute and then decided to leave. As I came up to my car I heard her front door open and then turned around.
“Hi, can I help you?” a man said dripping wet with a towel around him. Maybe I’d gone to the wrong house but I looked at the number and it was the right one.
“Is Gemma in?” I asked, wondering if she rented out rooms to people.
“She’s in the shower.” He answered. Which confused me as he looked as if he had just come out of the shower.
“Who are you?”
“Gemma’s boyfriend. Who are you?”
I felt torn apart. I had just broken up with my fiancée to start a relationship with Gemma, and then find out that she has a boyfriend. I could feel my eyes filling up with tears. “Could you please get her for me?” I asked, with my voice trembling. He then walked upstairs and a minute later she came walking down the stairs with a towel around her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Why did you not tell me that you had a boyfriend? Why did you sleep with me, not telling me that you had one? When I got home I split up with Kate because I thought that we could start a relationship, and then I find out you are still in one.” I said angrily with my voice still trembling.
“You were still with Kate?” she then asked. “Well then I didn’t do anything that you didn’t do. I deceived my boyfriend too. What do you want me to do? I’ve been with him for six months now and I think he may be the one for me.”
“Well I thought Kate was the one for me until I met you.”
“Well I know I like you the same as Sam but I’ve been with him for longer. Could you please leave I don’t want Sam getting the wrong impression of this.”
“I’ll call you sometime,” she called as I started to walk off.
When I got home I just sat on my bed wishing the past two days away, wishing that none of it had ever happened. But still I couldn’t believe how I had deceived Kate that way, and Gemma had deceived me at the same time. These two days had taught me a lot and I will never dare cheat or deceive anyone ever again, because when I realised what had happened it was the worst feeling I’d ever had. A part of me just wanted to die but I still had a long life ahead of me, I just hope nothing like that ever happens again.