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I'm Fine

A/N - Here's the next installment! I promised I would update quickly, didn't I? 😉😁

Dec must have dozed off at some point, because he awoke to the sound of emails arriving in his phone's inbox. Groaning in annoyance, Dec unlocked his phone to put it on vibrate, having turned up the ringtone and notification volumes earlier in the day so he'd be able to hear it over the noise of the hoover should Ali or anyone else important call or text. A whole load of new work emails had poured in, including one from the management team at YM&U. Probably another stupid, pack of lies story being run by the tabloids. Since everything kicked off with Ant last year, Dec had requested that the team send him any stories being run on Ant so that he was aware of what was being said in the press and could try to head off any potential ill effects on Ant's mental health. Just one of the many subtle ways in which he tried to protect his recovering best friend, while at the same time damaging himself.

Deciding to open that particular email to make sure it wasn't anything important, his eyebrows shot up so high they could have raised the roof when he saw the attached article by The Sun. A photo of Ant and Ali out for a walk together with the dogs faced him, paired with a lame headline. Ali had lied to him?!

Opening the story with a vicious tap of his thumb, Dec quickly scrolled through the article, staring open-mouthed at the photos of his wife and best friend smiling and laughing together. He knew something was off with her this morning, but he'd trusted her to tell him the truth. This was unbelievable. Charging out of the room and down the stairs, Dec went in search of his wife, intent on getting an explanation as to why she'd felt the need to lie to him about meeting up with his best mate. It wasn't the fact that they'd met up and gone for a walk together – he was totally fine with that – it was the fact she'd blatantly lied to him that made him angry.

Eventually finding her in the kitchen doing the washing up from lunch, Dec stormed over to her and wordlessly shoved his phone – with the open news story – under her nose. "Care to explain why you lied to me??" he hissed, mindful of their listening infant who was happily playing a few feet away in the next room, "Since when is Ant one of your girlfriends?!" Ali cringed when she saw The Sun's article, but shot him a cool glare nonetheless. She still hadn't forgiven him for not keeping a more watchful eye on their daughter.

"I just wanted to catch up with him, that's all," she stated, voice icy. She really wasn't in the mood for this interrogation right now. Honestly, she felt like Dec needed a right good bollocking for having left their daughter to fend for herself while he did goodness knows what. "That's not a crime, is it? At least I was being a responsible adult this morning, unlike you. You're such a s*** parent." The venom in her voice was withering, and it cut through Dec's heart even in his angry state, but he certainly wasn't going to let her know that.

"Yeah? Is that so, is it? Why the secrecy, hm?? I don't believe you. You know what, I trust Ant to be honest – I'm going to ask him!" And with that, Dec turned on his heel and limped out to the back garden, speed dialing Ant's number as he went. It rang two, three times before Ant finally picked up.

"Hiya, Dec!" his voice cheery, unsuspecting.

"What was my wife bothering you with this morning, eh? She lied to me about what she was doing. Why?" Dec's voice had softened considerably as soon as Ant had picked up, but there was still a harsh undertone of irritability.

"I told her off for having lied to you, Dec," Ant started out, tone careful as he could tell Dec was livid underneath, but was being nice to him because, well, that's just how Dec was. And that's when Ant decided he was done with lying to his best friend, he was going to tell him the truth. He knew it might land Ali in hot water, but by the sounds of it she already was, so..."She was talking to me about you, telling me off for not paying enough attention to you lately. And she's right. I'm sorry, Dec."