MR. TURNER

16. Nancy Drew

"Ok so, if you had to chose, would you chose vanilla or chocolate? I mean a wedding cake surely would have to be vanilla right?"

Alyssa has been at this all day. I was ready to call it quits 3 hours ago.

This is what you'll be doing...

The thought of that just tires me. Listening to Alyssa tires me..

"Look, why not do something completely out of the box? Like lemon or banana?" I say flicking through the catalogue of cakes.

Her face tells me what she thinks of my suggestion. As sour as a lemon.

"Ugh, no that's terrible. Imagine what everyone will think! I need a minute.." she huffs as she walks off into the living room.

I sit at the kitchen island and continue to aimlessly flick through the catalogues, till I come across a letter with a fancy letter head.

Interesting...

I can hear Lys on the phone so I assume it's safe to be a sticky beak.

Dear Alyssa,

I hope this letter finds you well.

I've been thinking alot about you lately and I just wish I could see you, even if it's just one last time.

I got your previous letters, I don't know what to do... You can't live a lie but I cannot and will not disrupt your life in such a way that would ruin your reputation and future husband's.

I have a reputation to uphold as well.. we must think of something quickly.

Soon enough everyone will work it out and you will be shunned. We cannot have that my darling.

Please write or email as soon as possible so we can further discuss this.

Love, G x

What...

Who the hell is G?

I quickly shove the letter underneath the mountains of wedding books and samples.

I feel uneasy after reading that. I definitely regret even going near it. I know something, presumably only Alyssa knows about.. not even her future husband...

Do I ask her?

Or is that incriminating myself, I mean I read something obviously very private..

But why is it on the kitchen bench?

I couldn't channel my inner Nancy Drew any longer as Alyssa walked back into the kitchen, a huge smile on her face.

"What?" I ask with a fake smile.

"Red velvet! That's what we will have!" She claps excitedly as she writes it down in her book.

I hum in approval as my thoughts travel to William. The thoughts of how he must've felt when his ex wife had cheated on him and he had found out... I don't want Mitch to feel the same way...

It's not your place to say anything. Not a word Eleanor.

Ping

Ping

I quickly picked up my phone before Alyssa heard it, she'll need to know the ins and outs.

William: what are you doing? X

I smile.

Me: not much, drowning in my sister's wedding plans... You? X

His reply was instant.

William: thinking about you. X

I feel the heat rising to my cheeks, I look around like a giddy teenager, making sure no one could see me.

Before I could reply to his message, Mitch had walked through the door.

His happy go-lucky self smiling and shaking his head at all the books and samples strewn all over the bench.

"Well this looks... Fun?" He laughs, he sets down his bags and takes two beers out the fridge.

"Where is she?" He asks as he pops both the tops and hands me one.

I shrug as I actually don't know where she went. Mitch nods and heads to their room.

I could hear muffled talking from down the hall and then nothing. A few minutes later I hear giggling... We all know what's happening.

I shake my head and clear up the books and show myself out.

It was finally Saturday, work had been full on and the tension between Will and Ben was getting worse.

Ben now openly steals glances at me and comes and speak to me more often, especially out the front of William's office. He knows William is watching and I know he's probably only doing it now to piss him off but this is ridiculous.

I'm now being used to piss another off. I've bit my tongue but I don't think after the week I've had I'll go back to work on Monday and continue it.

It's got to stop.

I'm about to run myself a well deserved bath before my phone rings. I decided to let it ring out, but it rang again. I assumed it's probably William or even my mother.

Alyssa.

Hmmm, okay.

"Lys? Hey.." I said, when the line was quiet.

".... El... I've fucked up. Fucked up good and proper." She said, she's been crying by the sounds of it.

Uh oh...

"What's happened Lys?" I say, I think I know exactly what's coming.

"I.. I don't know what to do... I can't believe I did this.. it wasn't meant to happen, I swear! it just did! Mitch has no idea and I'm about to break his heart... Help me El, please!" She whisper yells, I assume Mitch is home too...

"Okay calm down Lys, I need to know what's happened okay? What did... You do?"

The line went quiet, I gave her time as I started running my bath and getting undressed.

I hear rustling and then a door open then close on the other end.

"Okay, well... A man... G... Gerard.. well we uh, I cheated on Mitch in the early days of our relationship. He's a partner at Mitch's firm.." she says, trailing off and beginning to sniffle again.

"I thought it was only going to be a one night stand kind of thing but it happened quite a few times after that.. Gerard is considerably older and had just gotten a divorce. He sends me emails and letters, keeping in touch with me as he'd been sent to Hong Kong on business but hasn't returned.."

"Okay.. is that all?" I ask... I pretty much gathered all of this by the letter I read a few days ago.

"No.."

Oh? Jesus.

"I'm also pregnant with his child.."

I almost drop my phone into the bath as I lent over to turn the taps off.

Shit.