When the Journey Ends - A Gypsy (Netflix) fan fic

Now to Emily..

The psychologist in Jean knew exactly what she was doing – it was text book obsessive behaviour. From the moment she discovered that they had been texting while she and Sidney had been in Marfa, Jean had been consumed by a compulsion to inflict on Sam and Sidney the same amount of pain that they had caused her. These weren't occasional fleeting thoughts of getting one back, righting a wrong, this was something else entirely. This was a continuous, unbroken, unwavering determination to exact revenge. Jean understood the deep rooted issues from childhood which caused these eruptions in her adult life, she had been making progress over many years in coming to terms with the wrongs that had been done to her as a child but this was exceptional because it involved Sidney. And as Jean had come to understand about herself recently, when it came to Sidney all bets were off.

The hurt was compounded by the fact that the texting trysts had happened in Marfa. Of all the times and places this was conceivably the worst. Marfa had taken on an almost mythical status in Jean's mind; it had come to represent perfection, the physical embodiment of their love. It was their El Dorado, the longed for destination which had delivered on its promise of providing everything their hearts had desired. But Sidney was secretly texting Sam there and now it seemed to Jean that it was all just an illusion, that Marfa had been nothing more than a mirage in the hot Texan desert.  

The winding, twisting roads of this obsession had lead Jean here – back to Sam's flat. He had told Jean that he was going away on business for a couple of days and that Emily would be staying at the flat looking after things for him. Jean decided to seize her opportunity. She rang on the doorbell to his flat and Emily answered the door.

"Hi, you must be Sidney" said Jean - the effect of those five words was like a shot gun load of shrapnel hitting Emily directly in the heart, she actually fell backwards.

Eventually Emily recovered sufficiently from the shock to say "Hmm, no I'm not Sidney, I'm Emily, but who exactly are you?"

Poor unwitting Emily thought Jean as she flashed her most dazzling of smiles "Oh, I'm Diane, a work colleague of Sam's. There should be a memory stick here for me, some figures that we've been working on together. Sam said I should stop by and pick it up – I just assumed that you would be Sidney, you know!" Poor Emily, the collateral damage of this Desert Storm of Sidney and Sam's making. Jean tried to look chastened and upset conveying to Emily that she had her upmost sympathy.

Emily rallied and said as assertively as she could "Well Sam didn't mention this to me and I should know, he tells me everything - I'm his fiancé".

Jean smiled; this couldn't have gone more perfectly if she had scripted it. "Sam engaged, wow, what a surprise. He hasn't mentioned a word of this at work. He is probably just waiting for the right moment, so that we've all forgotten about Sidney, right?" Jean laughed conspiratorially as if she assumed that Emily would get it on the joke.

By the look on Emily's now crumbling face, Jean could tell her job was done and said "Listen, I can see you're upset. Just forget about the usb stick, I'll call Sam tomorrow morning myself – sorry to bother you". With one more pitying look Jean was out the door with a hop and a skip. Emily was already phoning Sam!

By the time Jean had got back to the car, Sam had sent her a text message saying "EMILY HAS BROKEN UP WITH ME, SOME WOMAN NAMED DIANE AT OUR FLAT TALKING ABOUT SIDNEY – I NEED AN URGENT APPOINTMENT"