Picture Perfect

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Elliot

I winced. "Were they together the whole time?"

"No, not the whole time," Sorcha said. "Not physically, anyway. But emotional cheating? I have no idea. I reckon even Colin and Andrew don't know when they specifically crossed that line, there's a thin line between them hanging out as friends and them hanging out as people who clearly want more."

The thought made me mildly nauseated, but I gestured for Sorcha to continue.

"They were physically together for a good few months before Colin broke down and told Tyler," Sorcha continued, and then pulled a face and spoke with extreme reluctance. "To be entirely fair, and more than fair really, I do believe that Colin regrets his actions not just because of the consequences, but because he knew it was a really horrible and cruel thing to do."

"That is very much more than fair," I added.

"Yeah, I know, I don't want to give any credit to that man," Sorcha snorted. "But for the sake of the full story, you know? It's important that I emphasise just how long Tyler and Colin had to talk this over, with Tyler increasingly hysterical and scared and Colin increasingly horrified at himself and self-hating... you can see how it wasn't ever going to be a good series of conversations. In the end they just kind of... decided not to talk about it. They agreed on separation, they agreed on future divorce once the wait period was up. Colin left the house, and that was that."

I breathed out slowly. "Sounds awful."

"It was, I imagine," Sorcha said, and then sighed. "I wasn't there. I was abroad. Tyler and I - well, we're close now. We were very close back in the day. We drifted a lot over the years because I wasn't physically there, I was all over the world, and it's hard to maintain friendships when you're not there. It takes more work than I ever put in. Which sounds awful, and I suppose it is, but Tyler and I always slotted right back in whenever I saw him."

Smiling, I said, "I honestly didn't believe it when Siobhan said you'd barely seen each other in the last decade. You seem like a matched pair."

"He's an easy person to love," Sorcha grinned, and then reached over and took my hand. "Elliot, what I'm trying to say is that there's probably going to be fallout from the separation and what Colin did for a long time. You're going to have to handle that. Tyler, for his part, is starting therapy in the next few weeks and is going to have a set of sessions at a time, addressing each part of the issues in turn. He especially wants to make sure he doesn't make you feel guilty or like you can't have friends. It might get emotional. It might get difficult. But he doesn't want to give up on this relationship."

I nodded, and said, "Can I... I just want to think about it. Not because I think my answer will be 'no', but because I want to show Tyler that I'm not racing into decisions. I want him to see that I've truly considered the ups and downs."

Sorcha nodded and squeezed my hand. "That's perfect. Look, for the record, I think you're both absolutely delightful and you'll have a strong and happy relationship going forward. I think you're both determined not to hurt each other. That's a pretty solid basis for a relationship."

I smiled and squeezed back. "Okay. Thank you for telling me all of this. Now tell me about you and Siobhan."

Sorcha leaned back in her seat and sipped her coffee. "What do you want to know?"

"Literally how," I replied, and then a thought occurred to me. "Is sex between you two just a massive fight for dominance?"

Sorcha spluttered her sip of coffee, absolutely delighted by the turn in conversation by the way her eyes lit up. "Kind of!" she laughed, licking spilled coffee off her hand. "Actually, if I'm honest, we have very gentle sex." She grinned. "Contrary to popular belief, I'm not a particularly sexual person. I like it, but it doesn't interest me the way it interests some people. Awny is the same."