LITMIR.BIZ

      Seeing them lying together, Harriet witnessed at first hand the passion that had been missing in this bed for so long now, that long blonde hair tumbling over the pillowcase, her pillowcase, the one that she, Harriet, had washed, ironed and put on! Facing a fact more appalling than any she had considered, for the second time that night, Harriet choked back bile, only a grumbling appendix had nothing to do with it.

      ‘Harriet!’

      Shocked eyes, which she’d thought she’d known, snapped open as she turned on the light, her own eyes widening in disgusted horror as the blonde, thin beauty beside him uncoiled her tanned long limbs and taking in the scene had the gall to smirk somewhat defiantly over at Harriet.

      ‘Please, don’t try and tell me that it’s not what I think.’ Furious, embarrassed, Harriet turned and ran, taking the steps two at a time, shaking Drew off when he caught up with her, a hastily wrapped towel around his waist.

      ‘Harriet, please, don’t just walk out. We need to talk.’

      ‘Talk to me through your solicitor, Drew.’ She shook her head as if to clear it. ‘That’s why you were nice to me tonight. All that crap about getting me a hot-water bottle, pretending that you care, when all the time you were just glad I was going to work so your tart—’

      ‘Harriet, don’t be like that.’

      ‘What is she, then? What lady would get into someone else’s marital bed while the wife was out working? My God, Drew, I’ve worked my backside off to put you through acting school, put up with all your moods and insecurities when all you could get was a couple of walk-on parts, even upped and moved yet again, so you could take this job. And this is how you treat me. Don’t expect nice here, Drew, don’t expect me to smile and say it’s OK, as I have done over the years when you treat me like dirt…’

      ‘You need to calm down,’ he said. ‘We need to work out what we’re going to do—’

      ‘You mean we need to work out what we’re going to tell people?’ Harriet retorted bitterly. ‘Why? Are you worried that if the press find out that your new agent mightn’t be pleased, worried that your popularity ratings might dip for a week or two? That’s it, isn’t it? You don’t give a damn what this is doing to me, all you’re worried about is how it’s going to affect you! All those nights I’ve been working for us!’

      ‘You’ve been working because you love your job,’ Drew sneered.

      ‘Not that much, Drew!’ Harriet retorted. ‘Not sixty-hour weeks just so that you can pursue your dreams. The difference between you and I is that I didn’t constantly moan about it, didn’t assume the world was against me because I had to earn a living the hard way.’

      ‘Hard!’ Drew blazed. ‘Have you any idea what my work involves? The constant demands, the pressure to always look the part. All you have to do is pull on a uniform…’

      On and on, the same old song she had danced to over the years, only this time it was a different tune. This time Harriet didn’t automatically back down, because the reason she was home at two in the morning was making itself known, the misery that had brought her to this moment was repeating itself, only this time when nausea struck she didn’t make a blind dash for the bathroom—she knew that there was no one to guide her, and it should have been mortifying, should have been the indignity to top them all, but seeing the horror in Drew’s eyes as she threw up on the smart cream carpet made her, for some inexplicable reason, want to laugh.

      ‘So my job’s easy, is it?’ Her defiant eyes met his. ‘Well, see how much you enjoy cleaning up someone else’s mess.’