The Marriage K.L. Slater (classic romance novels TXT) 📖

parents were probably the best off of all his friends’ families, his mum thought spending money on drink was wasteful and his dad firmly believed he was old enough to earn his own money.

‘Hard work never hurt anyone,’ was his frequent refrain. Or another favourite, ‘My parents never gave me a penny.’

His dad redeemed himself once Tom started going out regularly with his friendship group. He’d sometimes offer to pick them up in his new, spacious 4x4, saving them the cab fares home. Tom and Jesse lived close to each other, but Coral lived the other side of town and one or two of the others, even further. The result of this was that whenever Tom moaned about his dad, the others would jump to his defence, reminding him how much worse off they’d be without him.

Then Jesse and Coral became an item. Tom had noticed them getting closer. Jesse would often choose to sit with Coral in the pub rather than next to Tom, and he’d be ‘busy’ when Tom asked if he fancied going to the cinema or maybe the bowling alley like they used to do.

For a while, Tom hung around with the two of them. They didn’t seem to mind and Coral was quite good company as it happened. Sometimes when Jesse had a late class, she and Tom would grab a coffee together in the common room or go to the library if they needed to catch up on coursework.

One midweek evening, Tom and Jesse had arranged to have a gaming session together. Tom called around to Jesse’s house, but it was Bridget who answered the door.

‘He’s out with Coral. He must’ve forgotten,’ she said, and then, when Tom’s face fell, ‘Stay anyway. I’m watching Jaws on DVD and I’ve made a big pot of chilli you can help me scoff. What do you say?’

They’d had a brilliant night. Bridget was such a cool mum, so chilled, and she liked the same things they all did. But to Tom she was also like real family. They’d spent so much time together as he was growing up, he knew her inside out and she him.

She told him about a couple of disastrous dates she’d had and how she was now a committed singleton.

‘It might be a bit early for that decision, Brid,’ he’d laughed. He’d taken to shortening her name like that and she said she liked it.

‘Trouble is, men my own age seem to have so much less energy than I do. They start off fun and then want to stay in every night watching serious films instead of the funny ones we like.’

Tom had agreed it sounded like hell.

As Jesse got more involved with Coral, Tom found himself round at Bridget’s house two or three times a week, keeping her company.

‘It’s not right,’ Robert remarked when he asked Tom why the group never needed a lift home any longer. ‘Holed up with a woman your mother’s age nearly every night.’

He was exaggerating, because it wasn’t every night at all. Tom liked spending time with Bridget. She was funny and kind and made him feel wanted.

Jesse had got into a couple of scuffles with boys at school who’d said disgusting things about what they’d like to do with Bridget, calling her a MILF and asking him for her number. Tom would never think of her in such disrespectful terms, but it was true she was so much more interesting than girls his own age. He had taken a couple of them out and they’d spent most of the night pouting into their phone cameras or texting their mates. He’d felt like he had nothing in common with them at all.

Then suddenly Jesse seemed to be around a lot more, and it was the three of them, Tom, Jesse and Bridget, watching movies at the house. Tom had asked about Coral.

‘I’m still seeing her, we’re still together. Just giving each other a bit of space,’ Jesse had said offhandedly.

Bridget and Tom had exchanged glances, raised their eyebrows.

A few months later, Jesse announced that Coral was pregnant. Tom’s mum would have had a meltdown, but as usual, Bridget took it in her stride.

‘I’m happy for you both. I can’t wait to see new little Jesse, although I’m not too fussed about being a grandma when I look so young,’ she’d joked.

Tom had bumped into Coral at school. She was sour-faced, and when he asked if she fancied a coffee and a catch-up, she’d hurriedly made some inane excuse and scuttled off. Something wasn’t right but nobody was saying what, though that suited Tom. He didn’t want to get pulled into the politics of their relationship.

When Coral was six months pregnant, Jesse suggested that he and Tom have a night out together. ‘We need a good session, like the old days,’ he’d said. ‘Time we had a proper chat, don’t you think?’

Tom had agreed. A bit of banter sounded like a good enough idea.

They decided they’d go to the Mayflower bar for a drink before going on to Movers nightclub in town.

Although he was concerned about his training session the next day, Tom felt a catch-up with his best mate was long overdue.

After all, what harm would a few drinks do?

Forty-Six Bridget

October 2019

I had an awful sense that time was running out in some way, but I didn’t know why. My neck and shoulders tightened as we travelled towards Coral’s house.

We hadn’t actually discussed what would happen with Ellis now that Coral was gone. There really was nothing to discuss. Ellis would come and live with us and that went without saying. I felt numb when I thought about Coral’s death. The things we’d said to each other recently, the animosity. It all loomed large in my head. She had certainly made her disapproval of our marriage known whenever she had the opportunity, but still, I certainly didn’t wish her dead. She had always been there, since Jesse’s death, and I’d never really given much