No Way to Say Goodbye Read Free

about crossing the mountain in the rain and also that, despite what Mary had said, her head probably felt like it had just been kicked.
    “I have a bottle of wine in the fridge,” Mary said, knowing that would be the deciding factor in whether her friend chose her over a movie star.
    “All right,” Penny conceded. “What’s the DVD?”
    Mary grabbed it from the coffee-table. “ What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? ” she read off the label.
    “What’s eating what?”
    “It’s directed by Lasse Hallstrom.” She knew her friend hadn’t a clue or a care as to who he was.
    “What?”
    “He directed Once Around ,” she read on.
    Penny remained unimpressed.
    “Which was a Sundance favourite apparently,” Mary continued pathetically.
    “Sundance means worthy and worthy means complete crap.” Penny’s capacity to imbue her voice with disdain was quite theatrical.
    Mary smiled. “Yeah, well, this one mentions nothing about Sundance, it’s about…” She read on silently.
    Penny was busy weighing up her options. “An eating movie directed by a man who sounds like a weather system or George Clooney?” It was an unfair contest – but she didn’t feel like facing the mountain alone either and she had to get out of the house. Still, she needed more information before she committed to a night in – after all, she could always go to the pub.
    Mary hadn’t noticed the actors’ names and, when at last she did, she knew the deal was sealed. “Hah! Starring Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio!” She heard Penny stand up.
    “Open the wine, I’m on my way.”

2. Who is who?
    Penny pulled a bottle of wine from the rack, reminding herself to replenish the dwindling supply. She was pulling on her coat when the phone rang and, thinking it would be Mary, attempting to put in a post-migraine chocolate order, she picked it up.
    “Penn.” It was Adam.
    Oh, God, no – go away . “What do you want?” she asked, pissed off that he’d caught her off guard.
    “You,” he said, and she sensed his sheepish grin. She wanted to punch his face in.
    “Is that what you told your wife?” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm and just a hint of bitterness.
    “Don’t.” He sighed, and she wanted to cry.
    She remained silent. There was nothing left to say. He’d said it all the night before. He had to end it. He could never leave his wife. And, in fact, she had known this. Although she loved him – and she truly did – he wasn’t hers. He had three kids and ran his father-in-law’s business. He belonged to his wife. She’d earned him – at least, that was how he’d put it when he’d broken off their affair for the last time. It didn’t matter that Adam was her first love or that Penny was his passion. It didn’t matter that they had loved one another for more than half their lives. It didn’t matter that he had married his wife on the rebound. It didn’t matter that he didn’t love the woman. It didn’t even matter that they had turned into some soap-opera cliché. He was married to someone else and that meant Penny was leftovers and destined to remain on the periphery in the shadow of another woman’s marriage. But no more. She was well and truly sick of it.
    “You were right to end it. I don’t want to be alone any more, Adam,” she said, tears tumbling again, much to her chagrin.
    “I don’t want that for you either. I… I…” Clearly he didn’t know what to say – there was nothing to say.
    She could hear him breaking down and now she wanted to hug him but she couldn’t. She was determined to be strong. “I have to go,” she said.
    “Don’t,” he begged.
    She hung up and sank to the floor, crying for the fifth time that day. She was going to cancel the stupid DVD evening, but then she became terrified that Adam would turn up at her door, and if he did, she would most certainly let him in, and once he was inside she wouldn’t be able to say no. But first she’d have a drink, just to settle