Sleepless Nights Read Free

shouldn’t have picked up the bowl. It was the only one I had without a crack so big the milk flows out of it faster than you can spoon the cereal into your mouth. But it was the first thing that came to my hand.
    “Take that, you bastard.” Dave ducked. It hit the wall. No more cereal for me.
    “And that.” This time it was a mug. I think my mother gave it to me. No loss there. It had itsy-bitsy sprigs of lavender on the outside and an indelible brown tea-stain on the inside.
    “If you’ll just listen to me—”
    “And that—” An egg-cup. My flatmate’s. Turns out this is surprisingly painful if it hits the right spot. Dave yowled. “You loon!” he yelled, dancing about clutching his groin when he was finally able to draw breath. “I—didn’t—touch—her!”
    “No, but you were thinking about it,” I shouted, aiming a toasting fork at his foot.
    He skipped out of the way. “I wasn’t!”
    “You were.” I was running out of things to throw.
    “I wasn’t!”
    “You were staring at her cleavage the whole time. I saw you crane to get a better look! And I think you dropped your napkin deliberately so you could get a better look at her chubby legs under the table.” I found a teaspoon in the sink.
    “I didn’t,” he replied, catching the teaspoon neatly in his hand and putting it down on the table.
    “You did,” I said, making for the teaspoon again.
    Dave grabbed my hand deliberately as I entered his orbit and twisted it firmly behind my back. “Stop it, stop it, stop it, Jeanie. You’ve gone bonkers. Okay, I’ll admit it. If you stop throwing things. I did—sort of—maybe a little bit—look at—some bits. Of her. It was hard not to. C’mon Jeanie, they were so—available…owwwww” (as I wrenched myself free and thumped his shoulder). “No wait,” and somehow his arms were around my arms again, and I was held fast. “I looked. I didn’t touch. I’m not going to touch. Ever. I promise.”
    I twisted around to look up into his earnest, stubbly face. He’s not exactly handsome, my boyfriend, but he does have nice gray eyes, and his features-well, you wouldn’t say chiseled, I suppose, but I’ve never really known what that means anyway. “I’m going to be away from London for months, Dave. How do I know you’re not going to chase after Ellen the moment my plane leaves the ground? You’re going to see her every time you go to visit your mum. I can see it now, you’ll be spiritually drawn to the woman who is tending your ailing mother, you won’t be able to help yourself, and then she’ll bend over to change a bedpan and you’ll catch a glimpse of her pink suspenders, and-”
    “Jeanie, I won’t. I promise. She isn’t—I mean, this is cloud cuckoo-land! Really. Have I ever been unfaithful to you? No. Right. And anyway whose decision was it to go halfway round the world for months on end? Seems to me if anyone should be doing the plate-hurling round here, it’s me, love.” I heard the little vibration deep in his voice.
    I stopped struggling and stood still, allowing my head to subside on his hard chest. There was something in his argument.
    “All I did was get a little look at—well, what was on offer. You name a man who wouldn’t have done the same,” he said, reaching out to curl a strand of my brown hair around his finger, then tilting my face up to his. He wiped an imaginary tear from my lashes. “But it doesn’t mean I’ll touch her, love. I might look, but I’ll never touch. I’ll be waiting here for you to come back. While you’re with your sister and the baby in New York, I’ll be here, same old Dave, just like always. Come on Jeanie—” he whispered into my ear, his hands moving down to my tight pink T-shirt, pulling my body roughly into the contours of his jeans, “why don’t you show me a bit of what you have on offer tonight, eh? Then I’ll never think of Ellen again, I promise you…”
    The truth was—I thought to myself, a couple of