Read A Hundred Ways to Break Up (Let's Make This Thing Happen 2) for Free Online Page B

and said nothing.
    “You’re making me do that thing again,” went on Marcia. “You’re forcing me to reassess you. You really are not who I thought you were, Emily Rivers. And I like it. So what was his place like? What was he like. God, my mother’s going to be so jealous. Lionel Ronson.”
    Emily felt herself starting to relax, Marcia’s fun mood infectious. She told her friend about Ronnie’s mansion, and about his almost paternal relationship with Ray. She told her about the meal at L’Auberge, and about Ray sitting down at that piano and playing for her.
    “Did Ronson play?”
    “No. I didn’t ask. I’ve never really liked his stuff.”
    The two broke down into fits of giggles. Such a surreal conversation to have over lunch!
    Later, over coffee when Emily really should have been getting back to the office, she got serious again. “I spoke to him again this morning. Ray. He was panicking about a couple of journalists who’d sneaked into his gig at the Roxette and written nice reviews. I know, right? He seems very edgy, though. Very changeable. I worry that it’s me that’s making him like that. I worry that it’s all going to blow up, or that one of us will reach the conclusion that this thing just can’t be made to work. Everything’s happened so quickly: a mad rush, without pause for thought. It’s exciting, but it sure is scary.”
    “You say all that as if it’s a bad thing. You say it as if you expect your Aunty Marcia to give you the sensible advice that you should shy away from anything that’s dangerous and exciting, but really, how long have you known me? You either live life or you turn into that waste of space husband of yours and resent it. This thing with Ray: I’ve never seen you like this, Emily, and it sure is lovely to see.”
    “You say ‘this thing with Ray’... I don’t even know what this thing is .”
    “And you say that as if it matters.” Marcia leaned forward and held Emily’s hand again. “Really, Emily. You worry too much. Take it. Seize it. It’s your right to have a life. Don’t let Thom, or anyone else, or even you, take that away from you.”

7
    Thom met her at the station, and that was a sure sign that something was up. Thom never met her at the station. In fact, Emily couldn’t remember the last time her husband had gone out of his way to meet her at all.
    She saw him as she stepped off her train. A glance beyond the bustling mass of commuters on the platform, through the chain-link fence to the car park and there he was, standing by her parked car. He must have come here by cab, or bus, she thought, or maybe an earlier train if he’d been in the city for some reason. Whatever. He was here, waiting. Leaning with his ass against the driver’s door, his hands deep in the pockets of that ugly corduroy jacket he so liked.
    He was watching for her, so she looked away and lost herself in the flow towards the exit.
    This was it.
    Was he going to confront her? Trap her with difficult questions?
    There came a point when she had to acknowledge his presence. He was blocking the driver-side door, after all.
    “Hey,” she said. She never said that in greeting. That was a Ray thing.
    He nodded, something odd in his expression. He knew.
    She wondered how this was going to go. She didn’t want to hurt him. She just wanted it over with.
    “Emily,” he said. “It’s your Aunt Helen. She had a heart attack. Bill called, but he only had the house number. I’ve been trying to let you know.”
    Helen.
    He hadn’t said it, but it was clear this wasn’t just a murmur with a bit of recovery time in hospital kind of heart attack. Aunt Helen. She could only have been in her early fifties, if that. And... “Kayleigh. Oh my God: Kayleigh .”
    Her cousin was getting married in ten days.
    “It’s still going ahead,” said Thom. “She’s determined, that one. You know Kayleigh.”
    And he stood there, awkwardly, as if he didn’t know what to do. Take Emily into his