Read Wedding Night for Free Online Page B

having a lovely time with Daddy. I’ll see you soon, OK? I’ll try calling later, but if I don’t manage it, then night night and I love you.”
    I’m nearly at my office door now. I have stuff to do. But I can’t help talking for as long as possible, till the beep tells me to go and get a life.
    “Night night, sweetheart.” I press the phone up against my cheek. “Have lovely dreams, OK? Night night—”
    “Night night,” answers a familiar little voice, and I nearly trip over my party Manolos.
    What was that? Am I hallucinating? Has he overridden the voicemail? I peer at my phone to make sure, give it a quick bash against my palm, and listen again.
    “Hello?” I say cautiously.
    “Hello! Hello-hello-hello …”
    Oh my God. That voice isn’t coming from the phone. It’s coming from—
    I hurry round the corner into my office and there he is. My seven-year-old son. Sitting on the armchair I give to visitors.
    “Mummy!” he yells in delight.
    “Wow.” I’m almost speechless. “Noah. You’re here. At my office. That’s just … Daniel?” I turn to my ex-husband, who is standing by the window, flicking through a past issue of the magazine. “What’s going on? I thought Noah would be having tea by now? At your place?” I add with bright emphasis. “As we planned?”
    “But I’m not,” puts in Noah triumphantly.
    “Yes! I can see that, darling! So … Daniel?” My smile has spread right across my face. Generally the rule is: the more I smile at Daniel, the more I’m feeling like stabbing him.
    I can’t help surveying his features with a critical eye, even though he has nothing to do with me anymore. He’s gained a couple of pounds. New fine-stripe shirt. No hair product. That’s a mistake; his hair looks too floppy and wispy now. Maybe Trudy likes it that way.
    “Daniel?” I try again.
    Daniel says nothing, just shrugs easily, as though everything is obvious and words are superfluous. That shrug of his is new. It’s a post-me shrug. When we were together, his shoulders were permanently hunched. Now he shrugs. He wears a Kabbalah bracelet under his suit. He bounces confrontation back like he’s made of rubber. His sense of humor has been replaced by a sense of righteousness. He doesn’t joke anymore: he pronounces.
    I can’t believe we used to have sex. I can’t believe we produced Noah together. Maybe I’m in
The Matrix
and I’ll wake up to something which makes
far
more sense, like all this time I’ve been lying in a tank attached to electrodes.
    “Daniel?” My smile is fixed.
    “We agreed Noah would spend tonight with you.” He shrugs again.
    “What?”
I stare at him, dumbfounded. “No, we didn’t. It’s your night.”
    “I have to go to Frankfurt tonight. I sent you an email.”
    “No, you didn’t.”
    “I did.”
    “You didn’t! You did
not
send me any email.”
    “We agreed I’d drop Noah here.”
    He’s totally calm, as only Daniel can be. I, on the other hand, am about to have a nervous breakdown.
    “Daniel.” My voice is trembling with the effort of not smashing his head in. “Why would I have agreed to haveNoah here tonight when I’m hosting an awards ceremony? Why would I have done that?”
    Daniel shrugs again. “I’m about to go to the airport. He’s had something to eat. Here’s his overnight bag.” He dumps Noah’s rucksack on the floor. “All right, Noah? Mummy’s going to have you tonight, lucky thing.”
    There is no way out of this.
    “Great!” I smile at Noah, who is eyeing the two of us anxiously. It breaks my heart to see worry in his huge eyes. No child of his age should ever worry about anything. “What a treat for me!” I ruffle his hair reassuringly. “Excuse me, I’ll just be a moment.…”
    I walk along the corridor to the Ladies’. It’s empty, which is a good thing, because I cannot contain myself any longer.
    “HE DID NOT SEND ME A FUCKING EMAIL!” My voice rockets round the cubicles. I’m panting as I meet