Second BEST

She loved no one but him – but would jealousy wreck what they had?

- Susan Wright

After she’d switched off her alarm clock, Anna let out a groan and wished she could just stay in bed for the rest of the day. She’d had such a dreadful night’s sleep. But she had loads to do, even though it was a Saturday, and she was going to have to talk to her husband Gavin to try and put things right between them.

He’d been so hurt the night before, he’d stormed out of their bedroom and gone off to sleep on the sofa. Now she was going to have to face him. She really didn’t know what she could say, though. The words she’d blurted out had really upset him, and he hadn’t believed her when she’d told him she loved him more than ever.

‘So why are you always talking about Paul?’ he’d demanded.

‘I’m not!’ she’d replied. ‘And I wasn’t talking about him a minute ago. Not really. It’s just that when I remembered that thing that happened in the restaurant in Copenhagen, I got muddled and only asked you if you remembered it because I thought it was you I’d been with.’

Gavin had glared at her. ‘But how could you have done, Anna? We’ve never been away together. Not even once.’

‘Yes, I know,’ she’d said slowly, trying to work out the best way to explain herself. ‘But when I saw the waiter on TV spilling wine down that woman’s dress, it reminded me that a similar thing had happened to me, and I just blurted out the first thing that came into my head.’

‘Yeah, obviously,’ Gavin had growled.

‘But I didn’t mean to upset you.

‘Well, you did upset me. You made me feel second best.’

‘Second best?’

‘I’M NOT THE ONE BEING RIDICULOUS’