A sudden pounding made Diane jump, and she almost fell off the bed. While she was catching herself, she knocked off the coffee mug, which fell over and splashed across the carpet. Gasping as the hot liquid hit her ankle, Diane scrambled back onto the bed.
“Fuck!”
“Hearing you curse does sound really weird. I’m not sure how I feel about it.” Maggie climbed off the bed. “I’ll go and look. If it’s Gregory, I’ll tell him to leave you alone.”
“He won’t come here and cause a scene, will he?”
“You never know.” Maggie gave her friend a comforting smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll get rid of him.”
She left the room, and Diane used the edge of her skirt to wipe her foot. God, it was starting to hurt now. She hoped it wasn’t too bad of a scald. Maybe she should stick her foot under the cold tap to help with the stinging. And then she could clean up. Hopefully, Maggie wouldn’t care that her cream carpet now had a stain on it.
Diane was hobbling from the bedroom to the bathroom when Maggie called up the stairs.
“Diane?”
“What?” Diane caught herself going in the other direction, leaning on the wall as she balanced on one step, peeking around the top of the stairs. “Is it him?”
“No, it’s Jessica. The ex-girlfriend. She’s demanding to speak to you.” Maggie didn’t look happy. “She’s threatening to start telling everyone about you and Greg if you don’t come downstairs right now.”
Diane groaned. Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, she had to deal with the deluded ex-girlfriend.
“Okay, fine. Just let me sort myself out and I’ll be right down.”
“I’ll tell her to wait at the end of the path. From the look on Mom’s face, she doesn’t want Jessica to come in.”
That was a relief, anyway. Diane didn’t want to imagine what Maggie’s mother was thinking seeing Gregory’s ex on the doorstep. If she was lucky, there wouldn’t be any questions asked.
Hobbling quickly into the bathroom, Diane turned on the bath tap and stuck her foot under the cold water. That was far more bracing than she anticipated, and she had to fight back the whimpers. Whoever thought ice-cold water was the best thing for scalding burns needed to be shot; it really hurt.
Drying off her feet, Diane made her way downstairs. Maggie was still in the hallway, standing by the open door. She gave a nervous glance down the hall towards the kitchen.
“She did not look happy at all,” she whispered. “I think she’s looking for a fight.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Diane put her shoes on, “the one time I encountered her, she looked prepared for a confrontation.”
“How did she know where you were?”
“I have no idea, but I’m glad she didn’t go to my house.”
“Maybe she did, and your father directed her here.”
That was a possibility, although Diane was worried about what Jessica might have said. She took a deep breath.
“Wish me luck. I’ll be back shortly.”
Leaving the house, Diane headed down the path. Jessica was at the gate, pacing around and looking like she was about to blow a gasket. She swung around on Diane.
“You’re surprisingly hard to find in a small place,” she said.
“I presume you weren’t discreet about why you wanted to see me,” Diane went through the gate and closed it, “I’m sure that’s all around town by now that you’re looking for me because of Gregory.”
“I just said that you and I had arranged to meet, and when you didn’t turn up then I was concerned.”
Jessica gave her a smirk and put her hands behind her back. “I can put on a sweet and innocent persona when I want. All I said to your dad was I am a friend from school and we planned to catch up, and I was worried. He was very happy to help.”
For once, Diane was glad about James Gilbert not asking further questions. Hopefully, he couldn’t mention that she never went to school with someone like Jessica.
Diane folded her arms.
“So, what do you want? Why are you looking for me?”
“I want you to give Gregory up.”
“And what makes you think that I’m doing anything with him?”
“Because I’ve seen you with him! You went to Boise a couple of weeks ago, right? I saw you and him in a cafe, and he was kissing you.” Jessica’s face was tight with tension, and her cheeks flushed. “You were lucky that I didn’t get there before you left, otherwise I would have been scratching your eyes out. I should be doing that right now.”
So, she had seen them. Diane had thought they were keeping things quiet and nobody would see them.
“Were you following Gregory or something?”
“Why would I do that? I live in Boise!”
“Because something suggests you’ve seen me and him together more than once.”
Jessica snorted.
“I should be following you. I told you not to be with Gregory as he was mine. And you fucking ignored me!”
She was raising her voice, and Diane had a feeling that they would be heard anytime soon. She glanced around, glad that nobody was present.
“Look, I don’t want to argue with you right now.”
“Then give up on Gregory and leave him!” Jessica snapped. “He’s mine.”
Diane closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, Jessica was still glaring at her. Normally, Diane would be snapping back and standing up for herself.
But she was too tired to do that.
“Can we go for a walk?” She asked.
Jessica looked bewildered.
“Excuse me?”
“I need some fresh air, and a long walk is in order. I can talk to you then as much as you want.” She thought Jessica was going to argue. She certainly looked ready for it. Jessica’s mouth opened and closed.
“But…what’s going on?”