Cover Story - 61

‘Tim, we were over because we were over, not because of anyone else. I wasn’t sleeping with Anthony …’

‘You’re still playing the word games? Did he not actually put it all the way in or something so you stayed technically in the clear to say that?’

The door from the bathroom opened, jolting both of them. Connor emerged, still buttoning his shirt.

‘Hi. You must be Tim. I’m Connor,’ he said, extending his hand to a stunned Tim, who shook it. It was like someone had sprung from an empty cupboard in a conjuring trick. Did Tim not know she had a plus one?

Bel fleetingly wondered if Verity had deliberately omitted that Bel was bringing someone to avoid Tim having a tell-her-she-can’t strop. Actually, that was definitely what had happened, she’d sidestepped it and thought: he can’t have a go at me on my wedding day and Bel’s unpopular anyway.

It had inadvertently put Tim on the back foot when he’d presumably been planning this showdown for some time. Learning of the existence of Connor at this moment was suboptimal for Tim.

‘I don’t want to disrespect your history together, or cause any difficulty on a happy day, but equally, you appreciate there’s a limit to what I can listen to someone say to my girlfriend?’ Connor said.

Tim was completely blindsided and apparently speechless.

‘You didn’t say you were bringing someone?’ he said to Bel, so taken aback he sounded astonished.

‘This was going to be where I mentioned it. Like you with Rhiannon,’ Bel said.

She had him there. Sauce for the goose all over his gander.

‘Right. Good luck to you,’ he said to Connor, recovering his acerbic attitude.

‘Thanks, and you,’ Connor said, refusing to mirror the intonation. He was a class act.

‘… See you later,’ Tim said to Bel, and walked out, the door snapping shut behind him.

There was a tense pause.

‘Was that the right thing to do?’ Connor said, ‘I didn’t want to undermine you but I put it to the “What If This Actually Was My Girlfriend” test, and did that. It’s what I’d have done if it was Jen.’

‘Oh God!’ Bel burst into a sob, putting a hand over her eyes.

‘Wait, this is today’s …’ Connor said, stepping back, hurriedly unbuttoning and turning away. The last thing Bel saw before her eyes swam with too many tears was Connor throwing his wedding shirt over the back of a chair like a cape so it didn’t crease.

He clasped her in a bare-chested hug which Bel was too destroyed to slyly appreciate.

‘Should I have … told him …’ Bel choked out in hiccups between waves of crying. ‘What was … the point … of even carrying on dodging …’

Connor accurately judged that shushing was the only option until it subsided. When she’d regained enough self-control to make conversation possible, he said: ‘Honestly? No, I don’t think the precise mechanics of what you and Anthony did and didn’t do needed discussing right now.’

‘I was such an arsehole to Tim, Connor. Everything he said was right. I am a piece of shit!’

Connor squeezed her supportively. ‘You fucked-up, agreed. But you are not a piece of shit.’

‘Thank you,’ Bel said, looking up with a bleary face.

‘Bel,’ Connor said, ‘I’ve been one of your harshest critics …’

‘You’re only scraping into the top ten at this point, I think,’ Bel said, wiping under her eyes.

‘… Therefore you can trust my judgement. Something can be not your finest hour without defining you.’

‘I should’ve told Tim everything on the day we split up.’

‘Except that would’ve made a horrible day of his life even more horrific and as you said, it would’ve probably stopped your families staying friends. If it was an ex who you were never going to see again it would’ve been different. You two have different responsibilities to each other. You did what you thought was right. When people say you should tell the truth at all costs, they forget it’s also about who pays the cost.’

‘Thank you. You’re so wise. But I did do what Tim said. Who am I if I could do that to someone who loved me?’

‘You’re human.’

‘A shit human.’

‘A superlative human. Look it up, it means really good.’

Bel smiled into his bare shoulder, damp with her tears. She had an odd feeling that Connor’s body was still but his mind was whirring, but with what, she had no idea. She had the oddest sense he was purposely blocking the signal.