The stairs creak under my feet as an unfamiliar hand holds mine and leads me upstairs. My head turns back to look at my husband as he scoots along our sofa towards a woman he has clearly fancied since we moved in next door to them 18 months ago. His eyes brim with a lust that I barely recognise and his arm slips round her slender shoulders. It’s too much to watch, and so I turn away and follow a man that isn’t my husband upstairs.
His hand is rougher than Carl’s, but the way he holds it is gentle. Like he can feel my trepidation and nervousness and so is treating me accordingly. When we get to the landing he stops and turns to me, smiling down with a hand resting on my hip carefully.
“Which room?”
Not my bedroom. I can’t do it there. Not where I sleep with Carl. I look past him to the spare room and nod towards it before stepping past him into a bare white room with a simple double bed that takes up most of the space. My fingers flick the light on and I shift away from the door, hearing Leigh pushing the door almost closed behind us so that we’re left alone.