Fast Fiction
You’re not going to eat that, are you?’ Carly paused, the cream bun halfway between her plate and her mouth.
Jacob’s body language said it all: wrinkled nose, twisted lips, folded arms.
‘Six months ago you would have been enjoying a coffee and cake too, so don’t try and make me feel guilty,’ she said.
‘But it’s beach weather now. You want to look your best, don’t you?’
‘I always look my best,’ she said, with a stare that dared him to contradict her.
‘Fine,’ he sighed. ‘Be like that. I’m off to the gym.’
Of course he was. He seemed to live there lately.
But then she started feeling guilty. Even though she didn’t want to lose her curves, maybe she should look at the gym time as ‘together’ time. Goodness knows they didn’t get enough of that these days. That’s why she was looking forward to their trip to the beach this afternoon. Quality couple time was well overdue.
Carly decided to surprise him right now. He’d usually be at the gym for at least another hour or two.
Fifteen minutes later, she pulled into the car park, just in time to see Jacob exiting the doors with his arm around the shoulders of a pretty, lycra-clad brunette.
As he whispered something in her ear, they both laughed. And then they kissed passionately, before they got into a car.
Carly drove home in shock. When Jacob returned later, he acted no differently to any other time. Carly thought he might avoid eye contact or wear a guilty expression. Nothing. ‘Are you ready to head to the beach?’ he asked. ‘Sure.’ Part of Carly wanted to scream and rant and rave at Jacob, the other part was still too numb to do anything.
Did he meet that woman at the gym? When did their fling start? Carly couldn’t be sure. Then she remembered his body language. It’d changed about a week after he started going to the gym.
He stopped holding her hand when they went out, stopped cuddling her before they went to sleep. She’d put it down to him being tired from work and the gym.
Now she knew better.
At the beach the sun was hot on her skin. Carly took sunscreen out of her bag and rubbed it onto her arms. She turned to ask Jacob to rub some onto her back, but he was sprawled on his stomach, snoring. He always could sleep like a log.
Was it the gym that’d worn him out? Or...? no…, Carly wouldn’t think about that. Instead she thought about what she’d do now.
Rubbing sunscreen on her legs, she had an idea.
‘Geez, I can’t believe I slept that long,’ Jacob said when he woke again. He rolled over, wincing a little.
‘Hot, isn’t it?’
‘Would you get me an ice-cream?’ Carly asked.
‘Oh, okay,’ he reached for his T-shirt.
‘Oh, don’t do that, Jacob,’ Carly smiled sweetly. ‘After all, your hard work at the gym. You should show off that perfect body.’
He grinned. ‘That’s true.’ As he walked across the sand, people nudged each other and pointed at
Jacob’s back.
Carly smiled. She’d decided she was going to leave him, but wanted to leave a clear message.
And it was easy, since the sun did most of the work turning his white skin pink.
All Carly had done was use the sunscreen to write one word on his back: cheater.
Carly was shocked when she saw Jacob with another woman