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“I’M SO SORRY PAIGE,” Marie’s words of comfort echoed in Paige’s ears as she slid her key into the flat’s front door. “I saw them enter the room together. They were in there about an hour.”
Paige swung open the front door, phone still pressed to her ear, confronted by the sight of Rufus on the sofa, flicking through his phone.
“Paige? Are you still there, sweetie?” Marie asked. Paige dropped her keys and bag to the floor with a purposeful thud, causing Rufus to look up.
“I’m still here, Marie,” she said, “But I have to go now.” Rufus had noticed the look on her face. They locked eyes, a quiet moment a recognition of the fight that was about to ensue, “Thank you, Marie,” Paige added, before hanging up and dropping her phone down onto her things.
“What’s the matter?” Rufus asked, but his eyes betrayed that he already knew what had been revealed to her.
“Marie works at the Premier Inn on Bute Place, in the bay.”
“Ah,” Rufus said, standing up and putting his phone in his pocket, “I can explain.”
“You explained away the girl at the Christmas party too, Rufus. Look me in the eye and say you have an innocent reason for meeting another woman in a hotel room when you’re supposed to be showing properties in the bay,” Paige could feel herself shaking and walked over to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. Tea heals all, her mum always said. Not this, she thought to herself as the kettle began to jump with the freshly boiling water.
“No innocent reason, no,” Rufus admitted, “But you are being crazy.”
“Don’t call me crazy,” Paige said, pulling down a thermos from the cupboard and dumping the tea in. She knew exactly where this conversation was leading, and she didn’t have any intention of sticking around to listen to it.
“That girl at the Christmas party was just a friend!” Rufus started, the same line he’d delivered so many times before.
“I watched you kiss her!”
“I was drunk!” Even the predictability of his replies frustrated her. If he was going to lie to her, couldn’t he at least be clever?
“And this girl? Were you drunk in the middle of the workday? Doing shots while showing flats? Or were you not even showing a flat today, was that a lie too?” Paige bit back at him, hating hearing the scorn in her own voice. It was so unlike her to get angry.
“See, you’re being crazy again!” But not incorrect, Paige thought, noticing Rufus’ lack of defence in this case. She headed to the bedroom and began to mindlessly pack clothes and toiletries. “Oh, come on!” He was getting angry now. “Where are you going to go?”
“To my mum, in Oxford.”
“Oxford...” Rufus rubbed his forehead. Paige grabbed her pyjamas from under her pillow and her asthma inhaler from the bedside table and zipped up her suitcase, heading for the door.
“Don’t call me. I will be back for my stuff at some point,” Paige picked up her bag, keys and phone from where she had thrown them by the door and without a look back, left the flat.
