Masters And Lovers 1-4
Chapter 3
I slam my pen down on the desk.
Fuck!
I’m educated, intelligent and usually articulate. I have no difficulties expressing my thoughts.
So, how difficult can it be to write a five-minute Best Man’s Speech?
I rose early, wanting a little peace and quiet so I could get on with the most classic of a Best Man’s duties. I’d assumed it would be easy and I would run the job off in twenty or thirty minutes.
An hour later, the paper in front of me remains stubbornly blank.
And my eyes ache.
Surely I don’t need another eye test?
It goes with middle-age I suppose….
There’s no upside to getting older….
I need coffee….
Leaning back against the counter, sipping at my drink, my mind wanders, travelling back in time to my first marriage….
No….
My marriage….
For this wedding, it’s Michael who is marrying her.
But it doesn’t feel like that.
It feels like my wedding too.
And I’ll get it right this time….
This is my true marriage.
it will be Michael who says the
Memories….
complaints. Never happy. Always complaining there wasn’t
to work. I wanted her to be a mother to our
are you now,
keep her photo. I’d like to have it on my desk, but I’m
Becoming a woman. Holding up her exam certificate to show me. Beaming brightly because
so proud of
still proud
More memories….
flown the nest to her university and the sick realisation settles on me
for money…. Screaming for possession of everything. As though she’d earned it
recognition that she had someone
seeing him before the
Who cares…
Bitch.
from her: I gave her the house. The car. The fucking lot.
the final blow: as it dawned on me that Georgie would
That my ex-wife had poisoned her against me. My little girl, the
mother lied
did the things Marlene said. And I didn’t leave her without money. It’s hardly my fault she had
seen Georgie for years. And the last time I heard from her was when her
my
There’s no problem with Charlotte’s spending. I’ve never known anyone so careful
than a
Count your blessings….
friend and the woman I love soon to be wed, in the marriage I engineered to ensure the future of our Triad. My work is interesting, fulfilling and earns me more money than I ever dreamed of in those earlier years
Richard….
…
to make the best of
the back of my mind, but the thoughts don’t
Don’t think about it….
when the