Mark beamed drunkenly at his wife Sarah. He had, a few moments previously, flourished a hotel voucher in front of her and declared that he had won a bet. “So! We’ll go to Galway this weekend. Be nice to get away. Just you and me.”
“Just you and me.” Sarah smiled a little uncertainly, staring at the voucher on the countertop and twisting her ring around her finger. “Yes, of course. Um … I just need to call Lorraine –”
“Lorraine? Why would you be calling her?”
“I need to cancel something…”
“Oh? Plans made already, have you?”
“Nothing like that. It’s fine, I just need to tell her I’ll be away this weekend. Because I had told her…”
“Told her what?”
“Mark … it’s nothing major, really,” she said. “I overheard John and Lorraine talking outside, that’s all, and she said … um, she said they would be going to Cork next weekend. So. I was chatting to them for a minute and she … she asked if I might be able to pop in to check on their dog while they were away, and – well, I promised I would, I didn’t think you’d … I thought you’d be on that work trip, I mean, not with me, so we wouldn’t be going out anywhere and I – I’d be at home all day, so I thought … I thought it wouldn’t be any trouble to help them out.” She forced herself to stop and took a deep breath. “But look, I can cancel, I’ll ring Lorraine now –”
“Cancel?” He whipped the voucher off the countertop and began to stride out of the room. “Not at all. Not on my account.”
“Mark, please –”
“No no, it’s fine. Been a while since we’ve gone somewhere nice, hasn’t it? But no. You have other plans.”
“They’re not plans, Mark, it’s really nothing, just a favour, I can cancel any time, I –“
“And you make a habit of that, I suppose? Making plans behind my back? While you think I’ll be out? Hm?”
Sarah could feel her breath quickening, her heart pounding.