The following morning, Faith woke up on the bed in the attic, not sure where she was, and could remember very little from the night before. She got up and set off down to the landing below. She drifted in and out of all the rooms one by one, gradually making her way downstairs. She wanted to come and live here properly, formerly, she decided; she wanted this to be her home.
Dan was frosty on Faith’s return, but a heart to heart was in the air, she could sense it. Faith knew what was coming, but it had no fear for her anymore.
“What got into you last night?”
“I spoke my mind, that’s all.”
“My friends did not deserve that stupid, incoherent attack.”
“I don’t like them much.”
“Yes, well, you made that very obvious.”
“Sharon is just thick but thinks she’s clever and Steve looks down at me all the time, surely you’ve noticed.”
“Steve just so happens to be my oldest friend.”
“Yes, and you’ve told me that close to a thousand times.”
“You have to apologize.”
“I don’t think so.”
Dan looked taken aback. “Well don’t ask me to give them up, because I won’t.”
“Fine, but don’t ask me to spend any more time with them, because I won’t either.”
“That’s just crazy.”
“I’ve only ever tolerated them anyway, but no more. You want to see Sharon and Steve, you see them without me.”
“Alright, I will.”
“Good, grand, you do that.”
Dan looked surprised at this, Faith’s new found confidence, it was beginning to worry him, she could tell. “I think we should just drop this idea of moving, anyway, don’t you? Let’s just forget it. We’re alright as we are.”
“No we’re not, we’re not remotely alright as we are.”
Dan let out a noisy sigh, and plonked himself down in his favourite arm chair to sulk. “I don’t have the money to move, and I don’t like the idea of you financing the entire deposit, it would make us very unequal partners which I don’t think would be fair to you, or me, come to think of it. Best leave well alone. When and if I get promotion, maybe we can discuss it again, but not now.”
“I’m buying the house, Dan, with you or without you I’m buying it, so maybe as the lease here expires in a couple of months we should tell them now that we don’t want to renew.”
Dan just stared, as though for the moment he was unable to assess this piece of information, so new and so novel were the implications.
“What exactly are you saying?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it, we’re splitting up.”
“Who said we’re splitting up? News to me.”
“I’ve been unhappy for a while, you must have noticed.”
“Since when? You never said anything.”
“Yes, well I’m saying it now. We’ve grown apart, we don’t even like each other very much anymore.”
“Don’t be so stupid, of course we like each other. We’re married, we live together, don’t we?”
“Yes, we do, but finally I’m doing something about that.”
“You won’t have enough money for the house on your own,” said Dan, rather childishly, “so you may as well forget that.”
“I could get lodgers, maybe, I’ll think of something.”
Dan gazed across at Faith, bewildered. “You’ve gone mad, you’ve gone completely mad. What’s happened to you?”
“I don’t know.”
Dan crossed towards her, took her into his arms and gave her an awkward kiss.
“We’re fine, no need for all this nonsense. I’ll tell Steve and Sharon that you were just stressed from work, they’ll understand.”
Faith was surprised at how much she found Dan’s ham fisted attempt at intimacy repugnant.
“Dan, it’s over between us, don’t let’s pretend.”
He stared at her, then as though an idea had just struck him, he said: “You’ve met someone else, haven’t you?”
“Maybe, yes, maybe I have.”
“Not Phil?”
“Who’s Phil?”
“Your boss, of course.”
Faith hooted with laughter. “No, not Phil, give me credit for being more imaginative than that.”
“So who is it then?”
“Look, it doesn’t matter…”
“Oh I think it does,” said Dan, indignantly.
“God, you sound just like your father.”
“Shut up about my father. Anyway where did you meet this guy?”
“Oh, you know, here and there.”
“What does he do? How old?”
“I don’t want to discuss it.”
“So you were with him were you, last night?”
“No, I wasn’t, I was on my own last night.”
“Where?”
“At the house.”
In the end Faith had to leave the flat. Dan’s interrogation became too intense, and she couldn’t deal with it. She had been surprised at Dan’s reaction; she’d expected him to start dividing up their wedding presents there and then, but no, it seemed that the idea of not having Faith anymore rankled, to the extent that he seemed to be making a belated attempt at shoring up the status quo.