#A-Z Challenge [2016]

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“ V AT returns,” Marianne said.“I beg your pardon?” Richard replied.“I have to get in and sort out the VAT returns.” Marianne went to push open the gallery door.“Wait,” Richard said. “It’s not what you think.”“Look we only had a coffee together, I didn’t expect you to make any commitments to me, but I thought that if you asked me to have dinner with you, you were at least not seeing someone else. It’s the decent thing or do people not care about that anymore? Am I so out of touch with life? Can’t anyone can be faithful for five minutes? Do you and she have this open relationship? Because I’m not into open relationships.”“Neither am I. Marianne. That girl was my daughter. Zoe. She’s staying with me for a few days. I couldn’t leave her in Reading, she was in too much of a state. I’ve been looking after her.”Now Marianne was speechless. She looked inside the gallery. Xander had his arms crossed and Penny was grinning.“Look,” Richard said. “If you don’t want to have dinner, that’s one thing but honestly, there’s no one else.”“You have a daughter and no wife?”Richard looked down at his feet.“So, that’s it. You have a wife at home and you tried to pretend you didn’t. I can’t believe this. I’m sick and tired of everyone lying to me. If you don’t mind I’m going in to get some work done. Those Vat returns won’t calculate themselves.”Richard still said nothing and now that she had stopped ranting, Marianne could sense the chill in the air and the deathly silence despite the cars going by and the street beginning to fill with shoppers and tourists. Slowly, Richard raised his eyes to meet Marianne’s. The beautiful brown colour of his eyes was obscured by tears that had welled up and were about to spill over.