Facade

too. “Didn’t mean to confuse you. I was miles away.”
    “Oh, we noticed,” Ally answered, leaning over Jonas as she cleared the table.
    With Scott still outside enjoying a smoke, Jonas found himself alone in the kitchen with Ally.
    “Are you okay, darling?” she asked with clear concern in her voice. “You’re worrying us, to be honest.” Jonas shrugged, but he had a hard time hiding what he was feeling. He and Ally had shared a lot more than her husband over the years, and he didn’t want to lie to her so he chose to say nothing.
    It came as no surprise that Ally wouldn’t let him stay silent.
    “It’s Nicky, isn’t it?”
    Jonas felt his eyes well up with tears but he closed them tightly and held his breath until the feeling subsided.
    “You fell in love with him?” Ally paused after her question, looking straight at Jonas with deep worry lines in her face. “And he didn’t return the feelings?” She saw Jonas’s face change and then seemed to understand. “Oh, I think he did! Jonas!” Jonas frantically shook his head. “I’m nothing more than a hired hand to him. Someone with the right abilities to make him feel good when he needs it, and he’s oh so willing to pay for it!”
    “I think you should call him.”
    Jonas looked up at Ally, trying to see clearly through the haze of tears and anger that was clouding his vision. “I can’t call him,” he replied quietly, trying hard to keep his anger at bay.
    “Why not?” Ally asked, her voice understanding. “Maybe you misunderstood. Wouldn’t it be horrible if two people who clearly belong together were kept apart over a misunderstanding? I know him, remember? For a very successful guy, he’s still like all the artsy ones, he’s a scatterbrain! He says things and then later regrets 124
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    them, and frankly I’m glad he does, because he’s embarrassed himself more than once at our house.”
    Ally had taken Jonas’s hand in hers and was squeezing it in support. At least this gave Jonas something to look at. “Tanna called me to ask me to come over to Paris because Nicky had some free time, so I went straight away. I wasn’t there longer than an hour, Ally. He needed a good fuck and then dismissed me. No invitation for dinner, no ‘can I see you later?’ He knew I flew in. He just dismissed me, threw me away like a used rag.” By now Ally had her arm around his shoulder but he still couldn’t look at her. “We had a wonderful week together in London, Ally.”
    “I know,” she interrupted. “He told me. Couldn’t stop talking about you and how amazing you were. That’s why I think it’s all a misunderstanding.”
    “I thought there was something there. I thought we’d connected somehow.” He sighed and looked at her. “You know I don’t just fall in love with the first cute guy that crosses my path, Ally!”
    She rested the side of her head against Jonas’s and didn’t say anything.
    “And on top of everything, I’m seeing things… people. Well, him, actually.”
    “What do you mean?” she asked, looking at him again with that worried look he so dreaded.
    “This past week alone, twice here in the house I looked up and thought I was looking at him. I go into town for groceries and I think I see him, and then when I get closer it’s some other guy who doesn’t even look like him. It’s like I’m slowly going crazy.”
    “We’ll keep yeh sane,” Scott replied from the doorway with his heavy Northern English accent. “All that solitude fucks with a bloke’s mind. You need to be around people, Joe.” Jonas held out his hand and Scott came closer. He put his hand on Jonas’s shoulder, then the back of his head, and then they head butted each other gently. It all felt very familiar. He knew the kind Façade
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    of love he felt from his friends wasn’t your traditional love. It was acceptance and gratefulness for the approval they received for their unusual relationship. Scott nuzzled him, fishing for a kiss, and Jonas felt Ally snuggle closer to him as he indulged the fair-haired Northerner. It never ceased to amaze him how easy their relationship had always been. He and Scott went back further than Scott’s marriage to Ally. Scott was always the lady’s man, never seen without an actress or a model on his arm. Ally was the first one to understand that in bed there was no way Scott could ever choose between a man and a woman. This probably had a lot to do with the fact that she liked to