The Secret Lives of Emma: Distractions
Page 18
Half an hour later Emma was in her kitchen cutting onions. Dinner was going to be late, but she didn’t care much. She was concentrating all of her efforts on standing upright. Tears rolled down her cheeks, dropping onto the cutting board. She opened a bottle of white and poured herself a glass but she couldn’t take a sip. She didn’t trust herself.
She was thankful Sally and Mark hadn’t arrived. She was dreading the knock on the front door. How was she going to get through the night?
She heard voices. Laughter. She wiped her eyes and walked to the hallway and saw shadows in the glass panels on the front door. Her first thought was to quickly slip out the back door. She even stepped back into the kitchen. Spying the glass of wine she took it up in her hand. She could hear David’s deep voice. She drank from the glass and then resumed cutting onions, facing away from the hall. Her eyes were stinging and tearful.
They had done it. They were lovers. She shouldn’t mind. She said she wouldn’t mind.
She did mind. Her two favourite people had been having fun without her. It hurt. She couldn’t stop the way it hurt.
Were they in love?
She heard the door. David’s keys rattled and she braced herself.
‘Emma?’ called David from the door.
‘I’m in here.’
‘Do we have enough food for one more?’
Emma heard people talking. They were being ushered into the lounge room. She heard Sally’s voice, then David’s heavy tread as he made his way down the hallway. No, there were two sets of feet. She waited with back turned, tears streaming down her face, knife slowly dicing the onion.
David had reached the kitchen. Emma’s heart was pounding.
‘Look who I found out on the street.’
She turned around.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to thank my agent and publisher for their much needed guidance. Thank you.
And love and thanks to my family, friends and above all my partner for supporting me throughout. Without your love and belief in me I would never have persisted. A big thank you and all my love.
Natasha Walker is a Sydney-based author who found writing her memoir confronting till she discovered the joys of fabrication.
Also by Natasha Walker
THE SECRET LIVES OF EMMA:
BEGINNINGS
Emma Benson is a free spirit. For her a good life means a life of sensuality.
So it’s a surprise to everyone when, at the age of thirty-two, she marries David, a successful businessman, and settles down in the suburbs.
One year on, and Emma’s trying so hard to be loyal to her man. Not easy to do when you’re passionate and uninhibited, and your inner world is one of fantasy and desire.
But then, while sunbathing in her garden, her neighbour’s eighteen-year-old son appears. And Emma has found her new project.
She will be his perfect teacher …
AVAILABLE NOW
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Version 1.0
The Secret Lives of Emma: Distractions
ePub ISBN 9781742758572
Copyright © Natasha Walker, 2012
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
An Arrow book
Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd
Level 3, 100 Pacific Highway, North Sydney NSW 2060
www.randomhouse.com.au
Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at
http://www.randomhouse.com.au/about/contacts.aspx
First published by Arrow in 2012
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Walker, Natasha.
The secret lives of Emma [electronic resource]: distractions
/ Natasha Walker.
ISBN 9781742758367 (ebook)
A823.4
Cover image courtesy Laura May Grogan/ImageBrief
Cover design by Christabella Designs
There’s so much more at randomhouse.com.au
Table of Contents
ABOUT THE BOOK
CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALSO BY NATASHA WALKER
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
MORE AT RANDOM HOUSE AUSTRALIA