It was almost midday the next morning when the door bell rang again. I was still in bed, too depressed to get up and nothing to get up for. Wearily I raised myself, pulled on a dressing gown and dragged myself downstairs. The thought crossed my mind, briefly, that it was Jake back again, but it was the outline of a woman I could see though the window.
“Look, I know you probably don’t want to see me,” Neeta said as I opened the door, “but I want to tell you how really sorry I am. Just give me five minutes, please.” I didn’t have the energy to fight her. I just stood aside and let her walk past me. I followed her into the living room and sank into the sofa. Neeta stood. Perhaps she did mean just five minutes. I didn’t really concentrate on what she was saying. I was still numb and feeling depressed. Neeta finished, pleading that we could still be friends. I told her, wearily, that friends were supposed to support each other. She hadn’t stabbed me in the back; it had been a full frontal assault. I could do without friends like that. She repeated how sorry she was and left. She hadn’t even stayed five minutes.
Little by little, I recalled what Neeta had said. Although not really concentrating, I must have absorbed most of it. Neeta had claimed it had been Jake who had been pestering her. She finally succumbed. It wasn’t their first time as Jake had claimed, but had been going on for maybe five weeks. She felt guilty afterwards, but as I had told her myself that Jake was good in bed, she kept coming back for more. They thought they were careful, meeting only when they knew I wouldn’t be home.
But what really shocked me was Neeta’s assertion that she wasn’t the first woman Jake had been seeing while I was at work. Apparently, Jake had boasted of several other women. He had told Neeta, before they started, that he had a very high sex drive and I couldn’t completely satisfy him. Suddenly, I became even more distressed at her actions. If she had known of Jake’s infidelity, why hadn’t she told me? We were supposed to be friends. Did she feel that if there had been others, one more wouldn’t make much difference? Did Jake really chase her or did she see an opportunity to see for herself how good he was and seduce him? I could no longer trust or believe either of them.
More depressed than ever, I poured myself the last of the vodka, drank it in one gulp and went back to bed.