Wakening he turned his head and saw she was still reading. After a moment he
said, "About that e-mail you sent."
"I never sent you an e-mail," she said, eyes still on the book.
"Not before today, perhaps, but this afternoon you e-mailed me and said -"
"I repeat," she interrupted, looking hard at him, "I have never sent you or
anyone else an e-mail in my life."
"But you did send one to the office this afternoon. I remember it
perfectly - the heading stating it was from you to me and everyone else in
the firm. Why did you have to tell them? You must have sent it from a
friend's computer or one in the public library."
"You're still drunk."
"If you mean I was drunk when we came to bed you are wrong. We had only one
bottle of wine with the evening meal and I drank only one more glass of it
than you. I'm glad you're sorry you sent that message but you'll never
persuade me you didn't."
"You're hallucinating. What am I supposed to have said?"
"That you want to leave me. Five words - I want to leave you - just that."
She stared at him, shut the book and said bitterly, "Oh, very clever. Cruel,
but clever."
"Do you want to leave me?"
"Yes, but I never told you so. I've never told anyone that - they think ours
is such a solid marriage. You must have noticed it's a farce and this is
your bloody cunning way of blaming me for something I never said and was
never going to say."
"Blethers!" he cried, "I am never cunning, never cruel. I remember these
words coming up very clear and distinct on the computer screen: I want to
leave you."
"Then why didn't you mention it when you came home? Why didn't you mention
it over dinner? Are you going to pretend you were brooding over it before we
came to bed?"
He thought hard for a while then said,
"You're right. I must have dreamed it before I woke a moment ago."
"I'm glad you've sobered up," she said and resumed reading.
........
