Kyle laughed. “Well you took the bet, you should have clarified the terms. We’ll have to have another wager for Saturday night, that’ll keep things interesting.”
Thor smiled. He liked the idea; he loved a challenge and he had absolutely no doubt that Saturday night would be anything other than interesting. The way things were panning out, interesting might be an understatement.
CHAPTER 59
As Callum drove into the car park at the sports centre, his phone rang. It was Rex. Callum sighed; he was no doubt running late again.
“Yes?” he said curtly. “Where are you?”
“Sorry, pal, not going to make it, late meeting,” said Rex.
“Bollocks,” replied Callum, “you never have late meetings, you don’t do any work. The only late meetings you have are in Dawson’s.”
“Well not tonight, I’m in the office, pal. I’ll put James on if you like, he’ll vouch for me.”
“Don’t bother, you’ve probably bribed him. I just knew you wouldn’t stick to it.”
“Hang on a minute, have you been to the gym this week, pal? I’ve been four times and had another session with Thor. I’m sticking to it, pal, you’re the one that needs to sharpen up. I bet you haven’t lost any weight this week either. It’s a shame I’m not there actually; I’d love to be there for the painful truth.”
“Well you can still pay your bloody share,” replied Callum, smarting from Rex’s comments. Rex had surprised him actually and it was bloody annoying. The last thing he needed was Rex phoning him every other day gloating about weight loss; he hadn’t bargained on a Biggest Loser challenge. The only challenge he’d planned was catching out Maggie and Thor.
“No problem,” said Rex smugly. “Don’t worry, I’ll let you know how much weight I’ve lost.”
“I’m not interested,” replied Callum. “I couldn’t care less.”
And as he hung up on Rex, Callum wasn’t happy. The last thing he wanted was an hour on his own with a personal trainer. He had to go through with it though. It might be the only real chance he’d got. Maggie was definitely having an affair; Mavis in the post office had enjoyed dropping her in it. He couldn’t stand Mavis, she was a witch of a gossip; he’d almost felt sorry for Maggie when she’d delighted in hinting that Maggie was dealing with rats of a different kind in the hayloft. He’d not confronted Maggie yet. He wanted to speak to Thor first. Maggie needed to stop lying. There was no chance of him letting her come out of this divorce with a halo. He didn’t plan on taking all the blame.
* * *
Thor signalled to Callum to take a seat. He noticed that he’d bought new trainers but he was still wearing his golf gear. There was definitely a stubbornness about him; hopefully he would loosen up a bit today.
“Is Rex on his way?” asked Thor as Callum sat down.
“He’s not coming,” replied Callum, not looking at Thor. “Apparently he’s got a late meeting.”
“Right,” said Thor, suddenly thrown off guard. This was going to be interesting. Having Rex in the session had lightened the mood. Callum looked even more pissed off than he had last week; he’d need to tread carefully. “That’s no problem, just means you get one hundred per cent of my attention. Shall we start with the technical stuff and get it over and done with, then we can go down to the gym and I can sort you out a personal training plan for when you want to come into the gym in between training sessions.”
Callum looked at him.
“I don’t think there’s much point.”
“In what?” replied Thor. “Me weighing you or giving you a training plan?”
“Either,” shrugged Callum. “There’s no point me getting on those scales as I haven’t done any exercise since last week apart from walk the dog and play a round of golf, after which I drank several pints, and then on Saturday night I had a very nice dinner at a new French restaurant, washed down with a very nice bottle of Merlot. On Sunday I had brunch, full Scottish, and the rest of the week was filled in with other totally unsuitable menu choices and more Merlot.”
“OK,” replied Thor. This wasn’t going particularly well. There was an atmosphere in the room that was making him very uncomfortable. He needed to deal with it quickly.
“So why are you here then?” he asked cautiously. “I thought it was your idea to come. You said you wanted to lose weight to save your marriage.”
Callum looked him in the eye.
“My marriage is fucked,” he replied. “Maggie’s found herself someone else.”
Thor took a deep breath. As he’d said to Rachael yesterday, these things were better out than in.
“Well I can assure you, as I said to Rex, that if Maggie is seeing someone else, it’s definitely not me.”
“And can you prove what you were doing last Tuesday morning?” asked Callum in all seriousness. Thor wanted to laugh but Callum clearly wasn’t joking.
“Of course I can, I was here, I can show you my diary if you like. Tuesdays are busy for me. I work right through from five-thirty to eight-thirty. I told you, I’m not having an affair with your wife, Rex’s wife, or any wife for that matter. That’s not my style.”
“Your girlfriend thinks it is.”
“What girlfriend? I haven’t got a girlfriend,” replied Thor, confused.
“Jess.”
“How do you know Jess?” replied Thor, completely thrown off guard and having no idea now where this line of enquiry was heading.
“I work with her. She said she’d finished with you because you spent all your time shagging your clients.”
“Oh for Christ sake, only in her imagination,” replied Thor. “That’s why we finished. She couldn’t trust me whatever I said, so there was no point.” He couldn’t believe that Callum worked with Jess.
“She must have had a reason?” continued Callum.
“Insecurity, that’s her reason. She watches too much reality TV,” replied Thor, getting annoyed now. “Look, if you don’t want to train that’s fine. I can show you my diary if you like but it looks like you’ve made your mind up about me. If you want to bail, that’s also fine. To be honest, I’m getting fed up with all this shit. I’m a professional guy, trying to run a business and while I care about my clients and their health, I don’t want to get caught up in their marital problems. I’m a trainer not a marriage guidance counsellor, so if you think training will help you get back with Maggie then I’m happy to help, but if you don’t trust me then there’s no point.”
“I don’t want to get back with Maggie,” muttered Callum.
“Why not?” asked Thor.
Callum sighed, then bowed his head. He’d looked like a defeated man.
“Because I’m in love with someone else,” he whispered. Then, raising his voice slightly, he let it all go. “And I want to be with her. Maggie hates me, she’s always hated me, whatever I’ve done has never been good enough. All she’s ever cared about is what people think about her, with her bloody horses and golf and judging at the farmers’ show. It’s all about her lording it over everyone, me and the girls. I never even see my children because they’re stuck in some prison of a boarding school when the local school is perfectly adequate. We just go along with it and she’s never been grateful. I’ve worked my arse off trying to keep her in her very expensive lifestyle and she’s never thanked me for it, never been grateful. I hate my fucking job, I’m not that good at it and they’re only keeping me on because I tried to kill myself a few months ago because I just couldn’t stand it anymore and they don’t want any hassle with employment tribunals. The only reason I haven’t stuck an exhaust pipe down my throat is because I’ve found someone who loves me for who I am, me, fat Callum. She loves me for myself, not what I can provide. I need out of my marriage with Maggie but I know she’ll take me to the cleaners. I don’t want to upset the kids and I don’t know how I’ll support them and Emma. I’m just about hanging in there as it is.”
Outburst over, Callum sat with his head in his hands. Maggie had men
tioned Callum’s suicide attempt to Thor, but Rex obviously had no idea. Not prepared for his outburst, Thor took a moment to digest what he’d said. He had to be careful what he said next.
“Does Maggie know you’re having an affair?” he asked cautiously, knowing full well that Maggie knew exactly what was going on.
“Of course she does, the woman knows everything. I also sent her a text meant for Emma. She pretended she didn’t understand it, but she did. She won’t come clean about her affair either, she’s definitely seeing someone else. And now it’s all around the village about her shagging someone in our barn and I’m probably a laughing stock on top of everything else”
“So why can’t you talk about it?” asked Thor. “If you’ve both met someone else and you both want out, why can’t you just sit down and try and talk about it sensibly.”
Callum looked at him.
“Have you ever tried talking to Maggie?” he replied. “She’s bloody impossible. I just need to bide my time, I’ll know when to make a move.”
“Are you sure you’re not waiting for her to make a move first?” asked Thor.
“Maybe,” replied Callum. “I’m probably just being a coward, as usual.”
“Well at least you’ve finally got things off your chest, that’s a pretty brave move,” replied Thor. “And what about Emma? You obviously love her, so if you want to spend the rest of your life with her, losing the weight’s not about what you look like, it’s about staying healthy. Is she younger than you?”
“Eight years,” replied Callum. “She’s getting a divorce and doesn’t have any kids.”
“Well if she’s younger than you, we’d better knock you into shape, get your stamina up. You know what these younger women are like!”
Callum grinned reluctantly. He felt better for getting it off his chest. Thor was right, Emma might not be demanding as far as his wallet was concerned, she was pretty self-sufficient, but in the bedroom she was proving to be a bit of a foxy minx.
“OK, you win,” Callum replied, standing up and offering Thor his hand. “Let’s do it. If bloody Rex Haig can go to the gym and lose weight, so can I. I’m not being beaten by that idiot.”
And as Callum stepped onto the scales, Thor thought about Jess. It was incredible how things could turn around in one honest conversation. If only he could win her trust as easily as he’d just won Callum’s, but he had no idea how to convince her. Barbara would be furious if she knew what was going through his mind. If he had to convince her, she’d say, then there was absolutely no point. It was possible that Barbara could be wrong though. Maybe he’d give it just one more go.
CHAPTER 60
Wednesday
Sitting at his desk, Thor took the opportunity of a half-hour gap to write up his notes and grab something to eat. He’d been on the go since five in the morning and he was starting to flag. He looked over his notes. He was over the moon about Kyle’s progress; the guy had really grasped the challenge and he’d been quite incredible yesterday as he’d dragged a tyre around a four-hundred-metre running track. Thor loved setting his clients challenges, challenges that they never thought they could complete. To Thor’s mind, conquering a challenge that pushed you to your physical and mental limits could only be a positive. Barbara never shied from a challenge; whatever he threw at her, she took him on. Barbara was one of life’s winners. But it was the clients who came with the most fears and insecurities that gave him the greatest satisfaction. Seeing them achieve something that they thought impossible, was what made his job so satisfying.
Gemma, for example, had been great yesterday. Still embarrassed by her first experience in the circuits class, she was so grateful for Kyle recommending her for the free session and for Thor for taking her on. She’d promised to stop spending her wages on wine so that she could keep coming. Thor had laughed as she’d told him how Kyle had told her about him losing weight and how he’d helped her with her shopping and that she’d had to help him pronounce courgette. She’d thought it was really kind of him to help her after the class when she wasn’t feeling well; she really liked him, he was nice. Gemma had done well too. She was pleased that she wasn’t as unfit as she’d thought she was and Thor had told her that her weight-loss goals were easily achievable. He’d also invited her to the night out on Saturday. She was a lovely girl. This was one wager he planned on winning.
* * *
As Maggie stepped on the scales, Thor looked at her. She looked tired; things were obviously starting to take their toll. She didn’t seem quite so perky this morning and, after Callum’s confessions, Thor tried not to see her in a different light. Yes, he could imagine she was bossy but Maggie was also someone who probably just got on with things, grabbed whatever task it was by the horns and tried to do it well. Maybe she was difficult to talk to and she was probably very intimidating like Callum had said, but she certainly hadn’t been holding anything back in her training sessions with him. She’d been more than open. Why Callum couldn’t talk to her, he had no idea, other than the fact that Callum didn’t want to put himself up for any more criticism. He was definitely depressed and the longer all this undercover stuff went on for, the worse it would be. Maggie was probably afraid too. She had a lot to lose.
“Well done,” said Thor, “That’s two kilos, good effort.”
“Thank God for that,” replied Maggie, stepping off and taking another mouthful of water. “That’s a bit more like it. It’s probably because I’ve been on my own for most of the week. I’m actually just cooking for myself these days, which is easier but a bit dull.”
“Has Callum been away?” asked Thor as innocently as he could muster.
“Oh who knows. He was probably with his new woman but, as he doesn’t speak to me, it’s difficult to know. He probably was though; he doesn’t have anywhere else to go.”
Thor looked at her, she looked pale this morning and her body language and conversation was a little defeatist. He would need to get the old Maggie back if she was going to deal with the impending break-up of the marital home.
“And how’s your other man? Have you seen him this week?” asked Thor, hoping that her relationship was still on the cards.
“No, we’ve spoken on the phone but he’s coming up on Friday,” Maggie replied. “The guys have got a night out on Saturday; it’s Davie’s fiftieth. He’s an old friend. It’s the same night as our night out so I’m hoping our paths don’t cross. Glasgow can be a very small place sometimes. We’re going to try and meet up at some point, probably Friday when he first arrives and then Sunday afternoon if I can sneak away.”
“Why do you have to sneak?” asked Thor. “Callum’s not hiding his affair, why should you hide yours? I told him it definitely wasn’t me, by the way.”
“Oh dear, he’ll be watching me like a hawk now!”
Thor looked at her. She was definitely struggling.
“Maggie, why don’t you just take a seat for a minute,” he said gently. He was starting to get fed up with all the game-playing too. It wasn’t healthy for any of them. Maggie sat down.
“Look, all this hiding and sneaking around is seriously not healthy. I can see the difference in you this week, you look tired and you’ve lost a bit of spark. You seriously have to get all this stuff out in the open; you both know what’s going on, why can’t you discuss it sensibly and just move on or go and see a counsellor or mediator, whatever they’re called. This is so destructive, Maggie, and you know it. Why can’t you speak to him? Do you still love him? Do you want to save your marriage?”
Maggie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She wasn’t used to having to face up to her emotions but, finally, she let it all go.
“No,” she whispered. “I know my marriage is over, neither of us can come back from here. To be honest, it was probably over a long time ago but we both ignored it. I’ve tried to help him but he just won’t talk to me. To be honest, he’s never talked to me. In a funny sort of way, I’m glad he’s found someone else because he wasn
’t happy with me; hopefully he’s happy with her and she can cheer him up. I don’t know why he won’t talk to me. I think he wants me to make the first move and say I’m leaving because that makes him look better, but I’m not interested in that. I just want things to be amicable and that we sort things out properly so the girls don’t suffer.”
Thor handed her a tissue.
“And have you told him that?”
“What?”
“That you just want things to be fair and that you don’t intend on fleecing him?”
“Not really,” replied Maggie. “He’s not giving me the opportunity.”
“Well I think you should try, don’t you? Just get it all out and then you can both move on. Better for the girls, too. Do you really think they haven’t noticed?”
“It’s not that simple,” sighed Maggie.
“Well it is really,” replied Thor. “It’s scary but it is simple, you just sit him down and tell him what you’ve just told me.”
“Yes, well that bit’s simple,” said Maggie. “But telling him who I’m having an affair with isn’t. I can just see his face when I tell him it’s Myles Cavendish, the one guy he hates more than anyone, the guy he blames for pushing him over the edge on the last golf trip. If he’s not already humiliated by the bloody spiteful gossip going around the village, when I tell him this he’ll hate me more than ever. I’m terrified that he’ll try to kill himself again and it will be all my fault. I might want a divorce but I don’t want him to die.” And as the words left her mouth, Maggie broke down.
CHAPTER 61
As Kyle walked into the office, he was surprised to find Kelsey already at her desk. She had left her hair down today and she was wearing a different perfume. Kyle wasn’t sure if he liked it as much as her usual one, this one was a bit overpowering. Since the weekend they’d still been chatty but the tiny spark that had briefly materialised had quietly been distinguished. Kyle knew where he stood. They were mates and that was that.
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