The mistress�s revenge

Chapter 6 - watching and listening from a distance

The world did not end just because Stephen did not want anything else to do with me. I knew it was not going to work out. I didn't trust him at all. Where was a relationship without trust?
I was out one night in a place called The City Tavern when a stranger came up to me and asked if I knew Stephen.
I told him I did.
He said his name was Michael. He said he knew Stephen well. They had been to school with each other. (Busy school, I thought). He said he had met someone knew, a ginger headed lass.
It didn't surprise me. I sort of knew someone else was involved.
I got talking to Michael. He really did know Stephen well. He said he had cheated on a girl in easingwold to go out with me then he had cheated on me to go out with his ginger girl. He was always cheating.
I told Michael about some of Stephen's tall tails. I told him I didn't know truth from a lie any more.
Micheal nodded. That was the way he was. He said I was better off without him. I was coming to realise that. But, you know, life with Stephen in it certainly was not boring! Life with him would be a constant roller coaster, never knowing where he was, who he was with or what he was doing.

Michael became a good friend. I don't mean a boyfriend, I just mean a friend who happened to be male. He played bass and he was studying music at university. He was starting up a band and liked my voice. He thought I could sing.
I was very flattered, but they needed a singer who could commit themselves to the band totally. I couldn't. I was at the start of my nursing career and I was not prepared to give it up.

Reading in the music press, I found out that Magnum belonged to Birmingham. They were 10-15 years older than Stephen. How could he possibly have gone to school with him?
I never ever saw the video of the single that featured him on keyboards. I doubted it had ever existed.

Michael told me he had applied to the Prince's Trust for money to set up his new agency. Hmm. I would wait and see what happened there. I somehow knew it would come to nothing.

I don't know why I did it. Maybe I wanted to torture myself. I bought myself a single ticket to go and see Magnum at the City Hall. I knew Stephen would be there. Maybe I wanted to demonstrate that I was not afraid of him. Maybe I was nosy and wanted to see what this ginger bitch looked like.
I was taken by surprise when I saw him standing outside the venue as a ticket tout, with his ginger bitch beside him. He was too close to avoid without being obvious about it. I walked up the steps, said 'hi' and went in.
I was so mad that I could not enjoy the support band. I went down to the concert bar to gather my thoughts. There was only one other person there and I knew him. Tom was the boyfriend of a nurse who knew Alice. He also shared a house with one of my ex's called Jeff.
Tom was a quiet shy chap, kept himself to himself. He was a brilliant guitarist and had been on a world tour with a local thrash metal band as a roadie.
He could see that I was upset about something. I told him I had not seen or heard from my boyfriend for weeks and I'd just seen him standing outside with another girl on his arm. He had not had the guts to ring me up, or even write me a letter to tell me that we were finished.
Tom was lovely. He bought me a drink although he never had any money. He had been given someone's spare ticket. This type of melodic soft rock was not really his scene, but he would give them a chance to prove themselves later.
He asked me out for a drink along the road after the concert. I liked his soft kindness, but I did not want to be the 'other woman' again.
He reassured me he was not being romantic. It was a friendly gesture with a male freind. Other people could read into whatever they liked into it.
We both left early. Tom still did not like the band and I could not concentrate with Stephen in the same room. We walked along to the City Tavern, got settled with our drinks and then who should walk in, but Stephen with his tart!
I knew I should have let him be, but I could not help myself. I stormed up to him, in front of his fancy bit and told him he could have done the courtesy of telling me we were finished!
He said he had told Michael to tell me.
That was not Michael's responsibility, I told him. He had been a coward...twice!
With this I thought it best to walk away, before I was dragged away. I did not see the look on his ginger bitch's face, but I could see her anger drilling into the back of my head.

So, that was then end of that chapter, I thought. No it wasn't. I was still friendly with Michael and his flat mates.
A year later, Micheal told me the Prince's trust wanted to do an audit on Stephen's books, but he had none! He had to pay an accountant an extortionate fee to cook some books up for him.
I doubted whether the money had come from his business. He had only one band signed up with him. He had managed to get them a recording contract. He had gone down to London and marched into the Kerrang! offices demanding a review of their music in the next issue. He got it.
Unfortunately, this was his only accomplishment in a whole year.
The next year, he gave up the agency, moved in with his ginger bitch in Newcastle and started a music production course at the university. Michael by this time was almost finished his course and was no good as a spy. However, it just so happened that an auxiliary nurse I worked with had a son who was on the same course! How much of a coincidence was that!
He was not the best pupil, it seemed. He hardly ever turned up and when he did, he expected everyone else to run around after him and hand over the notes from the lectures he had missed.

He did not see the course through to the end.

After that Stephen vanished into the ether. Micheal had no more information, because Stephen's parents had moved away, too.

I got on with my life as best as I could. I had more friends who happened to be male than female freinds. Girls could be such bitches and I got plenty of that at work!