"I'm sorry, can you repeat that?" Dale asked when he realised Charlotte had been talking at length and he'd drifted off. Talk about unprofessional. 

"I was saying I'd better get going," Charlotte said with exaggerated patience as she looked pointedly at the clock. "I can't afford any more of your time."

He sat up and straightened his tie, feeling weary. "I wish I had better news for you. It must be frustrating that we're pretty much spinning our wheels here."

Charlotte nodded, her eyes downcast. "I knew it wasn't going to be easy but I thought I'd be further down the road by this stage."

Dale frowned taking her words as implied criticism, and who could blame her? If she'd had a better, more experienced lawyer she probably would have made more progress. As it was, he was being outgunned by Nick's lawyer every step of the way. He glanced at the picture of Rosalind on the left-hand side of his desk and felt even more despondent. It was becoming an all too familiar feature of his life, there was always some guy who was a little bit better than him.

"You can't give up now," he said pulling himself together. "Not when you've come this far."

"And spent all this money," she said with a half-laugh.

"True, if there'd been anyway-"

"I'm joking, Dale. You've done more for me than I would ever have asked of you."

"You're too kind," he said glancing again at Rosalind's picture. "I've consumed myself in your case to avoid looking too closely at the problems in my own life."

The smile left Charlotte's face and she reached out to touch his hand. "I'm sorry about what you've gone through, what you're going through. To be honest, I think a lot of us have seen it as choosing between Ros and Darlene and we've forgotten that you're a victim in all of this as well."

He couldn't help wincing, the last thing he wanted was to be seen as a victim, the whole thing was humiliating enough as it was. "It's okay, I'm sure it was worse for Darlene than it was for me. They've been married longer, they have a child and another on the way."

"You could leave her," Charlotte said taking him by surprise. "No one would blame you if you did. You don't have the same ties binding you to Rosalind that Darlene has to bind her to John."

He gave her a wry smile. "And what about for better or worse?"

She laughed lightly. "Well if you believe that then you should be encouraging me to seek a reconciliation with Nick."

"That's like comparing apples and oranges. What Nick did was beyond the pale, Rosalind's transgression was..." He stopped, not even knowing what to call it. A misdemeanour, an error of judgement?

"You don't have to stay with her though, there's no right or wrong answer." She met his eyes before taking a deep breath. "Look I should have left Nick years ago. The first time he raised his hand to me, the first time he cheated, I'd have saved myself a lot of heartaches if I had. But do you know what kept me there?" He shook his head. "It was my misplaced sense of pride. I couldn't stand the thought of coming home with my life in tatters. I was more concerned about what other people would think than in doing what was best for me."

"And you think that's why I'm staying with Rosalind?"

"If it is then things will only get worse."

Dale nodded. That was pretty much the crux of it. Was he staying with Rosalind out of strength or weakness? He'd told himself their marriage was worth fighting for but Ros had casually disregarded her vows when the ink was still drying on their marriage certificate.

"I did consider leaving her when I first found out," he admitted his mouth suddenly dry. "I was hurt, angry, betrayed."

Humiliated.

He closed his eyes as he vividly remembered the scene that had confronted him when he'd returned home from work early one evening.

Dale pulled onto his driveway and cut the car's engine, pleased with himself that he was home before six for once. Rosalind was right, he had been neglecting her. He grabbed a bunch of flowers from the passenger seat thinking that would get him extra marks for effort. Smiling he walked towards the porch, stopping when he saw Ros wrestling Darlene out of the front door.

"You can throw me out but you can't deny the truth," Darlene shrieked, her dark hair flying around her face.

"You're delusional! You've always been jealous of me and now you're jealous of my marriage so you've concocted some bullshit story about me having an affair with your husband," Rosalind said gasping.

"Would somebody mind telling me what is going on here?" Dale asked and the colour drained from Ros's face.

"Darlene was just leaving," she said her voice stilted.

Dale looked at Darlene, her face was blotchy and her eyes were swollen; clearly, she'd been crying. "What's happened?"

"What's happened?" She glared incredulously at him. "She's been screwing Johnny is what's happened."

Dale gaped at her while Rosalind quickly began to protest. He held up his hand to silence her, his attention on Darlene. "I think you've got that wrong. Ros would never do that, I mean they were over years ago. That ship's sailed." He tried to laugh but no sound came out.

"I've not got it wrong," Darlene said shooting Ros a furious look. "John confessed. He told me everything cos whatever he is, he's not a liar and I knew something was going on."

He felt his chest tighten as he limply held onto the flowers. "Ros?"

"She's lying or John is, I dunno."

"There's only one liar around here and that's you," Darlene yelled. "I'm pregnant and you were screwing my husband."

The little colour that was left in Rosalind's face faded making her lipstick stand out starkly. "Pregnant? I didn't know."

"Well, now you do," Darlene said sounding almost smug. "You've had your fun and it's over." She spun around and walked away. Dale took a step towards her before hesitating. It was his wife he needed to deal with first and foremost.

"Is she telling the truth?" he asked his throat constricting. Ros looked down and he reached a hand out tilting her face upwards forcing her to meet his eyes. It was only then that he realised his hand was shaking.

"No, she's got it all wrong," Ros said her voice faltering as she broke eye contact. "We might have flirted. I guess I am a flirt and John is too so I can see how Darlene might have got the wrong end of the stick and..."

He swallowed. "I don't believe you."

Rosalind's eyes widened and he could see the panic in them. "How can you not believe me? I didn't have an affair! I didn't, I swear I didn't."

He turned away from her, pushing the front door open and throwing the flowers to one side. "I'd rather the neighbours didn't hear all the sordid details."

She followed him inside. "I'm telling you the truth, you have to believe me."

He raised his hand. "Save it, I don't."

"Dale, please." She grabbed his arm, imploring him to look at her. "I didn't have an affair, not with John, not with anyone...I didn't-" She broke down sobbing and he regarded her coldly. He'd always thought she was a beautiful woman but never had she looked more ugly to him. 

He opened his eyes feeling slightly embarrassed to have spoken so openly to Charlotte. Yes, she was his friend but it was hardly professional of him. "Sorry, I shouldn't be going on like this."

"It makes a change to hear someone else's problems," she said and then she blushed. "Not that I'm happy you're having problems."

"I know what you meant." He paused, he shouldn't continue and yet there were few people he could talk to about this stuff. Certainly not his work colleagues and most definitely not his family. "Ros wants to try for a baby. I wanted to when we first got married but now, I'm not so sure."

Charlotte's eyes widened. "My gosh, I can see why you're conflicted."

"Yeah, I can't help feeling like she's trying to brush her affair under the carpet. I want to forgive her, I'm trying hard to but if we bring a baby into the world and it turns out our marriage was never what I thought it was. God what a disaster that would be." He glanced again at Ros's picture and turned it face down on the desk. "It's getting late, let me walk you out."

Charlotte stood up. "If you ever want to talk, you know where I am."

He nodded as he closed the office door behind him leading her out of the building. "I do, but I wouldn't want to put you in an awkward position."

She laughed lightly as they stepped onto the street. "Don't worry, I'm used to it. I mean with John and Darlene." She held a hand up to her mouth. "Sorry, that was tactless of me."

He smiled down at her. "No it wasn't, I'd glad you can be honest with me."

"Anytime," she said giving him a brief hug. He felt her freeze in his arms and he followed her gaze, watching as Louis Kinsella crossed the road coming towards him. "I don't believe it," she muttered, the smile leaving her face.

"Hi," Louis said approaching them cautiously. "Fancy seeing you guys here."

                                                          ~~~