"So tell me about this man that you've fallen so hopelessly in love with, James wasn't it?" Paula asked, starting off easy. Jean just looked at her sister, for a minute the whole situation wasn't so messy, for a minute she was almost back to being a teenager telling her sister about her latest crush.
"He's perfect Paul, and yeah it's James. He's a sergeant in my team and he's amazing at his job. He is amazing to look at but oh my God, it's what's on the inside that's even better. I have never known a man so caring and so in tune with what I want. He's protective but in a good way, if I was 15 years younger and not already married then it'd have been him who I spent my life with. I have never felt like this before, even when I first got with Richard." Jean sighed as she slipped back into a world where all that mattered was James.
"So how did you get from just working together to a relationship?" Paul asked and immediately saw a smile spread across her sister's face.
"Well it was four months ago, we'd gone to a recital at one of the colleges with Robbie and Laura. Laura hadn't felt well so her and Robbie left early. I was upset that night, I can't remember why now, but I told James that I was walking home, I wanted some time to think. He turned to me and told me that he wasn't letting me walk home on my own in the pitch black and that he'd walk me home. We walked in silence for a bit until we reached the park, I stopped for some reason and just stared at the river, he came up next to me and noticed me crying. We both sat down on the river bank in the freezing cold, it sounds like some teenage thing to do but he noticed I was cold and wrapped his coat around my shoulders. We just sat for a while before I told him what was wrong, he put his arm around me and I automatically curled up into his side. I don't think he meant to but he told me he loved me and without thinking I kissed him. Needless to say, I never ended up home that night. We both realised that we were in love and that's been it ever since."
"I'm so pleased for you Jean, and I know what you said earlier but if that's how you feel then why are you here and not with him?"
"Because I'm married Paul."
"You were 4 months ago too J, so what is it really? Don't tell me all about commitment and all that because if I was you I'd have divorced the idiot and be with James in a shot."
"It's not that easy."
"My point is that it could be though."
"I shouldn't have bothered you, I'm should get to bed." Jean said as she ran out of the main house and back to the garage. Her phone lay on her bed and was no longer flashing, she walked over and picked it up, she had a lot of missed calls, the majority of which were from James but with a few from Carol, Laura, Robbie and one from her son dotted through her call log list. Her text messages were filled by the same people, with texts also telling her that she had voicemails to listen to, all of the texts lay unopened as she lay her phone back down and crawled into bed.
Paula's questions had reminded her just why she was doing this just now, it was a tricky situation and one that she wasn't on planning on sharing the extent of with her sister.