Short story: The Ruse

‘Trust is everything — when that goes, you’ve got nothing’

Gideon and Sveta’s relationship is rocking like never before.

The birth of their daughter, Isla, was meant to bring them closer together. Yet still they fight and still they battle and following their latest ruckus they reach a new nadir.

Gideon struggles to see a way back and predicting what comes next scares him — a final showdown looms.

His world is then rocked to the core as Sveta takes drastic action to determine the couple’s future.

Extract from The Ruse:

‘It has become a regular occurrence. But although this modern apartment has witnessed heated exchanges before, none were filled with such vitriol as this. The couple have been fanning the embers of their stalling relationship for months, in the lulls between evenings filled with hostility. But never before has it peaked the way it has tonight: both red-faced like ripened tomatoes, with raised voices that engulf their open plan apartment. It is surprising that nothing had been thrown yet. Sweat shines off their skin and glistens under the stylish spotlights as each vocal assault increases body temperatures. They are exhausted from this latest battle, losing the will to fight. The same sense of surrender they feel for the ongoing soap opera that is their relationship.

As Gid moves out to the narrow balcony, straggles of his thinning hair flicker in the light breeze, and his lightly checked short-sleeved shirt clings to his torso in the seasonal humidity. He’s forgotten what that argument was even about.

It doesn’t matter. This is just another one to be spliced on to the end of their bickering showreel. What is important is that these type of ructions are now so engrained into their existence. And it is another indication for him, that his long-time girlfriend is becoming, as dramatic is it may sound, increasingly unhinged.

Predicting what comes next scares him.’