Beers, Tears and Fears - Part II

So we piled into one of the other girls' room to continue the party - their bathtub was full of bottles of beer! There were a few complaints about our noise levels, both from security and some bloke down the corridor who had a plane to catch in the morning- oops!

Some of the guys started engaging in WWF-style wrestling - throwing each other around with full body slams! Men + alcohol nearly always ends up with some physical 'male bonding'! Am surprised the bed remained intact but there was beer and wine spilt everywhere - the carpet was sticky... At one point, one guy had hold of another guy's foot and he in turn had one of the girls in a headlock! Someone also tried to haul me upside down - I hope no one remembers the view of my arse!

JH, usually blessed with extremely high alcohol tolerance, was more drunk than I'd ever seen her - she'd been knocking them back at the party and well, she's one of those gals who get more affectionate the more they drink... Well, she disappeared into another room with S, after being pretty close with him at the party - I'd given her a friendly warning about S, which she'd poo-pooed - we've all known S for years, a big flirt but generally harmless, blah blah. Various people tried to get them to join in the party, but they didn't...

So everyone started to speculate about what they were up to and I was the only one who thought that two married people wouldn't be so obvious - would they? Maybe, I just didn't want to think of my mate cheating on her husband of 3 months? But I wasn't happy with what was being said about her - funny how guys can get so derogatory about women so quickly.

Eventually, the two of them turned up at the party, JH was all over S, it was embarrassing (seeing her so drunk sobered me up...) and everyone just gave each other knowing looks...

Just before 5am, the party ended. I was saying my goodnights when I realised that JH had disappeared... she was in S' room (his room-mate was already asleep) - me and another girl made the decision then to 'rescue' her. S wouldn't let us in until we started banging on the door. When he eventually opened the door, he was naked, just in a towel...I asked him where JH was and he said she was in the bathroom doing a number two... then he said she was in there cos she felt sick and dizzy...

JH was in the bathroom, the door was ajar, I could see some of her clothes on the floor - I didn't go in but just told her that I was going to bed and that she needed to get our room key off me. She said she was ok but didn't come out. There was nothing for me to do but to leave the key with S.

I crashed out as soon as my head hit the pillow but woke up when JH stumbled into the room - no idea what time it was.

After what seemed like only minutes, with both JH and CK stumbling around going to the loo, I couldn't sleep anymore yet it felt like I hadn't slept at all, was mega-dehydrated, had bruises on my leg and a lump on my head (how??)

JH was a right state - she was still drunk for definite, knew she'd been the office idiot, kept asking us 'What did I do last night cos I can't remember?' I know she's done this trick before of 'not remembering' - her questions are really to see what other people remember her saying...or doing. What she did reveal was that S was telling her that his wife didn't understand him...oh dear, that classic line that any woman should run a mile from...

Anyway, the news was that S had left early to avoid any sort of grilling and strangely, the toilet seat had been broken in his bathroom... I sent him a text to let him know that we knew how he'd broken it...

We went over to the service station for a greasy fry up breakfast and whilst I was eating, I checked my phone and saw that I had a couple of missed calls from an unrecognised number. I called it and a woman answered.

It was S' wife - she had intercepted my text to him about the toilet seat and that it had confirmed to her what she suspected of him...oh crap!

JH asked me what was up - I couldn't tell her and set off home. After driving for a mile or so, I pulled over and text S's wife, telling her that she had misconstrued my text which had been sent in jest (really, I had to lie...) and asked her to call me.

She did immediately and was screaming and crying down the phone, saying her marriage was over, that he would lose his family because he couldn't be trusted, that he'd stepped over the line. I tried to tell her that she was jumping to conclusions, but she screamed that as his friend, she knew I was going to try to cover for him but that he'd told her that he was in the room alone with JH....oops...

Now, I was unhappy to hear her crying but what really upset me was the sound of their two children in the background sobbing and telling her not to walk out on their dad... :-(

I text JH to tell her I needed to talk to her and she called me when I got home (her husband was out...). She apologised to me, said she was unhappy that I was upset, that she felt that she'd let me down but strangely, she didn't seem too concerned - I think she was still drunk...

Anyway, I later had a long chat with the glamorous C who did her best to cheer me up. Had a bit of a sleep but generally, the day was a write off.

Back in work today, JH gave me a hug, said I was a great mate. She knows I will be discreet. Numerous people asked me for gossip but I kept my lips buttoned. S didn't surface from his desk so I didn't have to make polite conversation with him.

The expected fireworks didn't happen - I believe JH when she tells me that nothing happened (although what is the definition of 'nothing'?) so she didn't really have anything to worry about, but even so, she knows that I know how close something could have happened between them....

You know what? Maybe I'm just over-reacting here but I wanted to ask her if she would have been happy if her husband was in a hotel room alone with a woman he worked with, both drunk out of their heads?

But I didn't, she's my friend, she has a weakness, I don't want to judge her, she knows she's been an idiot and that things aren't over just yet...

For those still reading, sorry this is so long - just writing off the top of my head - will try to edit at some point!