Incandescent with rage Katherine stormed out of the house and called a cab to take her to Durty Nelly's. The dive bar was the last place she'd normally frequent but she welcomed the change of scenery. She ordered a brandy, something she rarely never drank, and then called Donnie.

'I need Shannon's phone number now,' she insisted when he picked up.

'Are you okay Katie, you're not going to do something stupid?'

For once she didn't wince when he called her Katie. 'No Donnie, I'm going to do what I should have done a long time ago.' She was getting no straight answers from Joe, so she might as well speak to Shannon herself.

'Look this isn't Shannon's fault. Whatever you think is going on, it's down to Joe.'

'I don't know what's going on, that's why I want to speak to Shannon myself.' She had to raise her voice to be heard over the background noise. 'Please text me her number.'

There was a long pause and then Donnie spoke. 'Okay, I will.'

'Thanks, Donnie,' she said ending the call and almost instantly her phone buzzed with a text alert. She opened the message and then saved the number to her phone, her nerve momentarily deserting her. Donnie was right, whatever was going on was down to Joe, and yet she couldn't help blaming the over made up trolley dolly. She took a sip of her drink and hit the call button next to Shannon's number. She might not even answer anyway.

After three rings Shannon picked up. 'Hello?'

Katherine could hear the hesitation in her voice, she probably thought it was a sales call. She cleared her throat. 'This is Kat, Joe's fiancee.'

'Oh!'

Katherine paused wishing she'd rehearsed what she was going to say. 'What's going on with you and Joe?' she asked, her palms clammy.

'This is a conversation you should be having with him,' Shannon said.

Katherine scoffed. 'I have.'

'So what's he said?'

'That you're friends, that he's your confidant.'

'I have confided in him,' Shannon told her.

'That must be nice for you, knowing your ex-boyfriend hides your secrets from his fiancee,' Katherine said trying not to sneer.

'I never asked him to do that, I assumed he would tell you actually.'

'Well yes, cos that's normally how it works in a relationship,' Katherine snapped. 'But you're secrets are extra special aren't they.'

There was a long silence at the end of the line and Katherine was about to end the call when Shannon spoke up. 'I was pregnant, my boyfriend didn't want to have a baby so I allowed myself to be coerced into having an abortion.' Katherine inhaled sharply. 'There, you know, so can you leave me alone now.'

Katherine was startled, she couldn't think why Joe wouldn't tell her that. 'I'm sorry that happened but I still think you've crossed a line with Joe. He can't be your friend or confidant or whatever you want to call it.' She knew she'd never get her relationship back on track with Shannon in the background.

'Fine I won't see him,' Shannon said.

'And I'll be telling Joe he can't see you,' Katherine replied cringing at how controlling she sounded.

'Yes do that, I'd appreciate it,' Shannon said before terminating the call.

Katherine sat back feeling distinctly let down. So much for the big confrontation, she'd psyched herself up for.

~~~

Shannon quickly called Joe, guessing that Katherine hadn't been with him when she'd called judging by the amount of noise in the background.

'Hi babe,' he said sounding pleased to hear from her.

'Joey, Kat's just called me! She wanted to know what's going on with us.'

'Right, I see. Did you tell her?' She couldn't believe how calm he sounded, she was trembling herself.

'No of course not, I said we'd met as friends and she told me we couldn't see each other anymore.'

'That's all?' She thought he sounded disappointed.

'Well she wanted to know what we'd been talking about, but she didn't accuse me of having an affair with you so don't worry about that.'

'I'm not Shan, I wish she would figure it out. You could have told her.'

Anger flared up inside her. 'I could have told her! Excuse me but you're the one who's going to marry her.' She began to pace up and down, trying to keep a grip on herself.

'Shannon I'm trying to end things with Kat but she won't let me,' Joe said sounding frustrated. 'She keeps going off on these tangents.'

'That's because she doesn't want to face reality,' Shannon said feeling more sympathy for Katherine than she'd expressed to her. She sensed the woman was desperately trying to keep her relationship together.

'I will tell her,' Joe insisted.

'Okay, but in the meantime, I can't see you.'

'Shannon don't say that, I'm breaking up with Kat for you.' His tone turned pleading and she vowed to stay resolute.

'If you break up with Kat do it because it's the right thing for you. I can't make any promises, don't factor me into your decision making.'

'How can I not? If you hadn't come back into my life I'd probably have stayed happy with Katherine.'

His words hurt her. 'Well, you can still be happy with her. You need to have a proper think about what you want.' She moved the phone away from her ear, shutting out his protests.

'I'm gonna go now Joey, don't contact me until you've sorted this out.' She disconnected the call before he had a chance to try and change her mind.

~~~~

Katherine felt no better after her confrontation with Shannon, if anything she had ducked the pertinent question of whether she was having an affair with Joe? That was what she feared, clearly he'd crossed the line into an emotional affair but how far had it gone?

'Hey, Katie what's up?' She looked up startled at the sound of Donnie's voice.

'Oh hi,' she said hesitantly, she felt embarrassed about calling him and wished she hadn't told him where she was hanging out.

'I wanted to check you were okay, can I sit down?'

She nodded thinking it was strange that he'd even ask. She wondered why he was concerned for her well being but it was small fry in the grand scheme of things.

'So did you find out what you wanted?' he asked softly.

'Yes and no, I found out what Shannon's been confiding in Joe about,' she said with a weary smile. 'But no, I don't have any real answers, and I probably don't want them either.'

'I'm sorry Katie, you're not making much sense to me. Let me get you another drink.' She was about to say no, she needed to go home and talk things through with Joe. Then she thought no, why rush, he didn't deserve anything better. She watched Donnie at the bar ordering their drinks and if she hadn't felt so bad she'd have thought it was funny that she was exchanging confidences with Joe's best friend, a friend she could barely tolerate until recently.

'So what did you find out?' Donnie asked passing Katherine her drink.

'Well, Shannon's been confiding in Joe.' She took a sip of her drink. 'But it's more than that. I don't think their friendship's appropriate, and I told Shannon that. I told her she couldn't see Joe again.'

'Right,' he said and she flushed.

'I guess that makes me really controlling?' She'd thought her threat, or warning, whatever it was, sounded pathetic.

'Under normal circumstances, I'd agree that is controlling,' Donnie said slowly as if carefully choosing his words. 'But for you to feel that way, well I guess it's with good reason. I mean you've never said anything like this before about Joe's friends?'

'No of course not.' She was grateful he wasn't dismissing her concerns. 'If anything I've bent over backwards to be understanding about Shannon because I did think I was jealous cos she was his ex. I've made more allowances than I would if she was just some random woman.'

'So what are you going to do?'

She shrugged her shoulders helplessly. 'I don't know. There's more going on than Shannon admitted, I'd swear to it.' She took a large sip of her drink, getting up the nerve to continue. 'Donnie, Joe's having an affair, I'm almost certain of it.'

Donnie exhaled deeply. 'Do you have any proof?'

She sighed, she knew he'd be on Joe's side. 'No I don't but he's different, inside I know.' She waited for Donnie to tell her she was being unfair or unreasonable but he didn't.

'If that's how you feel.....you can't deny your feelings,' he said looking into his glass.

'You know something?' She watched him closely and he picked up his drink taking his time to answer. 'Please be straight with me, I'm going crazy here.'

'I think they're more than friends,' he admitted and she let out the breath she'd been holding. 'I dunno if it's a last fling or something, or maybe I've got it all wrong cos I kinda liked Shannon myself.'

'We both know you haven't got it wrong.' Their eyes met and she could see how conflicted he was.

'I'm sorry Katie, you don't deserve this.'

She nodded swallowing hard. 'You haven't done anything wrong, you've probably been a better friend to me than I had any right to expect.' She'd always been down on him and here he was putting his friendship with Joe on the line for her when the easy thing to do would be to lie.

He placed his hand over hers. 'What will you do now?'

'Speak to Joe again, try to get to the bottom of what's going on.' She held onto the hope that the affair was just last minute wedding nerves on Joe's part.

'Don't let him fob you off,' Donnie said squeezing her hand gently. 'I know it's hard but it's better to face this now before the inks drying on the wedding certificate.'

Katherine nodded and took another sip of her drink. She knew it wouldn't be a good idea to get drunk, but to hell with good ideas, she wanted to get wasted.

~~~~