As I join in the surge (I’m weak-minded enough, and also pissed off enough at Carole’s speech, that a real cocktail suddenly very much appeals), I catch sight of Nadia, her bare shoulders looking extremely stiff, a man I was talking to earlier speaking in her ear.
Nadia moves a little and I see her profile. She looks as though she has her lips clamped together, and I get the strong impression that whatever the man is saying to her is not going down well.
I think he told me he’s a colleague of Carole’s (i.e. he works in her company). He’s definitely on the pull; he told me earlier that he’d love the irony of meeting someone at a divorce celebration party.
I can imagine that Carole’s well-intentioned words about Nadia might have given someone who was already inclined to be looking for a snog – or a lot more – the impression that Nadia would be fair game.
The man places his hand – like a paw – against Nadia’s lower back. She steps away and his paw follows her.
I can’t in good conscience not go to her rescue.
A few seconds later, I’m by her side, saying, ‘Nadia, hi, I lost you over there.’
She looks up at me and rolls her eyes in the man’s direction.
I nod at him. ‘Excuse me.’ I put my arm round Nadia’s shoulders and draw her away, towards the edge of the room.
‘Thank you,’ she says. ‘What an arse.’
‘I think his name’s Richard.’
‘And Dick would be a very appropriate nickname.’ She rolls her eyes again. ‘Honestly. Iwouldjust like to say that under normal circumstances I could and absolutely would have got rid of him by myself. I do notneedto be rescued by anyone. It’s just that it’s particularly awkward this evening; I didn’t want to make any kind of scene and ruin Carole’s party.’
‘I know that,’ I say. ‘And it wasn’t because I’m a man that I was able to rescue you. Could equally have been a girlfriend.’
‘Thank you. And that is very true.’
‘And also usually no-one would have announced that you were recently blind dating.’
‘Also true.’
I smile at her. ‘Come and try the real cocktails?’
There’s still a big crush at the bar, so we’re stuck there together for the next fifteen or twenty minutes with nothing to do except chat. And that’s a good thing, because we do chat, and soon we’re laughing, the way we did before I lost my mind on the South Bank, and it’s nice. And also handy, because it would be nice to enjoy each other’s company, because I feel as though it would be a little mean not to stick around Nadia for the duration of the evening, after Carole’s inadvertent signalling that she’s single and up for meeting someone.
I mean, shemightbe up for meeting someone, actually, because obviously she might have binned her dating detox, but at least with me around she won’t be harassed.
‘Want to go and begin to explore the other rooms?’ I suggest.
‘I think it would be rude not to.’
* * *
The first room we enter has been set up as a casino. As we go in, a black-clad man hands us each a velvet bag containing a pile of chips and then leans in, as though confiding a secret that he won’t tell absolutely everyone who walks through the door, that, while there will be no gambling for money, therewillbe prizes for the people who end up in first, second and third place when their chips are counted at the end of the evening.
‘Really.’ Nadia has a very competitive gleam in her eye. ‘Let’s get gambling. What do we have?’
We begin with roulette.
‘How does it work?’ Nadia asks the very professional-looking croupier.
Surprisingly, it turns out that most of the people round the table haven’t played before. Once we’re all up and running with the rules, we all begin to place our bets. I go red to start off with. I like a fifty per cent chance of winning. Nadia goes number seventeen. I place three of my chips. Nadia places one.
It lands on seventeen. Which is black. And Nadia gains alotof chips due to the unlikeliness of anyone choosing the right single number.
‘Well, that was cool,’ she says.
Then she places one chip on number thirty-one. I put another three on red.
