‘I’m here tonight.’ Cleo smiled. ‘It’s actually good to be out.’
‘See, I know you so well. You bitch and moan about going out—’
‘I do not!’
‘Yes you do and don’t deny it. But when you’re out, you have a good time. Am I right?’
‘You are,’ Cleo admitted. She lowered her voice and whispered conspiratorially as they left the kitchen to join the throng in the living room. ‘And at least tonight I’m not seated next to someone you’re hoping I marry and who’ll be the father of my children.’
Violet nudged her friend in the ribs before greeting a jolly-looking man called Rupert with a generous girth around his middle and rosy cheeks. She hugged him, and then he was already on to another guest as Cleo walked the other side of Violet to avoid any impromptu hugs that came her way.
‘Who was that?’ Cleo whispered.
‘Rupert Crawley, Robert’s boss.’
Cleo looked over her shoulder in time to see the man hugging another unsuspecting guest who’d just arrived. ‘Is he…?’ She tilted her head to get a better look.
‘Yes, he’s pressing up against her.’
‘Ew.’
‘Just avoid him at all costs,’ Violet advised, ‘and if you notice, when he hugged me, I turned my body to the side. He’s harmless though. And the best thing is that he’ll do all this hugging and get sozzled and then he’ll have his wife drive him home in about an hour. He never stays till the end of anything.’
‘That’s good to know. We’re safe.’ God help her if Violet ever tried to set her up with someone like him. She wasn’t that desperate yet, was she?
Violet introduced Cleo to more guests, colleagues of Robert’s, neighbours, and a couple of women Violet had met in the charity store where she volunteered now.
Cleo found herself laughing away with Robert the second Rupert left the party.
‘He even gets a bit too close when he hugs me!’ Robert told her.
‘No way! That’s revolting.’ But the wine she’d had made it rather funny.
‘It is when you’re a man,’ he agreed. ‘But what do I do?’ Robert cradled a bottle of beer between his fingers. ‘He’s in charge.’
‘Yeah, well just make sure you have a watertight contract where you work so he won’t be giving you any extra bonuses… if you know what I mean.’
‘We all know what you mean, Cleo.’
‘Promise me you’ll never try to set me up with a man like that.’
Robert laughed. ‘I promise.’ He took her empty glass. ‘Refill?’
‘Oh yes.’ She moved to follow him, but he stopped suddenly and put the glass and his bottle down on a side table as another face pushed through the crowd.
‘Dylan.’ Robert looked strangely sombre as he shook this man’s hand and nodded. He placed his other hand on top of both of theirs. ‘It’s good to see you.’ Okay, not the usual party-type greeting from either Robert or Violet who were the hosts everyone admired, so what was different about this guy? And why wasn’t Robert doing what he and his wife did so famously and trying to set her up? Perhaps this one was married. He looked like he’d arrived alone, which was usually a red flag to say single, but maybe his wife was at home.
‘Dylan, this is Cleo.’
Ah, here we go. ‘Nice to meet you, Dylan.’ She extended a hand, which he shook, but rather than what she’d expected, which was Robert to excuse himself to get the drinks, leaving her alone with the guy, Robert asked him if he wanted a drink and ushered him out to the kitchen.
Cleo followed them and poured her own wine as the men stood in the far corner of the kitchen talking quietly away from anyone else, but she didn’t miss Violet come in, and in the same sombre fashion, hug this person tightly without any of the usual merriment.
Cleo took a glass of red wine this time and re-joined the party, talking with Sasha and Mimi who had tale after tale of Violet’s misdemeanours in her school days. It was hugely entertaining because Cleo got to see a wild side of the friend she’d only known for a few years, a side she knew was lurking somewhere beneath the polished surface.
‘Take no notice of anything they say.’ Violet sashayed past, chatting to another man in a suit and his heavily pregnant wife.
‘It’s all true!’ Sasha called after her.
