‘We are,’ says Todd. ‘I think you’ve been to our café? Querido, just a few streets over?’
‘Ahhhh,’ says Ash, penny dropping. ‘I knew you looked familiar! Yes! Oh, it’s beautiful there. Good job, congratulations. I was there just this morning, in fact, with my friend Mona.’ Ash takes in the family scene of the apartment, the two men and CJ, the little boy. ‘So, CJ, you live here with Todd and Miguel and your … husband?’
Todd laughs again, but CJ shoots him daggers.
‘He thinks that’s so funny because I’m not thehas-a-husband kind.’ For Todd’s benefit she says in a loud, sarcastic voice, ‘And that isn’t a character flaw!’
Todd rolls his eyes playfully and then Miguel is in the kitchen with him and they argue about the merits of adding more basil to whatever deliciousness is simmering on the stove. It smells amazing.
With Jorge happily playing on his racing car mat, Ash finally gets a beat to turn to CJ and ask, ‘CJ. What am I doing here?’
CJ nods. ‘You’re having dinner,’ she says. ‘I am welcoming you into my home for good food, and good wine, and good company. And hopefully, at some point in the next few hours, I will come to understand who you are and what you value in this life.’
‘Right,’ says Ash, suspiciously. ‘If that was supposed to make things less confusing for me, you just failed. You have a lovely home, and the food smells amazing, but …’ Ash can’t finish her thought. What she wants to say is,but you hate me??For some reason, she can’t. The words stick in her throat.
‘OK,’ says CJ, leaning in to her. ‘Real talk? I just want to know why you keep crying.’
Ash goes wide-eyed. ‘Excuse me?’
‘I don’t know how else to say it. You keep crying, and I find it …’
Ash raises an eyebrow. What the hell? She has been brought here to be insulted, is that it?
CJ continues, ‘OK, I see the eyebrow.’ She holds up her palms in surrender. ‘Look. I just wanted to bring you somewhere that’s not CoLab, or CoLab-adjacent, and ask outright:what’s the big deal with Luis? Why are you so into him? And why are you even in Lisbon at all? What’s yourdeal?’
‘My deal,’ Ash says, ‘is that I’m here to …’ She searches for the best way to sum it up. She fails. ‘I don’t know,’ she says, impatient with herself. ‘Relax, or whatever.’
CJ narrows her eyes, nods. ‘Life at home not great?’
Ash cannot believe this woman, coming in hot on the questions like Ash is a suspect and CJ wants to nail her for the crime.
‘I feel like I’m on trial here,’ Ash says. ‘I still don’t get why you’re holding me hostage and asking about my life. Why you even care.’
‘You’re not a hostage,’ says CJ, coolly. ‘You can go, if you like. You’re here because it hit me that maybe you need somebody to talk to. You’re this fancy, posh woman on a three-month holiday, yet you don’t seem very happy. I can’t lie – I’m very curious, Ash.’
Ash has a sudden flashback to being in bed with Luis. Wasn’t that the word he’d used? He said CJ is curious about her, or … no, he said CJ thinks Ash is hot. Isn’t that how they’d ended up in their little CJ-and-Ash fantasy? Ash has to blink the idea away, shaking her head to rid herself of any thoughts that might be incriminating.
‘OK, well, likewise,’ Ash says. She’s defiant, chin jutting out. She’s not going to roll over simply because CJ has issued a command. ‘I’m curious about you as well. So, you go first.’
‘What do you want to know?’
Ash doesn’t miss a beat. ‘I saw you kissing a man, last week. You were in tennis whites. It was the night I was drunk.’
‘Just a guy I see sometimes.’
‘And sometimes youseeLuis, too?’
‘Yeah, sometimes.’
‘But you don’t want to be with any of them properly?’
CJ pulls a face. ‘Defineproperly.’
Ash rolls her eyes. ‘You know what I mean. Traditionally. Like, were you ever in a one-on-one relationship with Jorge’s dad?’
‘I don’t have a dad!’ Jorge says from the floor. Ash hadn’t even noticed he’d been listening in – although, on reflection, she knows from her legions of nieces and nephews that kids arealwayslistening. She should have spoken more discreetly.
‘But you do have …’ CJ prompts him, apparently not at all flustered by the inclusion of Jorge in the conversation.
