‘So, tell all,’ Freddie said, when the waitress had taken their order. He propped his arms on the table and fixed Kate with an expectant stare.
‘There’s nothing to tell,’ she said. ‘Sounds like you two are the ones with the tale to spill. I had an uneventful night.’
‘Oh come on! Last I saw you, you were about to cop off with Will but Brian turned up – and then you copped off with him anyway,’ Freddie said.
‘I wasn’t copping off with Will,’ Kate protested, glancing warily at Ken.
‘You don’t have to be discreet,’ Freddie said. ‘Ken knows everything. I’ve filled him in – so to speak.’ He wiggled his eyebrows like Groucho Marx.
‘He knows everything about what?’
‘About you and Will.’
Oh great!Kate thought.
‘Don’t look so worried! You can trust Ken,’ Freddie assured her. ‘He’s a solicitor.’
Ken hooted at this. ‘It’s the first time I’ve heard that one!’
‘Will was just giving me a lift home,’ Kate insisted.
‘I was so afraid you were going to say that.’ Freddie sounded disappointed.
‘Well, it’s true.’
‘Never mind,’ Freddie perked up, ‘here are the drinks. It’ll all come out over a few cocktails.’
‘Honestly, Freddie, there’s nothing to come out,’ Kate sucked her Cosmopolitan through a straw, relaxing as the zingy-fresh sharpness of the vodka surged through her veins, at once soothing and invigorating. ‘Will really just gave me a lift home. I was too comatose to do anything. Besides,’ she added sadly, ‘I fell asleep while we were dancing and I drooled on his shoulder – not exactly sexy, is it?’
‘I guess not,’ Freddie conceded.
They were interrupted by the waitress arriving with their food. Kate ploughed into smoked haddock and poached egg on a bed of creamy mashed potato. ‘God, this is divine.’
‘Better leave some room,’ Freddie advised. ‘Aren’t you going out to eat with Brian tonight?’
‘Oh, it’ll be one of his bran-mash places,’ she said. ‘You know, cheap and cheerless, not a Cosmopolitan in sight.’
‘Well, last night proved one thing,’ Freddie said, bolstered by the food. ‘You’re still hung up on Will.’
‘I am not!’ Kate objected, somewhat half-heartedly.
‘Oh come on! You’ve just admitted you couldn’t even have a dance with the bloke without drooling all over him.’
‘It wasn’t that kind of drooling. I’m over him,’ she asserted, unconvincingly.
‘Liar!’ Freddie scoffed. ‘She’s not over him, you know,’ he said conversationally to Ken.
‘Okay.’ Kate felt defeated. ‘Maybe I’m not. Maybe I never will be, but so what?’
‘So what!’ Freddie was aghast.
‘Yes. Okay, if Will asked me to marry him tomorrow and have his ten kids, I’d say yes.’
‘I knew it!’ Freddie crowed.
‘But the same is true of Bradley Cooper, and, guess what –it’s not going to happen!’
‘Well, not with Bradley,’ Freddie agreed. ‘He seems to be untameable,’ he added wistfully.
