Yan and I sit at the deli counter while Jamie’s helper, Tony, offers us a drink. I hadn’t planned on drinking tonight, but I gratefully accept a glass of pale rosé.
Three glasses and an hour later, things seem to have gone very well for my picky sister and her less picky fiancé.
‘Ithinkshe’s happy,’ says Yan drily, after the umpteenth time Tig exclaims, ‘That is proper lush.’
‘Just the cake left,’ announces Jamie, sending Tony to the kitchen to wheel out a three-tiered show-stopper glazed with pink icing and decorated with fresh fruit.
Jamie brings a slice for me and Yan, then pulls out a stool to sit with us.
‘I’m sorry we didn’t get to say hello at the Food Festival.’
‘Don’t worry about it,’ I reassure him. ‘You must have been rushed off your feet.’
‘I saw you from a distance with your boyfriend, but you didn’t see me.’
I half-smile, suddenly unable to swallow the perfectly baked sponge because my mouth feels as dry as sawdust.
Yan frowns. ‘I’m not sure who you saw Nella with, but it wasn’t her boyfriend.’ He turns to me: ‘Rich didn’t randomly turn up, did he?’
Is there a way I can spin this and tell him itwasRich?
Then Yan spots the obvious flaw in his assumption. ‘Although I’m not sure how you’d know what her boyfriend looks like.’
‘It was the same boyfriend I saw you with at Yan’s party that time.’
‘Jamie,’ says Yan gently. ‘Leo died years ago. It couldn’t have been him.’
‘You probably saw me talking to one of my cousins,’ I add.
‘I don’t think so, hon. Not the way the two of you were standing. I’m obviously wrong – it can’t be the same person. But whoever you were with was the spitting image of the raven-haired stud that made the Earth move for you that night.’
Yan looks at me sharply. ‘Raven-haired stud?’
Imightbe able to convince him it was too dark for Jamie to have properly seen the colour of Leo’s hair that night. The smoking gun, though, is the descriptor ‘stud’.
No one would have used that word for Leo. But it fits Mark like a glove.
It’s all a blur leaving Jamie’s place, not that Tig, Theo or Jamie notice my distracted state.
I try to walk fast, to get to the tube before Yan, but he easily catches me and pulls me aside.
He looks angry. ‘We need to talk.’ He nods to a pub in front of us. ‘We’re stopping for a drink.’
‘What about Theo and Tig?’
‘I’m going to tell them I spotted a mate in there.’
I nervously play with the stem of my wine glass while I wait for Yan’s interrogation to start.
‘First things first,’ he says, his voice tense. ‘Did he make you do anything you didn’t want to do? Because if he did, I’m going to strangle that fucker in his sleep with cheese wire.’
I recoil in shock. ‘Calm down, Sweeney Todd, it wasn’t like that.’
‘Are you sure? Because he listens to Spanish lessons in his AirPods while he’s trying to sleep. He won’t hear me coming.’
‘I promise you, he didn’t pressure me. Please put that out of your mind.’
His chest rises and falls. He’s obviously relieved to hear this.
