Mark shakes his head. ‘I wonder when the next flight to Caracas leaves.’
Theo looks chastened. ‘Sorry, mate. You’re not like that any more. You turned your life upside down for me.’
According to Yan, he delayed his move by a few weeks. Is that really such a sacrifice?
‘He’s better off without her,’ says Tig, arriving with knives and forks.
Her?
‘Oh?’ I say, hoping someone will elaborate but not wanting to sound nosey.
For once, I’m glad Tig has no filter.
‘His girlfriend flew out without him, but not before throwing a hissy fit and giving him an ultimatum. Theo or her.’ She smilesindulgently at Theo. ‘He chose you, babe, which was completely the right choice.’
Mark asked his girlfriend to wait a few weeks, and she broke up with him? Seems extreme, but maybe theirs is a stormy on-off relationship, the kind that needs drama and fireworks to sustain itself.
Theo certainly doesn’t think it’s terminal.
‘I bet she regrets it. Once you get there, everything will be fine,’ he says. ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder.’
‘Brigitta was pretty angry when she left.’
‘Just don’t do anything hasty before you get there,’ says Theo.
‘That begins with F?’ says Mark, with a glance at me.
Tig calls for help and Theo gets up, but not before giving Mark a pointed look. Mark ignores him and keeps his eyes on me. Wary. Watchful. It’s not a particularly fun experience being their focus. It never was.
Did you think you could do better than my brother?
The echo from fifteen years ago rings in my ears.
‘You seem remarkably well, Nella,’ he says.
I don’t bother thanking him or returning the lukewarm compliment because I know there’s more coming.
‘Considering …’
Of course there is.
‘Considering my boyfriend slept with another woman? Considering I’ve had to move back in with my parents? Considering it’s humiliating for a couples’ counsellor to have to face her cheating partner at the office in front of her patients?’
He looks at me like I’ve told him I’m joining a convent for the rollicking social life. ‘Consideringyou found out about this wedding twenty-four hours ago.’
Oh. The end of his sentence is so unexpected it takes me a moment to absorb it.
‘Wait, are you saying you knew about it earlier? Have they been planning it a while?’
‘Of course they have. It takes at least a month to get the banns done. Never mind finding a church and venue. I assumed Tig had told you but then Theo said she hadn’t.’
‘I haven’t seen her much recently. What with work and studying.’ I don’t know why I’m justifying being busy to him. Tig’s the one who’s in the wrong here. But even as I think that I also know Tig, how she can’t keep anything to herself, how she’d be too excited about a wedding not to confide in her sister.
‘Does Tig definitely want this rush-job wedding? Or is Theo putting pressure on her because of his dad’s heart attack?’
He scowls. ‘No, of course not. I’ve never seen Theo assert himself in his life. And against your sister, he’s got no chance. Like he said, she’s a ball-breaker.’
I blink at his arrogance.
