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Nina stares fixedly at the floor.
‘We most certainly will.’ Mike again. ‘Anyone need a top-up?’
My best friend thrusts out her glass.
‘Dinner’s nearly ready,’ I say, anxiety rising. I wanted this all to go so well and now, before it’s even properly started, it feels like it’s going horribly wrong. ‘Mike, why don’t you lead everyone through to the dining room and get them seated while I fiddle about here?’ My voice is an octave higher than I’d like it to be.
‘Will do,’ he says.
Dominic stands aside and, without fuss, Mike leads the others out to the living room.
‘I’ll follow you in just a minute.’
Dominic hangs back. His handsome face is troubled. ‘I have done wrong,’ he says. ‘You meant for me to wear the clothes you put on the bed for me.’
‘No, no. It doesn’t matter.’
He shrugs apologetically. ‘I put those away in the cupboard,’ he explains. Dominic looks down at his dress. ‘These are my best clothes. My finery. The outfit I wore for my ilmoran, my warrior ceremony. I misunderstood you.’
I put my arms around him. ‘You look fabulous,’ I say. Instantly, I start to relax in Dominic’s embrace. ‘It was wrong of me. I wanted you to fit in with my friends, but I am most proud of you when you are being you. Just you.’
‘I think that I have frightened them.’
I laugh. ‘Perhaps you have,’ I admit. ‘Just a little bit.’
‘I will go to change immediately.’
‘No. Stay as you are,’ I insist. ‘This is you. This is why I love you. They’ll just have to get used to it. This is our home.’ How dare they make Dominic feel uncomfortable here, in his own domain. ‘Now, I must lift this lamb out, otherwise it will be like serving them a piece of charcoal. Can you be a darling and quickly make yourself some porridge while I do it?’
‘I will eat lamb,’ Dominic says.
I look up. ‘Sure?’
‘Yes.’
I abandon all thoughts of the burning lamb and give Dominic a cuddle again.
‘I love you,’ I say. ‘Aanyor pii. I love you with all of my heart. Don’t ever forget that. Just as you are.’ Then I grin at him. ‘However, you might want to take that off,’ I nod at his headdress, ‘otherwise you’ll never clear the beams.’
He pulls off his headdress and kisses me passionately, branding me with his ochre war paint.
‘Is it a bad thing to wish they’d all go home right now so that we can go straight to bed?’ I whisper breathlessly.
‘Yes,’ Dominic says as he kisses me again. ‘There will be time for that later, Just Janie. Much time. Now,’ he takes my hand, ‘we will go and be charming hosts to our friends.’
Chapter Sixty-Four
With Dominic’s help, I serve the lamb. Thankfully, it’s not too dried up. He keeps smiling at me reassuringly, but I can tell that conversation around the dinner table is stilted. If this was an episode of Come Dine With Me, I would get nil points and someone else would walk off with the thousand pound prize money.
Nina is getting more and more drunk. As is Gerry. In fact, it seems to be something of a competition for them to see who can slog back the most wine in the shortest space of time. My friend is slumping further and further towards the table and, surreptitiously, I try to move the bottle of wine out of her reach, but she snatches it back.
Steph is morose. Whatever the conversation was about on her mobile phone when she arrived, it clearly wasn’t good news. Has she finally fallen for one of the married men she’s so keen to count as ‘fuck buddies’ and he’s refusing to leave his wife? Pure speculation on my part, but not beyond the realms of possibility. I don’t know what I was thinking of when I decided she might be a suitable date for my Mike. She’s nowhere near good enough.
Thankfully, the boys are proving to be as chatty as always. Tyrone is currently admiring Dominic’s beads and Clinton looks like he might well have a crush on him, which could be the source of a row later this evening if things take their usual course.
But out of all of them, it is Mike who proves to be the stalwart – laughing in the right places, coming up with silly anecdotes to keep us from awkward silences. I have no idea what Dominic makes of all this. He’s trying his hardest, I can tell that, but I can also tell that it’s not easy for him. Sitting there in his tribal costume, picking at a plate of meat and drinking his milk, he does look like an alien creature. But I wish they would look at him properly, I wish they could see his heart. I want them to fall in love with him, to be entranced by him as I am. Instead, my work colleagues are all gossiping about clients and I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here! and The X Factor and Dominic clearly hasn’t got a clue what they’re talking about. Normally, I find their shallow chit-chat entertaining but right now, it’s irritating me and I don’t want them to be rude to my lover and I think they are being. Nina has just ignored him completely. She’s not spoken one word to him, not even in her shouty way. Mike tries to steer the conversation back to Dominic and asks about his life and what he thinks of England but, clearly, that’s not as interesting to them as Z-list television personalities and wannabe pop stars.
