Last Chance Saloon - Marian Keyes [58]
The only problem was that he was good at his job and people liked him a lot. That gave her an unpleasant fluttery feeling of fear.
But by the time she’d got home that evening, her bad humour had been overwhelmed by a warm glow, which she wasn’t even aware of. Until Tara noticed and pointed it out to her. Then she wasn’t one bit pleased.
21
As Tara pushed open the front door, trying to hide her shopping, Thomas was in the hall, Beryl lacing herself possessively through his legs. ‘How was your step class?’ he demanded.
It took her a moment to realize what he was on about.
‘My step class? Oh, tough,’ she managed to lie. ‘Hard.’
‘Good.’ Thomas smacked his lips in satisfaction.
Perhaps it was her hunger, perhaps it was unexpressed anger over what Thomas had said to her on Saturday night, but it must have been something because Tara rounded on Thomas in a sudden, inexplicable fury. ‘Good? Good? Are you going to give me a gold star? Or grade me? What do I get? Eight out of ten? B minus? C plus? For God’s sake!’
Thomas’s eyes bulged with shock and he opened and closed his mouth without saying anything.
‘You look like a goldfish,’ she snapped. ‘I’m going to make a phone call.’
She slammed into the bedroom, flung her purchases on the floor, lit a cigarette with one hand and tapped out Fintan’s number with the other. ‘So what did the doctor say?’
‘I didn’t go,’ Fintan soothed. ‘Just after I spoke to you today, you’ll never guess what happened.’
‘What happened?’
‘The lump disappeared.’ Fintan laughed. ‘Like letting air out of a balloon. One minute it was a kiwi fruit, the next a grape and the next a raisin!’
‘I was slightly worried, you know.’ She felt like an eejit. ‘Maybe you should have gone to the doctor anyway. At least to find out what caused it.’
‘No need,’ he countered. ‘Crisis averted. It was just a blip on the screen, and now we can all forget about it.’
‘Was it really the size of a kiwi fruit?’
‘Close enough.’
‘People don’t get big lumps on their neck just for the fun of it,’ she insisted, sucking hard on her cigarette. ‘Something is wrong and you should find out. What if it happens again?’
‘It won’t.’
‘It might.’
‘It won’t.’
‘What does Sandro think?’
‘Sandro doesn’t think, or at least he does so as little as possible, as well you know.’
‘Fintan, please be serious.’
‘Oh, no.’
There was a long pause. Eventually Tara was compelled to voice her worry. ‘Fintan, I have to ask you something. It’s none of my business, but I’m going to ask anyway. Have you had an HIV test recently?’
‘Tara, you’re overreacting.’
‘Look me in the eye,’ she interrupted forcefully, ‘and tell me that you’ve had an HIV test recently.’
‘I can’t do that.’
‘So, you mean you haven’t had a test?’ Anxiety made Tara’s voice thin and high.
‘I mean we’re on the phone.’
‘You know what I’m getting at.’
‘Have you had an HIV test?’ Fintan surprised her by asking.
‘No, but…’
‘But what?’
She paused delicately. How could she say this?
Fintan interrupted, ‘Do you always use a condom with Thomas?’
In different circumstances Tara might have laughed as she remembered the song-and-dance Thomas had made on their first night when Tara had tried to get him to wear a condom. ‘Like eating sweets with the wrapper on,’ he’d whinged. ‘Like going paddling in your shoes and socks.’ She’d never suggested it again. Luckily she’d still been on the pill from the Alasdair days.
‘Well, no, we don’t always, but…’
‘And has Thomas had an HIV test?’
As if, Tara thought. He’d be the last man on earth to have one. ‘No, but…’
‘Then please shut your clob,’ Fintan said, pleasantly but very firmly putting her in her place. ‘Thank you for your concern, but it was probably just a mild dose of myxomatosis. Or maybe diabetes. How are your diseases at the moment?’
But Tara, red with censure and shame, didn’t want to play.
‘Any sign of the rabies recurring?’ he asked.
She said nothing, damning her misplaced, knee-jerk concern. There was probably more chance of her being HIV positive than Fintan.