Minding Frankie - Maeve Binchy [116]
She wondered what she would hear now.
“I’m worried that the twins are putting off their trip to America because of my having to have those treatments.” He said it defiantly, as if waiting, hoping, for her to deny it.
If that was what he wanted, then that was what he got. Lizzie’s face split in two with a great laugh.
“Well, if that’s all that’s bothering you, Muttie Scarlet, aren’t you a lucky man? Have you eyes in your head at all? They didn’t want to go because Maud is crazy about Mario. The last thing she wants to do is to go away and let some Dublin dolly get her claws into Mario. It has nothing to do with you whatsoever!”
He was vastly relieved. “I suppose I was making myself the big man,” he said.
· · ·
Noel Lynch and Lisa Kelly were shopping for fruit and vegetables in a market where Emily had pointed them. Moira had complained that they did very little home cooking and Frankie’s diet might be lacking in all kinds of nutrients.
“She always moves the bloody goalposts,” Lisa said in fury.
“Why are home purees better than the ones we buy?” Noel said crossly. “What are all these additives she talks about? And why do the makers put them in?”
“I bet they don’t. It’s just Moira making life more difficult. Right, show me the list Emily made. Apples, bananas. No honey—that can poison her. Vegetables, but no broccoli. We have stock, and it’s low-salt and organic—I checked.”
“Have we?” Noel was surprised. “What does it look like?”
“Like a sort of toffee wrapped up. We have it, Noel. Come on, let’s pay for this lot and we’ll go home and puree it and while it’s cooking we’ll go over the notes for that lecture we both missed. Thank God for Faith!”
“Yes, indeed.”
Lisa looked at him sharply. It was obvious to everyone except Noel that Faith fancied him. Lisa didn’t feel at all drawn to Noel except as a housemate and friend, but she didn’t want the situation complicated.
In some strange, odd way Anton felt slightly more on his toes because Lisa lived with a man. It was more racy somehow. Once or twice Anton had asked if there was any frisson between the two of them. That was a very Anton type of word and he asked it casually, as if he didn’t care very much anyway.
But that was his way. He wouldn’t have asked if he hadn’t cared.
Lisa was comfortable in Chestnut Court. Noel made sure she went to her lectures when she wasn’t running off with Anton at a moment’s notice. And even though she wouldn’t admit it to anyone, she had become amazingly fond of that little girl. Life without Frankie was going to be hard when it happened. As soon as Anton realized that commitment did not mean a life sentence, it meant the opening of doors.
· · ·
Emily Lynch was also in the vegetable market; she had promised Dr. Hat she would teach him how to make a vegetarian curry for his friend Michael, who was coming to visit.
“Could you not just … er … make it for me?” Dr. Hat begged.
“No way! I want you to be able to tell Michael how you made it.” She was very firm.
“Emily, please. Cooking is women’s business.”
“Then why are the great chefs mainly male?” she asked mildly.
“Show-offs,” said Dr. Hat mutinously. “It won’t work, Emily. I’ll burn everything.”
“Don’t be ridiculous—we’ll have a great time chopping everything up; you’ll be making this recipe every week.”
“I doubt it,” said Dr. Hat. “I seriously doubt it.”
The whole encounter with Eddie Kennedy had made Moira restless. Her own small apartment felt like a prison, with the walls enclosing her more and more. Perhaps she was a kindred soul to him and would end up beached, with no friends, being looked after by some social worker who was still at school now.
It was her birthday on Friday. It was a sad person who had nobody to celebrate with. Nobody at all. Yet again her thoughts went back to that pleasant evening at Ennio’s restaurant.