Minding Frankie - Maeve Binchy [133]
“As usual, you’re right on the button. Will we call in the others to discuss this?”
“And what ideas do you have about me?” she asked.
“Are you still on this thing?”
“Just tell me. Tell me now—answer me and I’ll stop asking you,” she promised.
“Okay. I admire you a lot. I’m your friend.…”
“And lover …,” she added.
“Well, yes, from time to time. I thought you felt the same about it all.”
“Like what, exactly?”
“That it was something nice we shared—but not the meaning of life or anything. Not a steady road to the altar.”
“So why did you continue to have me around?”
“As I’ve said, you’re bright, very bright, you’re lovely and you’re fun. And also I think a little lonely.”
As she heard the words, something changed in Lisa’s head. It was like a car moving into another gear. It was almost as if she were coming out of a dream. She could take his indifference, his infidelity, his careless ways.
She could not take his pity.
“And you might be a little lonely too, Anton, when this place fails. When Teddy has bailed out and gone to another trendy place, when little Miss April has flown off to something that’s successful. There’s nowhere in her little life for failure. When people say, ‘Anton? Isn’t he the one who used to own some restaurant … popular for a while but it disappeared without trace,’ you might well be lonely then too. So let’s hope someone will take pity on you and you’ll see how it feels.”
“Lisa, please …”
“Good-bye, Anton.”
“You’ll come back when you’re more yourself.”
“I think not.” She was still composed.
“Why are you so angry with me, Lisa?” His head was on one side—his persuasive position.
But it didn’t change her mind. “I’m angry with myself, Anton. I had a perfectly good job and I left it because of you. I meant to get other clients, but there was always something to be done here. I’m broke to the world. I’m depending on a horse called Not the Villain to win a race today because if he does I get something called an enabling fee and I’ll be able to buy my share of the groceries for the flat where I have a room.”
“Not the Villain,” Anton said slowly. “That’s how I see myself—I didn’t think you were serious. I really am actually like that horse you’ve put money on. I’m not the villain here, you know.”
“I know. That’s why I’m angry. I got it so wrong.…”
Teddy heard the door bang closed and came in.
“Okay?” he asked.
“Teddy, if this place looked seriously like going under, would you go somewhere else?”
“Little bitch—she told you,” Teddy said.
“Told me what?”
“She must have seen me or heard somehow. I went to the new hotel on the river to know if there might be a vacancy and they said they’d see. This city is worse than a small village. Lisa must have heard it from them.”
“No, she didn’t even know about it.” Anton suddenly felt very tired. There had been something very final about the way Lisa had left the restaurant. But it was all nonsense, wasn’t it? She hadn’t been serious about any of it. Probably some of her girlfriends were settling down and getting pregnant and she felt broody. And that idea about the light lunches wasn’t a bad one at all. They could get little cards designed with some kind of logo on them. Lisa would be great at that when she stopped all this other nonsense.…
· · ·
Lisa walked out of the restaurant jauntily, and as she moved through the crowded streets she was aware that people glanced at her with what she thought was admiration. She wouldn’t think about what she had just said and done. She would compartmentalize things. Park this side of her life here and leave it until it was needed again. Concentrate on another side of life. This was a city full of promise, potential friends and even possible loves. She would tidy Anton away and hold her head high.
Then, quite unexpectedly, she met Emily, who was wheeling Frankie in her buggy.
“I’m getting her used to shopping—she’s going to spend years of her life doing it so she might as well know what it’s all about.”
“Emily, you are funny. What