Sushi for Beginners - Marian Keyes [163]
‘But don’t they kind of hate each other? – Oh, I get it.’ Jack nodded. ‘One of those.’
‘You sound as if you don’t approve.’ Lisa was extremely curious.
Jack was embarrassed. ‘Whatever floats your boat. But,’ he was alluding to his public rows with Mai and now he was really embarrassed, ‘I’m not actually keen on routine shouting matches with a partner. Though I know that’s probably hard to believe.’
‘So why did you and Mai…?’
Jack shifted. ‘Dunno, really. Habit, I reckon. It was fun at the start and then I think we didn’t know any other way of truly relating. Anyway!’ He didn’t want to dissect it any further because he still felt a type of loyalty to Mai, so he turned to Lisa with a smile. ‘Another drink?’
‘No, I don’t think so –’
But just as she was about to lay her hand meaningfully on his thigh and say, ‘Will you come back for coffee?’ Jack said, ‘Right then, I’ll drop you home.’ And she knew that that was all he meant. But never mind, she thought, ever the optimist, he liked her. He must like her: he’d kissed her. He couldn’t have been nicer. And she closed her mind to the little voice that replied. He could have been nicer, he could have shagged you.
Dreamily, Clodagh floated around the kitchen, thinking about the sex earlier that day. It had been beyond belief, the best yet…
As she put the sugar in the microwave and the milk in the washing machine, Dylan watched her. And wondered. Horrible thoughts. Unspeakable thoughts.
‘Don’t want my dinner.’ Craig threw down his spoon with a violent clatter. ‘I want SWEETS.’
‘Sweets,’ Clodagh hummed, foraging in the cupboard and producing a bag of Maltesers. ‘Sweets it is.’
She seemed to be moving to music that only she could hear.
‘I want sweets too,’ Molly snarled.
‘I want sweets too,’ Clodagh mewed tunefully to herself, locating another packet.
Dylan watched, aghast.
With a playful flourish, she ripped open Molly’s bag of sweets and extracted one between her thumb and finger. ‘For you?’ she sparkled at Molly. ‘No, for me.’ Ignoring Molly’s tantrummy objections, she held the Malteser between her pursed lips, sucking slightly at it, then inhaled it into her mouth where she rolled it around in a way that manifestly gave her enormous pleasure.
‘Clodagh?’ Dylan’s voice cracked.
‘Hmmm?’
‘Clodagh?’
Instantly she snapped to attention and disposed of the Malteser with a savage crunch. ‘What?’
‘Are you OK?’
‘Fine.’
‘You just seem a little bit distracted.’
‘Am I?’
‘What are you thinking?’ he heard himself ask.
Quick as a flash, she replied, ‘I was thinking how much I love you.’
‘Really?’ Dylan asked warily. He was torn. He suspected he shouldn’t really believe her, but he so badly wanted to…
‘Yes, I really, really love you.’ She forced herself to put her arms around him.
‘Honestly?’ He’d managed to make eye-contact with her.
She met his gaze calmly. ‘Honestly.’
50
August advanced and the pressure built. There were still gaps in the first issue, and any attempts to fill them were thwarted. An interview with Ben Affleck had to be cancelled after he contracted food-poisoning, a review of a shoe-shop had to be killed after the shop suddenly closed down, a piece about sexually active nuns was deemed to be too risky, legally.
One particular day was so frustratingly obstacle-ridden that both Ashling and Mercedes cried. Even Trix had a suspicious brightness about her eyes. (Then she stormed from the office into a nearby shop, where she stole a pair of earrings and returned in much better form.)
What added to everyone’s grief was that they didn’t have the luxury of giving the first issue their undivided time and attention. They were also working on October and November. Then, in the midst of all the mayhem, Lisa called an editorial meeting for the December issue.
But she wasn’t – despite the bitter resistance – being a ‘slave-driving bitch’. December films were previewed in August. If the star of the film was in town, the interview had to be conducted there and then, and not in a couple of weeks when Colleen’s workload had lessened and the star