Sushi for Beginners - Marian Keyes [194]
As Ashling got her bag, Dylan’s and Lisa’s eyes met in a flare of one-beautiful-person-to-another interest.
Dylan looked different. He’d always been handsome, if a mite bland. But overnight, he’d acquired a glittery hardness, a dissipated magnetism. With his hand on Ashling’s waist, he guided her out, the eyes of the entire office burning the backs of the two cuckolds.
They went to the pub next door and found a table in a corner. Though Ashling would only have Diet Coke, Dylan ordered a pint of lager.
‘Hair of the dog,’ he exhaled. ‘On the serious razz last night.’
‘Still at your mother’s?’ Ashling asked.
‘Yes.’ A bitter little laugh.
So that meant Clodagh and Marcus were still together. It hadn’t all blown over and revealed itself as a brief madness. She had a very real, visceral desire to vomit. ‘What’s been happening?’
‘Not much yet, except that we’ve decided I’ll see the kids every weekend and stay in the house on Saturday nights.’ Shame-faced he admitted, ‘I’ve told Clodagh I’ll wait for her, so hopefully she’ll cop on. Though she’s actually told me she loves this wanker. God knows why.’ A pause of realization. ‘Sorry.’
‘’s OK.’
‘How are you doing?’ He turned the spotlight of his concern on to her and momentarily he was like the old Dylan.
She hesitated. What was she going to say? I hate the world, I hate being alive, I’m on anti-depressants, my mother has to put the toothpaste on my toothbrush in the morning and now that she’s gone back to Cork I don’t know how I’ll manage to brush my teeth.
‘Fine,’ she said.
He didn’t look too convinced, so she promised him, ‘Really, I am. Go on, tell me more of what’s been going on.’
Dylan exhaled miserably. ‘It’s the children I’m really worried about. They’re so confused, it’s desperate. But they’re too young for the whole story. And I shouldn’t be turning them against their mother anyway, even if I hate her.’
‘You don’t hate her.’
‘Oh, believe me Ashling, I do.’
Ashling found his truculence pathetic. He only hated Clodagh because he loved her so much.
‘It might all blow over,’ Ashling said, with as much hope for herself as for Dylan.
‘Yeah. Let’s wait and see. Have you spoken to either of them?’
‘I saw Clodagh two weeks ago today on the… that Friday. But I haven’t been able to get hold of…’ She hesitated. Saying his name hurt. ‘… Marcus. I’ve tried ringing him, but he’s stopped answering his phone.’
‘You could call to his house.’
‘No.’
‘Good on you. Keep your dignity.’
Ashling shifted forlornly. It wasn’t really that. She simply hadn’t the heart.
When Oliver returned to London he didn’t ring Lisa, and she didn’t ring him either. There was nothing to say. They were both going to get approval from their solicitors over their financial situations, then the decree nisi was only a matter of months.
Lisa got through the week but, although she was functioning, she wasn’t anything like OK. She’d managed to put the October issue to bed, but it had been like pushing a ball of glue up a hill. Especially with Ashling going round like a zombie.
Robbie was good, though. Full of wild ideas for future issues. A lot of them too outré, but at least one – for a shoot styled like an S&M session – was pure genius.
When everything had gone to the printers on Friday evening, several people invited her for after-work drinks. Trix and Robbie and even Jack had suggested they go somewhere to celebrate ‘closure on October’. But she’d had enough of them all and she went straight home.
No sooner was she in than Kathy called to the door. Kathy seemed to be around a lot. Or if it wasn’t Kathy it was Francine. Or several others from the road.
‘Come over to us for your dinner this evening,’ Kathy invited.
Lisa almost laughed at the thought, then Kathy said, ‘We’re having roast chicken,’ and suddenly Lisa found herself agreeing. Why not? she thought, trying