Sushi for Beginners - Marian Keyes [201]
‘Could you show me the basics sometime?’
In all honesty, she couldn’t think of anything more unlikely. ‘We’ll have a sushi-and-salsa night,’ she joked.
‘I’ll hold you to it’
As Jack moved off, Ashling asked, ‘How’s Mai doing?’
‘Good, I see her occasionally.’
‘Tell her I said hi. I thought she was great.’
‘I will. She’s going out with a landscape gardener now.’
‘Called Cormac?’ Ashling was flip.
Jack’s face was a picture of awe and horror. ‘How do you know?!’
In the middle of the night Lisa’s phone rang. She bolted awake, her heart pounding. Could something have happened to her dad or her mum? Before she got to the phone, the answering machine picked up and someone began to leave a message.
Oliver. And he sounded even louder than usual. ‘Excuse me, Lisa Edwards,’ he called stroppily, ‘you have changed.’
She picked up the phone. ‘What?’
‘And hello to you too. That day in Dublin when you were playing football with those kids, I said you’d changed and you told me you hadn’t. You lied to me, babes.’
‘Oliver, it’s twenty to five. AM.’
‘I knew it didn’t add up and it’s been bugging me ever since. It’s just clicked. You’re different, babes – not working so hard, being so sweet to those kids – why tell me you’re not?’
She knew why, she’d known the day it had happened, but should she tell him? Oh, why not, what difference could it make?
‘Because it’s too late… To save us,’ she elaborated, when he didn’t speak. ‘Better to say that I’m still the same old control-freak I’ve always been, right?’
Oliver processed this strange logic. ‘Is that your final answer?’
‘Yes.’
‘OK, babes. It’s up to you.’
Ted and Joy were in the video shop.
‘Sliding Doors?’ Ted suggested.
‘No, doesn’t someone have an affair in it?’
‘How about My Best Friend’s Wedding?’
‘The name alone is looking for trouble,’ Joy pointed out.
They eventually settled on Pulp Fiction.
‘Good choice.’ Joy was pleased. ‘No! Bad choice. Very bad choice. Someone is unfaithful! Uma Thurman?’
‘You’re absolutely right,’ Ted said shakily. That had been close. ‘Maybe we should just get The Best of the Teletubbies and be done with it.’
‘No, this is our man.’ Joy yelped with pleasure and swooped down on The Exorcist ’ This won’t upset anyone.’
‘Good,’ said Ted. ‘I couldn’t take a repeat of the last time.’
With the benefit of hindsight, Joy had to admit that making Ashling watch Damage had been a mistake. Though two months had passed since she’d found out about Marcus and Clodagh, people having affairs still weren’t exactly her cup of tea.
Back in Ashling’s flat, the three of them clustered in front of the telly, surrounded by wine bottles, corkscrews, sacks of popcorn and acre-slabs of chocolate. To the relief of all, Ashling seemed quite distracted by the film – until the doorbell rang. Immediately her face sparked with involuntary anticipation: she was still hoping for Marcus to make his long-overdue appearance.
‘I’ll go.’ She clambered to her feet and opened the door.
To her surprise, the person who fell in was Dylan. She’d had lunch with him on average once a week for the past couple of months, but this was a first.
‘Hope you don’t mind me calling unannounced.’ He smiled, but something about the volume of his voice and the laziness of his eyes made her realize he was drunk. ‘Look at you, lovely girl.’ He ran a hand over her hair and left a trail of heat from the crown of her head to the nape of her neck. ‘Nice,’ he drawled.
‘Thanks. Come on in, Joy and Ted are here.’
He poured himself a glass of wine and Ashling watched as he effortlessly charmed Joy. That he was dissipated and unravelly made him no less attractive. Just different.
When the video ended, Dylan flicked through the channels until he found something he liked. ‘Spectacular! Casablanca.’
‘I’m not watching any romantic shite,’ Ashling said firmly and Dylan laughed.
‘Aren’t you gorgeous?’ he said warmly.
‘Maybe, but I’m still not watching it.’
‘Gorgeous,’ he repeated. He’d always been full of compliments,