Читать книгу You Had Me At Hello, How We Met: 2 Bestselling Romantic Comedies in 1 - Katy Regan - Страница 36

It’s fair to say that Matt and Lucy win the evening’s competition, hands down. Every subject – work, family, holidays, home – seems to come with right and wrong answers. They quickly realise my answers are duds and lose interest in me. I’ve never been skiing, or fretted about the best miles-per-gallon among station wagons, haven’t eaten at places with a Michelin star, don’t have strong opinions on each party’s tax breaks.

It’s not so much an air of self-congratulation as a thick smog. Being this acquisitive seems so exhausting. I wonder how this game ends, if they’ll finish up in a retirement home competing for who’s got the biggest necklace alarm.

I sincerely hope that Lucy and Matt are among the few people Ben and Olivia know up here, and they are therefore making a special effort. All my interactions with Olivia suggest she’s a nice enough person, yet around Lucy she seems to become Lucy-ish. Ben is quiet, maybe even subdued.

After the main course has been served, eaten and cleared away, I excuse myself to the bathroom.

‘Use the downstairs one. Before the kitchen, on your left,’ Olivia says.

It’s as immaculate as the rest of their residence, and I have a pang about my own homelessness. It’s not Sale any more. It’s not Rupa’s palace either.

Mid-handwashing with something fragrant from a white china pump dispenser, I’m surprised to overhear a muted conversation between Ben and Olivia. From the clanking, I gather it’s taking place over the dishwasher. Something about the tenor of it tells me they think it’s private. I guess they haven’t worked out their new home’s acoustics yet.

After some debate over which way the plates are stacked, Olivia hisses: ‘Rachel’s sweet.’

I freeze, while reaching for the hand towel.

Ben responds: ‘Yeah, she is.’

Pause.

‘And pretty,’ Olivia adds. Ben makes an equivocal noise. ‘Nondescript was a little harsh.’

I actually suck in air at this. I look at myself in the mirror. Nondescript, slightly bloodshot eyes in a nondescript face. I think: you asked for this. You went looking for it, you begged for it, you knew it was coming and here it is, and guess what? You hate it. I start mindlessly washing my hands a second time.

‘I never notice anyone other than you, darling, you know that,’ Ben says with exaggerated gallantry, and Olivia snorts.

‘Simon’s keen,’ she says. ‘That’s going nicely, I think.’

‘Yeah, Liv, don’t force it, will you?’

‘I’m not!’

‘Rachel’s come out of a long-term relationship, she’s going to be a bit fragile.’

‘They were engaged?’

‘Yeah. Seriously,’ I hear Ben continue, ‘she was with Rhys ages. She was with him when I knew her.’

‘Then maybe a fling is exactly what she needs.’

‘Why do women always have to interfere?’