Читать книгу The Three of U.S.: A New Life in New York - Peter Godwin - Страница 37

Tonight we have supper with Larry and Nancy, two wealthy writers whose TriBeCa loft seems somehow far better designed for actually living in than ours. They too have been forced to partition space, but have chosen quiet wicker screens rather than our solution of messy bookshelves and desks. It seems a triumph of practical but stylish design and I am silently oozing envy as the door buzzes and supper arrives.

‘Oh God,’ I apologize, as Nancy starts removing the cellophane wrapper to reveal a huge platter of sushi, beautifully arranged with ginger roses and zig-zagged green papers to separate the portions. ‘I should have told you, I’m pregnant, and raw fish is the one food which is supposed to be taboo.’

‘Oh congratulations!’ shrieks Nancy. ‘Are you going to get married?’

As she heads over to the kitchen area to make me an omelette, their three-year-old daughter, Danielle, emerges from her wicker-screened den and Larry is instructed to put her to bed.

‘Seriously,’ Nancy continues, ‘you are going to get married, right? I mean, if you don’t it’ll be tough on the kid at school.’

‘Actually, I don’t think we’re going to,’ I say. ‘But it’s a lot more common in Europe to have children without being married than it is here.’

‘Oh, but you must get married,’ shouts Barbara, another guest. ‘I mean you must, for the child’s sake. I’ve been married for thirty years and it just gets better!’ Curiously, her husband is absent.

‘Well, who knows?’ I murmur, anxious to avoid further lecturing.

‘Is Danielle in bed yet?’ asks Nancy as Larry reappears, offering more wine.

‘No,’ he says calmly. ‘She’s watching cartoons and masturbating.’

Peter coughs on a prematurely smuggled sushi.

‘It’s a phase she’s going through,’ Larry explains jovially. ‘She does it all the time.’