Although she did snog the new trainee at the office party. Still, we’ve got to have something to talk about in between haircuts, haven’t we? Something to brighten our day.’
‘Is that how you chart your life? With haircuts?’ I was feeling a bit better now. Slightly warmer as I looked at the huge menu I’d been presented with.
‘Well, it’s not a bad staging post, is it? And it’s amazing how nothing much happens in the six weeks or so in between. And don’t you love the way you can tell barbers anything and it’s going nowhere? Giuseppe – he’s my man – asked me the other day how it was going, and I told him I’d made a million on the markets before lunch. He was hugely impressed. We had a good old chinwag about what a clever chap I was. He’d probably forgotten it by the time he moved on to the next client, but I went back to the office with a massive grin on my face, thinking I had made a million. It’s got to be the way forward, hasn’t it? Better than any therapy crap?’ He took a huge gulp of champagne.
I laughed, enjoying his candour. ‘Perhaps you really will make a million? Then you can set up on your own without Gary and Rebecca.’
‘Yeah, I’d love to do that,’ he said wistfully. ‘Except it’s getting harder these days. It’s not like in the eighties when you could do it in your tea break and have a pile in Gloucestershire by the weekend – swimming pool, helipad, all the toys. The banks are less accommodating now. Back then you could blag your way into making anything sound like a new business venture, but they’re a bit more savvy now, not so quick to hand over the loot. You need a bit of capital too. Anyway,’ he said quickly, ‘enough of me and my crummy little life. What about you, Poppy? How are you? That’s a lovely necklace you’re wearing, by the way, really catches the light.’
I touched the fake turquoise pendant from Accessorize around my neck, amused. I rather liked Luke’s blatant attempt to charm me every so often. Any minute now he’d go down on one knee and break into ‘Love Me Tender’, like Dad.
‘Thank you, I bought it specially,’ I told him. ‘I thought it matched my eyes.’
‘Well, it would if they were blue. Nice try, Poppy, but I’d already spotted they were brown.’
I laughed. ‘Just checking. Wouldn’t want you to be flattering me.’
‘Flattery? Me?’ He widened his eyes in mock protest. ‘Perish the thought.’ He cheerfully filled up our glasses. ‘Well?’ he asked.
‘Well what?’ I studied the menu.
‘I asked how you were. Only …’ He hesitated. ‘You didn’t seem yourself at the book club the other day.’ It was said kindly. I looked up, startled at the change of tone.
‘Really?’
‘Yeah, you were … well, distracted.’ He gave a small smile. ‘I even found myself giving Saintly Sue the eye in defence. Might even have made a prat of myself. Sorry, if I did.’
I stared at him, surprised. Right. I had been distracted, but I hadn’t known it had shown. And actually, I did remember Luke greeting me very enthusiastically at Angie’s: bounding across the room, giving it lots of chat. But I’d been thinking about Marjorie and Cecilia at the time, had lost track of what he was saying. As he’d talked animatedly, I’d gazed beyond him, to Angie’s horses in the field, thinking what a nice life they led: no dead husbands, no in-laws, just friends, snoozing together, nose to tail. I’d possibly even forgotten to answer. And now I came to think of it, had his face fallen? Had he looked a bit piqued? And then later, when we were leaving, had he tried to make me jealous? Perhaps he’d been deliberately flirting in the garden with Sue? Suddenly I realized this was quite an up-front admission; a genuine apology too. I also remembered how hard it had been to get up this morning. Clemmie shaking my shoulder when Archie cried, saying it was time for school, Mummy. Quickly swallowing my pill. How I’d almost taken two. I put the menu down. Regarded my dinner companion. His eyes across the table were warm, concerned.
‘Sorry, Luke. I had a lot on my mind at the book club.’
‘D’you want to talk about it?’
I considered this. Then shook my head miserably. ‘No. D’you know, if you don’t mind, I don’t think I do.’ How