‘My husband’s at home,’ I blurt out. ‘We’ve got a baby.’
Kate suddenly interrupts. ‘What say we all go back to ours?’
I stare at her, my head thick. ‘What?’ I slur.
‘We can all jump in the hot tub,’ she says, clapping her hands with glee.
I shake my head. ‘I don’t think so. I’m tired and I’m not feeling great.’ I widen my eyes at her to indicate that I’m not into the idea but she ignores me completely and turns to Emanuel whose arm has snaked around her waist.
‘Sounds wonderful,’ he murmurs.
‘Kate,’ I say quietly through clenched teeth. ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea. We have to be up early tomorrow for that e-bike tour.’ I’m already worried at how hungover I’m going to feel. Even with an e-bike I’m not sure I’ll manage to get up those hills.
‘It’ll be fine,’ Kate says, dismissing me. She stands up, dragging Emanuel with her by the hand. ‘Let’s go.’ And with that she moves for the exit.
I rush after her, wobbly on my feet and my head heavy as a bowling ball, my neck a toothpick holding it up. I don’t want these two men to come back to our apartment. It isn’t a good idea. We don’t even know them. But how can I stop Kate? She’s paying for the apartment after all. I can’t really ban them from entering, not without looking like a total bitch.
By the time I make it outside Kate’s already on her phone, ordering a taxi. Emanuel walks over to Joaquim to confer about something and I rush over to Kate, stumbling and grabbing her by the arm to steady myself. ‘Kate,’ I say in a whisper.
She shrugs me off, busy with her phone. I pull her arm, tug on it. ‘Did you have to invite them back?’
‘What’s the problem?’ Kate asks, looking at me bewildered.
‘The problem is I don’t want them to come back,’ I hiss. ‘I just want to go to bed. I’m wasted.’ My words are slurred, I notice, as though my tongue has doubled in size and I’m feeling very woozy all of a sudden.
‘Come on. It’ll be fun,’ Kate says with a mischievous look in her eye. It takes me back to so many times in our twenties. We’d be at the petrol station on the corner, buying beer for a party and Kate would get chatting to the person ahead of us in the line. They’d invite her to something else and suddenly we’d be changing our plans and going to a house party or an art opening or one time a wedding. If ever I raised objections to following a random stranger who might turn out to be a serial killer, Kate would always shrug it off and say, ‘Come on, it’ll be fun!’ And the thing is, she was usually right.
We ended up having the maddest adventures, all because Kate was a beacon for fun and would talk to anyone. We partied once in a white stuccoed mansion in Hyde Park, which was owned by a Russian oligarch, discovering by snooping around that there were three floors below ground, including one that housed a shooting range and a subterranean swimming pool that Kate insisted we skinny-dip in.
We also ended up one time at an event at the Colombian embassy where we got drunk on the free wine being served and ended up stealing a flag, which we only recalled when Kate woke up the next morning and found herself wrapped in it. Another time we ended up joining a protest outside the Shell building because Kate fancied the man on the bullhorn who was riling everyone up. We followed him and his eco-warrior mates back to their squat in Elephant and Castle for a house party that lasted all weekend. Looking back, I barely recognise the person I was back then, before I met Rob.
‘We don’t even know them,’ I argue, my voice coming out a lot louder than I intended.
‘I don’t need to know them.’ Kate smirks. ‘I’m not planning on having a deep and meaningful conversation with them. I just want to have no-strings sex.’ She nods in Joaquim’s direction. ‘Why don’t you sleep with Joaquim? God, look at him. He’s bloody gorgeous.’
‘I’m married!’ I hiss.
Kate shrugs at me. ‘Rob will never find out. And it’s just sex. It’s not a big deal.’
‘Yes, it is,’ I answer but my powers of reasoning seem dulled and confused, as