Page 51 of The Three of Us
‘Really? Are you blind?’
‘No.’ She laughs. ‘Just gay!’ It’s the first time she has openly admitted it, to me anyway, and I feel kind of flattered that she’s able to say it. Maybe it’s a night for confessions all round. ‘So, he’s not my type, obviously. I take it things didn’t go well. In the bedroom, I mean. A bit of a flop, was he?’
‘Fran!’ I giggle. ‘No, everything seemed in good working order. Just a change of heart, on my part. A last-minute one, but let’s just say I came to my senses, just in time.’
‘Good. Affairs with married men rarely work out. Especially ones with kids. And you’re better than that, Carls. In fact, if you weren’t quite so straight, I’d make a play for you myself.’
I am about to laugh again, but something in her face tells me she just might mean it.
‘Now, where’s that wine you mentioned?’
‘In the fridge. Jack bought it. Maybe I should take it and give it back to him, at work?’
‘And the flowers?’ She must have spotted them in the kitchen, propped up in an old milk bottle because I was too busy cooking and kissing and making a fool of myself to have bothered finding a vase. ‘Don’t be daft. Gifts are like engagement rings. Men give them, with expectations, or from guilt or whatever but, whatever the outcome, women are not obliged to give them back. That wine is officially yours. Well, ours now. I’ll get the corkscrew.’
‘No need. It’s a screw-top bottle.’
‘Either way, it looks like the only kind of screw either of us is going to get this evening.’ Fran gives me a cheeky wink, and goes off to get the wine.
The rest of the evening rolls by on a glut of sugar and booze and some old cheesy rom-com film we discover on a TV channel we don’t usually watch.
‘Syd’s invited me to a party,’ I say, suddenly remembering the chat we’d had outside as the driving lesson came to an end.
‘From one married man to another,’ Fran mutters, shaking her head.
‘Absolutely not! Syd is great, just the sort of man I wish I could bag for myself, but he belongs fairly and squarely to Rosie. No, they’re having a bit of a do. Partly to take the place of a christening for the twins, as neither of them has set foot in a church for years and they just want a family gathering without all the religious side of it, and partly to welcome Syd’s parents and brother who are coming over from Australia for the first time since the wedding. Rosie did mention it the last time I saw her but they’ve picked a firm date for it now. He said I could bring a mate if I want to, as I don’t have a proper plus-one. The cheek of it! I don’t suppose you fancy coming, do you? I’m pretty sure Suze will be there. And he’s bound to have asked Jack, so I could do with all the moral support I can get.’
‘Will he bring his wife, do you think? Jack, I mean.’
‘If he’s got any sense, he’ll be trying to keep the two of us apart, and it’s not as if they know her. Jack worked with Syd years ago and they’ve had the odd beer together since Jack’s been back, but that’s all.’
‘Plus-ones are invited though, remember?’
‘True. But I’m sure he can get away without bringing her. He doesn’t even have to tell her, does he? Having us both in the same room would be asking for trouble. He’s not that stupid. In fact, he may not even go himself.’
‘I could come with you, I suppose. I’ll have to check my busy diary, of course.’ Fran laughs. ‘But you never know, I could get lucky. There might be some tasty unattached women there. Apart from you, I mean.’
I reach over and flick at her with a cushion.
‘Yes, of course I’ll come,’ she says. ‘Beats sitting in, drooling over Julia Roberts and stuffing myself with yet more chocolates, doesn’t it? It’s time I got out more. And it’s a sort of christening, so if there are no women, at least there’ll probably be cake.’
Suze drags it out of me, just as she always does. There is something about being together in the confines of the small staff kitchen that always brings out the latest gossip. It’s not unusual to go in there and find someone in tears or whispering their secrets to a friend and clamming up the moment they realise they’ve been rumbled.
‘And you definitely mean it? No more Jack Doherty?’ Suze has stopped with the kettle held in mid-air and is peering into my face, looking for clues.
‘Apart from at work, yes. I do mean it. One hundred per cent.’
‘Thank God for that. It’s been wearing me out, trying to keep the two of you apart. But I was only doing it for your own good, you do know that?’
‘Yes, Suze. And because you love a bit of scandal and can’t bear not knowing every last detail of everyone else’s so-called love lives!’ She hands me a mug of coffee and we wander back to our desks. ‘What’s the latest with Sean, by the way? It’s time I turned the tables and interrogated you for a change.’
‘Well, actually, I do have some news on that front.’
I don’t know how I missed it as soon as she held that kettle up in front of my face. There’s only a great big sparkling diamond on her finger!
‘Oh my God!’
‘Yep. He asked me last night. Bended knee, ring in a red velvet box, the works…’