Foursome by Jane Fallon Read Free Book Online

which though unintentional is just as infuriating.
    ‘So, when did you get together?’ I ask in an effort to be friendly.
    ‘Well, we met at Gary’s opening – you know that. After all, you introduced us!’
    There’s an implied exclamation point at the end of her sentence as there almost always is.
    ‘And then Alex called me at work the next day and asked me if I wanted to go out!’
    The day after I told him I wasn’t interested. The day we had lunch and he told me all over again that he was in love with me. What a coincidence. I almost feel sorry for her.
    She’s still talking. ‘I can’t believe you didn’t notice anything. Didn’t you wonder why I’d started going out for lunch every day?’
    ‘No,’ I say. ‘I didn’t.’
    Thinking about it, she has been going out more than usual. Usually she brings her lunch with her – crispy lettuce, Ryvita, carrots, the noisiest diet food she can find – and sits crunching at her desk. She always insists I stay and answer the phones while she eats because she’s on her break, so I have to sit there counting the seconds between bites, cringing every time she lifts a bit of food to her lips.
    ‘Anyway we’ve been spending all of our time together and I know it’s only been a few weeks but I think it might be serious. You know, I think we might end up moving in together or something!’
    I’m chopping salad. I have a knife in my hand. It’s tempting. Instead I say, ‘Do you want a glass of wine? Dinner’ll be ready in a few minutes.’
    Just get them fed, get them out of here and then Alex can feel he’s made his point and hopefully we can all get back to normal.
    Of course dinner goes on for hours. Alex is so hell bent on showing me how over it he is, how happy with his new love, that he’s the life and soul of the party, and Dan is just so relieved that he matches him drink for drink and they guffaw away at each other’s stories until at one point the kids, who have eaten early and then gone to Zoe’s bedroom to watch TV, come in and William says, ‘Are you still here?’
    ‘More to the point, are you still up?’ Dan says, looking at his watch.
    ‘Well, there was no point trying to sleep with all the racket you’re making,’ Zoe says, and she’s got a point. God knows what the neighbours downstairs think.
    Lorna is a bit drunk too and laughing uproariously at everything Alex says, funny or not. He’s in storytelling mode and regales her with all sorts of tales about our exploits that I would rather she didn’t know. He tells her about the time only a couple of months ago when we’d all been out for a boozy dinner and drunk way too much, and I fell down the kerb getting into the taxi and then couldn’t get up again I was laughing so much.
    ‘I think she called in sick the next day,’ he says. ‘Food poisoning.’
    ‘Oh,’ Lorna says, wide-eyed. ‘I remember when you said you had food poisoning! Well, next time I’ll know that just means you’ve had a few too many!’
    I try and laugh along with them, but the truth is I’m embarrassed. Like everyone does when they call in sick, I remember that I’d made a big deal of going into what I’d eaten, trying to make it sound genuine. Protesting too much, Dan always calls it. He says I should just call up and say I’m not coming in, I don’t feel well, without going into all the details because that’s where you get caught out. And he’s right, clearly.
    ‘I always thought you were such a goody-goody,’ Lorna says. ‘Joshua and Melanie are always going on about how hard you work and aren’t you great.’
    ‘And don’t even ask her what she’d been doing the night before she called up and said she had a migraine that time,’ Alex says, and I say, ‘OK, Alex, I think Lorna’s heard enough stories about my sick days. Can we change the subject?’ I can’t even remember what incident he’s alluding to but whatever it is I don’t want to share it with the group. I start to clear