The Sudden Departure of the Frasers by Louise Candlish Read Free Book Online Page B

couldn’t
all
have spines as prickly as this one.
    Besides, she had dinner at Canvas to look forward to.
    Joe had suggested it, Joe had booked it, and presumably Joe was also now going to explain how they would justify paying for it in the light of the crushing budget they’d drawn up together (if it didn’t permit good coffee, then it certainly prohibited meals in restaurants like Canvas).
    She’d studied the menu on her way back from the hardware store and concluded that it was both intimidatingly fashionable (crab foam and grated bottarga – they’d not had those in New Cross) and toe-curlingly expensive. A starter equated to the pedal bin they needed for the ground-floor loo, while a main course might buy them blinds for one of the spare bedrooms, and yet there Joe was, ordering champagne, the bottle opened when she joined him and two glasses already poured.
    ‘I know what this is about,’ she said, smiling. She was damned if she was going to spoil the lovely gesture. And what a beautiful restaurant it was! No wonder every table was taken, the atmosphere one of unbridled jubilation:everywhere you looked there was vivid colour, from the fresh-lime shade of the sculpted vinyl chairs to the sparkling fuchsia of the teardrop glass chandeliers and the garden greens and ocean blues of the canvases that crowded the walls. Each table had a tangle of wild flowers for its centrepiece, and Christy reached to touch the petals to check that they were real, to check that
this
was real. ‘It’s about celebrating our milestones, isn’t it? And I completely agree that the house is –’
    ‘Christy,’ he interrupted, and she saw how excited he was, possibly even a little drunk already. ‘It’s not the house. I’ve got some other news.’ He paused in a way she recognized as being less for effect than to overcome his own disbelief. ‘I’ve been made partner.’
    She stared. Partner: the longed-for promotion he’d been warned by Marcus to not yet expect, even when two younger associates had been successful, leading Christy privately, treacherously, to interpret ‘not yet’ as never.
    ‘Not equity,’ he added, ‘I’ll be capped on what I earn, but still it’s –’
    Now it was she who interrupted: ‘But it’s
incredible
, Joe! Wow, congratulations!’ And as he recounted the day’s events for her, heat suffused her body, the heat of joy. Just as she’d thought they’d had their share of fortune, here was more of it – and fortune of the sort that might take the edge off their financial pressures, too.
    ‘What are you thinking?’ Joe said, their glasses refilled.
    ‘I’m thinking we can maybe buy some furniture for all those empty rooms. And we need shelving and waste-paper baskets as a matter of urgency.’
    ‘Those are the kind of extravagant romantic gestures I like to hear.’
    They grinned at each other. ‘Actually, I was thinking something else as well,’ she admitted. ‘You know the other day, when we moved into the house?’
    ‘When you convinced yourself we were squatters about to be picked up by the police?’
    ‘Yes, but after that. I was thinking I’d never seen you look so pleased with yourself.’
    ‘Pleased with
us
,’ he corrected her. ‘It’s all coming together, isn’t it?’ He raised his glass with an easy flourish, as if he’d been born to celebrate success.
    ‘Like we’re getting all our good luck in one go!’
    ‘Well, it’s supposed to come in threes, so maybe there’s even more.’
    ‘I think that only works with
bad
luck, doesn’t it?’ Christy said, her eyes widening in mock trepidation.
    They demolished their meals. They’d chosen the same for both courses – salmon terrine followed by rack of lamb, give or take the Canvas bells and whistles – which happened almost every time; they had long ago agreed that this was absolutely fine and didn’t make them in any way a boring couple. It was the first well-cooked food they’d eaten for weeks, neither of them