All this thinking had passed the journey. Her cab was already travelling through Camden. She decided she’d send Thea a short text before she went to bed, confirming lunch the next day. Please don’t let Mark be at home.
Please don’t let this be a day when he doesn’t have to stay late for some conference call or other.
Thea thought how Alice’s teenage fluster and giggle the next day were actually quite endearing. If this Paul bloke was good for anything, it was reinstating her best friend’s bounce and spirit.
‘God, I can’t wait for you to see him!’ Alice declared, drumming her fingers on the restaurant table in the safe territory of Maida Vale. ‘I’m telling you, he’s more gorgeous and sexy than anyone you’ll ever have seen – in reality or on screen. Honestly!’
‘Shut up, you idiot.’ Thea poked her. ‘You sound like a teenager.’
‘He’s here – here he is!’
Thea was desperately disappointed. She was a firm believer in beauty being much more than skin deep. But she had to admit that Paul was quite spectacular looking, in a rugged, Timberland-branded sort of way. Not really her type at all – but unquestionably attractive and obviously smitten with Alice. He shook her hand and took Alice’s in his which made Thea feel awkward.
‘Are you enjoying your trip?’ Thea asked him with a stern edge that made Alice kick her under the table.
‘Very much,’ he said, ruffling his already tousled hair.
‘What have you done?’ Thea probed, moving her legs out of kicking distance. ‘Where have you been?’
‘Oh, you know, mainly hanging out in Clap Ham.’
His enunciation of the silent ‘h’ struck both Thea and Alice but while Alice thought it sweet, Thea let it irritate her supremely.
‘You haven’t seen the sights then?’ Thea challenged him.
‘Like Bucking Ham Palace, you mean? Or Saint Paul’s Cathedral?’
Silent ‘ai’, you prat.
‘Any of the galleries?’ Thea persisted, holding Alice’s glare. ‘Our glorious parks?’
‘Not this time,’ Paul said, throwing a furtive smirk over to Alice which Thea intercepted. ‘I’m on a tight schedule, you know? Perhaps next time, though.’
‘Next time?’ Alice exclaimed.
‘Next time?’ Thea challenged.
‘Hey, the trip over was a doddle – why not!’
Alice excused herself and went to splash cold water on her face. Thea and Paul glanced at each other awkwardly.
‘So,’ Paul said, ‘is her man a bit of a bastard then?’
‘Who?’ Thea shot. ‘Mark? A bastard? He’s one of the nicest people I know.’
Paul seemed surprised. ‘Well, she’s obviously not getting what she needs.’
Alice returned before Thea had the chance to respond. ‘We could, if you like, go for a stroll in Regent’s Park this afternoon,’ Alice said to Paul, ‘if you felt the need to authenticate your trip.’
Paul shrugged before a thoroughly licentious expression suffused his face, which Alice found thrillingly contagious.
‘Thea,’ Alice said without taking her eyes off Paul, ‘are you staying at Saul’s tonight?’
Thea had been busying herself with her French fries. ‘Yes, why?’
‘Perhaps I really ought to go and water your house plants,’ Alice said, licking her lips at Paul whilst trying to locate Thea’s legs to nudge with her foot.
‘Sorry?’ Thea knew exactly what Alice was implying but was so taken off her guard as to feel downright insulted.
‘Perhaps you’d like me to stack your post?’ Alice elaborated, slithering a coy giggle over to Paul. ‘Do your laundry?’
‘Alice, are you asking to borrow my flat to shag Paul?’ Thea barked, hoping to shock some sense of decorum into her and embarrass Paul.
‘We’ll leave it spick and span,’ Paul told her, obviously rubbing at Alice’s leg under the table.
‘Please?’ Alice pleaded with her most winsome, beguiling pout.
‘I have to go, I have a client in twenty minutes,’ Thea declared, leaving with a blatant glower. Alice stood up to go after her, prepared to demand her door keys, when she saw Thea had left them on her plate already. In a splodge of ketchup.
Alice licked off the sauce with wholly unnecessary suggestiveness. ‘Let’s go and see the sights of Crouch End,’ she declared, snogging Paul while a waitress cleared the table.
Thea was appalled, incensed and insulted. Poor Peter Glass received a massage so vigorous he was virtually winded and Thea’s final client was given a perfunctory forty minutes before being told he was much better despite leaving her room with the stilted gait he’d entered with. Later, Thea snapped at Saul, ‘Tell them this is our final offer and they can take it or fucking fuck off.’ And then, when she saw she’d missed a call from Mark, she burst into tears.
‘Baby,’ Saul tried to soothe her, ‘baby, what’s up?’
‘Nothing,’ Thea cried.
‘Tell me,’ Saul said, through lips pressed to the top of her head.
‘Alice,’ Thea sobbed.
‘What’s wrong with Alice?’ Saul asked, remembering he hadn’t seen her in the office that afternoon. ‘Is she OK?’
‘We’ve fallen out,’ Thea whispered. She felt a sudden stab of acute loneliness at the fact that Alice was actually very happy and utterly unaware that they’d fallen out.
‘About what?’ Saul said, wiping Thea’s nose for her. But Thea didn’t want to tell him. She’d been sworn to secrecy, after all. And a part of her could not betray trust placed in her. Another part of her simply didn’t want to reveal the crime, the sin, to Saul. He liked Alice. He worked with her. He liked Mark too. It was so hideous she didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t want to say out loud that she hated her lifelong best friend for behaving in a manner which threatened to undermine all they were meant to hold sacred, all they were supposed to be striving to achieve. This wasn’t playground gallivanting or youthful experimentation. It was full-on promiscuity. It was dangerous and deplorable and Thea didn’t want it to be happening. It made her feel unsafe. Why wasn’t Alice behaving?
‘What about?’ Saul repeated.
‘Just stupid,’ Thea said, wiping her nose gratefully against Saul’s shoulder, ‘nothing.’
‘It’ll blow over,’ Saul said, kissing her forehead, ‘these things always do. She’s your best friend. I bet you she texts you before she goes to sleep tonight. Now, am I really phoning the estate agent declaring our final offer or the vendor can fucking fuck off?’
Thea smiled. ‘I love you Saul,’ she said with a crackling sniff. ‘I’d never do anything to hurt you – even if you might never know about it.’
Saul gave her a puzzled smile. ‘Thanks, baby,’ he said, ‘ditto.’ Thea leant towards him and cupped his face in her hands, kissing his mouth with tenderness. ‘I’m going to phone the agent,’ he said, kissing her back. ‘Are we agreed this is our final offer then?’ Thea had her eyes closed. She nodded. She did so love Saul. Her home was with him, wherever that might be.