Page 94 of Three Widows

They lapsed into silence as she dived into the fresh basket of prawn crackers the waitress brought with the second bottle of wine.

‘Tell me about Luke,’ he said when they were alone again. ‘What did he do this time?’

‘He’s just a jumped-up little prick. You know, he probably has a little one and all.’

Kirby laughed and it felt good. Then he became serious. ‘Was it because of me at lunchtime?’

‘He doesn’t need an excuse to be a bollix.’ She wiped her hands on the cloth napkin and sat forward. ‘I was telling one of the girls that I had a date and he overheard. Started making fun of me. Then this huge order of baked beans arrived and suddenly the boss tells me I have to stock the shelves. We’d run out during the week and we were waiting for the order. Mr Rodgers – he’s a customer – was doing all our heads in. He must live on beans on toast. Anyway, I reckon Luke told the boss that I’d stock the shelves because he had this grin from ear to ear like the fucking Cheshire cat.’

‘He’s a wrong one, that Luke. Why didn’t you tell them all to take a running jump?’

She shook her head slowly. ‘I couldn’t do that. I need this job. I’ve been begging for extra hours for ages, and the one time I get them, they don’t suit me. What could I do?’

‘You should have sent me a text.’ He bit his tongue once the words were out of his mouth. Her face dropped and she sat back in her chair. He wouldn’t blame her if she got up and walked out on him. He quickly tried to rectify his error. ‘But it doesn’t matter. I’m here and you’re here. I don’t know about you, but I’m bloody starving.’

‘I could eat a horse.’ Her face brightened up and he felt he had rescued the situation; maybe even saved the night.

‘I want to know more about you, Amy. Tell me about yourself,’ he said, aware that she knew more about him than he knew about her.

‘Do we have to do that?’

A darkness shrouded her face, and he looked around, half expecting to see the waitress standing there with their food.

‘No, we don’t, but I’d like to know a little, so that I don’t put my big foot in it again.’

‘Like you did with Luke? Sorry, we’ve drawn a line under that.’ She took up her glass and stared at the glowing liquid. ‘I told you I was once in a long term relationship. It didn’t work out. He’s gone. A messy break up and it tore my heart out at the time.’

‘Oh shit, Amy, I’m sorry. I’ve had one of those too. Mine was a messy divorce. Are you over it?’

‘He wasn’t a nice person. But I can’t put all the blame on him. There were two of us in the relationship, one playing off the other, and that was only going to end one way.’

‘Did he physically hurt you?’

She tightened her lips. ‘I really don’t want to go there. Safe to say, I often wished he was dead. The funny thing is, once we finally broke up, I missed him. I thought I was to blame for all the things he’d said and done to me.’

‘Please, Amy, don’t blame yourself. You’re free of him now.’

‘But am I truly free, Larry? I spent the best part of my twenties in that relationship, and I feel I’m damaged for life.’

He didn’t know how to respond. Then the food arrived.

‘This looks good,’ she said. ‘I don’t even know what you ordered.’

‘I hope you like curried pork, then.’

‘I’d eat the leg of the table this second.’

He caught her smile and his shoulders relaxed. He hadn’t even been aware that he was hunched up with tension.

As they tucked into the food, he kept one eye on her. A woman alone in the world, with a young upstart of a colleague who seemed to be out to make her life a misery. Amy didn’t deserve that. But did he deserve her?

He chewed the succulent meat and tried to enjoy the abatement of his hunger, but a feather of unease had floated down to settle on his shoulders. Once again he felt them hunching up. What was it about this woman that did that to him? Unable to come up with an answer to that question, he called for another bottle of wine.

While they were perusing the dessert menu, something she’d said earlier floated up to his consciousness through the haze of food and alcohol swimming around in his brain.

‘You said you told a girl at work you had a date. Who is she?’

‘Are you going to annoy her like you did Luke?’ she said sharply.