Page 68 of Unfaithful

I sit back and sigh. ‘I know.”

“You hungry?” she asks.

I smile. “Why?”

“I have tons of yummy things in the kitchen. I’ll bring something out.”

I laugh. “Honestly, I’ve put on weight since I’ve met you.” I follow her into the kitchen.

Her kitchen is nothing like mine. I’ve never seen a kitchen so messy. Jars with what looks like flour and sugar are left open haphazardly on the bench, which is already riddled with crumbs. I kind of wish I hadn’t come in here. “Nothing too filling, please. I still have to make dinner for the children.”

She pops off the top of a container and hands it to me. “Check this out.”

I lean over to take a look. “Smells yummy, looks shocking. What it is?”

“Caramelized salted peanut toffee. I thought I could serve it with cocktails. Actually, I don’t know what I was thinking. Anyway, I made a mess of it. I used honey instead of sugar and it’s gone all hard and weird.”

“You make it sound so tempting.”

“I know.”

“Why did you do that?”

“I was experimenting. Anyway, you’re supposed to serve them with dry martinis or something.”

“What aretheylike?”

“Disgustingly delicious.”

“Can I have the martini without the salted caramel peanut disgusting thing?”

“No way. It’s a job lot. All or nothing.” She winks at me.

“Anyway, it’s irrelevant,” I say, my head throbbing again. “I don’t know if I can ever drink anything ever again.”

“Sure you can, just the one. It’ll make you feel better, I swear.”

I sigh. “If you say so.”

She puts the crumbly, sticky mess on a plate, and hands it to me. “Take that with you, I’ll bring the lemon and olives.”

We’re back in the living room when she asks abruptly. “Do you have a gun?”

“Me? No! Why would you ask that?”

“Don’t you think if Isabelle had a gun, she probably wouldn’t be dead now?”

“But that’s ridiculous.”

“No, it’s not. If she was killed—”

“We don’t know she was killed, June.”

“But if she was…Well, this is why you don’t want to be a woman living alone and not be able to protect yourself against an intruder. Trust me, I think about that all the time in this city.”

“You’re not making any sense. Doyouhave a gun?”

“Sure I do. I’d be stupid not to have one.”