The Reunion

eat anything. She’d been out with the guys from work. She doesn’t handle drugs nearly as well as she thinks she does.
    She’s asleep now, finally. I think she’ll be in bed all day. Viva bank holidays. I rang her mum this morning, she seems to think it’s post-traumatic stress from the accident, but that doesn’t really make sense. This has been going on a while, hasn’t it? I mean, I know it’s been worse of late, but the bingeing and the secretiveness, that goes back further. I don’t know what the hell to do. Neither of us are happy in this relationship any longer, but I can’t leave her like this. I’ve suggested counselling, I guess you can imagine how that goes down.
    I’m sorry she hasn’t been down to see you these past few weeks, you know it’s not that she doesn’t care. She talks about you all the time. She’ s just not facing up to the here and now particularly well.
    God, listen to me whinge.
    How are you, Nat? I hope the physio’s going better. I know (what do I know? I know nothing) – I
understand
that you’re working so hard, and I hope that it won’t be long until you’re back on your feet, strong again, like you were. That ridiculously handsome nurse must be easing the pain a little!
    How are you getting on with
Infinite Jest
? I found it hard going at first, but I think it’s worth sticking with it. (Lilah doesn’t. She had a quick flick through it and said, ‘What on earth would she want to read that for? Doesn’t she have enough on her plate?’ Then she called me a pseudo-intellectual wanker and went to get herself a drink. She may have a point. She suggested I bring you
Bridget Jones’ Diary
, which she thinks is hilarious. I read a few pages and have to admit, it is quite funny. I’ll bring it for you when I come next.)
    I haven’t seen Dan in a couple of weeks, though he rang last week and claims to be working very hard. He and Lilah cross paths in Soho from time to time. He said he was planning to get down to see you soon. Perhaps I’ll bring him the weekend after next? I think this weekend I want you all to myself.
    I’ve heard nothing from Jen. I wrote to her mother and she sent back a very short note saying that Jen was no longer in England. No further details. They’re obviously still very angry with me. I wonder whether Jen’s with Maggie, in Cork? As kind as Maggie’s been to me, I can’t help but think I’m the last person she wants to speak to right now. Perhaps you could drop her a line? We’ll talk about it when I see you.
    I think about you, all the time. I know I shouldn’t. I can’t help myself. I’m counting the minutes until I’m by your side, it’s the only place that makes sense to me right now.
    With all my love,
    Andrew
    P.S. I have a court date, by the way. It’s 12 December, just in time for Christmas. Frankly, the sooner the better, I just want it over.

Chapter Two

    NOTHING WENT THE way she’d imagined it would, and yet, as it played out, Jen kept thinking, well of course this was the way this was going to go, how stupid of me to think otherwise. She’d expected, based on where they were all coming from, Andrew and Natalie to be the first to arrive. Jen had estimated that she would have a good half an hour with the two of them before Lilah got there, which would give her ample time to explain that she hadn’t been 100 per cent honest about the guest list. If she broke it to them gently, just the two of them, over a glass of wine, it would be all right.
    But it didn’t happen like that. Dan was first to arrive. He pulled up outside the house in a flashy silver car, and she watched from the living-room window as he climbed out, looked up, turned to look down the valley, and then back towards the house. He stood there, hands on hips, the trace of a smile on his face, looking ludicrously boyish. His hair was cropped close to his head, the skin over his nose a little freckled, like he’d spent some time in the sun.
    When she opened the door, he looked almost as though he were surprised to see her, as though he’d been expecting someone else. He seemed lost for words. And she was taken aback, too, because he wasn’t what she’d been expecting. She’d read about his films and his success, she’d seen him ‘linked’ with any number of women and she’d expected him to be brasher, bolder, louder than the old Dan, and yet there he was, smiling diffidently at her, stumbling over his words when he said hello, shyly kissing