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‘Impressive. And how did you get into it?’
‘Like I said. Study and passing the qualifications. Then it’s all about gaining experience, learning useful shortcuts and so on. I enjoy it. Anyway, enough about work. What about your home life? Is there a Mr Athena?’
Given how enthusiastic he’s been sounding, I’m a little taken aback by the sudden way he’s just shut down and deflected back onto me.
‘Happily single,’ I tell him. ‘You?’
His eyes briefly cloud over. ‘Yeah, single too.’
There’s obviously more to this than he’s letting on, but I don’t want to pry.
He takes another mouthful of his wine and leans back in his chair. I’m still trying to decide what to say next when he speaks again.
‘Do you remember Jenny, from our year at school?’
I try to cast my mind back and an image forms of a slender girl with wispy brown hair.
‘Jenny the netball player?’ I ask after a moment.
‘That’s her, although she hasn’t been near a netball court in a while. Anyway, we were together for a few years, but it didn’t work out. We split a couple of months ago.’
‘Oh. I’m sorry.’
‘It’s life. Girl meets boy, they fall in love, move in together, do the kid thing and then find life is unbearably tedious. They argue all the time until…’ He stops speaking to stare into his wine glass.
‘Until?’ I prompt. I think I know where this is headed but I want to hear him say it.
‘Until one of them stops making an effort, forcing the other to involve a third party, leading to the implosion of the relationship due to irreconcilable differences.’
It takes me a moment to decipher what he’s saying but, in typically disappointing fashion where men are concerned, the answer is simple. ‘You had an affair.’
‘I know you think I’m a massive, selfish cliché,’ he says defensively. ‘But she was making my life unbearable.’ He leans forward and grins wolfishly. ‘On the plus side, I’m on the market like you, so…’ Again, he stops short but his meaning is painfully clear. The problem is I no longer find him remotely attractive. He’s just another disappointing man who couldn’t keep it in his trousers.
‘Excuse me,’ I say to him as I get up from the table. ‘I’ll be back in a moment.’
6
Thankfully, I’m the only person in the Ladies’. I have no idea why Trevor’s revelation makes me so angry. I guess it’s that I always thought he was one of the good guys, but no. The fact that he has a child that he’s dismissed so casually as ‘doing the kid thing’ just makes it worse in my eyes. And yet he still thinks I’d be interested in him after revealing all of that. I take a deep breath to try to steady myself and close my eyes for a moment, aware that I’m gripping the counter so tightly that it’ll leave marks on my palms.
‘Oh, hello, darling,’ my mother’s voice says, shattering my solitude. ‘Goodness, are you all right?’
‘I’m fine,’ I tell her.
She stares at me again for a moment. ‘Your hair doesn’t seem to have bleached your dress at least. How long do you think it will take for it to get better?’ she asks.
‘It’s not diseased, Mum! Anyway, Lucy says to let it start to grow out when I’m away, and she’ll start to blend it back towards my normal colour when I get back.’
‘Oh yes, your Cape Town trip,’ Mum says as she shuts herself in a cubicle. ‘Are you excited?’
‘I’m looking forward to it, yes.’
‘Maybe you’ll meet a handsome South African, although your father says it’s not at all as stable a country as one might think, so I don’t think we’d want you moving out there.’
Thankfully, she can’t see me roll my eyes. ‘It’s a work trip, Mum.’
‘But there will be evenings, weekends. You’re not just going to sit around in your flat staring at the walls, are you?’
‘I might.’
