Page 55

‘No idea. I’ve been trying to get my head around it ever since I first saw it. Is it an ice-cream maker, or a mini-fridge?’

She smiles. ‘Close, but no cigar. It’s an ice maker.’

‘What? Why would anyone need one of those?’

‘Umm, to make ice?’

‘How much is it?’

‘Two hundred and fifty pounds, give or take.’

‘For ice? That’s ridiculous!’

‘It’s a statement piece.’

‘It’s a nonsense.’

‘Go on.’

‘Firstly, even if you’re so lazy that you can’t be arsed to make your own ice⁠—’

‘Those little ice tray things are a pain.’

‘They are, but you can buy a bag of ice for around a pound. So you’d need to be getting through massive quantities to make that thing viable. Also, most of the people who can afford something like that probably already have one of those swanky American-style fridges that do it anyway.’

Trudi glances at her swanky American-style fridge and we both laugh.

‘Hmm. You might have a point,’ she concedes. ‘My turn to ask you a question now.’

‘Go on.’

‘You rejected pizza because you said you were on a low-carb diet, yes?’

‘Yes. What about it?’

‘And yet you ordered naan bread and Bombay potatoes with your curry.’ She narrows her eyes. ‘Something isn’t adding up here.’

Shit. She’s on to me.

‘There are different types of carbs,’ I tell her. ‘Some more, ah, complex than others.’

‘I would suggest that naan bread and pizza dough are fairly closely related.’

‘Fine. I just didn’t fancy pizza tonight, that’s all.’

‘So why not say that? Why shut it down so firmly with all that low-carb diet nonsense? What’s really going on here, Athena? Is it something to do with that guy you met in South Africa?’

I sigh. There’s nothing like a close friend to see straight through you.

28

‘Hmm,’ Trudi says when I’ve finished telling her about Nathan. This isn’t the reaction I was expecting.

‘What?’ I ask her.

‘Are you sure you’ve heard the whole story? I mean, by your own admission, you kind of cut him off.’

‘I’m sorry?’ We’re well into our third glass of wine now (the Chablis), so my inhibitions are definitely lowered and any attempt to keep the defensiveness out of my voice is failing. ‘Did you not hear the part where Nathan dumped his pregnant fiancée, for no reason beyond the fact that she was struggling with the pregnancy and not paying him as much attention as he wanted? And then, because he’s too much of a coward to face up to what he’s done and give her closure, he simply blocks her number? Not just once, by the way, but several times.’