She sounds so posh, Tallulah thinks. So entitled. It’s almost impossible to imagine her as she is when the two of them are alone together.
‘Christ,’ says Zach. ‘Listen to them. Who do they think they are?’ He impersonates Scarlett under his breath, ‘It’s, like, the best.’
Tallulah nods and says, ‘Yeah. I know. They’re really annoying.’ Then she draws in her breath and says, ‘They go to my college. They’re all studying art. I think some of them used to go to Maypole House.’
‘That figures,’ he says. Then he gets to his feet and says, ‘I’m going to order. Want anything else to drink?’
She taps her fingernails against her champagne flute and says, ‘I’m good with this, thank you.’
He throws her an indulgent smile and then she holds her breath as he approaches the bar. He is standing inches from Scarlett, who has her back to him as she touches her debit card to the screen of a card reader. She waits for the receipt to roll out and then takes it from the barman. ‘Thank you,’ she says. Then she picks up her drink and turns, and now she is face to face with Zach, and Tallulah can barely breathe.
‘Sorry,’ she hears him say, bobbing to his right to let her pass.
Tallulah sees her smile tightly at him and hears her say, ‘No worries.’
As she passes Tallulah’s table on her way back outside, Scarlett stares meaningfully at her. She touches her breastbone with a fist and blinks. Tallulah nods and then looks away. Adrenaline is pulsing through every part of her. She swallows down some champagne to distract herself from the horrible sensation of her heart pounding beneath her rib cage. Her phone buzzes. It’s Scarlett.
You OK?
No,she replies.I feel sick.
You can do this. I’m here.
Tallulah types in a love heart and sends it, then turns off the screen and places her phone under the menu so that she can’t look at it.
Zach returns and takes his seat. ‘That’s the girl, isn’t it? From your selfie?’
She arranges her face into an expression of confusion, but she can tell it’s unconvincing. ‘Which girl?’
‘The one with scraggy hair. That was going on about rum. The one I saw you at the bus stop with that time.’
‘Oh,’ she replies lightly. ‘Yes. That’s Scarlett.’
‘How come she didn’t come and say hello?’
She shrugs. ‘Maybe she didn’t see me.’
He takes the champagne bottle from the bucket and tops them both up. Tallulah can tell that the atmosphere has already soured slightly, that a cloud has drifted across Zach’s burning sun of optimism.
‘Yeah,’ he says. ‘Maybe.’
They chat for a while about Noah, about Zach’s sister who’s just fallen pregnant with her first child, and thinks she might be having twins, but it feels to Tallulah that she is doing all the work, that Zach is elsewhere, and she knows where he is. He’s inside his head chewing over his brief exchange with Scarlett. Zach is very perceptive and he will have picked up on her energy, and now he will be picking up on Tallulah’s energy and he will know that something is not quite right but he will have no idea what it is.
Their food arrives and it is quite a spectacle: a white platter laid upon a brass stand and strewn with shiny necklaces of samphire and ruby-red pomegranate seeds.
They both say wow and grab cutlery out of a pot on the table, and then begin to dismantle the platter, but Tallulah has no appetite and takes an inordinate amount of time to unpeel a prawn.
‘Are you OK?’ asks Zach.
‘Yes,’ she says. ‘I’m fine.’
‘You’re not really eating much.’
‘It’s just a bit fiddly.’
‘Eat some chips.’ He tips a pot of massive, oily-looking chips towards her and she takes a few.
‘More,’ he says. And that edge is back in his voice. It is not a suggestion, but a demand. She takes a couple more and he places the chips back on the table.