Max’s eyes widened to comic proportions. ‘I don’t know why you’d think that.’
‘Well, she’s with a man and you’re not allowed to say anything and she’s hiding from me which would kind of make sense if she doesn’t want people to know she’s on a date.’
‘I think those things are circumstantial at best.’
She opened her mouth to ask more questions but Max mimed zipping his lips closed and throwing away the key so she didn’t. ‘You know I’ll find out.’
‘I’m sure you will but not from me.’
‘That’s fair enough. Right wish me luck.’
She plastered on a smile and walked over to the table. ‘Hello, I’m Alex.’
‘Oliver.’
Oliver didn’t stand up, didn’t even offer out his hand to shake like Dave had, although that was probably a bit too formal. His eyes were hard as if he was alreadyangry. Alex checked her watch to see that she was five minutes early so it couldn’t be that he was cross that she was late.
She sat down, already feeling uneasy.
Just then a man and a woman rushed past on their way out of the restaurant. The woman had her face wrapped in a scarf as if ready to face the Arctic so it was hard to tell who it was but the sweet apple-smelling perfume the woman was wearing was definitely the same as the one Violet usually wore. She glanced over to where she’d seen Violet a few moments before and sure enough her table was empty so it had to be her. Alex watched them as they hurriedly left. Clearly they didn’t want to be seen. The man however was definitely someone she’d seen at Henry’s funeral. In fact, she was sure he’d given a short speech about how wonderful Henry had been so he was obviously a good friend of Henry’s. Maybe it had been completely innocent and Violet was simply having dinner with an old friend. Maybe she didn’t want people jumping to the wrong conclusion and thinking they were on a date. Although Max’s reaction to her suggesting Violet was on a date was more than a little suspicious.
She turned her attention back to Oliver who was glaring at her.
‘I’ve just been looking at the menu. I think I’m going to have the prawns to start and then the mussels,’ Oliver said.
Her heart sank. Most people she met were really good about her shellfish allergy but some took offenceto it, lord knows why. She got the feeling Oliver was going to be the latter.
OK, she was going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he hadn’t read her text message properly. Maybe he’d misunderstood, although she wasn’t sure how she could have made it any clearer.
‘I’m not sure if you got my message but I have a shellfish allergy.’
‘That feels like your problem, not mine. How does your shellfish allergy affect me?’
‘Well it doesn’t, but probably around fifteen to twenty minutes after those prawns arrive at the table, I’ll be spending the rest of the night puking up in the toilets. It’s not much of a first date.’
‘You’ve got a huge sense of entitlement, telling me what I can and can’t eat.’
Her eyebrows shot up. ‘I’m not telling you what you can eat, I’m just politely requesting that it doesn’t contain shellfish or we’re not going to have much chance to get to know each other when I’m running to the toilet every two minutes to throw up.’
Although she already knew everything she needed to know about this man if he was going to get this angry over her shellfish allergy.
‘You know, people like you are exactly what’s wrong with the world,’ Oliver snarled. ‘You come up with these pathetic allergies and you expect everyone to pander to you. The world doesn’t work like that, sweetheart. The world is a tough place and you need to man up.’
‘Why did you come here tonight if my allergy was going to be such a problem for you?’
‘Because I wanted to tell you that you’re an entitled bitch and if I want to eat a prawn, I’ll eat a goddamn prawn.’
Alex had a sudden flashback to the night Liam had drunkenly come home from sleeping with another woman.
‘I’ve just shagged Michelle from the pub,’ Liam had gloated. ‘And I ate prawns and they were bloody lovely.’
She was surprised by how much that still hurt, the realisation that her marriage was over. She had stood by Liam because she’d promised to be there for him in sickness and in health, because the man she had loved was still in there somewhere, but she didn’t owe this man anything.
She was just about to stand up and leave when Max clamped a hand on Oliver’s shoulder. ‘You need to leave, right now.’
‘How dare you? My money is just as good as anyone else’s.’ He stood up to face Max and either he recognised him from his encounter with Cleo or realised he was only three-quarters of Max’s massive height but he took a step back.
Max took a step forward. ‘Get out or I will throw you out. Literally.’
