‘Yes, with a fork, but hold on! You’re inside George’s temple of George?’
‘See what you make me do? See how bad it is?’
‘What about your flight?’
‘My ride to theairport is waiting downstairs. So, in fact, I have to postpone the beheading.’ She grabs the scarf Charles left at the bar last night and clenches its ends together to form a thicker lash. ‘I’ll settle for flogging.’
‘Let me—’
‘Stop ducking!’
‘I’m sorry!’
‘Are you?’
‘I know I worried you and—’
‘Do you? Do you know, really?’
Charles was about to retreat behind the dining table, but the distress now tempering Elsy’s anger stops him.
‘I don’t think you understand what you did! Liv hit you with the darkest truth, that being drunk and livid at your father led Fred to… And you vanished! Drunk and with plenty of reason to be livid at your father! Thank god you don’t drive, otherwise...’ She covers her teary eyes with her hand. ‘You prick.’
‘Oh, Els… I’m so sorry.’
His heart cracking, Charles joins her and takes her in his arms. She knuckles his hip one more time, but lets go of her weapon to grip the back of his jacket.
George is in his armchair in front of the screen, where the teams are entering the football pitch. When their eyes meet, he shrugs with a moue that says, ‘She’s got a point.’
She does, yes, but Charles had never considered that Fred’s accident could add weight to Elsy’s concern for him. She wasn’t around when it happened. She composed a puzzle with everybody’s opinions, but she knew even less than Charles about the circumstances.
‘I’ll never do that again, I swear.’
‘I know. George will make a tracking chip that I’ll stick in your neckbefore I sew your ugly head back on.’
‘I will?’
‘Where were you?’ Elsy wipes her cheek and slaps Charles’ padded chest. ‘And what are you wearing, but where the hell did you go?’
‘I was… I went to…’ Charles coughs, his coherent explanation losing pertinence now that both his best friends are staring at him. ‘You know the rugby guy?’
George nods and shovels cereal into his mouth.
‘Who?’
Charles looks back at Elsy’s upset face and grasps for a non-existent pen in Loris’ jacket pocket. ‘The French guy who works at the North Haven.’
‘Uh?’
‘The day you went to the hospital, we met in a pub, and there was a guy behind the bar...’
‘Maybe?’
‘Well, he and I, we… We’ve bonded over shared interests and, last night, I needed someone neutral on the topic of my family, so I went to him. I was… I was with him.’
Elsy seems deeply confused, but she waves him off. ‘I don’t have time to discuss your secret friendships. I’ll do that with your headless body when I come back.’ She unlocks her phone and tugs him beside her. ‘Try to look cute and alive!’
‘Sorry?’
