‘So how was rehab?’ Jamie asked cheerfully.
‘Boring! Though I did have a little fling with a crackhead from Scotland – that was fun.’
‘You’re not supposed to get off with people in rehab,’ Jamie said. ‘Isn’t that against the rules?’
Sophie shrugged. ‘You have to do something to pass the time. So, Claire, where are you from?’
‘Dublin.’
‘Ah, lovely! I was in Dublin once. At least I think it was Dublin,’ she frowned, ‘but I was off my head, so whoknows? I had a pint of Guinness, though, so it probably was Dublin.’
‘You can get Guinness anywhere,’ Patrick pointed out.
‘True, but you wouldn’t get me drinking it. I must have been doing the tourist thing.’
‘Are you and Andy…?’ Mark trailed off.
‘What? Banging each other?’ She glanced at Andy. ‘God, no! I love Andy to bits, but we don’t fancy each other at all, do we, babe?’ she said to Andy, who shook his head.
‘Nope, not a bit,’ he said.
‘Andy was very sweet,’ Sophie said, ‘driving down to pick me up when I was sprung from rehab, when a certain other person seems to have forgotten my existence.’ Her eyes returned pointedly to Mark. ‘At least some people still love me.’
‘You know we all love you,’ Mark said blandly.
Ouch, Claire thought. That had to sting. It was such a brutally noncommittal reply to Sophie’s obvious fishing.
There was an awkward silence, broken by Olivia returning with the starters.
‘What’s it meant to be, Ol?’ Sophie asked, prodding the food suspiciously with her fork.
‘It’s tilapia in a chilli sauce.’
‘Tilapia is a white fish, isn’t it?’ Sophie frowned. ‘Why is this black?’
‘It has a dusting of cocoa powder,’ Olivia told her cheerfully, as she finished handing plates around.
Everyone looked at her in alarm and began poking tentatively at their food.
‘Well,bon appétit, everyone!’ Olivia said, sitting down and attacking her starter enthusiastically.
Claire cut off a tiny piece of fish and put it gingerly into her mouth. It was absolutely disgusting, but she forced herself to swallow it.
Sophie had no such compunction. ‘Ugh! It’s chocolate fish.’ She grimaced, pushing her plate away after one bite. ‘That’s vile, Ol!’
‘Claire seems to like it, don’t you, Claire?’ Olivia said.
‘It’s, um… interesting.’ Claire had managed to dig out some fish from beneath the cocoa topping and was valiantly chewing it. The rest she was trying to hack up and move around so that it would look like she’d eaten more.
‘No, she doesn’t,’ Sophie said flatly. ‘She’s just being polite.’
‘You don’t have to eat any more of it,’ Mark said to Claire. ‘It’s terrible.’
Thankfully, the next course of pork in vanilla sauce was marginally more successful.
‘Pork and custard!’ Sophie pronounced, and that was exactly what it tasted like. But at least the sauce could be avoided, and Olivia hadn’t added any ‘gourmet’ touches to the vegetables.
‘So, what’s the news?’ Sophie asked, as they ate. ‘What did I miss while I was in rehab?’
