Graham presented my dinner with a deep bow, leaning in to loudly whisper in my ear. ‘Don’t touch his, I pished on it.’
‘Funny-looking vegan steak,’ Elsie said as he strolled away, the sight and smell of the succulent beef almost enough to bring me to tears.
‘I’m only eating the chips.’ I choked out the words, the thought of losing my precious hunk of cow making me shake with grief. ‘Both steaks are for Callum. He needs the protein.’
‘He needs a slap.’
She grunted into the pint of whatever it was Shiv put down in front of her when she returned from the bar, shuffling her seat as far away from Callum as she could without launching herself into the fire.
In my pocket, I felt my phone buzz.
‘I’m going to the loo,’ I declared, standing so quickly my chair almost tipped over. ‘Does anyone want anything from the bar while I’m up? No? Good.’
Hobbling down a passageway to back of the pub, I opened my texts to find a new message in the group chat.
Have they Wicker Man-ed you yet?
I shuffled down the narrow hallway, tapping out a furious reply, and pressed send. Filled with righteous anger at Elsie’s abhorrent behaviour, I forced open a heavy door, only to be spat out into the still and silent night. It was beyond cold, absolutely bitter, but the chill felt good on my rage-fired skin and I turned my face up to an endless map of stars.
‘Looking for an escape?’
Off to my left, emerging from behind a row of wheelie bins, Graham appeared, packet of cigarettes in one hand, lighter in the other. He held the pack out to me but I declined, shaking my head.
‘Hardly,’ I said with a smile. ‘Not in my line of work.’
‘Didnae realise massage therapists were particularly anti-smoking,’ he said, tucking both items back into the pocket of his apron. Even though it was well below freezing, he was still in his shorts and T-shirt, not so much as a goosebump visible on his skin.
‘Yes, very much so.’ I nodded feverishly, the tip of my nose already numb. ‘Lymphatic drainage and all that.’
‘Never had any trouble draining my lymphs.’
‘I can imagine.’
It was almost impossible to resist his broad grin and I was quite sure he wasn’t lying.
‘So,’ I said, trying to be tactful. ‘What’s the story with Callum and Shiv?’
He laughed, green eyes disappearing into full cheeks. Not so tactful after all.
‘You don’t mess about, do you?’ he replied. ‘Straight to the point, I like that. But it’s not my place. I don’t want to get into trouble with Cal.’
‘If he’s still in love with her, I want to know.’
If only to satisfy my curiosity, I added to myself.
‘Ahh, Caroline.’ He kicked a pebble and I watched it bounce along the uneven ground, settling at the edge of a dark puddle. ‘What makes you say that?’
‘Women’s intuition?’
He eyed the door behind me as though he was expecting someone to burst through at any second and catch him saying something he shouldn’t.
‘If he wanted to be with her, he’d be with her,’ he said. ‘Isn’t that what they say?’
‘I don’t know,’ I replied. ‘Is it?’
‘All I know is, Cal and Shiv were boyfriend and girlfriend before we even knew what it meant.’ He scratched the back of his neck, squinting as he spoke, as though deliberating how much of the story I needed to know. ‘Everyone around here thought they’d be together forever because they’d always been together forever, and nobody was more sure than our Shiv. I’ll never forget the look on Cal’s face on careers day when our teacher went round the class, asked everyone what we wanted to do when we left school, and Shiv said they were going to be laird and lady of Balmaclay.’
‘Wait, the McClays aren’tactuallyaristocracy, are they?’ I asked, suddenly feeling a little bit nauseous. What if it wasn’t just a turn of phrase?
