‘S’true.’ He lifted his chin like a boxer, daring her to contradict him. ‘Everyone thinks you’re a right snob.’
Fliss gasped and as if Jason had scored a direct hit, uncharacteristic tears began to well up in her eyes. She pushed her tray of eclairs way from her and turned and fled from the room.
‘Blimey. She’s a bit sensitive,’ said Jason, warily looking at the others as they all turned to look at him.
‘And you’re totally insensitive,’ said Izzy. ‘Why do you always have to wind her up?’
‘Me wind her up? She winds herself up. She’s always having a go,’ Jason said, putting his hands on his hips, belligerent and defensive at the same time. ‘Come on, you know what’s she’s like.’
Meredith shook her head. ‘Jason, you’ve been very unkind. I think you ought to apologise.’
Jason rolled his head and turned towards Alan. He shook his head too. ‘Sorry, Son, you crossed a line.’
‘But she gets right on my tits.’
‘That’s your problem,’ said Hannah, with a rare flash of sudden intuition. ‘Not hers. You can choose how you respond.’ The rest of them might have found Fliss a little irritating on occasion but they’d all managed to keep it to themselves. They’d certainly not talked derisively about her in the way that Jason had intimated. Now Hannah felt desperately sorry for the other girl. God, it was almost like being back at school and being the only one not invited to join the new WhatsApp group.
‘I choose to call her out,’ he said, with a stubborn narrowing of his eyes.
‘And you think the way you did it was helpful?’ said Izzy.
He shrugged his shoulders and let out an aggrieved sigh. ‘God, women. It’s worse than being at home.’
‘Jason,’ Adrienne’s cool voice interrupted; she’d been watching and listening to the exchange from the front of the class. ‘I think you owe the pot three euros.’
He shot her a dark look but dug into his pocket and stomped towards the jar she held in her hand.
‘I think one of us ought to go and find Fliss, make sure she’s all right,’ said Meredith, looking at Hannah.
‘Me?’ She looked at Izzy, who grinned.
‘I think Meredith’s right. It’s a job for a lawyer. Someone who’s balanced and can see both sides of the argument.’ She pursed her mouth in an annoying prim line, belying her smug amusement.
Hannah did feel sorry for poor Fliss. Although she was quite prickly and very sharp-tongued on occasion, there was something underneath all that arrogant bravado.
With a resigned, ‘OK, then,’ she walked out into the lobby. There was a small cloakroom there which was typically Adrienne-style with soft blue towels, fresh flowers, and gorgeous-smelling soap as well as a pretty blue chaise longue. As soon as she pushed open the door she heard the sound of quiet sobs and there was Fliss, her head buried in her lap, her blonde hair spilling over her face.
She looked up as the door clicked behind Hannah.
‘What do you want? Come to gloat?’ Her woebegone, crumpled face made Hannah’s heart ache; Fliss looked all of her nineteen years old. The usual sophisticated sheen had been wiped away and she looked lost and defeated.
Hannah sat down next to her. ‘No one’s gloating. Jason was out of order.’
‘No, he wasn’t. He was right. I am an insufferable cow. I can’t help it. I try to get in before anyone else does, so they don’t put me down.’
‘Why would we put you down? You’re one of the best cooks here. Look at me, dunce of the class – I’m not going to put you down.’
Fliss closed her eyes and her mouth crumpled. ‘They do at home. All the time. Cooking’s the only thing I’m any good at.’
‘And darts. And billiards, I hear.’ Hannah gentled her voice, hoping she sounded encouraging and friendly.
‘Huh. You want to know why? Comes of growing up with four brothers who are utterly brilliant at everything they do. It’s a constant competition and I’m always the loser. Always trying to keep up with them. Ferdy still beats me at darts – he’s the youngest VP ever at some American bank; Johnny got straight As at school and a first at Cambridge; Eddie’s the explorer – he’s conquered Everest, Mont Blanc, and been to the South and North poles, and Barty was head boy at Harrow and is now training to be a QC. I’m the youngest. All I can do is cook. That’s why I came on the course, to learn how to be the best.’
Hannah’s mouth twitched as she remembered what Conor had told her.
‘What’s so funny?’
‘Nothing. I was complaining to Conor that I was bottom of the class and he said it wasn’t a competition. I hate being rubbish. I do understand, a little. At work I’m always the best; it’s not nice feeling that you’re useless compared to other people.’
