‘He doesn’t go to restaurants that are posh enough for a start,’ said Red. ‘And I can’t make one. I mean, I could try but I’m not into precision cooking.’
‘I could make one for him,’ I said. ‘I mean, I wouldn’t mind having a go…’
‘Really?’
‘How difficult can they be?’
‘Very,’ said Mary. ‘It’s getting the eggs right, they need to be exactly three days old and at room temperature. It helps ifyou are making them in a French farmhouse kitchen because of the thickness of the stone walls creates the perfect ambient temperature. And then it’s all in the wrist action...’
Red whistled, impressed. ‘How do you know this?’
‘I did a cordon bleu course in Paris,’ she confessed modestly. ‘Years ago. I do know how to make a few classic French dishes.’
‘Johnny Logan and soufflés. You are quitethe catch Mary Hooley,’ he said, teasing her.
‘I just happen to be a Europhile,’ she said. ‘I’m quite envious of my young cousin Lucy, living in Brussels, being at the centre of Europe,’ she said.
‘I think you might be getting Eurovision mixed with the European parliament,’ said Red, ignoring the reference to Michael. I wonder what he thought of him when they met. ‘Easily done.’
Mary laughed.‘Did you know that Red eats sweets in the cinema?’
‘What’s wrong with that?’ Red was laughing. ‘Anyone would think that there was something wrong with a small sweet now and then. Mary, however, frowns at anyone who dares to rustle a wrapper or crunch their popcorn. I bought some pick-n-mix and Mary almost fainted with shock.’
‘I never had you down as a pick-n-mix kind of person,’ she insisted,laughing. ‘I didn’t know that grown men atesweets.’
‘Sorry to disappoint you, Mary,’ he said. ‘Real men do eat sweets.’ He turned back to me. ‘Anyway, so I had to eat each one so slowly and carefully so as not to make any noise. I was terrified that I would be subjected to the Mary death-stare. In the end, I was sucking on them as if I had no teeth.’
They were both laughing now, behaving liketwo old friends. He was always good for a laugh, was Red.
‘A Bout de Souffle, next Saturday.’ Mary gathered up files and went to leave. ‘Don’tforget. Now, I must be off, and stop all this gassing.’ She turned to me. ‘Tabitha, I wonder would it be possible if I made a long-distance call? Just with the time difference and everything, I have to make it now. I can leave the money. I wouldn’t likeall our fundraising to go on phone bills.’
‘Would you like to use my office? For privacy?’
She hesitated. ‘No, no, it’s all right. It’s not a big deal. It won’t take long.’
‘Is everything okay?’
‘Oh yes.’ She smiled her bright efficient smile. ‘Everything’s fine. Just something I need to do… that’s all. I’ll be quick as quick.’
Before she left my office, I noticed that Red gave her a look,an encouraging ‘go on’ kind of nod. She gave a short tilt of her head and she was gone. Red knew what was going on, I realised.
‘So,’ I said, ‘what did you want to talk about?’
‘Annie.I was hoping we could perform some of the songs at the last school assembly.’
‘That sounds good. Who’s playing Annie?’
‘We’re working on it, everyone wants the lead role. I think I might share it out a bit.Have lots of Annies. Just need to buy a job lot of red curly wigs on eBay.’
I smiled, feeling better already. ‘Annie is theatrical catnip to girls. Annie is their Lady Macbeth, their Medea.’
He laughed. ‘Totally. I remember at school, we all wanted to be the Artful Dodger. All of us, practising our cockney accents in the playground. It was given to someone who didn’t want it. He wanted to beFagin and was furious. The rest of us had to be nonspeaking urchins. Hours of accent-practising wasted.’ He grinned at me. I found myself grinning back.
‘How’s your cockney accent now?’ I said.
‘As bad as it was then. No wonder I didn’t get the part. Dick Van Dyke’s was better.’
I laughed. I wondered if he and Mary would mind if I asked to go to the cinema with them. Maybe they would. Maybethey wanted it to be just the two of them. But… I couldn’t just be friends with Red. It wasn’t that simple.
