I resist covering my ears with my hands and instead plunge my nails into my palms to quieten the fizzing.
Dolly flips through her notebook. ‘I can’t believe I missed out on hearing some genuine banality. Who was that?’
‘Billy,’ sighs Hannah C. with a swoon.
‘Sorry,’ I begin, my voice louder than I expected. ‘What are turkey teeth? I work on a farm and—’
‘No, not from a turkey. FromTurkey,’ insists Hannah C.
Hannah S. looks over to me. ‘I thought he meant the bird too.’
‘Well, turkeys just swallow their food whole, along with rocks, which help grind the food up in their stomach,’ I say, and realise with horror I’ve gone into fact-dumping mode. ‘Haha, or something like that!’
It’s too late. Everyone is confused.
Except Whit. ‘That’s incredible. You know, I haven’t taken stones out of anyone’s stomach yet. There was a big one in someone’s—’
‘Ireallydo not think we need to know the end of that sentence!’ cries Priya.
‘Booooo,’ calls Niamh, who I realise now is actually quite merry.
‘Thing is,’ continues Hannah S., ‘they never come with heads at Christmas, so how would you know?’
‘Could we move on from turkeys and whatever horrors Whit was about to unleash on us?’ Lina asks.
Priya sighs. ‘Well, Billy never mentioned teeth to me, so perhaps I have that to look forward to.’
‘It’s a bizarre thing to be obsessed with. He even asked what my favourite floss brand was,’ Hannah S. says.
‘Maybe he’s an orthodontist?’ offers Lina, who seems to have reluctantly accepted we are not moving on from teeth.
Bridget shakes her head. ‘No, that’s Whit.’
‘I’m training to be an orthopaedic surgeon,’ Whit sighs. ‘Bones, not teeth.’
‘Aren’t teeth bones?’ Hannah S whispers, and Lina shakes her head. ‘That’s not right, is it.’
‘No, that’s Malachi,’ says Bridget, who spots it when Whit bursts into a huge smile. ‘Oh hiii, we’ve got lovestruck here.’
Whit dips her head to hide her smile. ‘It was just a good first date.’
‘I thought he was nice too,’ says Priya, sipping her drink, and I feel weirdly annoyed that she’s ignoring our agreement not to talk about the good dates. ‘And Patrick.’
My stomach drops. Priya is a knockout. If the walls come down on date three and there’s a choice between Priya, a legitimate grown-up with thick flowing hair, or me… I’m not sure anyone would think twice.
There’s a hand on my wrist, and I glance up to meet Dolly’s eyes. Her gaze is electric, intense. I find eye contact uncomfortable at the best of times but, somehow, I feel safe lookingat her. I give her a small smile, answering the question I think she is asking me, and she pats my wrist as she sits back.
‘Patrick’s a bit too nice for me but wouldn’t it be lush being a doctor’s wifey?’ giggles Bridget. She looks over at me. ‘You’dsuit, I think, Carys.’
It feels a bit pointed, but I’m still glad for it.
‘Technically he’s a vet,’ I say.
Bridget waves it off. ‘That’s just details, babe.’
Whit laughs. ‘You might find you care more about the details when you need a surgeon.’
‘You say that but you human doctors only need to know people. Vets need to know all about the insides of cows and guinea pigs and chickens.’ Bridget places her hands on her hips. ‘Really I think people surgeons could work harder.’
