‘Who’s we?’ Anne asks, similarly taken aback.
‘Me and Cathy from the shop.’
‘But you’ve never travelled out of Australia!’ Anne exclaims.
‘About time she did, then,’ Brenda says. ‘When I went to Bali in my twenties’ – she says this as if her twenties were decades ago, but she’s only thirty-one – ‘I swore I’d partake in international travel every year.’
‘What happened?’ Richard asks.
‘Life took hold,’ she says, trying to project an aura of mysterious wisdom. Then: ‘Anyway, we should eat up before our dinner goes cold.’
And that’s the end of the discussion for now.
‘That went well,’ Richard says later when we’re in the truck on the way home. He rushed me out of there at four forty-five because the Australian Grand Prix is about to start and he’s a bit of a sports nut.
I look at him and grin. He smirks back at me. ‘At least they didn’t subject you to the Spanish Inquisition,’ he adds.
‘True. That’s probably on the cards next time.’
For want of something better to do I sit with him to watch the start of the race. I don’t mind Formula 1. Some of the drivers are quite sexy, especially that Brazilian Luis Castro, who’s starting from pole position.
‘Do you really not want a ring?’ Richard glances at me with a doleful expression on his face as the drivers set off on their warm-up lap.
‘No. Honestly, no,’ I assure him. ‘A wedding band will be fine.’
‘A wedding band with diamonds though – right?’ He smiles at me hopefully.
‘Yes.’ I smile back. ‘A wedding band with diamonds would be lovely.’
‘And what about getting married in January next year?’
‘The January that Sally’s going to Thailand?’
‘Or February, if we have to.’
I shake my head. ‘It’s too soon. Really, it’s too soon.’
‘We could have a winter wedding?’
‘No. Summer would be better.’
‘Spring?’
‘Summer. Summer 2011.’
He sighs. ‘Okay, then.’
‘Brenda will just have to suck it up,’ I add.
‘Indeed she will.’
‘Look, the race is about to start.’
And until sexy Luis Castro crosses the line in first place and snogs his annoyingly beautiful girlfriend, that – for the time being – is the end of the matter.
Chapter 17
Nathan and Lucy get back from their honeymoon on the same day that Josh arrives from Adelaide. He catches a taxi to our place.
