‘Excellent.’ Fiona shook their hands. ‘Mission command is putting her trust in you, agents. Don’t let me down.’
‘We’re thebestagents. Come on, Uncle Jonah!’
The twins each grabbed one of Jonah’s hands and towed him into the house. The glance he threw me over his shoulder was terrified.
It was probably because the expression on my face was somewhere between ‘if you leave me, I’ll kill you’ and a simpler ‘I’ll kill you’, but Fiona clearly interpreted it as fear of her daughters, because she only laughed. ‘Lex!’
‘What?’ came from inside the house.
‘Come here, please!’
Lex appeared on the doorstep a few moments later. ‘What?’
‘Let’s open negotiations,’ Fiona said. ‘If I was to bring home, say, two books for you, would you be willing to spend the next hour or so reading in the living room and making sure the girls don’t make Uncle Jonah want to run screaming into the night?’
Lex thought for a moment. ‘Three books,’ they said, ‘and you have a deal.’
‘Done.’
Fiona and Lex shook on it, then she turned her attention on me. ‘Come on, shiny new sister-in-law,’ she said, beaming. ‘Let’s go have a wine and a chat.’
I gritted my teeth and forced myself to smile back. ‘That sounds lovely.’
At least one thing went my way. Fiona was a talker. The bar she took me to was on the high street in Bellerive, about a ten-minute walk down the hill from her house (‘Walking down the hill is a lot more fun than walking up the hill, let me tell you!’), and she kept up a steady stream of chatter the whole way, pointing out local landmarks and places Jonah and I might like to get coffee or lunch or go on date nights. ‘There are a ton of cute places over here, but this one is the absolute best,’ she said, pulling open the door to the bar. ‘Most people think you have to go over to the western side of the river for nice bars, but this place has immaculate vibes.’
They wouldn’t be immaculate for long, if Jonah and I were to attempt something as ludicrous as a date night – screaming arguments tended to ruin the atmosphere – but I nodded politely.
From the outside, the wine bar didn’t look like much: just a simple tinted glass window in the little strip of restaurants, with the name – Tsundoku – engraved on it in flowing script.
Inside, though, it was a different story. The space was narrow but deep, bar on one side, a long single row of dark wood tables marching towards the back on the other. A tealight flickered on each of them, giving the place a dimly lit, cosy ambience. The chairs were a collection of mismatched leathers and velvets in browns and reds and greens and ambers, and the walls were lined with chaotically overstuffed bookshelves, the kind where you could entirely believe a rare, possibly cursed manuscript from hundreds of years ago might have languished, buried, until some plucky reader pulled it out.
It was a dark academia wet dream. Jonah would love it.
‘What do you think?’ Fiona asked.
‘It looks like your parents’ house.’
‘Oh God, don’t say that! I love this place too much for them to taint it.’
Well, this was an auspicious start.
I drove the pad of my thumb into my engagement ring and tried to pull myself together. This might be the most poorly timed casual drink in the history of the world, but Fiona wasn’t to know that. After all the shit she’d been through, the least I could do was not to ruin her favourite bar.
‘Sorry,’ I said.
But she wasn’t listening. ‘Satoshi!’
The man behind the bar turned around. Instantaneously, a broad grin spread over his face.
‘No!’ He pulled his glasses down his nose so he could exaggeratedly peer at her over the top of the thick lime-green frames. ‘It can’t be! Surely the long-lost Fiona Fisher has not simply walked into my bar?’
Fiona beamed as he came around to hug her. ‘I’m sorry it’s been so long,’ she said, laughing as he lifted her off her feet. ‘It’s just been impossible to get away, with the kids and everything.’
‘Not to worry. You’re here now.’ He put her down and turned his attention to me. ‘With a new friend!’
‘Sadie, this is Satoshi, one half—’
‘The better, more handsome half.’
