I’d meant it sincerely, but the expression on her face made me swiftly walk it back. ‘You enjoyed it last time.’ I brushed my lips against hers, a rock in my throat. ‘Remember?’
She made a sound, somewhere between amusement and exasperation. ‘I’m being serious, though.’
A third kick to the stomach, even harder this time.How am I ever meant to take you seriously?
‘I have some… sensitivities,’ she said. ‘About being with someone who wants something else, while I have no idea. So please – promise me? That if you want to end this – that if you decide you want someone else – something else – you’ll tell me?’
There was only one thing I could say.
‘Yes,’ I told her, even though the words felt like the most astringent, heavy tannins in my mouth. ‘I promise.’
Chapter SeventeenFiona
Tasting today: 2019 shiraz, Barossa Valley, Australia.
If you want a wine so obvious it’ll slap you in the face, this is the one.
When I made it back to the lounge, Jonah had progressed from pale to sweaty. ‘Oh, thank god,’ he said, half-snatching one of the glasses of sparkling from the fresh tray of drinks that Satoshi had brought and swallowing half of it in a single gulp.
‘I don’t know what you’re so worried about, Jonah,’ Dad commented. ‘You’re already yoked to the woman. It’s too late for you to have cold feet.’ He picked up the glass of shiraz Satoshi had set down next to him, eyeing it critically. ‘Ice cubes?’
‘Of course,’ Satoshi replied with perfect poise and politeness, despite Dad’s excruciating rudeness. ‘Sorry about that. I’ll just get some for you.’
He put a lemonade beside Lex, handed me the other glass of sparkling, then disappeared. Dad harrumphed. ‘You’d think a bartender would be better at remembering orders.’
‘He’s not a bartender,’ I said. ‘He’s a sommelier. An outstanding one. He’s studying for the Master Sommelier exam – the hardest exam in the world.’
‘The hardest exam in pouring drinks, you mean.’
‘No. I mean the hardest exam in the world. You’ve probably supervised more PhDs than there are Master Sommeliers. There’s less than three hundred, total.’
Dad raised his eyebrows. ‘I know you’ve never been the brightest spark, Fiona, but if you’re trying to convince me that an exam in pouring drinks is more difficult than making an original contribution to human knowledge, then things are worse than I thought.’
‘Dad!’ Jonah and I both said.
Satoshi chose that moment to reappear, ice bucket and tongs in hand. ‘My apologies for the error.’
‘So I hear you’re studying for an exam, young man.’ Dad eyeballed him.
‘Yes, I am.’ Satoshi carefully doled out three cubes into his glass.
‘What about pouring wine qualifies you to recommend all these trashy books to my grandchild?’
‘Dad!’ Jonah and I said again, with Lex adding in, ‘Grandpa!’
‘Well?’ Dad demanded.
‘Satoshi, you don’t need to answer that,’ I said firmly. ‘You can go.’
There was a strange look in his eye as he said, ‘All right,’ and left, and it made me sick to my stomach. This beautiful man deserved so much better than being barked at by my dickhead of a dad.
He left. Dad shook his head. ‘Can’t even remember how I take my wine and yet you trust him with Lex’s reading.’
‘First of all, I’m the one constantly passing him lists of books for Lex,’ I said hotly. ‘So if you want to yell at someone because your queer grandkid is reading books about other queer kids instead of, I don’t know,Martin Chuzzlewit, you can yell at me. And secondly, you know why he forgot? Because that’s an idiotic way to drink red wine!’ I gestured at his glass. ‘Ice cubes? Really? Why not justask for a drop of wine with your water? And why the hell are you ordering massive slap-you-in-the-face red inTasmania? The best pinot noir in the country comes from here, and—’
‘Since when were you such an expert, Fiona?’
I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth. If Dad turned up his nose at the MS, then my pathetic little Intro certificate was going to mean nothing to him. I could just imagine what he’d say if he ever found out about my column.So, this is all you’ve amounted to, Fiona. Babbling on about drinks.
