Page 29 of I Knew You Were Trouble

I glance at Willem and, somehow, he seems to understand without me explaining further.

‘Margot, how about you and I go for a walk?’ he suggests. ‘There’s an excellent café nearby. Great coffee.’

‘But…’ Margot holds up her unfinished coffee, then catches on. ‘Great idea,’ she replies brightly. She crosses to the sink where she deposits her mug. ‘Okay, Thor,’ she says, ‘lead the way.’

Willem’s head tilts in confusion. ‘Thor?’ he asks.

‘Come on, it’s uncanny,’ she says, as if it’s indisputable.

He laughs and they leave, then it’s just me and Adriana. Jon’s two fiancées.

‘Right,’ I say, ‘the proposal.’

‘Wait,’ she says, leaping off the stool. ‘Do you drink?’ she asks, opening a tall cabinet.

‘I do but it’s, uh…’ I glance at the clock on the oven. ‘It’s only 10a.m.’

‘So, too early for this, then?’ she asks, taking out a bottle of vodka.

I laugh. ‘Well, if Margot were here, she’d say no. But she lives on “Margot time”.’

‘Well, Kate, Margot isn’t here, so what doyousay?’

‘Oh, fuck it. Pour me a drink, then we’re swapping proposal stories.’

She quickly makes two vodka oranges and hands me a glass, then sits next to me at the kitchen bench.

‘Tell me everything. And if thatkankerproposed to you the same way he did to me…’

‘Is that the Dutch equivalent of arsehole?’

‘Kind of. It means “cancer”,’ she replies, her brows raised sardonically.

‘Right,’ I say. ‘Well, thekankertook me up to the top of the Shard – that’s the highest building in London and it has the most spectacular restaurant?—’

‘Mm-hmm. Sounds a lot like A’DAM Tower here in Amsterdam,’ she says, and I take her word for it.

I’ve barely even started and already I anticipate striking similarities between our proposals.

I’m right.

8

KATE

If I thought my life was like aBlack Mirrorepisode before, now it’s as if Yorgos Lanthimos turned his hand to romcoms. ‘Surreal’ doesn’t even begin to describe it.

As I listen intently to Adriana telling me about her courtship with Jon, I struggle to reconcile the Jon she’s describing with the man I know. There are similarities, of course – the most notable is that he’s attentive, yet loves her independence – but there are also glaring differences.

For one,herJon is a diamond dealer.

I already knew this from Willem, but hearing Adriana’s depiction of Jon’s intricate lies is another jarring reminder that this is really happening.

And commercial pilot, diamond dealer – two professions that couldn’t be further apart. From each other, or from the truth – that Jon is an idle, entitled toff, or what the Americans refer to as a ‘trust-fund baby’. An extremely wealthy man, who inherited everything he has and contributes nothing to the world but lies –andwith all his jet-setting about, a heavy carbon footprint.

‘I notice you’re not wearing your ring,’ I say when the opportunity arises.

Adriana glances at her hand. ‘Oh, I take it off when I go swimming or to yoga. It’s too…’ She wiggles her fingers as she searches for the right word.

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