Page 53 of The Night Shift
‘Supper smells lovely.’ She smiled as he held her gaze. ‘What did you cook in the end?’
He drew apart from her and went to the oven, bringing out a large earthenware casserole dish which he brought back to the table. ‘Goulash,’ he said, lifting the lid with a flourish. ‘Well, strictly speaking, paprikash. It’s my dad’s recipe although Mum put her own English slant on it. You’re not the only one who has spoken to their parents today.’
‘Oh, is that right?’ she said. ‘God, that really does smell amazing.’ She breathed in the fragrant steam billowing from the open dish. ‘I’m ravenous all of a sudden.’
‘It’s lamb,’ he said, ladling out a hefty portion. ‘You said you liked lamb?’
She nodded, touched as she recalled him making a note of all her various dietary preferences earlier that day when he’d been planning what to cook.
‘And peppers, potato, paprika, bit of chilli,’ he said, dishing out his own portion. ‘It’s dead easy but really nice to have on a winter evening.’ He sat down and tore a piece of bread from the loaf. ‘You can just dig in– it doesn’t need to be eaten with any decorum,’ he said, dunking the bread directly into the stew.
‘Excellent.’ Violet copied him, soaking up the thick sauce with a chunk of bread and taking such a huge bite that a bit of it dribbled down her chin. She mopped her face with the napkin as Gus laughed. ‘Consider all decorum well and truly abandoned,’ she said once she’d swallowed her mouthful. ‘But it is absolutely delicious. Did you get the recipe from your dad? Is that the reason you called him?’
‘Yes.’ Gus poured her out a glass of water. ‘It was a nice excuse to call him. We don’t tend to do “chit-chat” on the phone. There needs to be some actual reason to speak to each other, information exchange.’
‘I’m a bit like that,’ said Violet. ‘No good at small talk, on the phone or off it.’
‘Well, you’d get on with my dad then,’ said Gus. ‘He is a man of very few words– you’d probably have terribly efficient conversations, no extraneous detail, just transfer of key data.’
‘Sounds perfect.’
He smiled at her. ‘So, yeah, I knew the recipe really, I’ve cooked my own version a lot in the past, but it was nice to be reminded.’ He looked shy for a moment. ‘And to tell him about who I was cooking for.’
She raised her eyebrows. ‘Did you tell him it was me? As in, not Amelia?’
He nodded, ‘I did. I told Mum as well. I phoned her first, obviously. She’d be livid if she thought Dad had found out before her.’
‘Did you tell them that you and Amelia… that you’re not…togetherany longer?’
‘I did.’
‘Did you tell them how long it’s been?’
‘I did,’ he said. ‘And strangely, Mum wasn’t that surprised. I thought I’d been doing this fantastic job of keeping it all a secret, plodding on thinking nobody had noticed I was no longer engaged. In reality I think she’s known all along. They sometimes surprise you. Parents. I suppose maybe she’s got experience of broken relationships. She can maybe spot the downward spiral before it’s become really obvious.’
‘Or maybe you’re not that good at lying?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘That’s where you’re wrong. Iamgood at lying. I’m very good at lying to myself and I’m supremely gifted at pretending everything is alright when in reality it’s falling apart.’ He smiled ruefully as he helped himself to another portion and Violet felt a brief flicker of concern at his open admission of dishonesty. Wasn’t this exactly the character trait she sought to avoid? But then, him talking like this was proof that hewasbeing honest with her,wasn’t it? It all seemed a bit too confusing to dig into now. ‘Anyway,’ Gus continued. ‘She was very excited to hear about you.’
‘Really?’ Violet wasn’t sure how she felt about this and her face, as usual, gave her away. ‘I hope she doesn’t end up disappointed.’ In her experience, meeting new people seemed to often involve high expectations, ones that she inevitably didn’t match up to. She hoped that Gus hadn’t over-sold her. Although maybe he wasn’t ever intending them to meet. She’d probably overreacted; likely he’d just said he was cooking dinner for a colleague and…
She looked at his face, his smile had dropped a little. ‘I’ve said the wrong thing again, haven’t I?’ Her response was reflexive. Generally if someone looked downbeat during a conversation with her it was because she’d screwed up.
‘No,’ he said. ‘You’ve not done anything wrong. I shouldn’t have been putting pressure on you like that. Talking about my ex-fiancée and following it up immediately with a comment about how my mother is now mad-keen to meet you– that’s just too full-on. Ignore me.’
‘Ignore which bit?’ Violet was feeling her grasp of the conversation slip away, there was an undercurrent of emotion behind Gus’s words that she couldn’t interpret. She tried again. ‘Do you mean, ignore what you said about your mum or ignore whatever I’ve read into that comment? Because all I meant about not wanting her to be disappointed was that she might be– when she meets me– if she meets me. Sometimes people are– disappointed I mean.’
Gus looked relieved. ‘Oh, okay,’ he said. ‘I thought I’d scared you off. I thought maybe you’d think I was some sort of clingy possessive type who was about to propose despite having only known you for five days. Whereas in fact, you meant what you actually said. Just like you always do.’ He offered her a second helping of beans. ‘Anyway, I can’t imagine anyone being disappointed when they meet you. You’re the exact opposite of disappointing– in fact, I’d call you “extremely satisfying”.’
‘You would, would you?’ She laughed. ‘I’ll take that.Violet Winters, Extremely Satisfying.’
He reached across the table and took her hand. ‘I don’t want to get too heavy,’ he said. ‘But it’s really nice, you being here.’
She blushed and looked down at her plate, unaccustomed to such direct compliments. ‘I really like being here with you,’ she said eventually. ‘I really do.’ And they both smiled inanely at each other for a few moments before returning to their meals.
‘So, tell me more about the conversation with your dad,’ said Violet. ‘When was the last time you’d spoken to him before today?’
Gus admitted that it had probably been months. He had spoken to his mother and sister on Christmas Day but hadn’t managed to get hold of his dad before the night shift started.
