Page 17 of One Wild Night
Silly me, thinking that a trainee make-up artist would be a step up from me, a regular person with no training. Then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if Kitty had done a bad job on purpose, to make me look silly.
‘Are we ready to eat?’ Pat asks.
‘Jamie isn’t here yet,’ I point out.
‘Yeah, where is Jamie?’ Mikey enquires, his brow furrowed. ‘I haven’t seen him for hours.’
‘Do you know, I have no idea,’ Pat says. ‘I set him on with his chores, as I did the rest of you and, when I went back, poof, he had vanished.’
Pat says this with an eerie level of calmness, considering he just told us that our friend has vanished in a blizzard.
‘Dylan, doesn’t Nicole look pretty?’ Kitty says to him, changing the subject.
‘Yeah, really nice,’ Dylan says – an absolute lie – before turning his attention back to Pat.
Well, casually stating that our friend has vanished isn’t exactly something you just gloss over, is it?
‘Vanished?’ I blurt.
‘How long has he been missing?’ Mikey asks.
Mikey is definitely the responsible one – after myself, of course. I’m glad I’m not the only one concerned by this.
‘Oh, hours,’ Pat says. ‘But it was tiring work, that I gave him to do, so perhaps he’s asleep. I don’t imagine he’ll turn up for dinner. Come on, let’s tuck in.’
‘Yes, let’s not let the food go cold,’ Trish adds, taking to her feet, leaning over the large table to remove the cloches. ‘We thought, with you lot being our special guests, and having worked so hard today, that you deserved a special treat so, in your honour, we managed to rustle up some meat from somewhere.’
Her smile beams as she proudly uncovers the main event – the meat – all carved and ready to serve.
Dylan’s sharp intake of breath catches us all by surprise, as we all turn to look at him to see what’s wrong.
He looks white as a sheet as he stares over at the food in the centre of the table.
‘I know, impressive,’ Trish says, clearly misreading Dylan’s reaction. ‘I’ll be mother.’
Trish starts piling our plates high with meat, roasted vegetables and a healthy pouring of gravy. It smells delicious, but I can’t stop looking over at Dylan, trying to work out why he’s suddenly so freaked out.
‘Dig in,’ Pat announces as he eagerly grabs his cutlery.
‘We’re actually all vegetarians,’ Dylan blurts.
‘What?’ Trish replies. ‘You never said before?’
‘Did I not?’ Dylan replies. ‘Sorry, yeah, no, we don’t eat meat. None of us. We’re all vegetarians. Right guys?’
I cock my head curiously, unsure why we’re doing this, but he must have his reasons.
‘Yep, all vegetarians,’ I echo.
‘Well, that’s disappointing to hear, after all the effort we went to,’ Pat replies. ‘But I suppose you can just eat your vegetables.’
‘Yeah, sure,’ Mikey replies, trying to be polite.
‘No! No we can’t,’ Dylan quickly adds.
‘We can’t?’ I say and, again, it sounds more like a question than an answer. ‘We can’t.’
‘It’s contaminated,’ Dylan says. ‘By the meat. But, listen, you guys enjoy your dinner, we’ll give you a bit of space, and then we’ll come back in for dessert, okay?’
