Page 44 of The Monday Night Heartbreak Club
‘And how many of them are sitting around waiting for a man?’
Fraser yanked out his chair with a good deal of noise, and collapsed onto it. ‘They’re different. They’ve had blokes and had kids. The blokes have gone off, and my sister’s bloke died, so they have to work and stuff. Only my sister’s inside now, from doing the wrong stuff.’ Unconcerned, he sipped at his wine.
‘But your opinion has changed?’ Wren still sounded taken aback.
‘None of you lot are like that, are you? You’re women but you’re like proper people. You do stuff, like blokes.’
We sat in silent astonishment for a moment, before Flynn said, ‘Your mate Scousie, does he get out much, at all?’
‘He’s got a girlfriend,’ Fraser said, slightly defensively. ‘I mean, he’s never met her or anything, but only because she lives in Alabama, otherwise he definitely wouldhave done by now.’
The door opened and Annie came in. To our surprise, Eddie was with her, looking a wee bit downtrodden.
‘I’ve got some news,’ Annie said.
‘Bom dia,’ Eddie said, keeping to the ‘Portuguese evening class’ fantasy.
We chorused ‘bom dia’ back, even Fraser, who I was fairly sure thought it meant ‘let’s blow up wildlife’.
‘And what is your news, Annie?’ Margot said, sounding as though she were reading from a script.
‘Yes, do tell us,’ we all chimed in, likewise all quoting from a Miss Marple adaptation.
Annie came over and Eddie pulled her chair out for her, waited for her to settle herself and then pushed it in again. He leaned against the bar, trying to avoid looking at any of us.
‘Eddie’s told me everything,’ Annie said. We all shuffled our feet. ‘It wasn’t an affair at all, it was making sure that he didn’t tip over into active diabetes! Aren’t I a big silly? Fancy ever thinking that my Eddie would do a thing like that!’
There was much scripted-sounding laughter. None of us could look at any of the others, and Eddie was now carefully scrutinising the arrangement of glasses behind the bar. Eventually I said, ‘Oh, that is good news, Annie,’ and flashed the quickest of questioning looks at Eddie, who shook his head very slightly. It looked as though we were off the hook.
‘Yes, it’s funny really, he came home from work today and sat me down, said he had something to tell me and that he really joined the gym and changed his diet because he’d been diagnosed as pre-diabetic! Those days he took off were to have checks and things – but he hadn’t wanted to worry me, the daft ha’p’orth.’
Good. So Eddie had told Annie everything. I wondered how long it would have taken him if we hadn’t called him out.
‘So, I might not be coming to the Portuguese lessons again very often,’ Annie said. ‘I need to research his condition. To make sure that I know what he can and can’t eat, keep his weight under control, all that sort of thing.’
I was about to say that we didn’t need to keep the fiction of the Portuguese class any more, that Eddie already knew what we really were, but decided not to. How much Eddie told her about why he had finally come clean was up to him, so she still thought thathestill thought this was nothing more than a foreign language evening class. That was fine. Everyone saved face, all down the line.
‘But I would like to stay in touch,’ Annie went on. ‘Make sure that you all have your happy endings, like I’ve had mine. Er, I mean, when you go on those holidays you’re planning. And we’ve talked about so much other than holidays in Portugal, haven’t we?’ she added quickly.
I felt, rather than saw, Flynn look at me.
‘I’m all right,’ Fraser said. ‘I’ve lost two stone and I’m going into business with Minnie, training people who’ve never lifted more than a sandwich. After I gets back from, er, that place I’m going to in the summer.’ He finished, with a slight touch of geographical desperation.
‘Bruce has agreed to all my revised pre-divorce terms,’ Margot said. ‘Personally, I think he’d agree to anything if it means he’s free to get out and have sex with someone.’
Annie shook her head. ‘I didn’t mean like that,’ she said sadly. ‘I don’t want you to be lonely any more.’ An arch look. ‘After all, that’s what was behind us all joining the Portuguese speaking class, wasn’t it? Loneliness?’
Margot looked awkward. Fraser just beamed. ‘Ah, there’sloadsof women up the gym,’ he said happily. ‘I’ll be fine.’
‘Anyway.’ Annie stood up and Eddie pulled herchair out for her. ‘I thought I’d pop in and tell you, stop you worrying. We’re off out now. We’re going to the pictures, aren’t we, Eddie?’
Eddie, who was still clearly atoning for having upset Annie, nodded dismally. ‘Going to see a rom com,’ he said, in the tones of a person who is off to the funeral of a loved one.
The pair of them left, Eddie’s hand on Annie’s shoulder, steering her out of the bar and down onto the street. Flynn let out a huge sigh. ‘Thank goodness,’ he said. ‘I’ve no idea what the Portuguese is for goodbye.’
Wren dabbed at her eyes. ‘Is this the club splitting up?’ Her voice was a bit wobbly. ‘I mean, are we over?’
‘Not if we don’t want to be.’ Margot patted Wren’s shoulder. ‘We can still support one another.’
