“So what are you into,” James comes back to me, a while later. “If it’s not dead French painters?”
Again I don’t feel pressured by the question. In fact the opposite. There’s a real warmth to James now. It’s a little weird, given how cold he was earlier, but I’ve sort of forgiven it.
“Well I’ve always been really interested in Marine Biology,” I say. “I mean really interested.”
“That’s why you were in Australia, measuring the sharks?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve never been to Australia,” he ponders. “But that’s good. You’re lucky to have a passion in life, something of interest.”
There’s a silence, but Eric breaks it.
“These gnocchi are delicious Lily,” he says, holding two up he’s speared with his fork. “Beautiful balls of pleasure.”
The talk goes on, and though it’s mostly not about me, they each take care to include me in what they’re saying, explaining throughout the dinner what it is they’re studying, and some details about how they got to know each other. I learn they’re all at Harvard, and they’re all in their third year. Most of them are studying some variation of business, as in one subject with business as a second topic. All except Oscar, who’s doing computer science, though that’s about the only thing he says the whole dinner.
I get the idea that all of them come from families who run some sort of businesses, though they don’t say which ones. They ask about me, and so I explain how Dad also runs his own Whale Watching business, and how I helped set it up. They all agree that’s something they’d love to do sometime. Then I get invited to do what they’re into, play tennis at a country club, and even to go sailing on Lily’s father’s yacht, although they don’t actually set any firm dates. And all the while I’m trying to file away the information, and make sense of it.
After the pasta we have a main course (I didn’t actually realize the pasta balls weren’t the main course, until James and Jennifer took them away, and come back with chicken breasts, cooked in white wine). Then there’s a dessert, which is something called a Pavlova – I’d heard of it, but never had one before – it’s a kind of white crunchy stuff, with raspberries and cream – OK, but nothing special. But while we’re eating this Eric reminds me that I talked about catching murderers, as well as drug dealers, and I tell them about my old high school headteacher, who helped to murder her father and her brother, and how I caught her. After that I help carry the plates through to the kitchen where Lily loads them into the dishwasher, actually into one of them. There’s two dishwashers in this kitchen, which I think is a really good idea, just as long as you have enough dishes. But as I’m saying that to Lily I notice how her dress rides up her legs as she leans over, showing the bare skin. And I guess I fall silent. And then I look away when I realize Eric is watching me.
After dinner Oscar challenges me to a game of snooker. I don’t actually know the rules, but he explains it to me. I’m not too bad either, because I’ve played a lot of pool in my time, they used to have a table in the Surf Lifesaving Club in Silverlea. You have to clear all the balls, just like in pool, only in the correct order, and you score different points for the different colors. However, Oscar is quite a lot better than me, and after about ten minutes he has sixty points and I’ve still not got any balls in. So everyone else suddenly starts supporting me. Oscar pots ball after ball, but then he finally misses, and I get a turn again, and the others start banging the table and cheering me on. I feel nervous as I lean over the table to take the shot, but when I strike the ball I can see it’s going to go in, and when it does everyone cheers. Well everyone except Oscar.
He kind of smiles at me.
“Lucky shot Billy. I still win though.”
After that James grabs me, along with Lily, and says he wants to show me some of the paintings he was talking about before. A couple of them are on the walls, or copies of them, but mostly we look through some huge books in the library, and I can tell he’s genuinely interested, though I can’t really see the attraction.
At about midnight though, when we’re all in the sitting room that Eric showed me earlier, Lily gives a big yawn, and the others take it as a sign that the evening is over. We all say thank you to Lily, and I get another hug and a kiss, from her and Jennifer, and then we all leave together. Oscar and Jennifer turn right on the street, telling me they don’t live too far away, but Eric has already called an Uber, which he says I can share. Inside I want to ask more questions about everything I’ve seen, and just who they all are, but I remember his strange rules, and I guess they apply to letting Uber drivers overhear. So I don’t ask. And instead he drops me off, not letting me pay him anything again, and then the car drives away.
I’m still confused by everything as I walk back into my apartment. Confused and sort of on a high, not really believing or understanding where I’ve just been. There’s a light on in our lounge, and I go in to see that Jimbo and Guy are both up, rolling joints and watching something about dirt-bikes on TV. Our own kitchen/living room looks tiny, even though it’s quite a big room, with space for six people to sit down. And
