Out in the street, Dil y produced her phone again.
‘Look at that!’
Tamsin stopped walking and took Dil y’s phone.
‘What’s up?’
A woman banged into them from behind.
‘Can’t you look where you’re bloody going?’
Tamsin took no notice. She stared at Dil y’s phone for several seconds and then she said, ‘What a complete jerk.’
‘He’s dumping me,’ Dil y said. ‘Isn’t he?’
Tamsin nodded slowly. Then she glanced up at Dil y.
‘You OK?’
‘Wel ,’ Dil y said, ‘I seem to be. I don’t get it, but I don’t feel anything much yet.’
Tamsin gave a sniff.
‘Of course, Robbie never liked him—’
‘Dad did.’
‘Dad liked anyone who was good company.’
She put an arm round Dil y.
‘Poor babe. Poor you. You don’t deserve this.’
Dil y said, her face awkwardly against her sister’s, ‘Should I do anything?’
‘Heavens, no,’ Tamsin said. ‘Good riddance, I’d say. Don’t you do a thing.’ She took her face and arm away.
Dil y said, ‘I don’t even know if I’l miss him—’
‘Good girl, Dil .’
‘But I’l miss having a boyfriend.’
‘There’l be others, Dil . There’l be real ones, like Robbie.’
Dil y gave her head a tiny toss.
‘I don’t want a boyfriend like Robbie.’
‘Even when you’re down,’
said sharply, ‘you can be such a little cow.’
Dil y took her phone out of Tamsin’s hand and began to walk away from her up the hil . Perhaps this was the time, the moment, for the tears to start. Perhaps now, with Tamsin’s self-absorption making her such a very unsatisfactory confidante, the usual wave of self-pity would come sweeping in, and she could give in to it, give herself up to it, and arrive home in the state that would at least ensure Chrissie’s ful attention for a while. She tried visualizing her own situation, her humiliation, her looming loneliness, even the appal ing prospect of inadvertently seeing Craig somewhere around, with someone else. She blinked. Her eyes were stil dry.
Tamsin caught up with her.
‘Dil —’
‘What?’
‘Sorry,’ Tamsin said, ‘this is so bad for you, so bad—’
‘Yes,’ Dil y said. They were negotiating the crossings at the top of Highgate vil age. ‘Yes, it is.’
Tamsin took her arm.
‘Wil you tel Mum?’
Dil y was amazed.
‘Of
Tamsin held Dil y’s arm a little tighter.
‘I’ve got something to tel Mum too—’
Dil y tried to withdraw her arm.
‘About Robbie?’
‘Oh no,’ Tamsin said. She was smiling. ‘Not him. About my job. Mr Mundy told me my job is safe. Quite safe, he said. No more money just now, but more responsibility. He said the partners felt they were lucky to have me.’
Dil y twitched her arm free. She thought of her phone, and its message. She remembered Tamsin in her headphones, being al lah-di-dah and self-important.
She said nastily, ‘He just meant cheap at the price,’ and then she broke into a run, to get down the hil ahead of Tamsin, to get home first.
She found Chrissie and Amy in the kitchen, looking at pictures on Chrissie’s digital camera. The atmosphere
