Dinner for Two (Mike Gayle) by Mike Gayle

Author:Mike Gayle
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2002-08-14T14:00:00+00:00

things

Fran’s bored of Hampton’s so she’s taking me, rather aptly, to Freud, a small below-street-level bar in Covent Garden. As we walk we talk office gossip – which means Fran talks office gossip while I listen: Tina is thinking of dumping her boyfriend, Ellie apparently pulled a C-list soap star after a photo-shoot last week and Gina is getting married.

We reach the bar and go downstairs. There are three staff behind the counter and a number of couples and small groups of people drinking and eating. Fran and I order Cokes and a bowl of olives, then retire to a table opposite the bar.

‘So?’ says Fran. ‘To what do I owe the pleasure of your company this lunch-time?’

‘No reason.’

‘Yeah, right. Come on, out with it.’

‘Who says I want to talk about anything?’

‘I say.’

‘Okay, okay, okay. There is something I want to talk about but not yet. I need a while to warm up. In the meantime, what about you?’

‘What about me?’

‘I’m the Love Doctor, aren’t I? Haven’t you got a love dilemma? How’s things with Linden?’

‘He’s all right.’

‘Good.’

‘He’s asked me to move in with him.’

‘Congratulations.’

‘I said no.’

‘Why?’

‘Loads of reasons.’

‘Like?’

She sighs. ‘I don’t really want to talk about it.’

This isn’t like Fran. ‘Are you all right?’ I ask.

‘I’m fine.’

‘Are you sure?’

She laughs. ‘I can’t believe you’re the same grumpy music journalist who walked into Teen Scene.’

‘It’s just that—’

‘There’s nothing wrong, Dave,’ she says firmly. ‘I’m fine. I know I usually talk about everything but sometimes I talk too much. So I think it’s back to you. Come on, I know it’s to do with that letter. Has she contacted you again?’

‘I’ve got a confession about that. I’ve met her.’

‘But you told me—’

‘Yeah, I know. I’m really sorry. I suppose I’m a bit like you, really. It was okay talking about it when it was all theoretical but then suddenly I met her and . . . well, I couldn’t tell you. I couldn’t tell anyone.’

‘No one else knows at all?’

‘Apart from her, me and you.’

‘When did you meet her?’

‘Yesterday lunch-time.’

‘I thought you said you were just going out to get a sandwich. I’m pretty sure I would’ve remembered if you’d said’– she lowered her voice to a hoarse whisper – ’“Fran, I’m going out to meet my long-lost thirteen-year-old daughter.”’ She laughs. ‘So come on then, what’s she like?’

‘She was absolutely amazing. I mean there she was sitting across the table from me . . .’

‘What table?’

‘The table in McDonald’s—’

‘I thought you were getting a sandwich?’

‘I was and then she was outside waiting for me.’

‘And so you took her to McDonald’s? The first time you meet your estranged daughter and you take her to – and I’m guessing here – the McDonald’s at the top end of Oxford Street?’

I nod.

‘You really know how to treat a girl.’

‘I wasn’t thinking, was I?’

‘You can say that again. So what was she like?’

‘Amazing. Really amazing. And so smart, funny and sharp. Listen to me, I’m already sounding like a doting father.’

Fran smiles. ‘And she looks like you?’

‘I don’t know.

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