Never Tell A Lie by Gail Schimmel

Author:Gail Schimmel [Schimmel, Gail]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2021-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 29

She has tried to hide it with make-up, but when I see April for coffee on Tuesday, there is no doubt: her cheek is badly bruised. It takes all my words out of my mouth – all the words I’ve been carefully rehearsing to ask her about how much she drank and how she sometimes doesn’t seem to like me at all. All those words evaporate, because under a thick layer of base, there is a violent bruise on her cheek.

‘What happened?’ I say, before she’s even sat down.

‘What do you mean?’ she says.

‘Your face,’ I say. ‘What happened to your face?’

Her hand reaches up to the bruise.

‘Oh. That,’ she says.

‘Yes, that,’ I say. ‘What the hell happened to you?’

April sighs. ‘I’m so embarrassed,’ she says.

I feel like every nerve in my body is on high alert, ready for what she will say next.

‘I was really, really drunk on Saturday,’ she says.

‘No kidding,’ I say, but softly, and I’m not sure if she even hears.

‘And I fell. We saw you all off, and I was so relieved that it was over, and I turned around and basically fell up the stairs to the front door.’

That’s not what I was expecting. But it makes sense.

‘Are you sure?’ I say.

April looks at me hard. ‘I’m not the sort of drunk who has blackouts,’ she says. ‘I remember exactly what happened.’

I want to say that that was not what I had meant. But instead I just say, ‘Oh. Okay. It looks really sore.’

She touches her face again. ‘I guess,’ she says.

After the last time, when she spent hours apologising about nothing, I’m kind of expecting her to now apologise for what was very definitely not nothing. But she doesn’t mention her behaviour. She says, ‘Saturday was fun, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes,’ I say, although I’m not quite sure that is true, but what else can I say? ‘The food was really great,’ I add.

‘Oh,’ says April. ‘I had it catered in the end.’

I’m flabbergasted. ‘But all that planning,’ I say. ‘And all that angst. And you said that Leo wouldn’t let you. And there were no caterers in the kitchen.’ My voice is rising. I can’t help it.

April waves her hand in the air. ‘It was making me so stressed, Mary. And then I remembered your clever suggestion, and I just got them to deliver everything, and I put it on our plates and all that.’ She giggles. ‘I may have deliberately made things look less perfect.’

I’m speechless. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a dinner catered; not that I’ve ever had that luxury, but that doesn’t make it wrong. April and Leo can afford that sort of thing, so good for them. But I feel uncomfortable with the lying. I’m pretty sure if I had something catered, I’d tell everyone. Hell, I’d be so proud to have reached that level of sophistication that I would probably shout it from the rooftops.

Then I remember how Leo had complimented the food. ‘Did Leo know?’ I ask.

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