Tell Me Everything by Laura Kay

Author:Laura Kay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2022-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

‘What’s your plan for tonight, Pops? You’re not going to work all evening, are you?’ I say, swiping my phone off and putting it in my back pocket.

She sighs and takes a sip of her drink.

‘No, I’ll do another hour or so and then Felix is coming to pick me up. I’m going to stay at his again tonight.’

‘Are you guys OK?’

‘Fine!’ she says brightly in a way that suggests she really doesn’t want to talk about it. I suspect she wishes she’d never told me about it. That there wasn’t now a witness to their problems.

*

It’s a beautiful evening to walk and I have plenty of time. I’m aiming for ‘so late that it’s already started’ so I can creep in and stand at the back. As much as I’ve made a fuss about going, really I’ve been looking forward to witnessing Margot’s words, how she expresses her thoughts and observations to an audience. I keep replaying her saying, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about you. I want to know what she means. I can barely let myself think about how it would feel for her to talk about me this evening. Or how it would feel if she didn’t.

I order myself a large glass of white wine with extra ice cubes when I get to the pub. It’s quiet, a contrast to the garden and the street outside where everybody has taken their drinks, wanting to soak up the last few drops of evening sun. A couple of people head up some stairs at the back of the room and I follow them. It’s darker up here, and hotter. As I’d hoped, it’s already started. There’s a sweaty man on stage speaking with one hand gripping the microphone still in its stand. He seems to have about half the audience’s attention. He’s animated, telling a story about visiting his mother. Groups of people are sitting around tables chatting among themselves but there’s laughter too, he’s working hard to win them over. I survey the room from the doorway and instead of trying to find somewhere to sit I turn right and walk along until I’m in the back corner of the room. I lean against the wall and take a sip of my wine. The ice has already melted.

The set-up isn’t what I was expecting. The stage looks like the kind of thing we used for productions in secondary school, individual blocks that get put away afterwards. It’s dark up here, the shutters closed on all but one of the windows. There are fairy lights strung all over the ceiling and with the only other lights coming from the small bar the effect is really quite magical. I peer along the wall where I’m standing and there are lots of other people here alone sipping their drinks and checking their phones. I wonder if they’re about to be brave enough to bare their souls on stage or if they’re just here to witness someone else doing it.

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