Page 115 of Last Night

‘I might have been wrong about the affair, but fuck both of you, frankly,’ Hester says, hair tousled and eyes glittering. ‘You were never my friends and you’ve done nothing but undermine me and Ed.’

We stand and take it, blankly. She pulls her engagement ring from her finger, throws it on the table and runs up the stairs, her feet thundering like someone’s banging drums, Ed in close pursuit.

‘I deserved that, how did you deserve that?’ I say to Justin. I look over at Leonard on the chaise longue, who’s sleeping through.

‘Hester! Hester?’ Ed chases her across the landing. Justin and I listen with gritted teeth to his progress following her, trying to talk her down throughout her packing. Five minutes later, Hester exits the cottage like a blonde hurricane.

‘You had pints at lunch, are you even safe to drive?!’ Ed shouts, offstage.

We hear the roar of a car engine, the wheels spinning in mud and noise of an ex-fiancée, accelerating away.

Ed returns, eyes wide with shock, still bristling with the rush of the confrontation and the speed with which his engagement broke.

‘Have you made up?’ Justin says.

‘Ha ha,’ Ed says. He picks the ring up off the table and pockets it.

‘Speaking of which, I appreciate this is a lesser issue, but Hester was our ride home,’ Justin says.

‘Could ask if she’ll come back and pick us up tomorrow?’ I say.

‘I’m glad you two find this so bloody funny,’ Ed says, affronted, but without enough moral high ground to go for anger.

‘Sorry,’ I say.

‘Pardon us, we know you’ve had a time of it. But Eve and I got an absolute volley of verbals and I’ve had my birthday weekend annihilated, so I don’t think we’re without rights to find some laughter in this darkness?’ Justin says, with both self-control and an edge.

‘Yeah,’ Ed says, limply, rubbing his closed eyes. ‘Sorry. We’ve split up, anyway. As you may have gathered.’

‘She’s definitely finished with you, you don’t think you can mend it?’ I say.

‘No,’ Ed says, raising his embattled gaze to meet both of ours. ‘I ended it. It was about time.’

Neither of us know how to respond to that.

‘Justin. Can I talk to Eve, alone?’

Justin says: ‘Well, merry birthday, Justin!’ before adding: ‘Yes yes, I fancied a ciggy out on that bench anyway.’

He puts on his coat and bobble hat and picks up the discarded Moët.

‘I shall swig from the bottle, in the manner of a tramp who’s won the Pools.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Ed says once Justin has left. ‘That was one hundred per cent my mess and you got dragged by the hair into it. Sorry for the vicious things Hester said, she wasn’t herself.’

‘Ed,’ I say, in a polite tone: ‘I think you can afford to be honest about her not likingme, at this point. I think the cat’s out the bag. She was herself. Also, I’ll admit to never liking her in return. There. Sorted.’

He gives a rueful smile.

‘I don’t blame her,’ I say. ‘I think she’s justified in not liking me. I haven’t ever been her friend, that’s true. I was a menace to her relationship.’

‘That outburst wasn’t your fault. It’s been building for a while.’

‘Oh?’

Ed thrusts his hands in his pockets. ‘I don’t know if we should sit down. Feels stupid though, doesn’t it? Like I’m chairing a meeting.’

‘Standing’s fine.’

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