Page 49 of Mad About You

‘Is Marsha good?’

‘Shit hot,’ Roxy said, making as an emphatic face as was possible concurrent with a mouthful of vodka rigatoni.

‘You’re shit hot,’ Harriet said. ‘This seems like a good bet? Shit And Hot PLC.’

‘I don’t have any savings,’ Roxy said, which wouldn’t come as a huge surprise to her closest friends. Every year, Roxy and her sister spent a fortnight at the exclusive Nikki Beach in Marbella. When Harriet and Lorna nearly fainted at thecost, she saidit’s a signature white mattress resortwith poolside cabanas!and Lorna said, ‘Is it, aye,’ as if either of them knew what on earth that meant.

‘If we mess up, I literally can’t pay my mortgage,’ Roxy said. ‘I don’t mean “would have to wind my neck in”, I literally mean I literally couldn’t pay it. Literally.’

‘Could you tell her you’ll join her in a year, then save like mad?’

‘I could but to be honest, Marsha’s nobody’s fool and after a year, if she’s doing great she won’t want me as equal partner anymore. I can’t blame her; I’d be the same.’

‘Tricky. All I can say is in all the time I’ve known you, you’ve sold houses like they’re cold beers on the hottest day of the year.’

‘Aw, thanks Harry.’ Roxy smiled, but she still seemed slightly out to sea somehow, mind further away from the substance of their conversation than Harriet’s was.

Lorna conveyed by WhatsApp that Gethin’s companion Tom had to head back, but he and Ste might be up for a late one, Ste was waiting on a pass out.

‘Rox has to get off. Do you want me to find a reason to go with her?’ Harriet messaged Lorna, who replied from the kitchen:

NO NO NO. NO. x 10 NO. Plus I’d already said you could stay out. It’s a legal quagmire.

Unfortunately, Ste didn’t get his pass out and Harriet was left worrying she was a third wheel.

‘This place is out of this world, well done,’ Gethin saidto Lorna, once service had wound down and she was off the clock.

Gethin was easy to have around. He seemed far more interested in others than talking about himself, always a positive sign in a man, Harriet thought.

‘I can’t tell you how much I admire you for taking the plunge,’ he said. ‘While I’m still Mr “Have You Tried Turning It On And Off Again”.’

‘Thank you, I do love it. It’s not the whole life plan, though,’ Lorna said.

‘Oh yes?’ Gethin said.

‘At some point I want to buy a dilapidated rectory with acres of land, for a song. I’ll live in a motorhome outside in the grounds while I do it up.’

‘Oh no, not the dilapidated rectory. She’sthatmany drinks in, is she?’ Harriet said, and Gethin hooted.

‘The dilapidated rectory dream is real, you hater.’

‘Apart from the fact it’s a dream,’ Harriet said.

‘I would not live in a motorhome,’ Gethin said, and Harriet clinked glasses with him.

‘Nor would I, and pertinently, nor would Lorna.’

‘Are you DIY handy then?’ he asked Lorna.

‘Ish. No, not really. How hard can it be though? A few YouTube tutorials and I’d be rewiring a poltergeist-ridden castle, no problems.’

Harriet enjoyed watching Gethin respond to Lorna, impressed by her but not at all intimidated. Gethin eventually announced his intention to get home ‘before I disgrace myself’ and insisted he should leave cash for his liqueurs.

‘It’s on me,’ Lorna said, to his voluble objections.

‘Why should you pay?!’ Gethin said.

‘Because I’m rich and fun.’

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