Page 71 of Cover Story

‘Married, lives in the States, and you’renotgetting together with someone who would keep Connor Adams in my orbit,thankyouverymuch.’

‘Imagine if we did a retaliation selfie with them!’

‘My employment prohibits, I’m relieved to say.’

Tib Lane, a low-lit, unfussy yet fashionable ‘big plates and little plates’ restaurant had been chosen by Connor.

He was at the table, against a wall of copper-green distressed plaster, wearing a dark blue shirt, raising a hand to say ‘over here’, his chestnut-brown hair and strong bone structure immediately distinguishable and striking. Shilpa would gnash her teeth at the banned selfie.

‘Evening. Nice dress,’ Connor said to Bel, mildly, and if he was trolling her, it was too subtly done for her to tell. So, 1-0 Connor.

Bel carefully took a seat opposite Connor’s brother: shorter and stockier than Connor, with the same dark hair, cut shorter, and, she soon discovered, far more amenable. If he’d heard anything negative about Bel, it didn’t show.

His work in Washington was fascinating and Bel was soon deep into the intricacies of the US political system vs the British civil service, and the culture shock of marrying an American.

She’d thought Connor’s ‘alpha’ descriptor could mean ‘potentially overbearing’ but the only time she saw it in action was when Shaun said: ‘Shall we get the whole menu and see if there’s anything we want to reorder? Cool, that’s sorted.’

She wasn’t about to complain about the sort of commanding masculinity that ended up with double portions of Pommes Anna.

When Shaun went to the loo, Connor and Shilpa werein an involved conversation about how Shilpa wooed her ex-husband on a budget crossing to Berlin. The way Connor’s body language transformed with Shilpa into someone open and sweet-natured, who smiled easily and often, was truly enraging, Bel thought.

He was leaning back, absently ruffling his hair as he spoke, gurgling at Shilpa remarks. I mean, Bel fumed inwardly, I’ve never even seen that many of his teeth? Literally if not metaphorically. I’ve never seen his facedothat? Why did he only ever inflict sullen, guarded mode on her, specifically?

Connor unexpectedly glanced over at her and Bel was fully caught out, staring at him with an intent expression. He stared back, frowning: very clearly thinking something and communicating it. Bel felt a reverberation between them. The strange thing was, until now she’d have interpreted his expression as ‘don’t window shop what you cannot afford’ self-regard. But it didn’t feel like that. It felt like …?

Shaun returned. Shilpa went to the loo in turn, leaving the three of them together.

‘Fuck me,’ Connor said, looking at his phone. ‘Sorry, dirty laundry– but I’m quite drunk. I told my parents that me and Jen had separated. My mum wanted to text her to say she was sorry. I’ve had a message from Jennifer raging that I told my parents our decision was mutual. “To be clear, I didn’t want to break up and you did.” I didn’t tell them about the other guy or the nude she sent me, out of consideration for her privacy and image. And she’s got the balls to say I’ve defamed her by not saying I dumped her? Now I’ve got a message from my mum saying, “do I know how much Jen wants to make it work?”’

‘Jennifer’s actually given you a gift here,’ Shaun said.

‘She has? Enlighten me. It’s got a layer of wrapping.’

‘Can you have the slightest doubt you made the right decision? She thinks she’s a star witness for the defence but on taking the stand, ends up helping the prosecution.’

Bel laughed and then said: ‘Sorry,’ to Connor and Connor said: ‘No he’s right. I hate Shaun’s propensity for being right.’

‘You know, something I’ve discovered in life …’ Shaun said.

‘Here we go,’ Connor sighed.

‘Some people– and I don’t mean bad people, all sorts of people– have no interest in changing their behaviour in order to seek better outcomes, and the condition is lifelong. Once you realise you’re dealing with one of those people you can make an informed decision about how much energy to give them.’

‘I’m going to put that in my Notes app,’ Bel said, eyes wide.

‘Could I convince everyone to have a post-dinner cocktail?’ Connor said. ‘The bar here looks nice. Tell you what, I’ll see if there’s a table free before we move?’

‘I’m going to answer for Shilpa as a yes,’ Bel said.

He chucked his napkin down and stood up.

‘He’s not usually like this, you know,’ Shaun said, nodding after his brother, once Connor had gone round the corner. ‘In his attitude to the Manchester branch of your enterprise.’

‘How do you mean?’ Bel said, suddenly riveted. She’d never thought Shaun would break rank. So Connorhadbeen slagging the northern HQ, she might’ve known.

‘He’s not usually this closed-off and jaded. The real Connor is too trusting, if anything. He sees the best in people and tries to take on their problems and fix them. But he picked the wrong career and the wrong woman and it broke his spirit. You’re meeting him in the plaster cast healing mode. Actually,that analogy works well. He’s currently got a hard shell round him while the bones mend. But it’s not part of him.’

‘OK. I will bear that in mind,’ Bel said. She paused. ‘You mean there is a whole easier, parallel version Connor I haven’t met? Fuck.’

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