Page 12 of You Lied First
‘Indeed,’ Guy says smoothly as he passes her a plate. ‘Do you want to try the flatbread? I’m pretty sure it’s nut-free.’
‘Pretty sure?’ Margot asks with one eyebrow raised. ‘Do you want me dead?’
‘Course not, Mar.’ Guy chuckles and shakes his head as he moves the plate away from her.
‘How do you know what to tell them, Mum?’ Liv asks.
‘Sara is a counsellor and agony aunt to Gen Zs,’ Guy says to Celine.
‘Well, some things are just common sense,’ I say. ‘If you listen to your gut, it really will guide you. But many people have got out of the habit of listening to it. They get egged on by others or are motivated by stronger feelings like greed or envy – or fear or anxiety – or they just react in the heat of the moment. They don’t tune in to their inner self, which would normally give them the right answer.’
‘Go Mum!’ Liv says, and I can see from the way she’s smiling that she’s proud to be the one whose mum’s a counsellor. Proud to be the one whose mum listens to her gut feelings and makes the right decisions – for once – and that makes me very happy. For the first time today I feel like I’m as good a mum as Margot. I look down at my food and I can’t stop a smile from creeping over my face. This is exactly why I agreed to this holiday. I may have preferred it to be just the two of us elsewhere, but if this precious time with my daughter helps me to earn back her trust, it’ll be worth it.
We eat enthusiastically, Liv and I exclaiming over the tastes and textures of the unfamiliar food and, as I finish the last bitson my plate, I lean back in my chair and groan, absolutely sated. I don’t even want to think about fitting into my swimwear.
‘I can’t eat another thing. But that was absolutely delicious. Great choices, Celine. Thank you. I feel well and truly initiated.’
Celine gives me a sunny smile. ‘You’re so welcome. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I knew we’d eat it all.’
‘Did you have any of the lamb?’ Guy asks and I shake my head. ‘No, I missed that one.’
‘Oh, you must try it. It melts in your mouth. I’ve never had lamb like it.’ He puts his fingertips to his lips and explodes them in a chef’s kiss.
‘I’m good, thanks,’ I say. ‘I don’t think I’ll eat again for another year.’
‘Come on! Try it!’ Guy spears a piece from his own plate and holds out the fork to me.
‘No. Really, I can’t,’ I say, but Guy leans over, presenting the fork to me the right way around so I have no choice but to open my mouth. As I do so, out of the corner of my eye I see Margot turn away, and it leaves me feeling dirty, as if I’ve just made a huge faux pas.
10
MARGOT
‘Right, straight home for a siesta?’ Guy says, rubbing his hands together as they leave the restaurant, but Margot’s not ready to go back to the villa.
‘The fish market – remember?’ she says. ‘I’d like to pick up some fish. Maybe for dinner.’
‘I can’t even think about food,’ Sara says.
‘Well, at some point tonight I expect people will start to be hungry and I imagine no one will want to go out for a nice dinner now,’ Margot says without managing to hide the edge of disappointment in her voice. ‘So …’
She starts walking towards the building that houses the indoor fish, fruit and vegetable market. She honestly doesn’t care if the others come inside with her or not; she needs a bit of time to herself after the circus that was lunch –Oh, you must try it.I’ve never had lamb like it. This is one of the things she’s looked forward to doing in Oman. She used to come here once a week to buy fish; she knew some of the sellers by name and they’d send her pictures of the morning’s catch if they got anything special. To this day, she salivates when she thinks about the fish; literally from sea to plate in hours. If everyone else is too full to eat tonight, she’ll slap it in a pan and enjoy it on her own.
Margot glances back towards the door – no one is following her into the market. She can see them standing around outside in the sunshine. Celine is vaping and they’re all laughing at something Guy’s said. As usual. If only they knew what he was really like. But, after all these years, Margot is used to the huge disparity between the face Guy presents to the world and the face he shows to her. Jekyll and Hyde.
Inside, the familiar briny smell of fish envelops her and she’s hit by the blissfully cool air. Margot takes her time browsing the vast steel sinks, taking in the huge variety of seafood on offer. She can identify Japanese threadfin bream with its pinky colour, mackerel, sardines, squid, kingfish and the local brown-spotted hammour, but some she has to ask about. In the end, she decides to plan as if the others will want to eat, and chooses a crowd-pleaser for dinner – sheri. Guy will no doubt insist on throwing it on the barbecue, and she’ll serve it with a salad. Tesco pasta sauce be damned.
She’s getting the fish wrapped and bagged when Sara comes up to her.
‘It’s amazing in here,’ Sara says. ‘So many fish.’
Margot gives her a tight smile. ‘Well, itisa fish market.’ She could say that the best time to be there is early morning when the fishermen unload their catches; that what she sees here is a fraction of what would have been on offer earlier in the day – but Margot is a woman of few words.
‘Do you know what they all are?’ Sara asks and Margot shakes her head.
‘Not all. But enough.’
‘What did you buy?’ Sara asks.
