Page 9 of We All Live Here
“Who?”
“The couple I was telling you about. We’re going to a hotel in Notting Hill. I’m quite excited.”
“Oh. Thethrouple.” Lila pulls a face.
“We preferménage à trois. ‘Throuple’ is a veryDaily Mailway of putting it.”
In the three years that Eleanor has been single she has been on some kind of sexual odyssey, happily taking herself off weekly for what she calls her “adventures.” It’s a lot of fun, she tells Lila. No hang-ups about relationships or whether your body is perfect or whether you have afuture together, all that stuff. It’s just having a laugh and some lovely sex. She wishes she’d done it years ago instead of hanging on with Eddie.
Every time Lila sees her now it is as if her friend is morphing into someone unrecognizable. “Isn’t it weird? I mean, do you have to work it all out beforehand? Who’s going to put what where? Or take turns?” Lila feels icky at the thought. She can barely imagine showing someone her naked shin, these days, let alone bouncing happily into bed with a pair of strangers.
“Not really. I like them, they like me. We just…hang out, have some wine, some laughs, have a nice time.”
“You make it sound like Book Club. But with genitalia.”
“Not far off.” Eleanor pops a piece of ginger into her mouth. “But less homework. You should try it.”
“I would rather die,” Lila responds. “Also, I can’t really imagine being with anyone but Dan. I was happy with him.”
“You used to tell me you didn’t have sex for six months at a time.”
“I hate your memory. Anyway. That was just at the end.”
Eleanor raises her eyebrows and obviously decides to let this pass. “I think you need some joy in your life, Lils. You need to have a laugh, get laid, get the softness back around those shoulders. You’re still pretty. You’ve got it going on.”
“I am not going to a sex party with you, Eleanor.”
“Go on the apps, then. Just meet someone. An experiment.”
Lila shakes her head. “I don’t think so. I will try to look less stabby, though. Oh, for crying out loud, how many times have we asked that waiter for the bill? Do I have to get up there and rip it out of his bloody hand myself?”
•••
Bill has steamedfish for supper. The fuggy smell hits her as soon as she opens the front door, and she stands in the hallway and closes hereyes, reminding herself that he is doing a kind thing, cooking for them. That their house will smell like Billingsgate Fish Market for another forty-eight hours is just an unfortunate by-product.
Just don’t let it be with lentils, she thinks, stooping to say hello to Truant who is greeting her as if she is the only safe person in the universe.
“Hello, darling. I’ve done fish and lentils for supper,” he calls out, turning to her in her mother’s apron. “I added some ginger and garlic. I know the girls say they don’t like it but it’s very good for their immune systems.”
“Okay!” she says, wondering if there is any way she can order a takeaway without Bill knowing.
“How was your day, Lila?” He is mixing a dressing for a green salad, and Radio 3 is humming away in the background. His shoes are glowing like conkers and he’s wearing a collar and tie, even though he has been retired for thirteen years.
“Oh. Fine. I met Eleanor for lunch, then had to go and see the accountant.” She doesn’t want to talk about the meeting with the accountant. Her mind had started up a low static hum as he had run through the columns of projected income and scheduled tax payments. “How was yours? Jesus—what is that?” She does a double-take at the picture resting against the worktop. It’s a semi-abstract painting of a naked woman. A woman who has the same gray ringlets and tortoiseshell glasses as her mother. “Please tell me that’s not…”
“…your mother. I miss having her around. I thought it would be nice to have her in the living room.”
“But, Bill, she’s naked.”
“Oh, that never bothered her. You know she was very relaxed about her body.”
“I can tell you now that the girls are not going to be relaxed about having their naked grandmother above the television.”
Bill stops and lifts his glasses from his nose briefly, as if this has onlyjust occurred to him. “I don’t know why you have to focus on the naked aspect. Really it’s more about the character within.”
“Bill, I can pretty much see everything within. Look, I know you miss Mum. Why don’t you have it in your room? That way it can be the first thing you see when you wake up in the morning and the last thing you see at night?”
He gazes at the image. “I just thought it would be nice if she was part of the family. Looking over us.”
