Page 21 of The Notecard
A pause. Silence.
‘Can I ask you a completely unrelated question?’ I say after a moment.
‘Sure.’
‘Why did you stop making music?’
He pauses for a moment, looks at me, and then he smiles a thin, uneasy smile.
‘It’s complicated.’
‘The truth always is,’ I reply.
‘I’d better get going. I have a date to get ready for.’
‘Good luck,’ I say, and realise straight away that saying good luck doesn’t sound right. It sounds weird. ‘Not good luck exactly. Good luck makes it sound like you’ll need luck or that you’re trying to accomplish something, and although Mum can be difficult, I don’t think she’s an achievement. Not that you’re in any way trying to conquer her. I just meant…’ I’m babbling nervously. ‘Have a good time.’
Michael smiles and then he turns around and walks out. He probably thinks I’m crazy, and maybe I am. I don’t know why I lied other than I didn’t want him or any man to date Mum. Which is ridiculous because she needs to be happy. She needs to have a life. Whether Michael is that man, I don’t know. At least Michael was brave. He asked Mum out. He knew he liked her and despite my best efforts to derail him, he still asked her out and then confronted me. You have to admire that. The courage and self-confidence. I like Meg, have no reason to believe she’s dating anyone, and yet I still don’t have the courage to ask her out. Despite looking old and past it, Michael is everything I’m not. Everything I wish I could be. Plus, he wrote a number one song in the Eighties, and that is pretty fucking cool.
Meg
‘Ican’t believe you almost died,’ says Keri. ‘And because of a grape. I’m literally never eating grapes again. Fuck grapes, and any other small fruit for that matter. Well, except strawberries. I really like strawberries.’
After Nick saved my life, I had to have a bit of a sit down. I was overwhelmed with emotion and in shock. It is shocking when something like that happens to you. But Nick saved me. He left soon after because it got a bit crazy in the flat. Hugh was bereft, Mum was in tears, and Laura started giving me tips on not choking, while Keri kept hugging me and telling me she loved me. Keri eventually made us all a cup of strong tea, and I gradually calmed down.
We’re in the kitchen and Keri’s unloading her shopping onto the side. She’s making dinner for Hugh. Poor Hugh is in the living room talking to Mum and Laura on Facetime. They’re grilling him about his comedy, and Mum is telling him about her upcoming date with Dave and how she’s worried about her underwear situation. I heard her say ‘warm custard’ twice and something about ‘waxing where the sun doesn’t shine’. Hugh seems like a sheltered sort of man. He might learn something about the female species from Mum. Not something he actually wants to learn. Perhaps Mum’s sexual habits, personal hygiene, and saggy breasts might be good fodder for his comedy.
‘What are you making? Is it another non-vegan vegan chocolate cake?’
‘That was delicious by the way,’ says Keri. It was surprisingly delicious. ‘No, I found a recipe for a Mexican dish that sounded perfect, but then I didn’t know if Hugh liked Mexican food. Not everyone likes Mexican food, do they? So then I thought maybe Italian because everyone likes Italian, but then I thought, like, Italian’s sort of boring when you think about it and that’s when I decided on Spanish.’
‘You’re cooking something Spanish?’
‘No,’ says Keri. ‘It all looked too hard. I didn’t even know what some ingredients were. Did you know that chorizo is a spicy Spanish sausage?’
‘Yes. So what are you cooking?’
‘That’s the thing. At first, I wanted to do something fancy, show off a bit, but then I thought to myself, Keri, why don’t you make him something that says you. Something that you love, that’s warm and comforting and really shows him what sort of person you are. A Keri dish.’
‘You’re making beans on toast, aren’t you?’
‘Not just beans on toast, but gourmet beans on toast!’
I’m afraid to ask.
‘What exactly is gourmet beans on toast?’
Keri smiles at me. A big, beaming, beans on toast smile.
‘Sourdough toast, one of the good loaves from that bakery around the corner. Homemade beans with bacon, two fried eggs, and some grated mature cheddar over the top. Oh, and some freshly chopped parsley. It’s next level BOT,’ says Keri.
‘BOT?’
‘Beans on toast, obvs.’
‘Obvs. Right. I’m sure he’s going to love it,’ I say, before I hear laughter. I walk into the living room where Hugh is doing one of his stand-up bits.
‘Oh Megs, you have to listen to this, it's so funny,’ says Mum from my laptop.
