Page 115 of Where Do We Go From Here?
Wendy rolls her eyes. ‘I’ll let that one pass.’
‘So? Tea?’
‘Yes. Tea!’ she says.
Once she has assembled the lasagne and slipped it into the oven, she takes a seat at the kitchen table. Harry is reading something on his phone and above them the distant sound of Fiona’s music is making the ceiling thud.
‘What’s she listening to?’ Wendy asks. ‘… sounds awful.’
‘K-pop,’ Harry says, reluctantly lowering his phone then pushing it away from him and finally flipping it face down. ‘And you’re right. It’s awful. That’s Blackpink, I think. She’s obsessed. I would have thought she was too old for it, but hey, what do I know?’
‘Right,’ Wendy says, clasping her hands together. ‘So.’
‘So,’ Harry repeats, then, after a glance at Wendy’s mug of tea, ‘Actually, I wanted to ask you something. I don’t want you to think I’m on your case or anything, but I do kind of need to ask you about the drink thing.’
‘The drink thing?’
‘Yeah, are you, er…’
‘Am I what? Just ask, Haz. It’s fine.’
‘So are you, you know, drinking, now? Or not drinking?’
‘At this minute, I’m drinking tea.’
‘You know what I mean.’
‘Sorry. I do. And no, I’m not drinking.’
‘OK. Cool. It’s just… well… yesterday… I mean, I didn’t dare ask. And it’s fine, well, maybe notfinebut normal if you had one, at the airport, or on the plane, or whatever?—’
‘I didn’t.’
‘It’s just you did sound a tiny bit…’
‘Yes?’
‘…’
‘A tiny bit what, Harry?’
‘I don’t know,’ Harry says, with a shrug. ‘A bit slurry, maybe?’
‘I was tired, Haz. I was so tired I could barely speak.’
‘Really? That’s all it was?’
‘Yes, that really is all it was. You know I was up at six cleaning the place – which is five here. And then the flight was late, so I spent five hours in Nice airport. And almost another hour sitting on the runway. And then a bus andtwo trains and a taxi… So by the time I got here at midnight…’
‘I’m sorry I couldn’t come. But the car?—’
‘Yes, I know. It’s fine. But I was tired. I was very, very tired, that’s all.’
‘OK. So you didn’t drink at all?’
‘Harry, I haven’t had a single drop of alcohol since Boxing Day.’
‘Right. I mean, I want you to feel you can be honest with me, that’s all. I’m not asking you this in, you know, a judge-y sort of way. I just want to help. To be here for you.’
