Page 72 of Cover Story
Shaun burst out laughing so loud it startled her.
‘He’s been that bad? I mean, he’s a bossy, opinionated little shit, that part’s forever.’
‘He’s not beenthatbad, and I wasn’t perfect either,’ Bel said, ‘I think because he didn’t want to come here, he took it out on us a bit. I mean he didn’t turn up acting like he wanted to make friends …’
‘Therefore he’s not made any?’ Shaun finished.
‘He’s got an ardent fan in Shilpa,’ Bel said, smiling.
She registered that with this new perspective, she felt strangely unsettled, without knowing why. Whoever Connor authentically was or wasn’t, he was a month away from being replaced, and forgotten.
40
‘Do you know about Connor’s colleague committing suicide? He leapt out of a window? He’d lost millions on a deal? Absolutely horrific,’ Shilpa said, as they tottered up Oldham Street, arm in arm, anticipating shoes off and kettle on.
‘Oh, yes. Have you been in your Emily Maitlis mode?’ Bel said.
Shilpa’s ability to turn small talk into a searching interview was well established.
‘You know that Connor wrote and delivered the eulogy to like, two hundred people? No one else at his company would do it because they were bastards and Eli wasn’t well liked. Connor did it for Eli’s parents and sister’s sake, and it was so moving and well written that everyone applauded.’
‘He told you this, did he?Bitself-aggrandising …?’
‘No!’ Shilpa said, genuinely stung on his behalf, ‘Well yes, in that I asked “what did they think of it” and Connor said: “I think it was OK because they clapped and cried but I’ve not been to enough funerals to know if that happens often.” He still goes to see Eli’s parents every couple of months.’
‘Hmmm. I’m glad if Connor Adams has a higher self– shame we’ve had so much of his lower self.’
Yet as she said it, Bel felt shabby. His brother’s input hadmattered. Even she had to admit at this point the books more than balanced: Connor might not be to her taste, but he had his virtues.
‘Why are you so hard on him?!’ Shilpa said, then stopped in her tracks. She turned to Bel, eyes wide: ‘Oh.’
‘What?’
‘Oh.’
‘Oh no– NO,’ Bel shrieked, seeing Shilpa’s sparkling delight. ‘No no no no. Shilpa. That is a conspiracy theory on a par with the CIA building The Pyramids.’
‘I can’t believe I haven’t seen it until now! You don’t hate him, you hate your boner for him!’
‘You are a rank fantasist and delusional romantic who has seenLa La Landway too many times.’
They resumed walking.
‘So if Connor said, “Isabel Hilda Macauley …”’
‘If you tell him my middle name I will fucking kill you, can we be clear?’
‘… if he said, “Bel, this pretending to be together. Turns out I feel it forreally real, I’m in mad love …”, you’d feelnothing?’
‘I’d think, all things considered, he was pranking me.’
‘Oh my God, stop dodging! If he just said, “OK, surprise, you’re hot, I’m hot, I’ve got an idea, before I leave,you bounce on it all night long” you’re telling me you’d feelnothing?!’
Bel flashed back to That Look earlier. Her insides started to liquefy. It felt like … a dare. He was daring her.
Bel cleared her throat. ‘It’d feel like being challenged to a duel.’
After Connor ordered the one-for-the-roads they’d regret tomorrow back at the hotel, Shaun said: ‘That was a greatevening, I don’t know what you were grousing about. Your journalist Girl Friday, “thorn in your side”, by the way? She’s dream woman material.’
