But a wave of dizziness passed over her. She stumbled. Ket Siong caught her by the arm.
Nathalie said, “You need to have lunch. I cancelled the reservation at Roka—the Aldwych branch is closing soon anyway—but Mayfair’s open. How about it?” She held her phone up to show them the location of the restaurant on Google Maps. “It’s not far. Ten-minute walk, at most.”
Renee was aware of Ket Siong’s gaze on her. He said, “Do you feel up to it?”
“I can do a ten-minute walk,” said Renee, with dignity. Ket Siong nodded, letting go of her arm.
She found herself regretting the loss of his warmth. Maybe she should have toned it down with the dignity.
The walk to the restaurant and the wait for a table felt interminable. Exhaustion weighed Renee down.
She should have insisted on going home. She wasn’t hungry, and she was hardly going to be good company.
But that didn’t seem to bother Nathalie and Ket Siong. They chatted quietly together, as though there had never been any animus between them. Neither made any effort to involve Renee in the conversation, or asked her questions, save to check that the menu they chose was fine with her. She might not have been there, for all the overt attention they gave her.
It wasn’t how Renee had imagined this day might go. She’d been prepared to be the social linchpin, mediating between Nathalie and Ket Siong.
It took her a little while to understand that she was being looked after. It was a novel experience. She sank into it gratefully, if a little dubiously, like someone lowering themselves to a rickety chair they weren’t sure could bear their weight.
She felt much more human once she’d got some black cod and green tea down her. Renee found herself telling them everything—Su Khoon’s appearance at her office, his threats, her attempt to contact Jason.
Ket Siong listened with that stillness she’d never encountered in anyone else—a completeness of focus that was both soothing and a little unnerving.
Nathalie managed to contain herself while Renee was speaking, but she turned puce from the effort. Renee finally stopped because she was a little worried Nathalie might explode if she didn’t get to express herself.
“That douchebag!” Nathalie burst out. “I always hated that motherfucker.”
“Do you mean my brother, or Jason?” said Renee.
“Both of them,” said Nathalie. “But especially Jason. No, especially your brother. Oh, I don’t know who I hate more. I shouldn’t have given up smoking. If I had a lighter, I could have set fire to that shit’s hotel room.”
It was a little funny how differently she and Ket Siong were taking it. Ket Siong’s head was bowed. He was curling his right hand into a fist and uncurling it, over and over.
But when he looked up, his gaze was steady. He said, “Are you all right?”
“Yes,” tried Renee. Then, because if she didn’t say it, Nathalie would: “Not really. No.”
“I’m sorry,” said Ket Siong.
“It’s fine,” said Renee, though it wasn’t. She looked down at her plate, tears filling her eyes. She cleared her throat and said, “What are Thomas and Jeroen up to today?”
Nathalie told them, transitioning from there to general anecdotes about her son. Renee was used to people being tedious about their children, but Nathalie, of course, was not like that. Laughing over a photo of the destruction Thomas had wrought with Nathalie’s makeup stash, Renee suddenly realised she hadn’t thought about Jason once in the past half hour.
Ket Siong said very little during the meal. He mostly looked, mostly at her.
It was comforting. Renee was not prepared to think about what any of this meant.
Nathalie was not standing for such wilful obliviousness. After they settled the bill (Nathalie won the fight), she said she’d wait with Renee for her Uber. The moment Ket Siong’s tall figure disappeared down the street, Nathalie said to Renee:
“What is going on with that guy? He acts like he’s crazy about you back at uni and then you make out and he dumps you. Now he turns up and acts like he’s crazy about you again.”
She’d evidently been mulling on the problem throughout lunch and was desperate to hash it out. “I was thinking, do you think he has a split personality? Maybe it was Hyde who was into you, but Jekyll who broke up with you. No, Hyde was the evil one. I mean, Jekyll who was into you, but Hyde…”
“I know what you mean,” said Renee. “Ket Siong’s just a friend.”
“That is fake, though. You and Ket have made it up between you,” said Nathalie. “I thought he wanted to sleep with you and that was why. But now I have seen you together and I see I got it wrong. Obviously, he wants to marry you. What I don’t understand is why he didn’t go for it back then.”
“I don’t really want to—”
