‘I just have to meet this Lucy girl now.’
‘She’s not met Lucy?’ asks Meg.
‘No. There needs to be the right time to release Lucy upon people.’
Meg nods in agreement. Linh looks over at me and studies my face. She does this a lot, searching for signs of my good health, but it’s always like she’s scanning my edges, as if she can see something I can’t.
‘Your face looks different. Are you having sex?’ she asks.
‘Linh!’ I say. We’re in a service station. There’s a man in a hi-vis jacket next to us tucking into a full English breakfast with an unhealthy amount of baked beans on his plate. I’m glad I won’t be in an enclosed space with him later on.
‘Your skin looks good,’ she mentions.
‘Maybe I’ve changed moisturiser?’
Meg can’t seem to hide her delight. ‘She is. She’s having sex with a man called Sam. He’s a dad at the school gate.’
I shake my head at my sister. This is not meant to be public information. This is also my daughters’ grandmother. I don’t want her to think badly of me or that I’m promiscuous or having sex to fill a gap, which is exactly what it is. I need to think how to reword that properly.
‘And how is Sam?’ she asks.
‘He’s well?’ I reply, knowing full well she’s curious because this man may be a future father figure to her grandchildren.
‘No, you dingbat. Like, how is he?’ she says, giggling.
‘I don’t want to talk about—’
‘Strong 7,’ Meg interrupts.
Linh looks disappointed for me.
‘Meg, I—’
‘But in other ways. How is he? Is he a nice man? Is he nice to you?’ Linh asks.
‘He’s…’ I don’t know what to say. ‘Nice’ is such a horrific way to describe someone. ‘Nice’ is a word to describe an attractive garden or a pleasant cup of tea. ‘Nice’ makes him sound smarmy or average.
‘He works in IT, he’s recently divorced with two kids of his own and he drives a Honda Accord,’ Meg reels off, excitedly.
I shift a look to my sister in disbelief. I know some of that information will have been procured from her and the sisters’ deep social media analyses.
‘Is he bald?’ asks Linh.
‘He has hair. He’s just—’
Before I have a chance to speak, Meg gets out her phone and shows Linh a picture. I hope it’s a decent one where there’s at least good lighting. Linh reaches into her bum bag to retrieve her reading glasses.
‘He has a good neck,’ she says. I guess a good neck is better than a bad neck or no neck at all, which would mean he’d just be chin and shoulders.
‘He’s a great guy. He’s just—’
‘Not Tom,’ Linh finishes my sentence and grasps my hand that much tighter. She still gets it.
‘He’s very nice to me. But he’s not ready, neither am I. The girls and I are happy as a threesome. It works.’
Linh for a moment seems baffled. ‘But it’s not the three of you, really?’
Meg nods, shrugging. The older lady has a point.
