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‘Any particular reason why not?’ Kate raised her eyebrows so high they disappeared underneath her fringe.
‘I don’t know what you mean.’ Sophie narrowed her eyes and spoke through clenched teeth, a warning to Kate to cease that line of questioning at once.
‘Did you hear about how the audition went?’ Kate asked, taking the hint.
Sophie had kept quiet about the email she’d received late Tuesday night. She was embarrassed to tell Kate that she’d been unsuccessful.
‘Lulu got it,’ she mumbled.
‘Ah.’ Kate smiled a smile of conciliation. ‘Well, Lulu was a Hollywood star.’
‘It’s true,’ Sophie said, laughing off the dull feeling of disappointment. If she was organising the concert – and she was – she’d probably have chosen Lulu too. Her name alone would get people through the door and they’d raise lots of money for charity, which was the important thing.
‘Are you sure that there isn’t any other reason you might be off dating?’ Kate said. She narrowed her eyes and pointed accusatorially in Sophie’s direction.
‘I thought we’d moved on from this,’ Sophie said.
‘You might have done.’
‘No. There’s no reason why I might be off dating.’ She painted on her best poker face.
‘Sophie!’ Kate said, a little louder.
Sophie blushed. ‘No!’ She laughed, knowing full well it would imply her guilt. She couldn’t help it; Kate’s third degree was making her squirm.
‘I think the lady doth protest too much!’
‘You made me protest by keeping going on about it!’
‘About what?’ Kate asked.
Sophie opened her mouth, nearly falling into Kate’s trap. She closed it again. ‘Nothing.’ She groaned and rolled her eyes, shifting in her chair to give herself something to do.
‘What about Liam?’ Kate asked.
There it was. The elephant in the room. Brash as ever, Kate said it outright.
‘What about him?’ Sophie asked innocently, her poker face back, but her mind was wandering. There had been a few occasions now when his eyes had caught her off guard.
‘Do you still fancy him? Even a little bit?’ Kate said, bringing Sophie back to their conversation and away from her scandalous thoughts.
Sophie screwed up her napkin and threw it across the table at her. ‘No. There’s no gossip here, if that’s what you’re after. It doesn’t matter how I feel. Liam Hawthorn is emotionally unavailable, he has a child and I’m pretty sure he hates me. So, however I feel, it doesn’t really matter, does it?’
‘So you do fancy him?’
Sophie shook her head. ‘Drop it, Kate. It’s never going to happen.’
‘OK.’
It always frustrated Sophie when Kate did that. An ‘OK’ from Kate was never the end of the conversation.
‘I don’t fancy him,’ Sophie said again. ‘I thought I might once, when it was possible the hideousness of the first date was a fluke. But since then, every time I’ve bumped into Liam Hawthorn everything has gone terribly wrong. I’m not sure that’s a good basis for any kind of relationship.’
Kate acknowledged her point with a nod and Sophie felt like she’d won – this round, at least.
Until from the table opposite, Liam Hawthorn put down his newspaper and stood up, wrapping his scarf around his neck.
‘Afternoon, ladies,’ he said with a smile as he squeezed past them to leave.
