"Come in Mina" Harry smiled broadly as she accepted the bottle of wine offered to her
"My pleasure!" Yasmina returned the smile "I must say that I wasn't expecting to find you home alone when I rang"
"I can breathe without Dempsey being present you know" Harry protested
Yasmina noticed the subtle defence "'T' I hope you can't go the whole night without spilling a few beans" she challenged as she glanced around looking to see how much of Dempsey she could spot.
"Mina!" Harry exclaimed "I'm not telling you anything – it will be round the network before I have breakfast"
"Harry you're so…." She paused
"Boring" Harry suggested
"Private" Yasmina smiled and then sniffed very gently "You're cooking that Salmon and Fennel – I love that" Yasmina moved forward into the kitchen, come on I'll talk whilst you cook I've got a million and one things to update you on"
Harry grinned, at least tonight would be fun.
The two girls were on the cocktails and laughing at Yasmina's tales about the DeKindersley family.
"I'm so glad I didn't waste any more than two weeks of my life with that mistake"
"So what is James up to tonight?"
"I don't know"
"Come on – is it boys night at the pub, football, work? What's your guy doing?"
"I really don't know"
"You must have a clue – he's not washing his hair is he"
"Seriously I haven't the faintest idea"
"Seriously" Mina challenged
"Unfortunately" Harry acknowledged
"Well" Yasmina backtracked "like you said it's not healthy to live in each other's pockets"
But actually Harry was drunk enough for her crest fallen face to crumple
"Oh 'T'" Yasmina wrapped an arm around her shoulder "I just thought that things were going so well"
"Were is the operative word"
"Do you want to talk?"
"I don't know what to say"
"Well you obviously haven't completely split I presume those are his videos unless you are into American Cop Movies" Yasmina picked up the pile – the top two were commercial underneath she looked at the ones scrawled with Taxi season 4 1 – 6 and Taxi season 5 7 - 12
"We haven't split – we've even stopped arguing"
"Well that must be good" Yasmina suggested as she picked up Taxi season 4 7-12 and slotted that in the correct time order in her hand.
Harry pointed to the videos in Yasmina's hand "one of them has Judd Hirsch
talking about him and his girlfriend arguing because they care too much but breaking up because they don't care enough."
Yasmina looked confused
"At least when we argue there's passion" Harry stated
"Come on Harry you care and so does he"
"But does he care enough?" Harry asked plaintively
"What makes you think he doesn't?"
"Things have changed, in the past two weeks he's barely been here"
"And when he has been here?"
"We just eat and drink and watch something and go to bed"
"So suggest you go out"
"We can't be bloody seen out together – it ruins everything" Harry ran her fingers back through her hair: Twice they had tried the taking risks idea, that first time they had bumped into Dave, two nights later Chas had miraculously taken Alice out to L'Escargot for their wedding anniversary and ended up on the table next to Harry and James. It had freaked Harry out but Dempsey had handled things well and suggested to Harry that they leave Chas and Alice in peace and quiet.
"Sorry I remember now. So why not go down to Winfield Hall?" Yasmina persisted
"I dunno" Harry shrugged "I think he's bored with me"
"Have you asked him what he's been doing?"
"Yes, but he just says 'it's nothing' or 'trust him'"
"And do you?"
"What?"
"Trust him?"
"Well that's just it isn't it?" Harry looked distraught "I can't trust him can I? Or else I wouldn't be worried? If I trusted him I wouldn't ask him what he was doing – so he knows I don't trust him" she drew breath "only the strange thing is I do trust him – well I mean I'm sure he's not seeing someone else…" Harry waited for Mina to say something reassuring but Yasmina was finding it harder by the minute.
The silence hung – pregnant and waiting
Yasmina looked around the room, she spotted a mug sitting behind the sofa on the floor, a pile of old New York Times, a GQ magazine which she was about to pick up when she spotted a black sock tucked away under the skirt of the sofa.
She decided that things had probably just got comfy but there was no way Harry was going to accept any rational debate so she plucked a 'dig at men' joke out of her memory.
"There was this kid 'T' sitting watching his mum cook and as she baked he announced 'When I grow up I want to be a man' and his mum replies "Don't be silly you can't do both"
A glimmer flicked across Harry's mouth and Yasmina decided that it was time to hit the town. Fortunately because she was the worlds greatest gossip collector Yasmina prattled on forever and once distracted enough Harry shook off her despair and enjoyed dancing.
************
Dempsey whistled as he waved goodbye to Mimi
"Je voudrais t'inviter à venir à Paris avec moi" he yelled out to her
"Bientôt j'espère" she laughed back
He sprang into the driving seat of his car and repeated the same line to the air continually as he drove to Camberwell Grove. He felt as proud as punch; his French lessons had gone well, he would impress Harry.
He was disappointed to find her out, but he poured a beer and shoved a video tape on re read his sentence. He put the slip of paper down the side of the cushion on the sofa so he could find it if necessary. He finished the one beer and went for a second; as he passed his jacket thrown over the chair he picked it up and took out the tickets he had bought that afternoon. He smiled and took them with him back to the sofa and stashed them under the cushion as well, '"Je voudrais t'inviter à venir à Paris avec moi" he practiced
***************
As the taxi drew up to drop Harry off before taking Yasmina on to her flat they both noted Dempsey's car in the drive.
"Hmm I bet that's more socks stuffed under the sofa" she teased
"He takes them off when his feet get too hot halfway through the evening!" Harry explained
"Well why not go in and make him take a bit more off?" Yasmina suggested "It might be better than toe sucking"
"Yuck" Harry declared then burst out laughing "You have a terrible imagination"
"You have an unnecessarily morbid one sometimes" Yasmina ventured
Harry smiled "Maybe" she admitted "but we must do this a bit more often" she concluded as she climbed out of the taxi.
As she walked into the lounge Harry looked from Dempsey lounging on the sofa with his socks thrown on the floor to the TV where the opening credits of the next episode of Taxi were running. "How many times does he pass that same part of the bridge?" she asked rhetorically
Dempsey looked up "You're back" he surmised "where've you been?"
"Out"
"Out?" he echoed back searching for more information
"Yes Dempsey – out – where've you been?" Harry asked deciding to give nothing away and see how he liked it
"Out" he countered
Harry dug in, if he gave nothing neither would she "well I'm off to bed" she announced then glancing at the floor added "you'd better put your socks on before you drive home"
The sideball hit Dempsey hard, he had no idea where it had come from or what he had done to deserve it; he jerked upright.
"Excuse me?" he asked
"You can't just go awol halfway through the afternoon at work, then be absent all night and turn up here for a quick one before sleep"
"I wasn't out all night"
"For once, but I was Dempsey"
"Yes and I just asked you about that" he tried to work out what he'd done wrong but had no idea still; weren't you meant to take an interest in what your girlfriend did? Karen had told him to do so.
"You didn't answer my question" Harry returned to her point of grievance
James knew that all would be explained in about 30 seconds from now; he just wanted to get his well practised sentence delivered.
Without her question being addressed Harry watched Dempsey stand. She stooped and picked up his socks and passed them to him and turned and walked out into the hallway and upstairs to bed "shut the front door behind you" she instructed making her wishes obvious.
With all the wind taken out of his sail Dempsey dragged his socks over his feet, picked up his jacket and did just that.