Isla patted my hand again, clearly sensing I was halfway to another revelation. It gave me the last spurt of confidence I needed.
‘Maeve.’ I stared her in the eye. ‘I know about you and Rory.’
34
Two things happened at once. One, the waiter arrived with our food, not quite realising what he’d just walked into, arms laden with breakfast burritos and pancakes that I’d pretty much lost my appetite for. And two, Isla and Maeve burst out laughing, Isla wiping tears from her eyes. The waiter looked slightly afraid as he put down our plates.
‘Thanks.’ Maeve smiled at him, cheeks bright red. As soon as he walked away, she snorted again. ‘I’m sorry, Penny, what the fuck do you mean, you know about me and Rory?’
‘No, don’t.’ Isla clutched her stomach. ‘It hurts.’
I was completely and utterly taken aback. I’d expected anger, denial, and maybe a few tears at being caught out. I had not expected hysterics.
‘That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Sorry, Penny.’ Isla speared a banana slice with her fork, spilling over into more laughter and putting it down. ‘I literally can’t eat.’
Her quota for sympathy and understanding had clearly been maxed out for today.
‘Walk me through this.’ Maeve finally calmed down enough to eat a mouthful of eggs. ‘Walk me through how you got to this insane conclusion.’
I ran over all the concrete evidence in my head. Staying up late on the phone at night, touching his arm at the dinner table, going out for breakfast with a ‘friend’. Both of them going quiet when I walked into the room, and Rory being cagey about who he was dating. I reeled off each point, trying not to be distracted by Isla’s clear attempts to stifle back another outburst of giggles. Maeve’s expression had settled into one of disbelief.
‘Okay, so you’ve been putting these pieces together for how long? And you didn’t think to just ask me? What the hell? We’ve been best friends for eight years. I think I would tell you if something that momentous had happened.’ She took another bite. ‘Also, gross. He’s like my brother.’
Isla nodded. ‘A hot brother, in all fairness. He’s been working out, and it shows.’
Without warning, my mind wandered back to his hands on my shoulder this morning. What would have happened if we’d been completely alone?
‘Again, like a brother to me.’ Maeve was wrinkling her nose.
Focus, Penny. I willed the image of Rory’s arms to disappear. I seriously had a problem. My sex-supply being cut off after the Daniel/Michael saga was sending my hormones down a rabbit hole.
Now was not the time to be thinking about any of this.
‘But he was dating Maisy, and I thought that was code for –’
‘“I’m shagging my best friend”? Christ.’ She held up her hand. ‘We live together, how could I possibly have hidden that?’
This was it; I’d finally cracked. I was losing the plot. ‘Well, I didn’t think you were hiding it very well.’
She’d stopped laughing now, fidgeting with one of her earrings and looking rather pissed off.
At some point during the last five minutes, it had dawned on me that I was very, very wrong. One of my favourite things about Maeve was that when you asked her something directly, she very rarely didn’t give you the truth. Even when it came to outfits and you were already late. So now that she was point-blank denying it, even when I’d asked her outright, I believed her. And I felt mightily, mightily stupid.
‘If it wasn’t for Isla’s hen do, and the fact that this brunch cost an arm and a leg, I would be furious right now.’
I blinked back. ‘But you’re not?’
‘Oh, I am.’ She downed the rest of her cocktail. ‘But I’m trying to keep it in check. You’ve been so self-obsessed lately, Penny.’
Isla was no longer laughing, eating her pancakes and watching us both rally. ‘Come on Maeve, that’s not –’
I held up a hand. ‘No, I have.’
Right now, in the light of day, I could see it. I’d been so consumed by their maybe-affair that I’d missed a lot. About her work, about her personal life. I’d been so scared of what I might find if I dug a little deeper that I’d neglected to ask the right questions.
‘If you’d been paying proper attention to my life instead of being so unbelievably wrapped up in your own, you’d know that I actually leaned on him for support during my severely painful breakup. Remember that? And now, I’m actually dating a man I met off Level. Not one of my closest friends.’
‘Oh.’
She barked out another laugh. ‘Yes. Oh. You’ve been so tightly wound about whether the app actually works that you didn’t pause to ask whether it had worked for me.’
‘I didn’t even realise you were on it!’
She tapped her foot against the floor. ‘And whose fault is that?’
I thought back to my now not-so-concrete evidence. The breakfast date. The giggling at her phone. She was dating, yes, but she wasn’t dating Rory. And there was probably more than one person in the world that didn’t like hash browns.
‘I’m an idiot.’ I pushed my cocktail towards her as an olive branch. ‘Is it going well? Can I see a photo?’
She took a huge gulp of air, like she’d swallowed down what she had been about to say. I’d surprised her. ‘I like him. Level did a reasonable job. We’re a good match, I think.’
Well, there was a first fucking time for everything.
‘But I’m probably going to end it soon. It’s been fun, but it’s not forever.’ She pulled out her phone. ‘Just because I’m showing you this doesn’t mean I’m not still mad at you.’
Isla leaned in as we waited for her to pull up the photo. ‘We have to let her be in her Reputation era right now I think.’
All three of us burst out laughing.
