A Kiss in the Dark by Cat Clarke Page A

fine
.

chapter fourteen
    It
was
fine, mostly. I negotiated my way round the risotto, telling Mrs McAllister that it was the tastiest risotto I’d ever had. This wasn’t even a lie, although technically it wasn’t the
whole
truth either. We drank organic elderflower cordial from wine glasses. Mrs McAllister drank the same as us – my mum would have been caning the wine, for sure.
    I left most of the talking to Kate and her mum. They had this big debate about the merits of vegetarianism, which seemed pointless because neither of them were vegetarians. When Mrs McAllister eventually asked for my opinion I came out with ‘Um … I can see both sides … but I like bacon,’ which made her roll her eyes and say ‘Men!’ with an exaggerated sigh. Kate grinned at me and I had to take a sip of cordial to mask my smile.
    Kate clearly seemed to think things were going OK.Occasionally her bare foot would brush against my leg, like a reminder that we were in this together. It was comforting. Mrs McAllister asked me a few questions. Nothing too tricky – what subjects I liked at school, what I got up to in my spare time. I answered each question honestly, which made me feel better about the whole situation. A couple of times I caught her looking at me weirdly – eyes slightly narrowed as if something wasn’t quite right but she couldn’t put her finger on it. But maybe that was just me being paranoid.
    When Mrs McAllister went rummaging into the freezer for sorbet for pudding, Kate scooted over in her seat and kissed me, slipping her tongue into my mouth. I pulled away so fast my elbow knocked my empty glass off the table; it smashed on the floor and Kate’s mum yelped in shock.
Great. Those glasses are probably family heirlooms – handed down over generations, priceless
.
    Mrs McAllister hurried over. ‘Oh my word! You nearly gave me a heart attack!’
    My face was red and hot. ‘I’m sorry, I …’
    Kate interrupted me. ‘I’m such a klutz! Sorry, I was just trying to help with the clearing up.’
    ‘Not to worry. I was due a trip to IKEA soon anyway. Just be careful of the broken glass.’ So it wasn’t a family heirloom after all.
    Mrs McAllister got out the dustpan and brush and started sweeping up the glass. I mouthed ‘thank you’ to Kate over the top of her head and Kate smiled sweetly. I didn’t feel bad about her taking the blame – it was her fault in the first place.
    We sat and ate our sorbet; it made my teeth hurt. Whenever her mum wasn’t looking Kate kept licking the spoon in a very non-PG sort of way. She was just joking around rather than trying to do a genuine porn-star thing … I think.
    After dinner we went through to the sitting room. The piano was definitely the focus of the room – the sofa was angled towards it instead of facing the TV like in a normal house. There were loads of pictures of Kate – one of them was a photo of the fattest, smiliest baby I’d ever seen. I made a mental note to tease her about that later.
    Kate sat next to me on the sofa. We were holding hands even though I really didn’t feel comfortable doing that in front of her mum. We’d been chatting for maybe two minutes when Mrs McAllister said, ‘Kate, why don’t you play something for us?’
    I could feel Kate tense up immediately; her hand gripped mine even tighter. ‘Oh Alex isn’t really into classical music, Mum.’
    I resented the implication that I was some kind of heathen. ‘That’s not true. I’d love to hear you play.’ The look on Mrs McAllister’s face told me that I’d earned a gold star. The look on Kate’s face told me I’d earned a black mark. So they pretty much cancelled each other out.
    ‘I don’t really feel like it. Alex, why don’t you tell Mum about that tour we did? She reckons she’d be too scared but I told her it’d be fine, wouldn’t it?’ Kate looked at me intently. There was definitely something weird going on.
    ‘Yes, yes, you can tell me all about that in a