Secret Smile Read Free Page B

'How did you two
meet?'
    'Oh,' she said, and glanced up at Brendan
sideways. 'By accident, really.'
    'Don't call it accident. Fate,' said
Brendan.
    'I was in the park after work one evening
and it started to rain and this man
    'That would be me
    Kerry giggled happily. 'Yes. Bren. He said
he knew my face. "Aren't you Kerry Cotton?" he said.'
    'I recognized her from your photograph of
course. Then there she was in front of me in the rain.'
    'He told me he knew you — I mean, he
didn't tell me about, you know — he just said he knew you. Then he offered to
share his umbrella
    'Like the gentleman I am,' said Brendan.
'You know me, Mirrie.'
    'We carried on walking together, even
though it was belting down with rain. We got wetter and wetter, and our shoes
were squelching with water.'
    'But we kept on walking through the rain,'
said Brendan and put his hand on her hair and stroked it. 'Didn't we?'
    'We were soaked through, so I invited him
to come and get dry at mine...'
    'I towelled her hair for her,' said
Brendan.
    'That's enough,' I said, lifting up my
hand, pretending to laugh. 'We'll stop with the getting dry, shall we?'
    'I can't tell you how relieved I am that
you know,' said Kerry. 'When I discovered about you two, well, for a bit I
thought it would ruin everything. I would never do anything to hurt you. You
know that, don't you?' She looked remarkably pretty: soft and slim and radiant.
There was a small pain in my chest.
    'You deserve to be happy,' I said, turning
my back on Brendan and speaking only to her.
    'I am happy,' she said. 'We've only known
each other for a few days, ten to be precise, and it's not been long since the
two of you — well, you know... So perhaps I shouldn't say this, but I can't
remember being so happy.'
    'That's good,' I said. Ten days, I
thought.
    We ate our meal, drank our wine. Glasses
chinked. I smiled and nodded, and said yes and no in the right places, and all
the time I was thinking. Trying not to think. Not to remember: the way his
tummy bulged slightly over his boxer shorts; the black hair on his shoulders...
    Finally I looked down at my watch and gave
a fake start of surprise at the time it was, though it was only just gone
nine-thirty, and told them I had to get back — early start tomorrow; long
drive, no time for coffee, so sorry... We had to go through the whole rigmarole
of saying goodbye, with Kerry hugging me hard and Brendan kissing me too close
to my mouth and I resisting the urge to wipe the dampness away with the back of
my hand, and everyone saying how we must meet again very soon, oh yes, how
lovely I'd been, how kind, how good.
    He walked me to the door of the
restaurant.
    'It's been raining,' he said.
    I ignored him.
    'It's an incredible coincidence,' I said.
    'What?'
    'I break off with you and a few days later
you meet my sister in the street and you start going out. It's hard to
believe.'
    'There's no such thing as coincidence,'
said Brendan. 'Maybe it's not surprising that I'd fall in love with someone who
looked like you.'
    I looked over Brendan's shoulder at Kerry,
still sitting at the table. She caught my eye and gave me a nervous smile and
glanced away. When I spoke to Brendan I smiled, so that our conversation would seem
friendly to Kerry.
    'Brendan,' I asked, 'is this some kind of
weird joke?'
    He looked puzzled and a bit hurt.
    'Joke?'
    'If you're playing with my sister as some
way of getting at me.'
    'That sounds pretty self-centred,' said
Brendan, 'if you don't mind my saying so.'
    'Just don't hurt her,' I said. 'She
deserves to be happy.'
    'Trust me. I know how to make her happy.'
    I couldn't bear to be with him another
second. I walked home through the damp streets, breathing in deeply, letting
the air cool my face. Had he really fallen in love with Kerry? Did it really
matter how they had met? I walked faster, till my legs ached with the effort.
     
     
    I often think of positions in families,
the difference it makes to you. Would I have been someone else