Chapter 17
The picnic was in full swing, though there was no sign of John or Richard.
Brightly colored blankets were laid across the grass overlapping one another, anchored at the corners with tote bags, trainers, and coolers.
Everyone had brought a contribution: there were punnets of cherry tomatoes, store-bought dips, crusty baguettes, and wedges of cheese sweating slightly in the sun.
The air was full of chatter and laughter.
Shoes had been kicked off, and half-finished conversations drifted from one cluster of friends to another.
Elaine was passing around plastic cups and elderflower fizz, while Mark Patel uncorked a bottle of champagne.
It looked like every student picnic Chloe had ever been to, barring the champagne.
Sean was immediately intercepted by Matteo, who wanted to quiz Sean on getting his cousin work experience on a film set.
Chloe left them talking and headed over to Rob, who was helping Amara plate up some sausage rolls.
She smiled when she saw him, all her fond feelings returning.
Though she hoped his social battery was sufficiently charged to deal with all these people.
When Rob saw her, his eyes lit up, he shot her a beaming smile, then he stopped what he was doing and strode across the grass to meet her.
“You look radiant,” he said, putting an arm around her as they walked back toward the main group. “How did it go with Sean? Did you get to pitch him the script?”
“It was good, we had a good catch-up. But it didn’t feel like the right time to mention it.”
“Great,” he said, ever supportive. Then he leaned in to kiss her.
When she stepped back, she saw Elaine watching them, one palm pressed to her chest, making a doe-eyed “Aren’t they cute” expression.
Sean’s words echoed in her ears. Could there be a fairy tale that ended “happily ever after with her robot boyfriend”?
Because she liked having him around. She liked how he made her feel.
As she took Rob’s hand and they walked back toward the picnic rugs, she thought about going running with him in Richmond Park.
How safe she’d felt. She thought about how good it was to be the one in control, to know he wasn’t going to get angry with her, that he was on her side.
Because whatever these new feelings for John were, they felt unwieldy, out of her control. It didn’t feel safe.
Lorna and Harriet waved Chloe over to join their group on the far side of the rug.
Lorna had her hair in a ponytail and a pair of oversized sunglasses perched on her head.
She wore a crisp white polo shirt, and her long tanned legs stretched out beneath a fitted navy skort.
Harriet’s dark bob was pulled back with an Alice band, and she wore high-waisted black Lululemons and a loose gray tank top, falling off one shoulder to reveal a neon-yellow sports bra.
“Chloe, I was talking to Rob before you arrived, and I have to say it’s so rare to find a man so well informed,” Harriet said as they sat down. “Did you know he can recite every American president and every British prime minister, in order, and he didn’t even study politics?”
Mark Patel had come over to offer everyone champagne. He was wearing jean shorts and a T-shirt that read Never Trust an Atom, They Make Up Everything. “You got a photographic memory or something?” he asked.
“No, just good recall,” Rob said. “I guess it’s the way I’m wired.”
“Ha ha!” Chloe let out a high-pitched laugh.
“Oh look, someone brought a Colin the Caterpillar cake, I love Colin the Caterpillar, don’t you?
So retro,” Chloe said, anxious to move the conversation on from Rob’s uncanny intelligence.
“Rob, do you want to see if anyone has a knife, so we can cut up the watermelon we brought?”
“Sure thing,” he said, leaping up.
Harriet’s eyes followed Rob. “He’s so interested in everything, isn’t he?” she said, pulling a lip gloss from her purse, then slowly applying it. “I think your boyfriend might already know more than my husband does about the online diploma I want to do.”
“It’s like this in the beginning,” said Lorna, tugging at the top of her ponytail to make it tighter.
“They’re still in the first flush. Men pretend to be interested at the start.
When Matteo and I first met, he was so sweet, he sent an Uber to collect me so I didn’t have to walk to the station in heels. Isn’t that the cutest?”
“What, and he doesn’t do that now?” Salma asked. She’d been standing nearby and now sat down beside Lorna to join their conversation, helping herself to the elderflower fizz. She was wearing a long-sleeved blue maxi dress, cinched at the waist with a belt, and a pink hijab framing her face.
“We have a driver now, so…,” Lorna said. “But you know what I mean.”
“Lorna, I can’t believe you have two million followers,” Salma said to Lorna. “That’s nuts.”
“It’s not an easy thing to do,” Lorna said.
“You need to be committed. I wake up and do two reels before breakfast, which means full makeup, hair, a nice outfit—it’s a commitment.
Our house represents my brand, so it has to look immaculate.
Sometimes I just yearn to be a slobby housewife like everyone else. ”
“Thanks,” said Harriet, giving Salma a look.
“Not you specifically, your house is lovely, Haz. But you have children, so it’s not surprising that it can’t be spotless,” Lorna said.
There was a brief moment of silence, then Harriet picked up the bowl of strawberries beside her.
“Would anyone like a strawberry? They’re homegrown.
Everything is organic from our garden. My skin has improved so much since we started growing our own food.
I can send you a hamper if you like, Lorna? ”
Lorna gave her a tight smile and Chloe reached for a strawberry.
“Wow, these are the best strawberries I’ve ever had,” she said, trying to break the tension. “So, what are you up to these days, Salma?”
“I run a shipping company,” Salma said with a flick of her hand. “It’s a family business, so I had a head start, but I’ve grown it from ten thousand to thirty thousand employees in six years.”
“Wow, that’s incredible,” Chloe said.
“Yeah, that’s amazing, Salma,” Lorna agreed.
Salma smiled proudly, then turned to Chloe. “How about you, Chloe?”
“Oh, I work for a film company,” Chloe said.
“Which one?” Lorna asked. “Matteo knows all the big players, his brother works for Netflix.”
“McKenzie and Sons? You won’t have heard of them.”
“What have they made?” Salma asked. “We always have the TV on in the background at the office.”
“Probably nothing you’d know. It’s a small production house,” Chloe said, feeling her cheeks heat.
“Did you carry on acting?” Harriet asked. “You were so good at uni. I remember seeing you as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and thinking, ‘That girl is going to be famous one day.’ ”
“Thanks. I did have an agent for a while, but it’s hard to juggle a day job with auditions,” she said, feeling her chest constrict. “Never say never though, right?” Why couldn’t she just admit she had tried and failed? There was no shame in it. And yet, for some reason, she felt so much shame.
“I don’t know,” Lorna said. “Matteo’s brother says if you haven’t made it by twenty-four as an actress, you might as well give up.
Or wait until you’re in your Judi Dench era.
It’s different for men, they don’t have the same expiration date.
” Lorna pushed out her lower lip and reached to squeeze Chloe’s arm.
“You’ve got a lovely boyfriend though, haven’t you, so that’s something. ”
Thea strolled over with a plate of cucumber sandwiches, which she offered around but nobody wanted. “What are we talking about?” she asked, sitting down, adjusting the silk headscarf she had tied around her braids.
“Chloe’s yummy boyfriend,” Harriet said with a giggle.
“He really is great, Chloe. You must wake up every morning and pinch yourself,” Salma said, nodding her head toward Rob.
“You know, I think he’s the most attractive person I’ve ever seen in real life,” Thea whispered. “Don’t you think he looks just like that guy from Normal People?”
“Right,” Chloe said with a forced smile, her skin prickling with discomfort. This was what she’d wanted. It was the reason she’d brought him. And yet now, their admiration felt hollow. Having a nice boyfriend, fake or real, was not the metric she wanted to be measured by.
The conversation moved on to Thea, who talked about the challenges of juggling her well-paid law work with emotionally rewarding pro bono cases.
Then Harriet told them about all the sustainability ventures their cottage farm business was investing in.
Chloe listened, and nodded, and tried not to feel like the little kid at a party full of grown-ups.
Then Rob came back to join them with a plate of watermelon, meticulously cut up into identical-sized wedges.
“Wow, how did you do that?” Thea asked, leaning over to pick up a slice. “This is so neat!”
“Twenty-eight pieces,” he said cheerfully. “One for everyone here.”
Chloe eyed the watermelon, which looked like it had been dissected with a precision-cutting laser. She would need to talk to him about not doing everything quite so perfectly.
Then Chloe felt a prickle run up her neck, and when she turned around she saw John and Richard walking across the park toward the picnic party.
She felt her pulse quicken. She could see from the way his head was moving that John was talking to Richard.
She smiled, trying to imagine what they were talking about, tuning out the group’s conversation.
Rob reached to put his arm around her just as John and Richard arrived.
“Just getting a Coke,” she said, extracting herself, standing up, and walking over to the cooler. “Anyone want one?”