Errors of Judgment(25)

‘Julia,’ said Anthony.

Julia caught sight of Edward. ‘And Eddie, too! This is a regular reunion  .’ She kissed Edward.

Edward looked perplexed. ‘You only saw me last Saturday.’ He turned to Anthony. ‘Come on, Anthony, you can’t keep those chips in your pocket all night.’

Realising he had no choice, Anthony drew the two blue chips from his pocket and, after a moment’s hesitation, put them both on number five. Beneath Piers’ mocking gaze he felt out of his depth, regressing to the far-off student days when he’d had no money, no status, and no sense of self-worth in the company of well-heeled contemporaries. He was so busy hating himself for allowing Edward to bring him here that he didn’t even watch the ball as the wheel spun.

Then Edward was clapping him on the back. ‘Who’s the jammy sod now?’

A pile of chips was being shoved towards him.

‘Oh, well done,’ said Piers. ‘Now you can afford the taxi home. East Dulwich, isn’t it?’

Anthony ignored him. He pushed the chips back onto the baize. ‘Let it ride,’ he said.

‘Whoa!’ said Edward. ‘Don’t you want to split it?’

Anthony shook his head. As he saw it, the seven hundred he’d just won wasn’t his. The house could have it back. Everyone watched as the ball jumped and clattered, and just for an instant, to his own surprise, Anthony found himself wondering with a darting sense of hope whether the ball might not land on five again. Could he be that lucky? That would wipe the smirk off Hunt-Thompson’s face. But the ball came to rest on fourteen, and his chips were swept away.

‘I told you you should have split it,’ said Edward mournfully.

‘He’d started spinning the wheel,’ said Anthony.

‘Doesn’t matter. You can bet till the croupier declares the end of betting. You can place a bet and change it while the wheel’s spinning.’

‘How can you talk about splitting bets? You bet on nineteen four times in a row!’

‘Yes, but I know what I’m doing,’ said Edward gravely.

Anthony burst out laughing. ‘OK, Ed, tell me where I went wrong.’

Edward proceeded to explain the finer points of roulette, and the different types and combinations of bets. Anthony listened and learnt, partly out of a long-formed academic habit which made it almost impossible for him not to absorb information, and partly because he didn’t want to have to talk to either Piers or Julia.

After a while, when Piers and Julia had disappeared, Edward wandered off to the poker tables. Anthony stayed at the roulette table and watched the flow of play, and began to understand, with growing interest, the good and bad betting strategies. He’d known when he did it that putting that entire seven hundred on a straight-up bet had been stupid, but he hadn’t cared at the time. Now he began to regret it. He would do it differently if he could.

Piers wandered past. ‘Run out of money? I can make you a loan, if you’re hard up.’

The remark made up Anthony’s mind. He went and bought some more chips, two hundred pounds’ worth. He wasn’t a poverty-stricken student any more. He was a successful barrister with a healthy bank balance, and he could afford a few games of roulette.

At the end of half an hour, with a judicious spread of bets, Anthony came away four hundred pounds up. He was elated, pleased to have quit while he was ahead. Edward congratulated him, and Anthony went to the bar to order more champagne. He glanced at his watch. It was past one o’clock and he had a con at ten the next day. He should go soon.

‘Past your bedtime?’ murmured a voice. He looked round and saw Julia.

She set her glass down and leant on the bar. She was close enough for him to smell her perfume. ‘It really is good to see you after all this time. I mean it. I’ve often thought about you.’

She wondered if Anthony could tell how hard her heart was beating. It had been a genuine shock to her to see him here tonight. He looked so well. The same as ever, the same boy she had loved, but more assured now, an entirely different creature.

Anthony gazed at her for a long moment. It was true, that one’s early loves left the deepest and most lasting impression. Julia was strange and familiar all at once. Her blonde hair still curled into the nape of her neck in that little-boy way. Her eyes were still beguilingly blue, clear and bright, but their warmth and sparkle had faded to something less girlish.

‘I’ve thought about you, too. How you broke my heart and hung me out to dry.’

‘Sounds like a line from a song.’

He smiled. ‘It was all rather corny, wasn’t it?’

As he spoke, the girl in the silver-grey dress appeared at the far end of the bar. Anthony watched the way she shook back her dark blonde hair as she spoke to the barman, puzzled as to who she reminded him of. He touched Julia’s arm and nodded towards the end of the bar. ‘Who’s that girl?’