Connor increased the pressure of his thumb just fractionally, and Tess felt a shot of desire.
Maybe the only reason Tess had never cheated on Will was that she’d never had the opportunity. Actually, she’d never cheated on any of her boyfriends. Her sexual history was unimpeachable. She’d never had a one-night stand with an inappropriate boy, never drunkenly kissed someone else’s boyfriend, never woken up with a single regret. She’d always done the right thing. Why? For what? Who cared?
Tess kept her eyes on Connor’s thumb and watched, hypnotized and astonished, as it ever so gently grazed her knuckle.
June 1987, Berlin: U.S. president Ronald Reagan spoke in West Berlin, saying, “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
In Sydney, Andrew and Lucy O’Leary spoke quietly and with brutal honesty across their kitchen table, while their ten-year-old daughter slept upstairs. “It’s not that I can’t forgive you,” said Andrew. “It’s that I don’t care. I don’t even care.”
“I only did it to make you look at me,” said Lucy.
But Andrew’s eyes were already looking past her, at the door.
THIRTY-ONE
How come we’re not having lamb?” asked Polly. “We always have a lamb roast when Daddy comes home.” She poked her fork discontentedly at the piece of overcooked fish on her plate.
“Why did you cook fish for dinner?” said Isabel to Cecilia. “Dad hates fish.”
“I don’t hate fish,” said John-Paul.
“You do so,” said Esther.
“Well, okay, it’s not my favorite,” said John-Paul. “But this is actually very nice.”
“Um, it’s not actually very nice.” Polly put down her fork and sighed.
“Polly Fitzpatrick, where are your manners?” said John-Paul. “Your mother went to all the trouble of cooking this—”
“Don’t.” Cecilia held up her hand.
There was silence around the table for a moment as everyone waited for her to say something else. She put down her fork and had a large mouthful of her wine.
“I thought you gave up wine for Lent,” said Isabel.
“Changed my mind,” said Cecilia.
“You can’t just change your mind!” Polly was scandalized.
“Did everybody have a good day today?” asked John-Paul.
“This house smells of sesame oil,” said Esther, sniffing.
“Yeah, I thought we were having sesame chicken,” said Isabel.
“Fish is brain food,” said John-Paul. “It makes us smart.”
“So why aren’t Eskimos, like, the smartest people in the world?” said Esther.
“Maybe they are,” said John-Paul.
“This fish tastes really bad,” said Polly.
“Has an Eskimo ever won the Nobel Prize?” asked Esther.
“It does taste a bit funny, Mum,” said Isabel.
Cecilia stood up and began clearing their full plates away. Her daughters looked stunned. “You can all have toast.”