Monday, 26th April 2010

The Market Coffee House by Spitalfields Market is a good place for lunch, because you can't get any there. It leaves more time for conversation. I take advantage of this to challenge Bel as to how she could have been "meeting friends" twice now, and not come across anyone she liked. She doesn't hold out long against my line of questioning.

'No-one at all. Just one guy... he seemed to be staring at me from one of the other tables, every time I looked. I mean, every time. It was bizarre.'

Indeed. Mutual attraction, in a room full of single young men and women, split fifty-fifty. Who would have thought it?

'Question,' I say. 'Why were you looking at him in the first place?'
She shrugs. It doesn't seem she has any explanation. I provide one. 'I put it to you that you fancied him.'
'You weren't there. So you don't know.'
'Were you there, Bel? I'm beginning to wonder.'
'Not in spirit.'

I have sympathy for the mystery man already. My sister was stealing a look at him every three minutes, and won't admit there might have been any mutual attraction. This seems in character. Adonis could be pining in front of her and she wouldn't know it.

I tell her this. 'Adonis might be pining in front of you, and you wouldn't know it,' I say. 'You might be blind to your effect on others. Perhaps the one for you is out there, and you're spurning him? Is there no-one close to you that you might be taking for granted, maybe? Just a thought. I mean, you can be pretty picky sometimes, you'd have to admit...'

I stop. She started smiling when I began the monologue; the smile has been growing ever since. It leaves me slightly uneasy. When we were kids, that smile meant she knew something I didn't.

She changes the subject. 'So,' she says. 'This lodger of yours...'