141
" Neve knew that her flirting skills were so non-existent that they were invisible to the naked eye, but she was beginning to get rather irritated with Martyn from the subs desk. OK, she wasn’t Celia, but if he ever wanted to get inside Celia’s electric-blue jumpsuit, it might be an idea to get her elder sister on side first.
Still, he’d do to practise on, Neve decided. ‘What’s your favourite word, then? I think mine’s carbuncle. Or maybe bus-station. I can’t decide. Also, is bus-station all one word or should it be hyphenated?’
Now she had Martyn from the subs desk’s full attention. ‘Seriously?’
‘I just wondered,’ Neve said, and knew it would be bugging her for the rest of the evening until she could go home and checkthe Oxford English Dictionary. "
― Sarra Manning , You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
142
" Now that she knew she was boring and physically repulsive, even to a man who did spellchecking for a living, there was no harm in standing up and giving her tights and knickers a really good yank. Then she gingerly lowered herself back on to the sofa and stared at the toes of her black patent Mary-Janes until Celia and Yuri, her sister’s flatmate, sat down on either side of her.
‘How did it go with Martyn?’ Celia asked eagerly, replacing Neve’s glass, which she didn’t remember draining, with a full one.
‘It didn’t. Can I please go home now?’
‘I told Celia that it would never work with you and that sub-editor,’ Yuri said conspiratorially. Douglas, Neve and Celia’s elder brother, insisted that Yuri was the most terrifying woman in the world, which was ironic considering who he’d married. If Neve hadn’t seen Yuri in her pyjamas practically every morning as she came up the stairs to borrow teabags, milk and occasionally a clean teaspoon, she would have been terrified of her too. Neve had never met a Japanese person with an afro before, or one who sounded like Carmela Soprano, courtesyof the language school in New Jersey where Yuri had learned English. If Celia hadn’t come back from New York a year ago with Yuri in tow and Neve wasn’t Celia’s older sister, which according to Yuri automatically gave her ‘eleventy billion cool points’, Neve wasn’t sure that Yuri would ever have acknowledged her existence. Or happily list all the reasons why Martyn from the subs desk wasn’t the right man for Neve.
‘He drinks shandy and he sweats a lot,’ she finished scathingly. ‘Hey, Celia, Neve can do so much better.’
‘I just wanted to ease her in gently.’ Celia made her thinking face. ‘What about a male model? They’re not as out of reach as people think. Like, they’re dead insecure about their looks so the bar isn’t that high.’
‘Thank you very much, "
― Sarra Manning , You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
144
" Max had left a week’s supply of foul-smelling dog food and two pages of instructions about doggie daycare. Neve had expected advice about dog-walking, worming tablets and the vet’s emergency phone number, but it turned out that Max had a very dim view of her dog-sitting abilities:
• Do NOT let him in your bedroom.
• It also goes without saying that he is NOT to sleep on your bed.
• Do NOT let him in the bathroom. He’ll try to drink out of the toilet bowl.
• Do NOT feed him at the table. He eats dog food not human food.
• And do NOT give him chocolate. I’m serious. Human chocolate can make dogs very ill. Have left a bag of liver treats instead.
• He doesn’t like old men, especially if they have walking sticks or zimmer frames.
• He doesn’t like balloons, carrier bags or kites.
• Also avoid small children.
• A small child trying to fly a kite, while holding a balloon and a carrier bag in their other hand would just about finish him off.
By the time Neve went to bed that night, Keith had stayed in the bathroom while she had a shower (and tried to get in the cubicle to drink the water), because he’d barked and scrabbled at the door so hard, she’d feared for her paintwork.
He’d also had a piece of steamed haddock from her plate because she hadn’t been able to eat dinner without his nose in her crotch and his paw prodding her leg until she fed him.
Neve had secretly suspected that Keith wouldn’t have so many emotional issuesif Max refused to indulge him, but it turned out that she was the softest of soft touches, unable to wield any sort of discipline or say, ‘No, Keith, you have to sleep in the lounge,’ in an authoritative voice.
She’d lasted five minutes until the sound of Keith whimpering and howling and generally giving the impression that he was being tortured had forced her into the living room to pick up his bed, and his toys and his water bowl. But if he had to sleep in her room, then he could do it in his own bed, Neve reasoned as she sat up, eyes fixed on Keith. Every time she took her gaze off him and tried to read, he’d dive out of his bed and start advancing towards her.
‘Back to your basket, you wicked boy,’ she’d say and he’d slink away, eyes downcast, only to be given away by the joyous wag of his stumpy tale, as if it was the best gameever.
It was inevitable – as soon as Neve turned out the light, there was a scrabble of claws on the wooden floor, then a dead weight landed on her feet. ‘Bad dog,’ she snapped, but they could both tell her heart wasn’t in it. Besides, if Keith stayed at the bottom of the bed, he could double up as a hot-water bottle.
Keith had other ideas. He wriggled up the bed on his belly as if he was being stealthy and settled down next to Neve, batting his paws against her back until she was shoved right over and he could put his head on her pillow and pant hot doggy breath against her face.
‘Celia was right,’ Neve grumbled. ‘You are a devil dog. "
― Sarra Manning , You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
146
" Summoning up every last ounce of courage she possessed, Neve glanced at Max; even the sight of his wonky nose in profile made her want to catch her breath. Instead of lying in bed listening to her stomach roar, she should have been composing a ‘For the love of God, will you have me back?’ speech in her head so that …
‘What happened to your toe?’ Max asked eventually.
‘My bike fell on to my foot. I’m hoping if I keep it tightly dressed then my nail might reattach itself. It had lifted right up off the nailbed when—’
‘Jesus! Stop! Don’t say another word,’ Max begged, his body one huge spasm of horror. ‘That’s just gross.’
‘I know,’ Neve agreed happily – happy because they were talking, even if it was about her necrotic toenail.
‘And what happened to your lip?’ Max asked, because he was looking at her face now, which was illuminated by the lamp-post across the road. ‘Where did you get that scratch on your cheek? Did your bike fall on you from a great height?’
‘You think I look bad, then you should see Charlotte,’ Neve told him as Max’s eyes widened. ‘We had a fight. A proper, full-on deathmatch. She’s got a black eye and a sprained wrist, but I’m not sure that was my fault. I think she skidded on some of the melted ice cream. "
― Sarra Manning , You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
148
" Where were you going at nearly three in the morning, anyway?’ Max asked, standing up and holding out his hand, so he could tug Neve up too.
She flushed a little. ‘Well, I was going to the all-night shop on Seven Sisters Road to get some food because I haven’t eaten in weeks,’ she admitted, and she didn’t want to ruin this before it had even started again, the same way she’d ruined it last time. ‘This is just a one-off. I’m done with detox cleansing, I swear, but I’m also done with eating crap at weird hours because we can’t get out of bed. Except for right now, because I am seriously contemplating cutting off my own hand and lightly sautée-ing my fingers in extra-virgin olive oil.’
Max stood poised on the step above her, brow furrowed as if he was trying to reach a decision about something. Probably that he didn’t want to be with her enough to deal with her dietary restrictions any more. ‘OK, then. If that’s the way you want it,’ he said, as if he was done deciding. He jumped down the steps, picked up Keith’s lead and headed for the gate, while Neve stood there watching in disbelief.
It didn’t hurt any less having your heart broken for the second time. In fact, it hurt more, and …
‘You coming, or what?’ Max called, already walking down the street. ‘We’d better get a move on or they might have sold out of that disgusting bread that’s all seeds and nothing else.’
With a hand clutched to her heart, which had had more than enough shocks in the last twenty-four hours, Neve hurried after Max and Keith.
‘You’re such a drama queen,’ Max complained when she caught up with him. ‘No one could be that hungry unless they’d survived a plane crash and been stranded on a desolate mountain-top for days and the only thing standing between them and death was gnawing on one of their dead travelling companions.’
Neve punched him on the arm. ‘Are you joking? If the shop turns out to be closed after all, I expect you to sacrifice a couple of fingers for the cause,’ she said, as she slipped her hand into his. "
― Sarra Manning , You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
153
" She hurried out into the hall to greet the wanderers. Max looked as if he was in much better spirits; he was smiling for one thing, the smile getting wider as he caught sight of Neve.
‘You look so sweet,’ he said in what sounded suspiciously like the male version of her Keith-inspired coo.
‘No, I don’t,’ Neve protested. Sweet was not what she’d been aiming for. She tugged at the lace-edged cuffs of her long-sleeved thermal vest, then reached down to pat Keith. ‘Where’s Keith going to sleep? With us?’
‘In the hall. He’s not allowed to sleep in the bedroom. He’ll spend all night trying to get on the bed.’
‘But what’s wrong with that?’ Neve had been looking forward to Keith sleeping at the bottom of the bed, preferably on her feet because they got very cold at night.
Max shook his head. ‘I’ve spent a long time establishing some boundaries with him. Don’t undo all my good work.’
She watched Max settle Keith down in his dog bed with a ragged blanket over him and a threadbare soft toy tucked between his front paws. Then there was the water bowl and a plug-in nightlight because Keith didn’t like the dark, and Neve began to wonder just where Keith’s boundaries were.
‘I’m going to bed,’ she said, when it became obvious that Max intended to stay with Keith until he was asleep. "
― Sarra Manning , You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
155
" She folded her arms and fixed Celia with a stern look. Celia was the only person who ever got her stern look. ‘I’m older than you by three years, so stop trying to pull rank on me.’
‘Just warning you off the big bad wolf.’
‘Well, there’s no need,’ Neve started to say as she glanced over to the bar again to get a third look at Skirt’s infamous Editor-at-Large, who now had an arm looped round each of the blonde girls’ shoulders. ‘I’ve never seen a genuine cad in the flesh before. He should have a pencil moustache really, shouldn’t he?’
Celia looked at her sister with fond exasperation. ‘He’s not a cad like they have in those mouldy old books of yours, Neevy,’ she said witheringly. ‘He’s a twenty-first-century manwhore, bless him.’
‘Yeah, he’s a tart with a heart of gold,’ Yuri added. "
― Sarra Manning , You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
