Ever was incapable of saying a word and wanted to leave, but his hatred of people leaving tense situations instead of resolving them insisted his body remain in the chair. He looked out at the garden and got lost momentarily in the colours, now that the sun was dropping behind the trees making them golden. The threat of darkness was starting, it was always a threat, and he realised his life was indeed a little mess. How could he tell her what he really wanted to do, which he probably was not mentally stable enough to be able to explain with a logic that would convince or substantiate itself. He was defeated. She, presumably, sensed his defeat and continued –

‘We are eating food from Mr Chow’s, they are delivering. Squab with lettuce and spare ribs, followed by duck and pancakes. We will drink a sauvignon blanc from Australia, Margaret River, I prefer it from there, the grape has a more mineral quality, as long as it’s ice, ice cold. And you like San Pellegrino don’t you? So that too.’

He nodded and with effort spoke.

‘Thank you. I could tell you, but you know, Lomita, I think I am wrong, and there probably is little point, so maybe if you don’t mind we can eat and then I should take my leave.’

‘As you wish, but I hope you like spare ribs, I ordered them because men always seem to like them and I hate them.’

Men always like them, lodged. He knew so little about her and had, in a rather patronising way, because she was old and seemed frail, overlooked the fact that she had lived a life, had her own disasters, and joys, and tragedies; he felt like his mother. Just looking at everything from his point of view, his perspective and, yes, he did suppose that his intention, however much he shrouded it in the vagueness of liking her, was to quite simply use her.

‘I think I wanted to use you.’

He didn’t think he had said it but he had.

‘You wouldn’t be the first.’

And that laugh gurgled in the back of her throat again, it forced a smile that he tried to resist forming across his face, and he too made the sound of the first suggestion of laughter.

The doorbell rang, at what he assumed was the tradesmen’s entrance; he could hear the distant exchange of words indicating that the food had arrived.