“You know, Anju’s work’s being featured in frieze next month. They’re doing a massive profile of her,” Maria says.

“Wow, that’s crazy,” I say.

“Yes, congratulations, Anju,” Mark says; he has a German accent too. He has placed a mushroom and rice dish on the table.

“Grown ourselves, thank you to Ben. Ben? He is here?”

“Ooh, looks delish,” Shakti says.

“Ben popped out,” Anju says.

“Anj, you should tell Lydia—oh, sorry, Lyd?” I nod. “—about your TV people series,” Maria says to Anju.

“Oh. Yeah,” Anju says, hesitantly. She’s blushing. Shakti is putting a whole eggplant on her plate. “So, I basically paint big portraits of people watching TV.” She looks down at her eggplant and pulls the stalk off. I get the feeling that she doesn’t want to talk about her work, which I understand. My heart sinks when people ask me what I do; although, that’s usually because I rarely know what I’m doing, or I don’t feel confident about what I’m doing, one or the other. People who aren’t artists often ask me and then say something like, “I don’t really get contemporary art. You know, it’s a bit . . .” and they pull a face. “I always think that I could probably do it, like putting a splodge of paint here, another one there, you know? But I don’t know. Sorry.” “Oh, it’s okay! It’s not for everyone,” I usually reply, which is essentially the opposite of what I believe.

“That sounds interesting,” I say.

“She’s not explaining it properly!” Maria says. “They’re not just portraits of people watching TV. Basically, they’re life-size, and she paints from photographs—”

“Sometimes from life too,” Anju adds. I watch her cut into the eggplant with a knife and some of the filling spreads out on her plate, making a red circle. I realize that, despite having recently drained the duck, I’m already feeling hungry. I look at the red on her plate, reflecting the lights, and feel the beginnings of something like envy. Anju puts a piece of eggplant in her mouth and chews. Anju is a Japanese name; she has probably experienced eating Japanese food; she has probably been to Japan; she probably has family there; she probably still has a dad; she has Ben; she is a successful artist; she seems confident; she is petite and pretty and everyone seems to like her.

“You should explain it,” Maria says.