Sissy looked over into the corner of the bar, where the lights were dimmest and the music was loudest, and she didn’t know whether to feel annoyed or anxious. What the heck was Renée thinking? She really was going too far now. Stephen had found himself a bar stool and was sat next to Renée, his dirty mid-brown head bent close to her sleek dark one, and even from here Sissy could see that their feet were intertwined underneath the counter. What on earth would Juliette say? The funny thing was that Sissy had asked her, back in Bristol, if she was worried about Stephen meeting someone else over the summer, and Juliette had replied that she might even be quite glad if he did – what would be would be, she’d said – and Sissy had wondered at the time if Juliette would ever get back with Stephen, she’d seemed almost desperate to be free of him.
‘What would upset me, though,’ Juliette had continued. ‘Is if he got off with one of my friends – but you’re far too in love with Nigel, thank goodness, and Renée doesn’t even like him.’
‘Juliette!’ Sissy had said, shocked. ‘That’s not true; of course she does.’
‘Darling Sissy,’ Juliette had replied. ‘You’re so sweet and that’s what I love about you. But Renée’s not keen on Stephen and never has been, and if I’m honest that’s always made me ever so slightly wary about him too. I do tend to trust her opinion, deep down.’
‘Don’t you think it might be that …’ Sissy had stopped.
‘What?’
‘Oh, nothing.’
‘Come on, Sissy, what were you going to say?’
‘… Don’t you think … she might be … a little bit jealous of him?’ Sissy had said finally.
‘What on earth do you mean?’
‘Well,’ she’d floundered. ‘You do see him quite a lot.’
‘Oh,’ Juliette had said. ‘Do you think so? (Pause.) I suppose I do … Oh God, I feel awful now.
‘Anyway,’ she’d continued, changing the subject. ‘Let’s see what happens over the summer – and with any luck I might meet a hunky Spanish waiter in Marbella.’
Just as Sissy remembered the end of this conversation, she saw in the orange glow Stephen lean in and caress Renée’s face, and Renée stop and look at him, as if trying to make up her mind what to do; and now she was laughing at something he’d just said and they were almost rubbing faces, and although Sissy tried not to look she was almost transfixed; and now, no, oh my God they were, they were fully, full-on, mouth-open tonsil-munching snogging, and she could see his revolting darting tongue, and he was wrapping his arms around her clumsily, like a bear – and, oh no, now he was standing up and virtually dry-humping her. It was disgusting.
Melissa noticed next, and started going, ‘Urghh, have you seen Stephen and Renée?’ When they realised everyone was watching, they stopped snogging for a while, and Stephen sat back down on his stool with his hand in his lap, as if he were concealing something; but after a little while they started laughing and smooching again, until eventually Stephen stood up and hoisted Renée off her seat too, and Sissy noticed that she staggered a little – and then they left, and didn’t come back.