Free A Friend of the Family by Lisa Jewell

Jo?’
    Tony laughed and stuffed his cold hands into his coat pockets. ‘Shit. That’s a big one.’
    ‘Yeah, I know, but it was so weird hearing about it all from the other side of the world. It didn’t feel quite real.
    It didn’t make any sense. I mean, you and Jo, you were a real team – you were soul-mates.’
    ‘Like you and Carly, you mean?’ He raised an eyebrow at Ned.
    ‘Yeah, but, that was different. We were kids when we met, we grew out of each other. But you and Jo – you were already adults when you met.’
    Tony shook his head. ‘No, we weren’t adults. We were twenty-two.’
    ‘Yes, but…’
    ‘You’re not an adult when you’re twenty-two, not in this world, not these days. You look like one and sound like one, but you’re still just a kid.’
    ‘So is that what happened, then – did you grow out of each other?’
    ‘Fundamentally, I suppose. But ultimately it all came down to one conversation – a conversation we should have had a lot earlier.’
    Tony held the door of the cafeteria open for Ned and felt himself thawing under the warm air of a heater above it.
    ‘Which one?’
    ‘The baby conversation.’
    ‘Ah – putting the pressure on, was she?’
    ‘No, it was the other way round, actually. I was ready. She wasn’t.’
    ‘But what was the panic? Couldn’t you just have waited a bit for her. She would have changed her mind eventually.’
    ‘No point. It was a stupid fucking idea anyway. When I think about it now I realize I only wanted a kid because I was thirty-one, because we’d been married for years, because I thought I should be cracking on with it. You know: typical Tony. And when she said “no” it was likethis great moment of realization. If I wasn’t going to be doing the whole family thing, tying myself down with kids and working my bollocks off to pay for it all, then what the fuck was the point of being married, you know? Of going to bed with the same woman every night? And I guess Jo must have felt the same way too.’
    ‘Why’s that?’
    ‘Because she left me for some bloke in her office two months later.’
    ‘No way!’ cried Ned. ‘Not Jo. Jo wouldn’t…’
    ‘Yeah, she would. Of course she would. She always got what she wanted, Jo.’
    ‘Shit – Mum didn’t say anything about that. She just said you’d come to the end of the road.’
    ‘Yeah, well – I didn’t tell Mum.’
    ‘You’re kidding – why not?’
    ‘Don’t know really. I didn’t want Mum to think badly of her, I s’pose.’
    ‘Yeah, but… why shouldn’t she think badly of her? She fucked you over – she…’
    ‘She did the right thing. Jo did the right thing. I was ready to cut loose and she was the only one of us who was brave enough to do anything about it. You know…’
    Tony picked up a vinyl-topped tray and pushed it across the steel tracks in the café towards a display of sandwiches and baguettes. He selected a cheese-and-ham baguette, approximately a foot long. Then he picked up a scone with butter and cream and a can of Heineken. As he waited to pay at the cash desk, he slapped a twinpack of Ginger Nuts on to his tray, an impulse purchase.
    He felt self-conscious as he watched Ned slipping a tuna sandwich and a bottle of mineral water on to the tray.
    ‘Not hungry?’ he said.
    ‘Not really,’ said Ned, grimacing. ‘I’m feeling a bit dicky, actually, I think I might have picked up a bug on the plane, or something.’
    ‘Not having a beer?’
    ‘Nah. Thanks.’
    It fell silent, save for the sound of Ned ripping the plastic seal off the front of his sandwich and the ring-pull going on Tony’s beer.
    ‘So,’ said Ned, eventually, ‘how are you now? I mean, how’s your life?’
    Tony shrugged. ‘OK,’ he said, ‘work’s busy.’
    ‘The divorce, I mean, you say you’re cool with it and everything, but how did it hit you? Really?’
    ‘It didn’t,’ said Tony. ‘Obviously it was a bit weird at first, moving out of the house, living alone,