Sex and Other Changes Read Online Free PDF Page A

it was our anniversary and asked me what we were doing. I said, “We’re eating in the best restaurant in Throdnall.” ’
    This was so untypical of Nick that it fooled Alison for the moment, and she said, ‘Oh. You should have told me. I’ve gone and got fish.’
    â€˜Idiot,’ he said affectionately. ‘That’s what I meant. Your cooking makes it the best restaurant in Throdnall.’
    â€˜Oh. Well, thank you.’
    â€˜Not that there’s much opposition in Throdnall.’
    â€˜Oh. Terrific. I thought you meant it.’
    â€˜I did. Oh, darling, I did. I didn’t mean that your cooking isn’t worth a compliment. I meant that the way I put it wasn’t exactly a compliment since there’s nowhere good to eat in Throdnall.’
    â€˜Oh Nick.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜You have a wonderful way of spoiling the nice things you try to do.’
    â€˜Oh. Terrific.’
    â€˜Oh, don’t worry. It’s one of the things I like about you.’
    â€˜I see.’
    â€˜Were they selling the flowers off cheap because they were closing?’
    â€˜No! They weren’t. I’d have told you if they had been.’
    â€˜See what I mean!’
    Em went to bed as good as gold, and said, ‘Have a lovelyanniversary dinner, Mum, Dad,’ and they spent a few happy minutes with her. You have to cherish the moments when your children are sweet, they won’t last for ever.
    Gray was demanding. Just one more story. How can I get to sleep? I’m not tired. It’s not a crime not to be tired, is it? Little bugger, master of the double negative already, and he knew they were longing to get him to sleep. Six years old, and already you couldn’t fool him.
    At last peace reigned. Nick took a sherry into the lounge, and Alison cooked the sole. Everything else was ready in the hostess trolley. She was glad Nick wasn’t in the kitchen. She could enjoy her massive new secret. She knew that when she was with him she would begin to feel uneasy at having to keep it secret.
    She hated the kitchen with its hideous cheap units with shiny blue doors, but it was because of things like that that they’d got the house cheap. As she cooked she was planning the changes she would make. She would pour into their new home all the frustration she felt at having no artistic outlet. Should she have tried the stage? ‘Why didn’t you, Mum?’ Em had asked when she’d talked about her school plays. She didn’t like to say, ‘Because I always got the male parts, so as a pro I’d have got no parts.’
    Everything came back to gender all the time.
    The sole was done to a turn. The Pouilly-Fuissé was delicious.
    What a job she had to keep her exciting news to herself.
    Nick went slightly pink and she realised that he was going to say something important.
    â€˜I’ve an interview at Head Office next Tuesday.’
    â€˜Oh!!’
    â€˜Brian says he’s recommended very strongly that they give it to me.’
    â€˜Is that good news or bad news?’
    â€˜That’s the trouble, I don’t know; but I mean I did run thehotel for a week when Brian had flu, and I think I steered a pretty good course between the Scylla of Authoritarianism and the Charybdis of Laissez-Faire.’
    â€˜I hope you won’t put it like that to Head Office,’ said Alison drily.
    â€˜Why? I thought it was rather good.’
    â€˜Oh, Nick, you’re so unworldly. They won’t share your knowledge of Greek mythology. They’ll think you’re talking about Cilia Black and some band they’ve never heard of.’
    â€˜If I do get made manager, and with your new job, it’s going to be quite a time of change.’
    Oh Nick, thought Alison. Don’t give me cues like that. She had to grit her teeth to remain silent. Then she thought, Why should I remain silent?
    â€˜I went to Marks and Sparks today,’ she