Read Online Another Country by Anjali Joseph - Free Book Online Page A

‘Actually it’s good. They really like me.’
    â€˜Oh really? That’s good.’
    â€˜Yeah, yeah,’ James drawled. ‘They get me to come along to a lot of important meetings, stuff I’m not even supposed to be at.’
    â€˜What’s your actual job?’
    She had to repeat the question because he was making for the kitchen. His shirt cuffs flared. His trousers were too long. His hair became dishevelled. He came back with three cans of lager from a four pack.
    â€˜Wannabeer?’
    â€˜No thanks. Um – okay.’
    He was a marketing executive, it was his job to promote art books. But his art history degree and ability to talk to anyone had led to his getting to know the editorial department. Now they took him to meetings, and he’d met a professional art historian, and sat in on a meeting with another regular author.
    â€˜It’s like a ceramic book. Like updated ceramics.’
    â€˜Oh right. My dad used to do pottery.’
    â€˜Not pottery. They’re very particular. You’re supposed to call them ceramicists.’
    â€˜Oh, really?’
    â€˜Yeah. It’s like a really big deal for them.’
    His mobile buzzed, and he waved it. Leela was slightly put out; everyone seemed to have a mobile now. ‘Excuse me for a second.’
    â€˜Sure.’
    There was a creaking on the stairs. Ellen came in. She was thinner than Leela remembered her. ‘Let me just take a shower,’ she said after she hugged Leela. ‘I left here at seven this morning.’ She worked in sales, and did shifts. She went to her room, and Leela, disenfranchised, went to see if Amy was up. She was; music blared from her stereo, she was brushing her hair, and putting on make-up. The honey and lemon Leela had made her was untouched.
    â€˜These pills Tom got me are fucking brilliant.’
    Ellen’s boyfriend had gone out to get her the cold remedy. It was now time for everyone to go to the pub on the main road.
    Ellen, Tom, James, Amy and Leela sheltered in the front bar and drank pints, followed by whiskies. Tom’s cheerful face became rosy. Amy became more and more amusing, and loud. She knocked over a drink. James’s chat became more frenetic and less clearly enounced. The lights got brighter. Leela ate crisps. Amy licked the crumbs off the packet. The jukebox was turned off.
    They went home.
    In the dark, Amy whispered grievances. ‘We all pay the same rent, right, but this is the worst room.’
    â€˜I think it’s nice,’ said Leela, partly out of loyalty, partly out of a desire not to have the conversation because her own resentment was more than she could handle; she preferred to pretend other people were more easy-going than she, and partly because she did think the room attractive. Admittedly it backed onto a yard and the small window was barred. But the room was big enough for a double bed, there was a fitted wardrobe, and it was possessed of the cosiness and comfort that Amy’s rooms always had. Was it her friend’s presence, or the props that travelled with her: a fringed lamp, a stereo, candles, a bedspread, a rug from home?
    â€˜Yeah, well, you should see James’s room, or Tom’s. It’s because they found the house, and James said we’d get dibs on rooms, but he got one of the best ones, and so did Tom, and obviously they made sure Ellen did.’
    How, Leela wondered, did she really feel about Simon? She longed to talk to Amy about him. She would when they were on the train. Perhaps he was her boyfriend. No. They were seeing each other. She felt a warm burst of affection for him, in his absence. It was sweet, he could be sweet. She had someone, that part of her life wasn’t inactive. She fell asleep, the night getting away from her, carrying her like a soporific toddler towards sanity, breakfast, the pretence of function.

Chapter 10
    â€˜What do you think?’ Amy was whispering so loudly she