A French Wedding by Hannah Tunnicliffe Page B

Helen’s dad split up. It was pretty messy.’
    â€˜As all his splits are,’ Lars says grimly. Juliette is stacking dishes into a dish drawer but glances over when he says that. ‘Sorry, Juliette, we’re being so rude.’
    â€˜ Non . It’s fine. Please go on.’
    Nina turns to Max. ‘How old is Soleil now?’
    â€˜Not sure. Mid, maybe late twenties? Helen hasn’t seen her for a long time. She said something about Soleil having a hard time.’
    â€˜Hard time?’
    Max shrugs, chews on a piece of brioche, suddenly starving. The sweet, buttery bread dissolves in his mouth. ‘You’ll have to ask Helen. You know what I’m like on details. Fuzzy at best.’
    â€˜Helen said she should be back by midday,’ says Juliette. ‘Soleil is coming by train. The nearest station is over an hour away.’
    Max nods, distracting himself from his own impatience by eating more bread and watching Lars stacking the dishwasher with Juliette. He is nodding to some tune in his head. Lars loves music as much as Max does. He is a talented bass guitarist too, he probably could have been something and someone, but that isn’t Lars’s way. That would have meant leaving Nina and Sophie for long periods of time and that was never going to happen.
    Juliette excuses herself from the kitchen. ‘I am going to the market later, if anyone would like to join me.’
    â€˜I will,’ Nina replies. ‘And I’m sure Rosie would love to.’
    When Juliette leaves the kitchen, Max reaches over to Lars, now drying his hands on a tea towel, and shoves his shoulder.
    â€˜It’s good to see you.’
    â€˜You too, mate. You too. I watched The Jacks’ Tokyo tour, bits of it, online. Bloody brilliant. I can’t believe you’re still making music. You know, that it’s your job.’
    â€˜Still making music,’ Max repeats.
    â€˜It’s brilliant.’
    Max feels the discomfort he always has when one of his friends talks about his work. Lars and Nina had Sophie young, in their mid-twenties; she’d been a surprise. Lars had stayed at home with Sophie while Nina pursued her career in publishing. Lars had odd jobs here and there since – in retail, hospitality, he did carpentry every now and then, but he never charged enough and took too long getting it absolutely perfect so he was always late completing jobs. Nina’s work took her away too, to book fairs or festivals; it was easier for Lars to be at home. Still, his eyes shine when he talks to Max about his music, his work. Max’s world is so set apart that it makes Max feel both great and terrible at once. Better than them sometimes, it’s true, but alien too.
    â€˜How is life with you two?’ he asks.
    â€˜Three,’ Nina says. ‘We have a teenager,’ she reminds him. ‘She takes up a lot of emotional space.’
    â€˜Where is Sophie?’ Max asks.
    â€˜Probably still sleeping.’
    â€˜Probably out taking photographs, more like,’ Lars says. ‘We bought her a camera.’
    â€˜Thought it might make her more sociable,’ adds Nina. ‘Give her a hobby she could talk about.’
    â€˜She talks,’ Lars mutters.
    â€˜She’s obsessed with that thing.’
    â€˜She takes really good pictures. You have to see them, Max. Even Rosie agrees.’
    â€˜Pictures of dead things,’ Nina says.
    â€˜Dead things?’
    â€˜Yeah, rats rotting in the gutter, birds. She wants us to buy her a cow skull for her birthday.’
    â€˜I think it’s an antelope. Something with those horn things …’ Lars says.
    â€˜She likes macabre stuff. She’s “dark”.’ Nina uses her index fingers to make quote marks.
    â€˜Wasn’t her mummy into Siouxsie and the Banshees at her age?’ Max teases.
    â€˜Yeah! That’s right,’ says Lars.
    â€˜Oh, stop it. They weren’t that