Glittering Fortunes by Victoria Fox Page A

was Lomax who started it, Rudgeley took the trophy and we got banned from ever playing in the tournament again.’
    ‘Shit. You must’ve been gutted.’
    ‘Sure was. I mean, not me personally, I wasn’t playing anyway—I’d put my shoulder out that season, remember?’
    ‘Oh. Yeah.’
    There was a pause. She had something she wanted to ask him.
    ‘Did Thomasina Feeny set you up to this?’
    ‘To what?’
    ‘This...’ Olivia gestured to the table, as though the Feenys had taken to selling cut-price furniture. ‘Tonight.’
    ‘Why would she do that?’
    There was a trace of humour in his voice. She could never quite tell if he was joking or not, like when he used to tease her about being a gypsy because she didn’t live in a proper house, or because her clothes were from charity shops, or because they used an outside loo, but then before she could take it seriously Addy would grin and give her a playful nudge, his blue eyes sparkling, and promise her he was only being affectionate.
    She’d clung to that word— affectionate .
    ‘Never mind.’ She smiled. ‘Just a hangover from school, you know?’
    Addy wouldn’t know. His adolescent experience had been entirely different to hers. He’d always been cool, and popular, the one everybody wanted to be friends with. As teenagers Taverick Manor had endured socials with the Towerfield boys, insufferable episodes geared solely towards securing that first kiss and that longed-for first fumble. All the girls had flocked to Addy, while Olivia looked on, dejected when he had pretended not to know her. Afterwards she saw it made sense—she was a couple of years below, she’d purposefully distanced herself from the handbag crew and besides, Addy had a reputation to protect. Instead she had danced with a boy called Steven who had worn a tangerine sweater and had bangs, and had wedged his fourteen-year-old erection between her legs for the duration of a Radiohead song.
    ‘Those Feenys are trouble,’ Addy observed, and she didn’t press him because she had no desire to find out just how naughty he knew one or both of them to be.
    ‘Usherwood’s work.’ She returned to safer ground. ‘I need the money, so in that respect it’s a job like any other.’
    He scooted a little closer to her on the bench.
    ‘Jez and Simon said they saw you at Saffron the other night, like it was a family outing or something.’
    ‘Believe me, it was anything but.’
    ‘Bet Cato fancies you.’
    She laughed openly at that. ‘Right.’
    ‘What? You’re gorgeous. I’ve always thought so, ever since for ever.’
    Her tongue wound itself in a knot.
    ‘Fair to say you’re getting close to them...’ He started playing with a beer mat—how she loved his hands, the fingers long and strong and slender. ‘Right?’
    ‘When I first turned up, there was this thing that happened—-just an accident. The Lomaxes taking me out was an apology, that’s all.’
    ‘What accident?’
    ‘It doesn’t matter.’
    Addy looked unconvinced so she added: ‘You’re right about Charlie. I don’t know if it’s because Cato’s here or if he’s always like that. He hates everyone.’ She gulped the wine. ‘He definitely hates me.’
    Addy watched her. ‘You’re sexy when you’re angry.’
    ‘I’m not angry.’
    ‘You are, a bit.’ He leaned in. She noticed he’d barely drunk half his pint, and his eyes moved slowly, very slowly, down her face and towards her lips.
    ‘Hey, man.’
    Addy’s friend Dax interrupted them. Even at this hour he was still wet from the ocean. Dax spent so much time in the water he was practically amphibious.
    ‘You surfing tomorrow?’ He moved to sit down, then paused, looked between them, and Olivia sensed but didn’t see Addy’s expression of: I’m in the middle of something here , buddy.
    ‘Ah,’ said Dax, ‘right on. Catch you later, dude.’
    ‘Where were we?’ Addy pressed when he’d gone. Olivia could feel his thigh against hers, the heat of it,