Husband Hunters by Genevieve Gannon Page B

judgement or pity they may have felt towards her for raising an un-marryable daughter.
    The arrangement suited Dani, because it allowed her to save for a house deposit. Her picture of marriage wasn’t a steak-or-chicken dinner reception for two hundred people; it was her lying on a mattress with her husband in a completely unfurnished house, the floorboards stripped and the walls half-painted. They would both be wearing paint-spattered clothes, eating takeaways because the oven hadn’t arrived yet, drinking beer and listening to The Kinks.
    When she was twelve years old her pa had bought her a Victorian-style dolls’ house, which she had duly remodelled using balsa wood and supermarket glue. Gia had yelled at her for ruining the gift. But Vincenzo had calmed Gia down until she contented herself with the idea that Dani’s desire to redecorate was a symptom of a domestic temperament. From a young age Daniela had preferred her brother’s Lego sets, Meccano and trucks to the dolls she was given. No doubt it was the moment Dani embraced the dolls’ house that Gia had begun to nurse fantasies of a house full of brown-eyed granddaughters. She even donated an old cameo brooch to act as a picture for one of the walls, and some foil chocolate moulds that Dani put in the kitchen to play the part of pots and pans.
    She loved that house and collected miniature furnishings wherever she went. Garden sticks and flowers were potted in thimbles and turned into houseplants. A pretty duck-egg blue teacup became a spa for the bathroom. She made plasticine models of items she dreamed up but couldn’t get her hands on. All the while she planned what her real house would look like when she had her own family. This was the fantasy Simon’s rent was helping her achieve.
    He spent most weekends at his girlfriend Liz’s house. Unfortunately, they seemed to be having problems, so Daniela was seeing more and more of him.
    ‘What did you do?’ she asked Simon. He had a thicket of very dark curls and wore black-framed glasses.
    ‘Why do you assume it was me?’ he said, wounded. He scratched one of his legs with a pizza crust.
    ‘Women’s intuition.’
    He folded his arms. ‘She got upset because I said I wanted to sleep with someone else.’
    ‘Simon!’
    ‘She tricked me! We were talking about fantasies. She asked me if I ever thought about having a threesome. I thought maybe she’d be up for it, so I said it had crossed my mind once or twice. She asked me what type of women I fantasised about doing it with. I said nobody in particular. But she pressed me and I said, well, I’ve always been quite curious about Latino women. I’ve never been with one, and generally I find them quite attractive. Very sexy. She got all huffy because she’s clearly not Latino. Told me I should rack off to South America. Then we had a big row. I told her a thousand times that she was the only woman I wanted. Anyway, I thought we’d sorted it out. But then tonight, when I suggested we pick up some Mexican, she flew off the handle.’
    Daniela felt a bit sorry for Simon. While she was sure the argument had been more nuanced than his retelling, it did sound as though Liz was being a touch unreasonable. On the other hand, he should have known better than to admit to noticing that women existed outside of his girlfriend. Particularly since Liz, with her wild blonde hair, big teeth and bony hips, was rather jealous and demonstrably non-Latino in appearance.
    ‘I don’t know, I really like Liz but I feel like I’m under attack all the time. Like I can’t do anything right.’
    Dani reached for a piece of cheesy crust. But then Simon started scratching his toes with the pizza rind in his hand, and she thought better of it.
    ‘She’ll get over it,’ she said.
    ‘Then what? Am I going to put up with this for the rest of my life? Scared to say anything in case it gets me in trouble?’
    ‘This is an easy one,’ Dani told him. ‘She just wants to feel