Pants on Fire by Maggie Alderson Page B

he’s still chasing women.”
    â€œBut Rory dared him to do it . . .”
    â€œThat’s typical too. He hopes Billy will meet someone else and leave Lizzy alone. All part of the game.”
    I must have looked crestfallen. I was just a pawn. A porn.
    â€œBut why was he so passionate in the park?”
    Antony paused and seemed to look at me closely.
    â€œGeorgia, you are a very attractive woman, you know.”
    I pulled a Quasimodo face.
    â€œStop that,” he said, flicking me with his napkin. “I’m sure Billy would have been chasing you for real a few months ago, before he got together with Lizzy. But really, this thing between them has been going on since they were teenagers. Everyone was mystified when she married Tom—it was like, uh? Wrong brother. But Billy just left it too long to ask her. He wanted to play the field, just one more year, one more year . . . So she married Tom, because he did ask her.”
    â€œA Ryan in hand—”
    â€œIs better than a Ryan in the park, as you discovered.”
    â€œWell, I feel like a total idiot, but it does explain his weird behaviour. You know when he left the café on Monday—would he have been going to see Lizzy?”
    â€œDefinitely. Tom would have been playing golf.”
    â€œDoes everybody in Sydney know about this?” I was beginning to wonder if Liinda knew and that was why she’d told me to forget about Billy.
    Antony patted my hand. “No. Absolutely not. I only know because Debbie tells me everything. And I’ve only told you because I want you to put him out of your mind. He’s basically a nice guy—a bit thick, but very attractive, I do admit—and Debbie says it’s tearing him up behaving like this. But he really does love Lizzy. It will all come out in the end, I’m sure.”
    â€œSo I guess he won’t be ringing me then.”
    â€œWell, he might, because he’s a gentleman and I’m sure he enjoyed your company, and in his doltish way he’ll think it would be nice to be friends. Plus it will help him cover if he’s seen around town with a beautiful girl like you.”
    â€œOh Ant, you’re so gallant. I wish it was true. Anyway, it’s nice to have an esteem boost when I’ve just found out that my dream man is involved in a psycho-incest love triangle. What an unholy bloody mess. But to tell the truth, he is a bit of a dunderhead really, it was just the package that got me going.” I held out my glass. “Give me another drink, bartender.”
    Maybe it was all the champagne and Antony’s effervescent company, but I wasn’t desperately upset about Billy. It was such a ridiculous mess I couldn’t take it personally, but I did thank God I hadn’t slept with him. Then I would have felt used. And somehow being told by Antony made it OK. He was scrabbling around doing something under the kitchen bench. Suddenly the music changed and the Astrud Gilberto which had been playing was replaced by the opening bars of “We Are Family.”
    â€œLet’s dance,” said Antony. “I want to see you shake that cute arse of yours.”
    So I did. And Antony turned out to be a pretty good dancer too, whirling around in that big white room. It was a hoot. We danced until we were pooped and then we flopped onto Antony’s big bed, because there was nowhere else to flop. It had a head-board and a footboard carved with flowers and washed with white paint, which were very comfortable to lean against.
    While I had the chance, I wanted to ask him about all the new people I’d met.
    â€œAntony,” I said, getting comfortable. “What do you know about Rory Stewart?”
    â€œVery nice man. Sometimes I wish Debbie would marry him, but he’s actually too intelligent for her. She’d drive him mad. Although they did go out when they were sixteen and she was having a temporary falling out with Drew . .