Love Your Enemies by Nicola Barker Page B

still too curly. Bobs should be very straight ideally.’
    He nodded in silence, pretending that he understood or cared. She reached out one of her hands and caught a droplet of wax that was dripping down the small white candle in the centre of the table on the side of her middle finger. It felt hot on her hand for a second and then solidified. She began todraw her hand back again but before she could properly do so Sean put out his hand and took hold of hers. Their arms were suspended uncomfortably in mid-air. She squeezed his hand fondly and then drew hers away.
    The waiter brought the main course. As he dished up his portions Sean said, ‘What’s going to happen now, between us?’
    In his car on his way around to her flat he had imagined this situation but the roles had been reversed. He had visualized Shelly, all tearful and cloying, biting her lip, begging him to come back to her. She’d change, she’d be less possessive, anything.
    Shelly didn’t answer his question immediately. He repeated himself: ‘What’s going to happen now, Shelly?’
    She frowned and eventually said, ‘I don’t know.’
    She started eating. She had chicken chow mein with mixed vegetables in soy sauce. It tasted heavenly. Sean couldn’t eat. Everything seemed to be going wrong. He knew that Shelly needed him, needed someone. He put down his knife and fork and said, ‘Shelly, please tell me if there’s someone else.’
    She didn’t reply. He began to feel jealous and angry, bitter. After a few minutes watching her eat he said, ‘I bet you’ll regret this meal tomorrow. It’ll take its toll on your figure.’
    Shelly stopped chewing and looked into his eyes. ‘I shouldn’t think so.’
    He frowned. ‘How come?’
    She finished her mouthful and curled some more chow mein on to her fork, ‘I don’t gain weight any more. It’s connected to something called symbiosis.’
    He grimaced. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
    ‘It means that I don’t gain weight any more but I can eat what I like.’
    The flame on the candle flickered for a moment as the door of the restaurant opened. His eyes focused on the flame for a second, then returned to her face. ‘How is that possible?’
    She sighed and put down her knife and fork and then leaned forward on her elbows and whispered, ‘I’ve got a tapeworm.’
    He wasn’t sure that he’d heard her correctly. ‘What?’
    She smiled as though what she was telling him caused her infinite joy. ‘I’ve got a tapeworm, Sean, it’s symbiosis. We both depend on each other to carry on.’
    Sean shook his head in disbelief. ‘What do you mean, Shelly? Is this a joke or something?’
    Worms disgusted him. He had seen part of a nature programme on television a few weeks before which had featured something about worms that had made him almost physically sick. He had turned it over straight away.
    Shelly returned to her meal, unperturbed. After a mouthful she said, ‘I got him by eating raw mincemeat. It took a while and obviously I had to specify certain parts of the animal, you know, stomach, offal. I actually told the butcher that I wanted meat minced for my dog. As I said though, it took several attempts.’
    Sean’s lip curled in disgust. ‘You ate raw dog meat?’
    She shook her head. ‘No, low quality meat, not from a can. Lots of animals get tapeworms. Obviously though there are many different varieties. It’s very complicated because I think they reproduce in lots of different ways. I went to great lengths to get mine.’
    Sean still couldn’t be sure that Shelly wasn’t joking. He said, ‘What do you call it? Trevor?’
    She laughed. It was the first time that she had laughed properly all evening. ‘I don’t have a formal name for him – I think he’s asexual. I haven’t read all that much about them.’
    The waiter returned to the table to make sure that their meal was all right. Shelly answered, smiling, ‘It’s absolutely delicious, thank you.’ Sean just continued