Chapter 51

We walked to the indicated spot and hoisted the basket onto the bench.

“Feels like you’ve bought half of Sainsbury’s,” he said, rubbing the arm that had been holding the basket.

“You big wuss. And it was Safeway.”

He treated me to another thosuand-watt smile. I sat down quickly to hide the reappearance of Mr Happy.

“Why are there no cucumber sandwiches?” Liam asked as I dished out the goodies.

I was about to tell him that I didn’t make any because cucumber always gave me wind, but then spotted the glint of mischief in his eyes.

“There were no cucumbers in the market this morning, sir. I went down twice,” I said.

“No cucumbers!”

“No, sir. Not even for ready money,” I came back.

We had been quoting lines from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, the play that had inspired my name.

We dissolved into laughter.