Hugo had invited three people to his birthday before admitting that he wanted to spend it with one.
The admission came in the queue at the greengrocer’s, where Lavinia was considering peaches and he was describing a meal so inclusive that it would require several tables and leave him no opportunity to speak to anyone properly.
“Do you want a party?” she asked.
“Forty seems an occasion for seeing people.”
“It is also an age. People have them without a seating plan.”
He picked up a peach and put it down again. He had no idea how to tell whether it was ripe, and wanted something to do with his hands.
“I thought it would be ungracious to choose.”
“You have seven days in a week.”
“Several of them contain work.”
“Then an astonishing number of weeks after that.”
The man ahead of them moved to the till. Lavinia shifted…
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