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mention Coco. Maybe it would help Angel-face to see that I was not to be trusted right at that moment.
    Bridget turned to her daughter.
    â€˜Youth wants and expects it all. And that’s part of youth’s charm.’ She was smiling all of a sudden, a dreamy, reminiscing smile. ‘I planned to be the first woman chef with her own three-Michelin-star restaurant. Bit by bit, however, I realised that, as good a cook as I was, I didn’t have the talent, or thetime and space, but I’m perfectly happy with my little catering business.’
    â€˜That’s awful.’ Angel-face looked as perturbed as any child realising that their parents had had dreams once too.
    â€˜It’s not awful,’ Bridget said. ‘It’s life.’
    Angel-face looked as if in that case she might take it or leave it.
    â€˜One learns to be a little more realistic in one’s expectations,’ Bridget continued. ‘Whether it’s of love or of oneself.’
    Angel-face was unconvinced.
    â€˜If all these hopes and dreams of love are just symptoms of youth, how does that explain Elizabeth Taylor?’
    We all fell silent. Nothing could.
    Finally Bridget said, ‘Tell her she’s just got cold feet.’
    â€˜You’ve said that already,’ Angel-face snapped. ‘And of course I’ve got cold feet. I mean what kind of an unthinking moron would I be if I didn’t? I love Zac and he loves me, for now, but it seems pretty certain that, within the space of ten or so years,
if
we’re still married, we will be just like all the couples we swore we would never be like, who in turn never thought they’d end up like that when
they
exchanged their vows. Oh no, they would have said, we’ll be different. But no one ever is.’
    â€˜Tell her she’s being defeatist,’ Bridget said.
    â€˜You’re being defeatist, Angel-face.’
    â€˜At least
try
to sound as if you believe it!’ Bridget snapped.
    â€˜But you just told me I
should
be defeatist,’ Angel-face said. ‘Actually, you both have, in your different ways.’ She turned to her mother. ‘You just told me I should give up on my dreams, that it was part of growing up and I said that –’
    â€˜I said no such thing. I just told you that as life moves on your priorities change.’
    â€˜And
I
said that if they did to such an extent, if all the hopes and dreams were simply a symptom of youth, why do we have all these divorces and unhappy –’
    â€˜Look at it this way,’ I interrupted. ‘The one thing you
can
be sure of is that if you
don’t
buy a lottery ticket then you’ll never win.’
    â€˜Oh come on.’
    â€˜I was trying to be positive.’
    â€˜Well, don’t.’ Bridget glared at me. ‘It’s not very convincing.’ She turned back to her daughter. ‘If people will have ridiculous expectations of floating on cloud nine for the duration –’
    â€˜We don’t,’ Angel-face said. ‘As I said to Rebecca, most of us would settle for ending up somewhere just in the
vicinity
of our dreams and hopes.’
    â€˜And maybe you will,’ I said.
    â€˜You really believe that?’ Angel-face brightened, gazing at me as if the map of her life was etched on to my face. I avoided her eyes.
    â€˜Rebecca?’ Angel-face leant close.
    â€˜It’s certainly not
impossible
,’ I said.
    â€˜I think you’re soured by your own experiences,’ Bridget said.
    And about time too
, Coco said.
    â€˜I’ve noticed the tension between you and Dominic. Quite frankly, the way you let him speak to you –’
    â€˜Maybe things aren’t so good between us … Anyway, I’m seeing someone, a therapist.’
    â€˜So it’s a breakdown.’ Bridget nodded and the set of her lips softened. It was easier to deal with things when they had a label. ‘You know when I said you were