Read Dinner at Mine for Free Online Page B

properly. Sarah filled up a bit on rice before trying again.
    ‘Rosie, this is lovely,’ she said. ‘The sauce is so unusual.’
    It was very good, she thought; a bit cold, maybe, but definitely tasty, and it was great to be adventurous and try something new. Sarah wasn’t sure if she really liked pomegranates, but
how was Rosie to know that? And they were probably very good pomegranates.
    It seemed so petty to grade the food like a piece of substandard homework. Maybe they could forget about the competition and just say something nice in their e-mail? Sarah sighed quietly as she
thought about suggesting this to Marcus.
    ‘Very nice, Rosie,’ Matt said. ‘The duck’s great. Properly pink in the middle.’
    ‘You don’t think I’ve overcooked it?’ Rosie asked. ‘I was a bit worried.’
    ‘Not at all,’ Matt said.
    ‘Maybe a bit,’ Marcus said. ‘But duck’s very hard to get right. Well done for giving it a go. What’s in the sauce?’
    ‘It’s pomegranate molasses with a bit of cinnamon and some herbs. Very simple.’
    ‘Yes, I thought I could taste cinnamon. But I wasn’t sure if you’d have deliberately made it that sweet.’
    Rosie turned away from him. ‘Justin, Barbara. How’s yours?’
    ‘Great, thanks,’ Barbara said.
    ‘It is very nice,’ Justin said. He chewed another mouthful before adding: ‘Though I sometimes think it’s a shame that we’re not all eating the same
thing.’
    ‘Then you shouldn’t be a vegetarian, should you?’ Charlotte said sharply.
    ‘I don’t condemn people for eating meat. But I just think sometimes they should stop and discover how good vegetarian food can be. This tamarind, for example, is a great
flavour.’
    ‘Goes very well with lamb, I reckon,’ Charlotte said.
    ‘Let’s not argue about that,’ Rosie said. ‘Has everyone had some salad?’
    Justin inspected the salad bowl full of beetroot and lentils before taking some, then passing it along.
    ‘It’s very good, Rosie,’ he said. ‘Has it got lime in it?’
    ‘Yes,’ Rosie replied. She looked strangely tense as she said it, Sarah thought.
    Sarah had nearly finished. She ought to slow down. It wasn’t healthy to bolt your food, was it? Rude, too. But she was still hungry. It had been such a tiring day. How did Rosie possibly
manage to cook all these courses on a work night? But she worked part-time, didn’t she? That would be nice. Of course she had Jonathan to look after, and that was obviously a full-time job in
itself. But still . . .
    Sarah wondered if she hated her own job. No, that was a stupid thing to think. She loved teaching. Of course she did. She was making a difference. That sounded trite, but it was true. Giving
something back.
    Marcus sometimes said that giving something back was really taking it out of her. He was always so pleased with himself when he said it, but she supposed that might be true. She was tired all
the time now. It wasn’t the kids’ fault, of course. They were just being themselves. But sometimes . . .
    This morning, for example, Dr Cowley had said she should have been tougher. But was it really right to start calling the children liars?
    Khalida had been texting in class, while Sarah was trying to teach them about the suffragettes. Sarah had asked her, politely, to stop it and pay attention to the lesson.
    ‘Khalida, please stop that.’
    Khalida had not replied.
    ‘Khalida, please stop that!’
    Very slowly, Khalida responded: ‘I’m texting my little sister, miss.’
    ‘Do that after class.’
    ‘No, miss, I need to do it now.’
    ‘Khalida!’
    ‘She’s pregnant, miss.’
    ‘Really?’ This had thrown Sarah. Little Aisha? She couldn’t be more than thirteen, could she?
    ‘Yeah, miss, she’s got a doctor’s appointment and she’s scared, see? I said I’d text her.’
    ‘Oh I see. Well, I suppose . . .’
    ‘Miss, miss, Khalida’s lying!’ Sureen burst out. ‘Her sister’s not pregnant. She’s texting her