Secret Smile Page #5

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- I'm not tired.

Yeah, you are. Come on.

See you later.

- Marcia, have you got any sleeping pills?

- They're in the bathroom.

KERRY:
I'll get them.

DAD:
Drink?

- Yes, please.

Has Troy been seeing a lot of Brendan?

Well, they go running together.

Fishing together.

- They're even talking about rowing.

- Rowing. Oh, how ridiculous!

He doesn't have to drag Troy with him.

He's doing this for Troy.

Troy's been very low the last week or so.

And Brendan reckons the exercise is good.

I think he's seeing too much of him.

I think Troy's vulnerable.

I don't think you're being objective.

- What do you mean?

- Brendan is a good influence.

If he's kind enough to take

the pressure off us...

...l'm not going to stop him.

- Come on.

I heard what you said to your dad!

- Well, you shouldn't eavesdrop.

- You shouldn't bad-mouth me.

So, prove me wrong.

Don't mess with Troy's head.

- Hello?

- Oh hi Nick It's me

- How you doing?

- I was wondering if I could come round.

Erm

- Is that all right?

- I've got a bit of an early start in the morning.

Oh, OK. Fine. Forget it.

- Goodbye.

- OK. All right. Bye.

Kerry's made a late supper.

I think after such a mad day

we all need to calm down a bit.

I'm not hungry, thanks.

Miranda.

Are you sulking?

No, I'm reading.

What is it?

"First Love, Last Rites."

- Sounds sexy.

- It isn't.

Do you remember?

We used to make love like this.

Brendan!

Supper, you...

Kerry Kerry!

Kerry! Sh*t! Kerry!

- Stay away from me.

- Leave her, Miranda.

- Leave me alone!

- Kerry, come on! Come on

Leave me alone. Get off me!

Sweetheart, come on!

Why is this happening to me?!

- You always had a crush on her!

- Calm down!

Kerry, are you all right?

You tell anyone what happened

and I will never forgive you.

You f***ing bully!

BRENDAN:

Oh, babe! Oh, sweetheart.

It's fine. You can stay in the little room.

- You sure?

- Yeah, we'll just have to move the suitcase.

And change the sheets. Can you pick up

the sheets from the dry cleaners?

- Have you got enough money?

- Should have. Yeah.

Will you be back about seven?

- Seven, seven-thirty.

- You'll have a bed about seven-thirty.

- I'll bring a bottle of wine back, if you like.

- Thanks.

I would stay at Nick's.

It's just, he's being a bit weird.

Look, stay as long as you like, all right?

I'd better get going.

- See you later.

- Er... excuse me.

- You're so demanding. See you.

- See you.

- Oh, he's so lovely.

- Wedding invitation.

Kerry's younger than me.

She's known Brendan three months.

If Tony doesn't get his act together...

You can't compare Tony and Brendan.

- What is it about this bloke?

- We don't know anything about him.

Don't know anything about his friends,

his family. The people he works with.

I think he lies about everything.

- So, you going on anywhere after this?

- Yeah.

I didn't know Brendan was going to come

to my party.

He just sort of turned up,

like he always does.

Why didn't you warn me about him

when I rang you before?

What? After you'd had sex with him?

Look, I'm not the person

you should be talking to.

There's a guy called Harry Vermont.

He's a friend of my ex-wife's.

He was in business with Brendan

for a couple of years.

Miranda Cotton?

- How do you do?

- Hi. Good to meet you.

- Would you like a drink?

- So I met this guy Harry this afternoon

- What do you want?

- Erm... could I have a white wine, please?

And a pint of lager, please.

And he was telling me that he set up

this business with Brendan.

Brendan promised him

start-up capital and contacts.

And none of it materialised.

He had relationships with his secretaries.

And one of them even pressed charges

against him for sexual harassment.

It's terrible. Anyway, he said the straw

that broke the camel's back, was the...

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

Thanks.

...was the fact that he was

fiddling the accounts.

He ended up having to buy him out

of the business.

And he's still paying off the debts now.

Anyway, and yesterday I met this guy David,

who is a friend of mine,

and he was at university with Brendan.

He was telling me loads of stuff.

And here's the thing.

Oh, another round. Same again?

Can I get the same again, please?

David also told me this story

about when they were at university.

A tutor failed Brendan on a paper

and Brendan found this guy's car

and he stuffed the car

full of dog sh*t all night

till the car was full.

- Can you imagine?

- I don't want to. Thanks.

- Where are you going?

- I can't keep doing this.

- We shouldn't see each other any more.

- What do you mean?

Don't pretend you don't know.

You're in love with Brendan.

No, I'm not.

- Why do you keep on talking about him?

- I don't.

Look, he's marrying your sister.

It's tough on you.

- But don't use me as a substitute.

- I'm not!

We can't work together so I'll have to

give the job to someone else.

- Sorry, Miranda.

- Can we not talk about this? Nick, wait!

I've been trying to talk to you for weeks.

- How's it going, Derek?

- All right, darling? Beef's lovely.

- Is it still bleeding, Derek?

- Yes. And so am I.

MUM:
Ah, vegetables.

- There you are.

- Oh, lovely. Lovely.

Yorkshire pudding?

Mother had a deflation moment.

Oh, dear.

- It's too warm.

- Oh, this is lovely.

The whole family together.

- We should take some photos later.

- Yes, good idea.

Pass the horse radish. Thanks.

- How's the flat-hunting going, Kerry?

- Yeah, it's good.

We almost found somewhere

a couple of days ago,

but it didn't have an office.

Brendan needs an office.

An office. Good idea.

I wish I had one here.

You could get one if you turfed

that lodger out.

- Yeah, I bloody hate him.

- I can't afford to do that.

What would Brendan need

an office for, anyway?

Well, he wants the option

of working from home.

Right.

Yeah. It gives you flexibility

and there are tax breaks.

Exactly.

It saves you money. I'm telling you.

You see, as far as I can make out,

Brendan's not good at business.

I was talking to your ex-partner,

Harry Vermont.

He was telling me about

your business skills.

How you lived it up

on the company credit card.

How one of the secretaries filed

a suit against you

for sexual harassment.

And how you fiddled

the company accounts.

That's how good your business skills are.

He's still paying the debts off.

- Miranda.

- He's lying to us, Mum.

- I don't like this.

- Lying's a bit of a strong word.

- Well, that's what it is.

- I don't like this.

It's all right, Troy, mate.

He doesn't have the business background

he said he did.

What else is he lying about?

What sort of person is he?

Don't you want to know?

One of his tutors failed him on a paper

and he found the car and stuffed

dog sh*t through the window.

Just stop it!

- You never did get over me, did you, Mirrie?

- That's another lie!

Harry Vermont had a breakdown.

It was him that nearly ruined the business.

He's not a well man.

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