Page 20 of The Little Porto Book Club

Tiago gives me a goofy half-smile. He doesn’t seem worried at all about what we overheard Lucinda say on the phone last week, but I’m not too concerned because as a bumbling sidekick, his role is to remain unobservant and provide the comic relief.

My body pulses with the thrilling notion that I’m (possibly) smack bang in the middle of a whodunnit, and it’s a race against time to stop Lucinda from acting on her murderous desires, no matter how much her husband deserves it.

‘Viviane!’ All I hear is exclamation marks when Tiago bellows my name.

Tiago takes his regular chair by the window and rifles through his rucksack as if looking for something. Here we go, the old forgot-my-wallet trick.

‘Hi, Tiago. I trust you’re well?’

‘Very well!’ He positively beams and brandishes his book. OK, false alarm. ‘And you?’

I survey him. Is he trustworthy? Can I rely on him to be truthful with me one hundred percent of the time? With the case of course. Not my heart! I’m overwrought, which is to be expected after holding this huge weight alone all week.

Tiago glances up probably at the delay in my response.

‘I’m as well as can be expected. Even though I’m a very busy copyeditor with a full daily schedule, I made a point of stopping to get you this.’ I take the box from my bag and hand it to Tiago.

‘You got me a gift?’

I shake my head. ‘It’s lip balm.’

He reads the label on the packaging. ‘Make your lips soft and kissable.’ His mouth falls open as he struggles to look at me for longer than a millisecond. Oh my God, I didn’t read the packaging!

How did my gift get taken out of context in such a way? I fight to engage my brain to reply with a witty comeback but all I can think of is his soft lips and that wasn’t my intention at all. My mouth opens and closes, guppy-like, while I will my mind to think. To explain.

‘You OK, Viviane?’ Zephyr asks, plonking herself at the table.

‘I’m – I’m fine.’ Due to my keen observational skills, I observed that Tiago is always biting his lip, and I’d thought perhaps he needed some kind of moisture but upon reflection, what a terrible idea! People bite their lips for all sorts of reasons. Nerves, flirtation, indecision, so which one is it? Actually, I do not care. I have important matters to put my energies towards.

‘Thanks, Viviane,’ Tiago eventually musters, grinning at me shyly. ‘I need this. Need to start taking care of myself more, actually.’

I give him a curt nod and drop my gaze. Disaster averted. Just. Next time I’ll read the label!

Thomas arrives and takes his seat. ‘Beautiful day, isn’t it?’

Old Albert is next, shuffling in, eyes downcast. ‘Hello, everyone. Awful weather. Melt the skin off your bones. Not the whisper of a breeze.’

‘I’m going to dive into my book,’ Thomas says.

Usually, I’d be ecstatic a book club member was following the silent reading rule but I’m not. Because there’s one big problem. Lucinda hasn’t arrived. And I haven’t asked Tiago about his thoughts on the matter yet because of the soft and kissable lip balm debacle.

Tiago raises a brow at me, as if noting she’s not here.

‘Where is she?’ I whisper to him.

‘Who?’ he asks.

Oh, Tiago! ‘Lucinda. What if she doesn’t arrive?’ Surely we’re on the same page, like all good detective–sidekick duos are.

He taps a finger to his chin. ‘Then we wait. She’s probably busy.’ Busy? Busy doing nefarious things?

‘Wait? For how long?’

He frowns. ‘Should we follow the rules and read?’

Me and my damn rules! ‘But she said …’ My voice peters off.

I’m hesitant to lob a grenade into the group along the lines of: Excuse me, silent readers, but I have a PSA: Lucinda could be plotting to kill her husband if I’m reading the clues correctly. No. Because hasn’t book club been going swimmingly for us socially awkward, avoidant personality types? Sure, we’re a member down, but that could be for many plausible reasons. It’s no use. My whodunnit senses tingle, and I just can’t let it go.