Marty looked embarrassed as attention switched to him, pinning him like an insect under a microscope. He studied his untouched drink.
“Anthropology? Oh, wow, that must be really interesting.” A vacuously pretty girl stared at him wide-eyed. Her hair was bleached white and cut close to her scalp, contrasting her thick dark eyebrows. “I’ve always been fascinated by that sort of stuff. You know, body-language and things like that.”
A young man with dreadlocks looked at the others. “Can you believe this?”
“She reads one book and she thinks she’s an intellectual,” a blond boy said.
She lightly punched his arm. “Oh, piss off. You don’t know anything.”
“Yes I do. I know what body language is.”
“What is it, then?”
“It’s this.” He held up his third finger at her. Everyone laughed. “There you go. Body language. Easy.” The girl hit him again.
“So is that what anthropology is, then? Body language?” one of the others asked. Marty adjusted his glasses.
“Well, that’s part of it. But there’s a bit more to it than that. It’s basically the study of Man.” There were giggles from around the table.
“That explains why Cindy knows so much about it,” another boy said. “She’s done plenty of research in that department.”
The blonde girl pulled a face at him. “Why is everyone picking on me tonight?”
“Because it’s easy.”
Zeppo had been listening. Now he turned to Marty, a faintly condescending smile on his face. “Are you studying us now?”
Marty shook his head. “You needn’t worry. I don’t do it all the time.”
“Isn’t it difficult not to? I mean, you’re always surrounded by what you study, aren’t you? How can you switch off?”
Marty shrugged. “The same as anyone, I suppose.”
“Yes, but it must be great to be able to know if someone’s lying by the way he scratches his nose, or something.” Zeppo’s mockery was dangerously obvious.
“Well, it’s not quite as simple as that.”
“No?”
“No.” Marty’s hand went to his glasses, touched them, came away again. “Nose-scratching can be an indication that someone’s lying, or nervous. Then again, they might just have an itchy nose. It’s not an exact science.”
“So you don’t know what I’m thinking by the way I’m sitting,” said the blonde girl. She was leaning with her elbow on the table, chin on hand, gazing at him intently. She was also showing a considerable amount of cleavage. Marty glanced across and hastily looked away. “Ah... no.”
Zeppo’s smile was perilously close to being a smirk. “Oh, I bet you’re just being modest,” he said. “I can’t believe you can’t tell more than that. What about me, for instance? What would you say my “behaviour” tells you?”
Marty looked uncomfortable. “I really don’t...”
“Oh, come on. You must be able to hazard a guess after all the years of work you’ve done.”
There were sounds of encouragement from around the table. Anna was looking at Marty a little anxiously. I hoped Zeppo was not being too heavy handed. Marty gave a reluctant shrug.
“Okay, if you really want me to.” Zeppo smiled superciliously. Marty studied him and took a deep breath.
“Well, the way you’re leaning forward, legs apart, facing me directly, suggests that you’re feeling confident. Possibly even confrontational. You’ve been displaying signs of aggression for a while now, so I’d say you either feel threatened or want to assert your dominance over the other males in the group. If you were a gorilla you’d probably be beating your chest and roaring.”
Zeppo shifted slightly in his seat. “Ah, now you’re starting to feel a bit more uncomfortable,” Marty went on. “You’re drawing back slightly, moving your legs together, which suggests that you no longer feel quite so sure of yourself — and now you’re leaning forward again, displaying more aggression characteristics, so perhaps you didn’t like what I said. Now you’re frozen and tense, which could mean either that you’re nervous or that you’re ready for sudden movement. And by the way your jaw muscles are bunching I’d say it’s probably the latter, so I’d better stop before I really piss you off and get my teeth knocked out.”
No one spoke when he had finished. The blonde girl stirred first. “Wow, that’s amazing!”
The spell was broken. There was a ripple of laughter, and everyone began to move again.
“He’s got you sussed, Zepp,” the boy with dreadlocks said. Zeppo’s mouth was set in a glassy smile. His cheek muscles were still working, I noticed.
“That’s really brilliant! You can tell all that just by looking at someone?” The blonde girl was plainly impressed.
Marty’s hand went to his glasses again. He glanced at Anna, a half-smile on his face. “No, not really. I was just making it up.”
There was a moment’s stunned silence. Then everyone burst out laughing.
“So all that was just bullshit? Honestly?” asked the blond boy. Marty nodded.
“Complete bullshit.” He smiled across at Zeppo. “Wasn’t it?”
Zeppo smiled tightly back at him. “Yes.” He relaxed and grinned. “Serves me right for being pushy.” I wondered if anyone else could see how angry he was. I was so pleased I took a drink of beer before I remembered what it was. Marty had done himself no favours. Zeppo was not the sort to take humiliation lightly. Now he had a grudge to help motivate him. As the conversation ran on, centring now on Marty, Zeppo stood up and went towards the toilet. I followed him.
“If I were you, I would be inclined to keep the contest purely physical in future,” I murmured as we went in.
“Oh, piss off,” he said, and locked himself in a cubicle.
Chapter Six
By halfway through the next week, I had heard two pieces of gossip stemming from that evening. One was good, one bad. The bad came from Miriam. She came into the gallery on Monday afternoon, brimming with apologies and scandal.
“You’re becoming quite a regular visitor,” I said.
“I know. I’ll be buying one of your bloody paintings next. Is there any chance of a coffee? I’d kill for some caffeine.”
“I’ll get it,” Anna said.
Miriam flopped down into a chair. “I’ve come to apologise.”
“Whatever for?”
“Saturday bloody night. It was awful.”
“Of course it wasn’t!” I lied.
“Donald, we both know perfectly well it was. And I want to apologise for Jessica, as well. She’s a bloody pain in the neck sometimes. And that was one of them. Thanks, Anna.” She took the coffee. “No, I should have known better than to expose innocents to her when she’s in one of those moods. She can be awfully nice sometimes, but you wouldn’t think so from hearing her going off then. I could have cheerfully strangled her.”
“She was rather overbearing. But you can’t hold yourself responsible for your guests.”
“Well, perhaps not. But it was my fault for inviting her in the first place. I thought there might be some friction between her and Zeppo, but I didn’t expect her to go for his throat. I didn’t realise he was a model, and as soon as I heard him say that, I knew we were in for it.”
“She did seem to take a dislike to him,” Anna said, grinning. Miriam snorted.
“I would imagine it was mutual. I really could have killed her.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry too much about it if I were you,” I said. “I don’t think Zeppo’s the type to be easily upset.”
She hesitated. “No, so I’ve heard,” she said, pointedly. “How do you come to know him, anyway?”