Authenticity Read Online Free Page A

who, sitting with his back to her, was oblivious to her presence until the moment she put her hand on his shoulder.
    ‘Julia!’
    ‘I came early. I didn’t expect you to be here for an hour yet, so I thought I would sit and read my book for a while. You don’t mind if I join you?’
    ‘Not at all, not at all,’ Roderic said. Flustered, he moved his jacket from beside Dennis to make room for her, replacing in the pocket, Dennis noticed, the letter from Italy which had remained on the table until then.
    ‘This is Dennis, my brother – Dennis – Julia.’
    ‘Roderic has told me lots about you,’ she said, a politeness Dennis couldn’t in honesty return. They shook hands and he gave her the tight little smile that was, in the circumstances, all he could manage. Julia took out her purse and dumped her velvet shoulder bag on the couch. ‘Can I get either of you a drink?’ she asked as she moved towards the bar. Roderic had barely touched his coffee, and Dennis again demurred. He was relieved when he heard her ask for a glass of Smithwicks, which was quickly served, for he didn’t know how he and Roderic could have easily filled the awkward minutes it would have taken the barman to pour a Guinness.
    ‘We were just talking about Wicklow,’ Roderic said when she sat down.
    ‘Oh really? That’s where I’m from,’ she added, addressing Dennis. ‘What were you saying about it?’ They tried to flog the conversation back into life, but without success. Subjects were raised – hill walking – concerts – Julia’s forthcoming exhibition – but they rapidly foundered on the brothers’ lack of ease. Only Julia remained calm, evidently bemused at the effect of her arrival. Eventually Dennis looked at his watch, drained his glass and said he would have to be off.
    ‘So that’s the famous Dennis,’ she said when they were alone. ‘He’s attractive, but I don’t think he knows it himself,’ a comment Roderic found remarkably shrewd. His brother’s habitually stern manner usually masked his looks, something people generally failed to see through until they knew him well ‘Why was he so uptight? What was all that about?’
    ‘Oh Dennis is Dennis, you know. It’s a long story.’
    Julia turned over in her mind this not particularly illuminating response and decided not to pursue the matter for now. They relaxed into Dennis’s absence and talked about all that had happened to them in the days since they had last seen each other, Roderic’s big booming laugh occasionally causing people to turn and look at them.
    After a time Julia opened her bag and took out a few sheets of paper. ‘This is the text for the catalogue,’ she said. ‘Have a look through it and tell me what you think. I hate things like this,’ she added as he smoothed out the pages on the table.
    ‘Everyone hates this side of it,’ Roderic replied, ‘except vain, silly people, and perhaps even some of them find it a chore.’
    He picked up Julia’s curriculum vitae. He ran his eye over the list of qualifications and exhibitions. A page easily held all she had done so far.
    ‘Every time I look at it I think how false it is,’ she said. ‘I look between the gaps and see all the things left out: all the projects that didn’t come through, the failed exams, the rows, the relationships that didn’t work, the whole bloody lot.’
    He glanced at her over the top of the page, thinking of his own CV: the long list of hard-won achievements; and its shadow side, the unspoken horrors between the lines. Julia didn’t know what it was to have broken hearts and wrecked lives, including one’s own. Poor Dennis. No wonder he was so easily spooked by anything to do with Roderic by this stage.
    ‘That looks fine.’ He turned his attention to the essay entitled ‘Julia Fitzpatrick: Found Objects for a New Millennium’, and started to read. He had almost finished it when he noticed that someone had come up and was standing beside