‘You should always have champagne on your birthday,’ he said.
‘Oh, look at that,’ Mum said, bringing in the plates. ‘How lovely! But we have no champagne glasses.’
‘These Derek be fine,’ Derek said.
‘I’ll open it.’ Patrick reached for it, unwound the wire, and placed his thumbs under the cork. He kept glancing over at Derek, as if he were not what he had expected at all.
‘If you do that,’ Derek observed, ‘it’s going to go everywhere.’ He lifted his arm an inch or so, gesturing vaguely. ‘I find that holding the cork and turning the bottle tends to be a safer bet.’
‘There’s a man who knows his champagne,’ Dad said. ‘There you go, Patrick. Turning the bottle, you say? Well, who knew?’
‘I knew,’ Patrick said. ‘That’s how I was going to do it.’
The champagne was safely popped and poured,
