Calling All Neighbours (Calling All... Book 4)

by Tara Ford

  “Hate cats.”

  Georgie’s blunt tone was enough for Tiff to realise that her neighbour did not care to talk. “Oh, well, OK, think everyone has gone outside now… err… I think I’ll join them… speak to you again soon.” Tiff gathered up her drink and a cheese straw of her own and walked out to the garden.

  There was still a cold chill in the evenings, so early in May, but the two patio heaters, one at each end of the paved area, did a grand job of warming the air underneath the gazebos. Tiff’s mind wandered again as she thought about Georgie, in her garden. It must have been cold for her, sprawled out against a cement mixer with her skirt hitched up to her waist. Tiff shook her head to disperse the haunting images.

  Again, the men were clustered together under the gazebo furthest away and the women under the other. Kelly stood just behind Alfie, trying to join in the conversation with the men but she didn’t appear to be having much success. Once again, the main focus of the male group was Joe. They all listened and laughed with him.

  Tiff lowered herself down on to the huge, paisley design beanbag. There were several of them scattered around the garden and Tiff had been surprised how comfortable they were. She had half expected to sit on it and end up sinking down to the floor with her legs up in the air, in a very undignified fashion. But, thankfully, they weren’t those kind of beanbags. She looked up and smiled at Lilly who was sat next to her. Lilly hadn’t moved from her chair. “Hello again,” she said, feeling much more relaxed, knowing that Georgie wasn’t anywhere near her beloved Joe.

  “Hello again dearie.” Lilly smiled and sipped at her drink. The packet of cheese and onion crisps lay unopened on her lap.

  “Not eaten them yet?”

  “In my own time… in my own time.”

  “Yes, of course.”

  A moment later, Georgie came sauntering out from the dining room with a tumbler of punch in her hand. She glanced across at Tiff and then casually strolled over to the group of men. She walked straight past Kelly and joined the group around the other side, right next to Joe. A surge of disdain filled Tiff’s head. She had to go over there and stand with Joe. She’d hardly spoken to Wayne anyway, so that would be a good enough excuse to join them…

  BANG!

  Tiff’s whole body jolted at the sound. Her drink shot up in the air but luckily most of it fell back into the tumbler. Just a few drops landed on her new dress and she quickly brushed them away with her hand. She turned at the same time as everyone else to peer at Lilly incredulously.

  “Bloody hell, Lilly, you’ve done it again,” scoffed Hayley across the garden. “You’re going to give yourself and everyone else a heart attack one of these days.”

  Lilly sat motionless in her chair, a conceited grin on her face and a pile of cheese and onion crisps in her lap.

  Everyone turned back to the conversations they were having before the explosion went off, as if they’d all seen and heard it many times before.

  Tiff smiled awkwardly and looked up at Lilly’s white curls. “You’ve… err…” Pointing with a finger, she indicated to the top of Lilly’s head. “Crisps – you’ve got crisps in your hair.”

  Lilly giggled and bent her head over her lap. She brushed the crisps from her hair and then began to nibble from the pile in her lap.

  “Are you OK there?” Tiff indicated to the pile of crisps.

  “Couldn’t be better dearie.” Lilly scooted the crisps around in her lap and picked out the smallest bits.

  “Right, well – I’d better go and have a chat with Wayne. Haven’t been over to meet him properly yet.” Tiff pulled herself up from the beanbag. She brushed several crisp crumbs from her dress, daintily waved three fingers at Lilly and grinned. “Speak to you again soon.”

  Edging as close as possible to Joe, Tiff tried to push her way into the circle. No one was moving. She could feel Georgie’s eyes following her every move.

  “Oh, hi babe – didn’t see you there,” Joe placed an arm round her shoulders and pulled her in.

  Looking sideways to Georgie, standing on the other side of Joe, Tiff smirked.

  Georgie giggled at the sight of her and shook her head. Then she carried on listening to the men talking about rugby and football.

  With his arm still round Tiff’s shoulders, Joe carried on the conversation with the other men, oblivious to the fact that he was sandwiched between two women who apparently had such a dislike for each other.

  Georgie had now turned her focus towards Kelly, who was standing opposite her, and for just one moment, Tiff could have sworn that she was mouthing something to Kelly about her. Georgie’s shifty eyes and cunning grin suggested that she was finding something quite funny and secretively sharing it with Kelly. Kelly’s eyes slyly darted from one side of Joe to the other. From Georgie to Tiff and back again. Only once did she meet Tiff’s eye and she very quickly averted her gaze. Yet, all the time, a grin stretched across her face.

  A few more minutes passed and Georgie now had the giggles. She grabbed hold of Joe’s arm as she leant over and chuckled. Tiff felt uneasy again but her apprehension was masked by a raging jealousy and rapidly growing hatred for this woman.

  “Oh God,” breathed Georgie as she pulled herself upright and sighed.

  Joe and the other men stopped talking and stared at Georgie with puzzled looks on their faces. Kelly scooted away in a fit of laughter, clutching her tummy, coughing and spluttering as she went.

  “Oh… Joe…” Georgie gasped as she continued to grip his arm. “You’re going to have to…”

  Joe turned to Georgie and frowned.

  “Tell her…”

  Tiff glowered. Tell her what? She gulped hard. What should Joe tell her?

  “Ha, ha,” Georgie snorted before grabbing Joe’s arm with both hands and resting her forehead on the top of his arm.

  The other men stood motionless, perplexed by Georgie’s display of hilarity.

  “What?” asked Joe, a tense tone in his voice.

  Georgie laughed louder, still clinging on to his arm. The other men twitched from one foot to the other. Tiff glared as her heartbeat strengthened and grew in rapidity.

  Kelly was over the other side of the garden laughing loudly while Hayley and the others watched her in amusement.

  “Tell her… go on…” Georgie giggled.

  “Tell her what?” Joe flicked his eyes from Tiff to Georgie and then around each of the men standing in the circle. “What?” His voice was uptight.

  Pulling her head away from Joe’s arm, Georgie sighed deeply and glanced around at the puzzled faces staring back at her. “Well… look,” she spluttered, as she pointed directly to Tiff, before bursting into laughter again.

  Joe was the first to turn and look at Tiff. Followed by everyone else.

  “Your hair… babe.”

  “What?” Tiff peered into Joe’s eyes, searching for a clue. “Hair?”

  “Crisps babe…” Joe withdrew his arm from Tiff’s shoulders. “You’ve got crisps in your hair. I’m sorry… I didn’t notice.” Shaking Georgie off his other arm, Joe proceeded to pick the small fragments of crisps from the top of Tiff’s head.

  Georgie chuckled. “Oh, I’m sorry… you did look funny when you came over here. I couldn’t… I couldn’t tell you, I wanted to laugh so much.”

  The other men smiled or diverted their gaze elsewhere.

  Brushing Joe’s hand away, Tiff snorted, “Leave it, I’ll do it myself.” She stepped back and scuttled away from the circle, heading straight indoors to the downstairs toilet.

  Once safe in the confines of the small, nicely decorated room, Tiff looked into the round mirror hanging above the washbasin. There were still bits of crisps speckled on top of her hair. She flicked her head upside down and teased the fragments out. Then she scooped the bits from the floor and dropped them down the toilet. Her eyes burned. She could not cry. Not here. And if she spent too much time in the toilet, Georgie would be sucking-up to her boyfriend. She had to get back.

>   As she reached the dining room, Hayley walked in from the garden with two tumblers in her hands. “You OK?” she asked, genuinely. “Lilly got you with the crisps, didn’t she?”

  Tiff nodded her head and pulled a sad face. “Yes, I didn’t realise I had them in my hair.”

  “She’s a little devil you know. Sits there for hours, squeezing the bag, trying to crunch the crisps up, before she makes the bag explode.” Hayley smiled warmly and held a tumbler up. “Want another one?”

  “Err… I’ve got one still. I left it out there, next to Lilly, I think.”

  “OK,” Hayley replied, brightly. “Come and sit with me and Karen. We can get drunk and have a giggle. Lilly’s quite happy sitting on her own in the corner, now she has her crisps.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, absolutely. She will be perfectly fine on her own. She loves to sit and watch other people, you know. And I’m sure she is planning her next crisp-victim when she does sit there all quiet and observant.”

  “OK, thanks. I’ll get my drink and come over.”

  Returning outside, along with Hayley and two refilled tumblers, Tiff went over to Lilly’s table and picked up her drink. “I’m going to have a chat with Hayley and Karen. Will you be alright sitting here on your own?”

  “Oh, don’t mind me dearie.” Lilly beckoned with her hand. “Here, my dear. Just a moment.”

  “Yes?” Tiff leant over to listen.

  “Your husband,” she whispered, with a slight whistle in her voice. “Look after him. He looks like a very nice man.”

  Tiff nodded her head and grinned. “He is.”

  “Watch out dearie. Others might think that too.” Ushering Tiff away with her delicate hand, Lilly attempted a wink but both of her crinkly eyes closed tightly at the same time. “Sorry that I crisped you. Make sure you enjoy the evening.”

  “Thank you, I will try to.”

  Chapter 11

  Tiff wasn’t sure if she had enjoyed the evening or not. As she stumbled home with Joe at 1.25am, her fuzzy head and blurred vision marred any real issues that may have arisen during the evening.

  Joe was just as drunk as she was. Hayley and Wayne’s generous hospitality and their cocktail-making skills had wrecked them both. As Joe pulled Tiff along the pathway to their house, the silence around the close was comforting. It was bedtime and she would very soon be in hers. Snuggled under the warm quilt. Sleep, and not having to think too much, were a welcoming combination.

  A murky, grey sky greeted Tiff as she slowly opened her eyes and looked across at the window. Alone in the bed, she contemplated dragging herself up while her skull squeezed at her brain and her eyes squinted from the pain. Turning slowly, she peeped at the alarm clock resting on top of the cardboard box. Blinking away blurry spots, she focused on the red numerals, glowing so brightly that they burned into her eyes. Twelve fourteen – quarter past twelve – afternoon. Had she really slept that long? Lying still for a moment, she listened to the sound of the wind whistling through the unkempt windows. She assumed that Joe was downstairs already and probably feeling much the same as she did. She pictured him sitting at the dining table, chin propped up with his hand and a strong cup of steaming hot coffee in his other hand. Coffee. That was what she needed. Yet, just the thought of moving was painful.

  A gentle nudge of her shoulder alerted her. Tiff opened her eyes to see raindrops leisurely trickling down the glass of the bedroom window.

  “I’ve made you a coffee,” a voice spoke gently from behind her. “Are you getting up?”

  Turning over, Tiff looked up to see Joe crouching by the side of the bed.

  “It’s nearly two o’clock – lazy bones.”

  Rubbing her forehead, she opened her eyes wider. “Really?”

  “Yes, really. Come on, or it’ll soon be time to go back to bed.”

  Smiling through the pain of her pounding head, Tiff pulled herself up to a sitting position.

  “Here,” said Joe, passing a mug of coffee over. “I’ll do you some toast – that’ll make you feel better.” As he went to leave the room, he turned. “Do you want it up here or are you coming down?”

  “I’ll be down in a minute.”

  Sipping the sweet coffee, Tiff watched the raindrops hit the window. Dark grey clouds sped past as the wind continued to find tiny gaps in the window’s seals to whistle through. It was a miserable day. Or what was left of it. Annoyed with herself for wasting over half a day in bed, she sighed. And then she began to think about the previous evening. Laughter. Hayley – and how well she had got on with her. Draining the punch bowl down until just a few pieces of soggy cucumber were left in the bottom. Cocktails. Wayne’s expertise in making a whole caboodle of colourful concoctions. Lilly’s humorous departure because she needed to go home for ‘a little poo’ as she discreetly put it. Lilly had never pooed in public or at anyone else’s house for that matter and she never would, as long as she had the mind and legs to carry her home. Alfie and Kelly’s drunken exit, which must have been before midnight. Karen and John’s farewell. Surprisingly, after several little waltzes under the gazebo and an endearing peck on the cheek from time to time, Tom and Jean had also left the party with a wobble and a giggle. Hand in hand they had tottered out of the garden, graciously thanking everyone for a wonderful evening. Then there was Georgie. Georgie Ford. Georgie the sly, flirtatious bitch. And Joe. The man who was dutifully buttering some hot toast downstairs. Her man.

  “How do you feel?”

  Tiff tied the belt of her dressing gown tighter and padded through the dining room and sat down on a chair. In front of her, two slices of toast lay on a plate. “Terrible.”

  “Want some painkillers?”

  “Please. What the hell were we drinking by the end of the night?”

  “Everything, I think. I have no doubt that we had tried every single type of cocktail that was going by the end of the night.” Joe placed a big hand on Tiff’s back and rubbed her gently. “I’ve been up a few hours – only just starting to feel better now.”

  Shrugging his hand away, Tiff smiled stiffly. “Please don’t rub my back, my brain is shaking around inside as it is.”

  Joe snatched his hand away, looking like a scorned child. “Sorry babe, I’ll get you some tablets.” Hurriedly, he went over to the kitchen junk-drawer and scrabbled around for a box of painkillers. “Have you seen the fence?” he asked upon his return, as he popped two tablets from the foil sleeve.

  “The fence?” Tiff frowned as she took a tiny bite from her toast.

  “In the garden. It looks like someone has kicked it in, if you ask me.”

  Turning her head around to the patio doors, Tiff peered out through the sheet of rain lashing down from above. One fence panel at the end of the garden had been demolished at the bottom. Strangely enough the top of the panel was still intact and wedged between the posts. A gaping hole, about a metre square, was missing. Debris lay on the grass suggesting that the fence had been damaged from the other side, as it had caved into the garden. “How did that happen?”

  “I don’t know. Saw it when I got up this morning.”

  “Great, now we’ll have to get it fixed quickly. Could get foxes and things coming in.”

  “I’m sure they could jump the fence anyway, but that’s beside the point. I’ll get a new panel for next weekend. I’m not doing anything out there in this weather.”

  “No, of course not.” Picking up the two painkillers from the table, Tiff took a gulp of coffee, pushed them in her mouth and swallowed them awkwardly. “So, did you enjoy it?”

  “The party?”

  “Yes.”

  “Sure I did. Didn’t you?”

  “Yes, it was OK.” Tiff finished her coffee and began to eat the toast with more vigour. She had to start making herself feel better. Currently, she felt utter crap and thick-headed and there were a few things she wanted to get off her alcohol addled mind so she needed to be clear-headed first.

  “Wayne’s a good
man – I really like him.”

  “Thought you did. You were by his side most of the evening.”

  “We had so much in common, yet completely different interests.” Joe paused, thoughtfully. “He asked me to play a round of golf with him, next Friday.”

  “You’ll be at work,” Tiff reminded him.

  “Well… I was thinking of asking Lee to swap a shift. Would you be happy for me to work on the Saturday?”

  “Sure – do what you want to do.” Tiff rubbed at her tight forehead. “You’ve never played golf before though.”

  “Always a first time.”

  Joe’s cheery voice annoyed Tiff slightly. There she was feeling completely hungover and miffed by the antics of the bionic-boob woman last night. There she was irked by Joe’s apparent lack of sensitivity and reflective consideration and there he was – happy as a lark and carefree, like an amnesic blossoming golf pro.

  “Why Friday? What does Wayne do for a living? I’ve forgotten… or maybe he never told me.”

  “Buys houses. He does them up and sells them on.”

  “Oh yes, I remember now. Didn’t really talk to him much last night.”

  “Too busy laughing your head off with Hayley.”

  Tiff smiled as she thought of the ridiculous conversations they were having about all sorts of funny things. “Yes, I like her. We got on really well.” Finishing her coffee, Tiff added, “She was telling us about some of the things she sees and has to deal with in her job.”

  “Ah yes – a nurse.”

  “Hmm,” mumbled Tiff, before finishing off the first slice of toast.

  “Another one?” Joe had picked up Tiff’s mug and pulled himself out of his chair.

  Nodding her head, she looked up and smiled. “Thanks.” As Joe walked over to the kitchen, Tiff felt a little pang of guilt. Perhaps she was being too harsh thinking the worst of him. Maybe he really was oblivious to Georgie’s persistent pestering and coquettish conduct. But then, Tiff supposed it was conceivable that she’d imagined it all and was simply fixated by Georgie and her demonstrative ways. Even so, it still bothered her. Perhaps she shouldn’t mention it though.