Summer at Hollyhock House

by Cathy Bussey

  ‘You look like you had a good time,’ Simon said approvingly.

  She nodded. ‘This place is awesome.’

  ‘Come back whenever you like. You don’t need to bring him,’ he said conspiratorially, nodding in Rik’s direction. ‘I can show you around instead.’

  Rik snorted dismissively. Faith’s lips twitched. ‘Thanks,’ she said to Simon, then she gave him her most radiant smile. He reeled visibly.

  ‘Time we were off,’ Rik said pointedly.

  ‘What’s your rush?’ Simon asked easily. ‘You’re both welcome to stick around.’

  ‘I need to eat,’ Rik said and Faith suddenly realised she hadn’t eaten since this morning and was absolutely starving.

  They stopped at a pub on the way home and Faith, who had started to become chilly in the draughty old Land Rover, felt the warmth seeping back into her body, leaving her glowing with contentment.

  ‘Whereabouts in London do you live?’ she asked Rik.

  ‘Nowhere, any more,’ he said. ‘I’m here for the summer then I’m going to Cornwall for a bit. I have a client up there who wants me to come in-house for a few months.’

  ‘That sounds nice,’ she said, thinking how lovely it would be to be by the sea. All that gorgeous chalky soil, bursting with cornflowers and poppies and other, far rarer wild blooms. ‘What will you do, just rent somewhere for a bit?’

  He nodded. ‘Shouldn’t be too hard, especially outside of holiday season.’

  ‘Is Lucinda going to come with you?’

  Rik was silent and she had the distinct impression she’d touched a nerve.

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said finally. ‘I’m only down there for a few months and she works in London.’

  ‘Long distance can work,’ Faith said. ‘Rob and I did it for a few years before we moved in together. It was fine.’ Actually, it was probably the reason their relationship had lasted as long as it did. Only seeing Rob at weekends had prevented her from getting to know him as well as she could have, and she’d overlooked all the little warning signs of the bigger issues to come. ‘Lucinda seems nice,’ she said. She seems anything of the sort, she thought, then reminded herself that if she wanted to be friends with Rik she would need to muster up some positivity about and interest in his significant other. And it was hardly Lucinda’s fault. It was the fact he had a significant other in the first place that was the real kicker here. ‘She said she’s a journalist?’

  Rik nodded. ‘She works for a newspaper, that’s how I met her actually. I went in to do some design work for them.’

  Faith wasn’t sure she could stomach some nauseating story about their eyes meeting over a malfunctioning laptop or something equally clichéd.

  ‘She’s been with the same company for a while and they’ve got quite a few titles. She’s very ambitious,’ he said. ‘She’s aiming to be an editor by the time she’s thirty.’

  ‘She seems like the sort of person who focuses on what she wants,’ she said, remembering how skilfully Lucinda had questioned her in the garden. She still felt like she’d been duped in some way there, but she pushed the thought away.

  ‘She’s really focused, and she works very hard,’ he agreed. ‘She’s always staying late and taking on extra shifts and she’s the first to volunteer for any weekend work or to cover stories that are breaking out of hours.’

  ‘That’s the way to get ahead,’ Faith said. ‘Not sneaking days off to go mountain biking. Although I could see it might be tricky if she was living in Cornwall,’ she mused. Perhaps that was the issue.

  ‘We haven’t been together long,’ he said. ‘It feels like a big step.’

  ‘It’s very different from just dating,’ Faith agreed. ‘It’s nice at first, but once the novelty of having each other around all the time wears off you get a much better idea of who they actually are and that can be tricky. Well, it can be if you’re me and Rob,’ she conceded. ‘I’m sure you and Lucinda will be fine.’ She hoped she sounded encouraging, not accusing.

  ‘So when you moved in with Rob,’ Rik said, ‘you must have been pretty serious about him?’

  ‘Yes and no,’ Faith said. ‘It was more circumstances. Rob was living and working in the Midlands, and I was sharing a flat in London with a friend from uni. He came up to see mutual friends most weekends and that’s how we met. It evolved quite slowly but we got to the point where we realised we weren’t going to go any further only seeing each other once a week, so we talked about it and he was really keen for us to move in together somewhere halfway in between.’

  ‘And you were too?’

  She tipped her head from side to side thoughtfully. ‘We’d been together for about two years by then. I had a couple of flings at uni but nothing I wanted to take any further, because,’ she had hoped to escape today without bringing this up again, but Rik looked so open and receptive she thought she could chance it, ‘I was pretty wary of getting involved with anybody, after what I thought had happened with you. And then all of a sudden I was in my mid-twenties and in a two-year relationship and all around me my friends were moving in with their boyfriends and talking about getting engaged and it seemed like the obvious next step. But then he wanted to take the next step and I didn’t, and now I’m pretty much right back at the start again, only on the wrong side of my mid twenties,’ she added ruefully.

  ‘Don’t tell me you actually do think you’re getting old,’ Rik said.

  She watched as a waitress cleared their plates away. ‘I’m not old,’ she conceded. ‘But there’s nothing like a relationship ending to make you re-evaluate your life and I have come to the rather depressing conclusion that I’ve been just drifting along. It’s not even like I’m advancing my career, like Lucinda,’ she said fretfully. ‘I hate my job. I was trying to get promoted but only because Rob was keen for me to push for a payrise so we could save for a house.’

  ‘When you were at school and thinking about the future, what did you think you’d be doing at this age?’

  I thought I’d be with you, Faith wanted to say.

  ‘I thought I’d be a garden designer. I had actually started thinking about it before Rob and I split up. We did have some savings and I thought I could use them to retrain.’

  ‘So why not?’

  ‘Well, I’m having to use the savings to pay the rent on the flat,’ she said gloomily. ‘I couldn’t leave Rob with all the bills for the rest of our tenancy. And I’m not exactly flush so if I want to study I’ll have to go back to work and start saving again and that’ll take ages —’

  ‘Get a loan,’ Rik said. ‘Or do an apprenticeship, or work part-time while you’re studying. There’s always a way.’

  ‘Plus,’ she said awkwardly. ‘I’m making a bit of a hash of Hollyhocks.’ There were moments when she could feel things were coming together, flashes of inspiration and glimpses of how it might all look once she’d finished, but in the main, it was still an almighty mess.

  ‘You did a pretty good job of it first time around,’ Rik said. ‘You transformed the place, and I remember you did a pretty good job of the other places you worked on too. You might be out of practice but you thought you were out of practice on the bike and you didn’t seem to have any problems today.’

  That was true, Faith thought hopefully.

  ‘I’m sure,’ Rik said softly, ‘you still have that magic touch.’

  Her stomach fluttered.

  Rik picked up his phone and he frowned. ‘I’m running late.’ He typed out a message quickly.

  ‘Do you need to head off?’ she asked, hoping she didn’t sound too flustered.

  ‘I’m supposed to be on a call with somebody from the States this evening,’ he said. ‘Got confused with the time difference. Do you mind if we go?’

  ‘Of course not,’ she said. ‘Let’s get the bill.’

  Faith rang Sara when she got home. ‘I just had a cycle down memory lane with Rik.’

  ‘Not a ride?’ Sara asked hopefully.

  Faith giggle
d. ‘Not that kind of ride. Strictly friend zone. We even discussed the fragrant Lucinda. But I can’t say focusing on his flaws is really working for me.’ She sighed. ‘Apparently he doesn’t have any, other than the aforementioned bitch.’

  ‘Of course he does,’ Sara said. ‘Just give it time. And in the mean time, get laid.’

  ‘About that,’ Faith said. ‘What are you doing on Saturday night?’

  ‘I’m not shagging you.’

  ‘No,’ Faith giggled. ‘I’m going out in London with some friends from the track after our training sessions. Why don’t you come? Might cheer you up, take your mind off Tony for a while.’

  Sara’s voice sounded eager. ‘Sounds just the ticket. Shall we take Minel too?’

  ‘Why not?’ Faith said. ‘More the merrier.’

  Chapter 14

  When Faith had said ‘more the merrier’ she hadn’t reckoned on quite how many more. Minel instantly said she wanted Paul to come too. ‘We haven’t been out together in ages,’ she said persuasively as Paul took a break from bollocking the recalcitrant teenagers and gratefully downed a pint of water she had brought him. ‘And all you’ve done is work. It’d be nice to spend some time with you.’

  ‘All right,’ Paul said. ‘I suppose there is still life in the old dog yet.’

  ‘I’ll come,’ Rik said and Faith’s heart leaped. Then she realised that meant she would have to put up with bloody Lucinda too.

  ‘What about us?’ one of the teenagers demanded.

  ‘Absolutely no way,’ Paul said. ‘You’re all wildly underage and a total liability.’

  ‘I’m not,’ Lofty pointed out.

  Faith thought about Lucy.

  ‘You can come,’ she said to Lofty. ‘But you lot,’ she glared at the excitable rabble, ‘can save your fake IDs for another time.’

  ‘You look hot to trot,’ Lucy said as Faith came out of the track changing rooms, running her fingers through her newly-washed hair which was clinging to her scalp but already beginning to separate into spirals. They were all buzzing after the skills session. At the end Shaun had divided them into categories so they could race, and Faith had actually won her round before being thoroughly pulverized by Lucy.

  Faith had been going to wear her usual faded denim shorts and a vest, then she’d thought if Lucinda did join them she would instantly feel shabby and scruffy. In the depths of her still-unpacked boxes she’d unearthed a long white peasant top which she’d put on over skinny jeans and the one pair of heels she owned, which were made from glittery black leather. She’d roped in her trusty push-up bra to make her breasts work a bit harder and put on a black choker necklace.

  ‘You look like a very sexy fairy,’ Lucy said delightedly.

  ‘I’ve brought you a present for this evening,’ Faith said. ‘Let’s go and meet everybody.’

  They met at one of those identikit pizza restaurants that had long, marbled tables and an endless menu and everything was noisy and rowdy and a little bit messy.

  ‘This is Lucy and Crystal,’ Faith gestured at her friends, ‘and this is Sara, that’s Minel and her husband Paul and this is — oh you look nice,’ she blurted out before she could help herself.

  Rik was wearing dark blue jeans and an orange t-shirt with a picture of a small cardboard robot on the front. She’d barely seen him in anything other than dusty and tattered labouring clothes so far this summer. The lurid orange was practically glowing against his dark skin and eyes. He looks vaguely ridiculous and ridiculously gorgeous, she thought. Even up here in town where everybody was far more glamorous and polished and put-together than in Westchester he stood out through the force of his presence alone. Although his height and beauty weren’t exactly helping him slip under the radar either.

  Certainly not with Lucy.

  ‘I’m not sure nice really covers it.’ Faith recognised the predatory expression on her friend’s face. Do I look at him like that, she wondered? Like I want to eat him? ‘What’s under that?’ Lucy asked, flicking the robot idly.

  Rik smiled easily, as if he were entirely used to this kind of attention. Which he probably was, Faith thought irritably. ‘Lucy,’ she said quickly, turning her friend in the direction of Lofty. ‘This is —’ Shit, what was his actual name?

  ‘Harry,’ Lofty said, flashing his most charming smile.

  Lucy looked him up and down, then her gaze drifted to Rik again. ‘You didn’t tell me you were bringing me two presents tonight,’ she chided Faith. ‘Where do you hide them all?’

  ‘He’s not for you,’ Faith said, hoping she didn’t sound shrewish. ‘He has a girlfriend.’

  Lucy shrugged and turned to Lofty. ‘Well, you can start by buying me a drink.’

  Lofty took her arm and steered her off in the direction of the bar.

  ‘Your friend seems nice,’ Rik said.

  ‘She’s a force of nature,’ Faith agreed reluctantly. ‘When I grow up, I want to be just like her.’

  ‘Looks like Lofty’s in for a good night,’ Sara observed. ‘At least someone is.’

  Faith touched her shoulder reassuringly to remind Sara that she wasn’t in for that kind of good night either. Rik’s presence was the ultimate chaperonage. She wouldn’t be able to look at anybody else with him around even though Lucinda was mercifully absent.

  Crystal, who had been exchanging pleasantries with Paul and Minel, drifted over. Faith introduced her to Rik. ‘Crystal is my track mentor,’ she said. ‘She initiated me into the art of mindless round-and-round.’ Crystal looked blank. ‘That’s his interpretation of track cycling,’ Faith elaborated.

  Crystal looked affronted. ‘Have you ever even been on a track?’

  Rik shook his head.

  ‘It’s pretty hardcore,’ Faith said. ‘You probably couldn’t handle it, Rikki.’

  ‘Track cycling,’ Crystal said firmly, ‘is the ultimate test of skill, speed and control. No brakes, no gears, no fancy stuff or interruptions to hide all your bad habits and there’s nothing tame about those banks.’

  ‘There isn’t,’ Faith chipped in. ‘First time I rode track I honestly thought I was going to die and Crystal had to hold my hand all the way round.’ She smiled affectionately at her friend.

  ‘Also,’ Crystal announced grandly, ‘we all ride commando.’

  Faith giggled, remembering the first time she’d worn padded cycling shorts, known as a chamois, and complained about her pants getting tangled up in all the fabric. Lucy, Crystal and the other girls had howled with laughter. ‘Nothing comes between a girl and her chamois,’ Lucy had said, still chortling merrily.

  Rik turned to Faith. ‘I’m absolutely not allowed to say anything to that, am I?’

  ‘Nothing at all,’ she confirmed. ‘Anything you said would just sound incredibly creepy.’

  ‘But it’s OK for you to talk about riding dressed as a — what did you call it?’

  ‘A human condom,’ Faith said. ‘Yes, that’s totally acceptable.’

  Crystal giggled. ‘Lycra isn’t the best look. But it helps with speed, and you’re super-fast.’

  ‘I am without the wind resistance,’ Faith said. ‘Which is finally going.’

  ‘What are you on about?’ Rik asked. ‘Wind resistance?’

  ‘I put on a bit of weight,’ Faith said. ‘But thankfully all the hill reps and that leaden ground is seeing it off.’

  ‘Can’t say I noticed,’ Rik said.

  ‘You wouldn’t have noticed,’ Faith said patiently. ‘You hadn’t seen me in nine years and I was hardly going to look like a seventeen year old.’

  ‘Actually,’ Rik said. ‘I thought you looked just the same, only maybe a bit more —’ He looked a little troubled. ‘You just look like you.’

  The hairs on Faith’s arms had begun to prickle, and she swallowed hard, because his words had provoked a powerfully bittersweet sensation within her. She felt like she knew exactly what he meant. He had changed, and despite his protestations she knew she had too, but she’d felt from the
second she’d laid eyes on him again that he was still so very him, only more so, somehow.

  Faith sat between Crystal and Rik at dinner, enjoying watching them finding each other pleasantly interesting and she thought they could both see what she saw in each of them, and they in turn both seemed to see exactly what each other saw in her. And as always, she and Rik just seemed to unconsciously gravitate towards one another, picking up each other’s thought trains and running with them, occasionally leaving Crystal looking a bit perplexed. It reminded Faith of the way Minel, Paul and Sara used to look when she and Rik would take group conversations off onto tangents of their own, and Minel would complain that they talked in riddles and were in their own little world and huff that Faith was her friend first.

  ‘What now?’ Lucy asked once their table had finally been cleared away. ‘Shall we go dancing?’

  ‘Yes,’ Faith said instantly. ‘Not to one of those poncy, up-their-own backsides places,’ she said. ‘Let’s go somewhere good and cheesy with a fair to middling chance of 90’s rave.’

  ‘I know just the place,’ Lucy’s eyes lit up. ‘You’ll love it.’

  ‘Where is it?’ Rik asked, looking at his phone. Not Lucinda, Faith thought sadly, I like it far too much sitting next to you chatting and giggling and making Crystal laugh with our silliness, as if you and I were a couple. That’s a bit unhealthy, she chided herself, but without Lucinda prowling around that was exactly how it felt.

  ‘Jason’s up in town,’ he said. ‘He wants to join us. Where?’ he asked Lucy and she gave him the address.

  ‘What’s he up to nowadays?’ Faith demanded.

  ‘He’s an accountant.’ Rik was still typing. ‘He’s getting married in a couple of weeks.’

  ‘Oh wow.’ Rik’s long-time sidekick had been so sweet, he deserved it. ‘Who to?’ Not Sophie, surely. If everybody else had made it other than her and Rik it would finish her off.

  ‘Lily,’ Rik said. ‘Awesome girl. He met her at uni.’

  They piled into taxis, which dispensed them outside an ecclesiastical-looking building not far from Tottenham Court Road. ‘This used to be a church,’ Lucy said, as they queued outside the building. ‘Now it’s the church of rave.’