Summer at Hollyhock House

by Cathy Bussey

It was about time she had a plan.

  ‘I’d better have a Pimm’s too,’ she told Simon, who beckoned the barman again. ‘Lots of cucumber and strawberries, please.’

  A few more, she thought, and I’ll be about drunk enough to just snog Simon right here on the dancefloor, in front of Rik and Lucinda, and that will show her once and for all that I’m completely over him and they can push off to Cornwall and live glamorously ever after.

  She edged closer to Simon.

  ‘Are you enjoying yourself?’ he asked.

  Not in the slightest, Faith thought, but that’s going to change.

  She smiled flirtatiously. ‘I am now,’ she said.

  ‘Me too,’ he said, ‘now your so-called mate is over there arguing with his girlfriend and has temporarily stopped looking at me like he wants to punch my lights out.’

  ‘Rik’s just being a good friend,’ Faith said, meaning it. ‘He knows I’ve been through a bit of a rough time lately and he’s just looking out for me. And I hear you,’ she smiled teasingly again, ‘have a bad reputation.’

  ‘Oh, do you now?’ He moved still closer.

  ‘I do.’ This is just complete nonsense, she thought, the sort of nonsense you talk when you’re both gearing yourselves up to just throw yourselves at each other and it should be exciting and fun and loaded and my heart should be racing and my breathing should be coming quicker and my skin should be tingling with anticipation and instead I feel —

  Nothing, she thought despairingly. There’s no way I’m going to be able to bring myself to sleep with Simon.

  This is pointless.

  ‘I need the toilet,’ she told Simon.

  ‘Again?’ He looked perplexed. ‘You just went.’

  ‘I’ve got my period.’

  ‘Don’t let me stop you.’ Simon moved away from her pointedly. He’s just figured out he’s not getting any tonight, Faith thought. Well now he knows how I feel, only magnified by about one hundred.

  Faith went and found Jason, who was sitting with Lily watching some of the more enthusiastic action on the dancefloor.

  ‘Hey Faith,’ Jason pulled out a chair. ‘Come and sit down. This is Lily,’ he gestured at his new wife, whose sweet face was alight with happiness. ‘Mrs Denby.’

  ‘Congratulations.’ Faith kissed Lily warmly on the cheek. ‘You look absolutely radiant and that was a beautiful ceremony. You did well,’ she said to Jason. ‘Remembered all your lines.’

  ‘Jason says you’re an old friend?’ Lily said. She squeezed her husband’s hand affectionately. ‘You must have some tales about his antics back in the good old days.’

  ‘Don’t tell her, Faith,’ Jason hissed comically.

  ‘You’d want to ask Rik that,’ Faith said. ‘The only incriminating evidence I have involves their adorable habit of spooning each other after nights out.’

  Lily giggled. ‘Where is Rik? He and Lucinda were having a row last time I saw him.’

  Jason rolled his eyes. ‘He picks his moments.’

  ‘Well, at least they’re getting into practice for when they move in together and start arguing about him leaving the toilet seat up and her squeezing from the middle of the tube of toothpaste,’ Faith said despondently.

  ‘Hardly.’ Jason snorted. ‘He’s not moving in with her.’

  The ground tilted fractionally underneath Faith’s bare feet.

  ‘How do you know?’ Lily chided.

  ‘He told me,’ Jason said. He looked awkward, aware he shouldn’t be betraying confidences.

  ‘Why not?’ Faith demanded, knowing she was sounding far too interested and not caring in the slightest.

  ‘It’s none of our business,’ Jason said firmly. ‘Ask him yourself, if you’re that bothered.’

  ‘I am bothered.’

  Lily was looking at Faith curiously. It’s her wedding day, Faith reminded herself firmly. Don’t try and hijack it.

  But you might not get another chance to ask Jason anything, she countered, it’s just a few moments, just ask him.

  ‘Look, Jason, do you think Rik might —’

  ‘You need to be talking to him, not me,’ Jason interrupted.

  ‘But is there any point?’ She fixed her gaze on him. ‘Or am I about nine years too late?’

  The hairs on her arms began to prickle. Too late now, she thought. A Lucinda-free Rik had materialised next to them.

  ‘It’s never too late,’ Jason said.

  ‘For what?’ Rik asked.

  ‘We were just talking about whether we’re too late to show off our dance moves,’ Lily said quickly. ‘Now everybody’s plastered.’

  She’s perceptive, Faith thought, and bright, and something tells me I’m going to like her.

  Lily smiled at Jason. ‘You’re right. All those dance classes we took don’t have to go to waste. Let’s hit the floor anyway.’

  Faith watched them go. Rik was still standing next to her.

  ‘Hey,’ he said.

  ‘Hey,’ she responded. ‘Where’s Lucinda?’

  ‘She left,’ he said, not sounding particularly interested in discussing her.

  ‘Sorry,’ she said, not meaning it.

  ‘I don’t think she was enjoying herself much anyway.’

  ‘Pity,’ Faith sighed, watching the merriment on the dancefloor. ‘It’s nice here.’

  He was looking at her crumpled, tearstained dress. ‘What happened to your dress?’

  ‘I just got it all mashed up crying in the toilets.’

  ‘Why were you crying?’

  ‘I must be getting my period, it always turns me into a hormonal mess.’ That’s the second time tonight, she thought, I’ve blamed my monthly cycle for something it hasn’t done.

  His hair was falling forwards, tangling with his long eyelashes, and his eyes had lost that flinty edge and were doe-like and dreamy. ‘What would help?’ he asked. ‘Some painkillers? A drink?’

  ‘A drink would be just the thing,’ she said. She gestured to him to sit down with her and liberated a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses from the detritus on the table. ‘Shall we get hammered?’

  ‘Hammered.’ he agreed fervently. ‘Absolutely cross-eyed. Poleaxed. Plastered. Then we can carry each other home and pass out watching a movie.’

  Faith nodded. ‘Perfect. But what about Lucinda?’

  Rik shook his head. ‘She’s gone back to London.’

  ‘Aren’t you going to go after her?’

  ‘No.’ He picked up his drink. ‘I’m staying here.’

  Chapter 25

  Faith woke up, feeling something pressing against her face. She blinked a couple of times. Why could she see stripes?

  She blinked again. Still stripes.

  Something was pressing into her back too and she twisted her head round and saw it was Rik.

  Where were they and why was everything stripey?

  She realised she was staring at the back cushions of the sofa in the cottage.

  She and Rik must have fallen asleep — or passed out, she conceded — after they got back from the wedding. She vaguely remembered them both falling through the front door, and him saying she couldn’t go back to the house as she’d probably fall up the stairs, and them both agreeing they would fall up whatever stairs happened to be in their path, and finding it wildly funny, and then arguing about which movie they were going to watch.

  That was all she remembered, so they must have just flopped out on the sofa.

  Last night had turned out to be magical. There had been no more flipping back to the past, and for once she had given up projecting into the future and questioning and analysing and agonising over it all.

  They had just danced and giggled and eaten and drunk and been merry all night and she’d fended Simon off, because why would she want him when she could be with Rik, why would she want to be anywhere else, with anybody else?

  Rik stirred and she felt him moving against her. She still felt slightly drunk, the pounding head and churning stomach she k
new were headed her way hadn’t set in yet. God, they must have been plastered. She giggled to herself and the noise woke Rik.

  ‘Oh thank god,’ he said. ‘It’s you.’

  He shifted awkwardly. She could feel the heat from his body where he was squashed up against her and the alcohol had the effect of making her feel like a layer of skin had been removed, leaving her hopelessly sensitive.

  ‘I don’t feel that bad yet,’ he said, ‘which means it’s going to be awful later.’

  ‘Awful,’ she agreed, thinking he didn’t feel anything approaching bad to her.

  ‘Think if we went upstairs we’d be able to get back to sleep?’ he asked.

  They might, she thought, but more than likely she’d just lie there burning up all over for him and that could get awkward very quickly. On the other hand, the sofa was horribly uncomfortable. ‘We could try,’ she said dubiously.

  Rik got up and clutched his head. ‘Maybe I spoke too soon before.’

  She got up slowly, feeling her own head swimming. ‘This dress is done for,’ she said. ‘Can I borrow some clothes?’

  They went upstairs and she took one of his t-shirts and a pair of shorts and got changed in the bathroom and brushed her teeth. Rik went in after her and came out with two glasses of water. ‘I can still taste booze,’ he said.

  Soft light was pouring into the room from the open window. Rik hadn’t bothered to draw the curtains and the room was lit with a golden glow. He had changed into a t-shirt and shorts too and looked sleepy and dishevelled, his hair rumpled and falling forwards into his eyes.

  That’ll help, she thought, him standing there looking like he just walked straight out of one of my wildest fantasies.

  There was a telltale scratching at the door and then it caved in reluctantly, the latch so old and worn out by Rik slamming it around in teenage strops it barely caught any more. GT came bounding in, and he yapped joyfully when he saw his mistress and took a running jump towards the bed.

  Faith giggled as he missed and made contact instead with the side of the mattress. She leaned over and picked him up and he cavorted happily all over her, covering her in kisses and gifting her with the odd sharp nip.

  He sniffed at Rik and allowed him to rub his belly, then spied Faith’s bare leg and flung himself down on it.

  ‘That dog and your ankle need to get a room,’ Rik grumbled.

  If you think this is bad, Faith thought, you want to try watching you and Lucinda. Her stomach tightened at the very thought.

  She shook GT off her ankle and he curled himself up in her arms. She hugged him happily. ‘I love him,’ she sighed to Rik.

  ‘The feeling is mutual,’ he said, watching GT snake his head over the crook of Faith’s arm and close his eyes contentedly.

  ‘I always wanted a dog,’ Faith said. ‘I know it sounds silly, but when I take him out for a walk, just him and me, I feel like we’re in on a big exciting journey together. One girl and her dog.’ She smiled affectionately, both at the dog and her own little flights of whimsy.

  ‘That’s how I felt about Tackle,’ Rik said. ‘He was up for anything. Literally anything,’ he added, ‘I caught him mounting a fox once.’

  Faith sighed. ‘I’m going to go into a decline when I have to leave GT here at the end of the summer.’

  ‘You can’t leave him,’ Rik said. ‘Minel might have bought him but we all know the dog chooses the owner and he’s chosen you. You’ll have to take him with you.’

  She scratched behind GTs ears absently. He was right, she thought, she couldn’t leave him.

  ‘All right baby,’ she said to GT. ‘It’s settled, then. You’re coming with me and you and my ankle can live happily ever after.’

  Rik pulled a bag out of his wardrobe. ‘What are you doing?’ she asked as he began to fling clothes in its general direction. ‘You’re not leaving, are you?’

  ‘I’ve got to go to Hamburg tomorrow,’ he said, still flinging. ‘I missed so much work last week they want me out there where they can keep an eye on me.’

  ‘What am I — what are we all going to do without you? What about Paul?’

  ‘It’s only a few days,’ he said. ‘He can get Lofty back in. He hasn’t really got much choice and I haven’t either. I’ve got to keep them sweet or I’m out of a gig.’

  ‘How come you’ve got so behind?’ she asked.

  ‘Too many distractions, I guess.’

  Like me, she thought, thinking how he’d stayed up with her in the house every night instead of going back to the cottage to work.

  ‘And between you and me,’ he said, ‘I could do with a bit of time away from Paul’s increasingly heavy and unwieldy tools.’

  GT, always aware, whined softly. Faith hugged him again, horrified at how unpleasant the prospect of a week without Rik was. She watched him pack and began to feel drowsy again, and put GT at the foot of the bed and closed her eyes. She was already half in a dreamworld by the time Rik got into bed next to her.

  He rolled towards her and put his arm around her and she was too tired and too glad of his closeness to even think about mustering up any Lucinda-based moral objection. He buried his face in her hair in an oddly touching, almost childlike gesture, and breathed in deeply, tightening his arm around her. She put her hand over his and squeezed it, then shifted back and settled herself against him just where she was meant to be.

  When they woke again sunlight was blazing insistently through the window. Rik still had his arm around her and Faith felt strangely at peace even though her hangover had kicked in and she was horribly dehydrated.

  ‘Let’s go to the pool,’ Rik said. ‘I’d say we should go for a ride but I don’t think I could even balance in this condition.’

  They shuffled out, clutching their heads and griping companionably. Minel and Paul were already by the pool and Minel looked taken aback when she saw Faith. She eyed her clothes and her pale face. ‘Lucinda,’ she said. ‘You’ve changed.’

  ‘You look rough as hell,’ Paul said. ‘Good wedding, was it?’

  ‘Very boozy,’ Rik said.

  GT had run on ahead of them and was scampering around chasing a pigeon feather, which kept being lifted by a very welcome breeze and deposited again just inches from his nose.

  ‘So where’s Lucinda?’ Minel was asking Rik.

  ‘She left.’

  ‘Oh.’ Minel didn’t ask any more.

  Faith dived into the pool, feeling the blissful relief of the cool water caressing her hot, aching body. She swam a couple of lengths and dived around underwater for a while, hoping her skin would absorb some of the liquid and start to feel better, then she swam to the side and drank another glass of water. ‘What are you doing today?’ she asked Minel, who was looking a bit more like her old self.

  ‘Not much,’ Minel said. ‘Still need to rest up. And you need to rest too,’ she said to Paul, ‘as he’s not around for most of next week.’ She nodded at Rik, who had also got into the pool and was treading water and watching GT.

  ‘Are Sara and Tony coming over?’ Faith asked.

  Minel shook her head. ‘Just Sara, today. Tony’s busy, apparently, doing what I don’t know. Who wants to do anything other than laze around on a day like this?’

  ‘I should go home at some point,’ Faith said anxiously. ‘I haven’t been home since last Sunday morning. My parents will have forgotten what I look like.’

  ‘Have you thought about that, much?’ Minel asked gently.

  Faith shook her head. Other things on my mind now, she thought ruefully. When did it all get so complicated?

  It got a lot more complicated when Sara rolled up, her eyes red and puffy.

  ‘We need to talk,’ she said grimly, looking firstly at Minel and then at Faith. ‘Not you two,’ she gestured at Rik and Paul, who both looked unconcerned at their exclusion.

  ‘I’ll make some tea.’ Minel, ever the hostess, bustled them into the kitchen and pulled out the chairs. ‘What is it?’

  ‘I tried
again,’ she said. ‘With Tony. We were watching a movie and I just cuddled up to him, he said his shoulders were sore and I gave him a massage and he seemed to relax a bit, so then I thought, maybe if we just try.’ She took in a shuddering breath. ‘I said we didn’t have to do anything, no pressure at all, but wouldn’t it be nice to just be together, I could give him a proper massage. He clammed straight up,’ Sara wailed. ‘He said would I just let him have some space and watch the movie without climbing all over him like a bitch on heat.’ She put her head in her hands. ‘He made me feel like I was pestering him relentlessly when all he wants is some peace and quiet. I felt disgusted with myself, completely disgusted — and disgusting.’

  Sara began to cry and Minel put her arm around her, murmuring soothing words as her shoulders jerked and shook.

  ‘After helping you get ready yesterday,’ Sara was saying, ‘seeing you all dressed up and talking about pulling somebody, I just thought, I want that. Why don’t I have that any more?’ She looked at Faith again. ‘Don’t tell me you got laid last night or that will finish me off altogether.’

  Faith shook her head. ‘Definitely not.’

  ‘Thank god. At least I’m not the only one who can’t get any.’

  ‘Glad to be of help,’ Faith said acidly.

  Sara gave a watery giggle. ‘Did anything interesting happen at the wedding at all?’

  ‘Nothing of note.’

  ‘Why did Lucinda leave?’ Minel demanded. ‘How come you stayed over at the cottage with Rik?’

  ‘You spent the night with Rik?’ Sara was all ears.

  ‘We just passed out drunk on the sofa.’ No need to mention this morning’s chaste love-in.

  ‘So how come Lucinda pushed off?’ Minel wasn’t going to let it drop.

  Faith shrugged. ‘Ask Rik.’

  ‘Why can’t you tell us? Didn’t he mention it?’

  ‘He didn’t,’ Faith insisted. ‘They looked like they were having a row about something, but that’s all I know.’

  Sara joined in the inquisition. ‘You spent the whole night with him after his girlfriend stormed off and you didn’t even ask why?’

  ‘I don’t know what you want me to say,’ Faith protested. ‘All I know is that she doesn’t seem to like him spending time with me.’