She nearly gave in. ‘No, not tonight.’ Her mind was made up. She surprised herself, ‘I have to go.’
He signalled the waiter for the bill. Monica moved to open her handbag. ‘Don’t you dare. I’ve got this covered. Come on, I’ll walk you to your car.’
They both stood up and the waiter helped Monica on with her coat. It was almost midnight and outside the street was eerily quiet. Monica felt nervous, not the scary nervous but the butterflies in your stomach feeling of anticipation. She felt the mood had changed and dreaded the awkward moment when they said goodbye.
When they reached the car she turned to thank him.
‘Thank you for coming,’ he said and took her hands in his as he said goodnight. He didn’t even attempt to kiss her. This was not how the evening was supposed to end. He would kiss her passionately and she would swoon. She expected him to repeat his invitation to go back to his flat but instead he just said, ‘Night, night gorgeous.’ Then he held open the car door as she climbed in, waited while she started up the engine and watched her drive off down the road.
Wow, he was the perfect gentleman. It felt a bit like a scene from a romantic movie except for the lack of the lingering kiss, the one where everyone in the audience goes ‘aahhh.’ Kevin was almost too good to be true. It was much too late to collect Tammy which meant that she could lie in bed and try to analyse the evening.
She definitely fancied him but she wanted a relationship and not just a quick roll in the hay. She was puzzled. Did he fancy her? She couldn’t decide if he felt the same way she did. Maybe he didn’t fancy her at all and was just being polite, after all he didn’t even attempt to kiss her when they parted, but he did ask her up to his flat. She was confused.
Perhaps he was a player and this was all part of a strategy to disarm his victims. Did he do this on a regular basis? Her head was spinning.
* * *
Finn and Rory had come to work on Saturday, which was a first. They only had a little bit left to do and a new job to start on Monday uptown so time was of the essence. The garden was looking spectacular. Liz’s next door neighbour had been in to have a look and had taken the telephone number for Fantasy Gardens. The garden was now the envy of all those who set eyes on it.
Liz had decided to give Adam a call, she had nothing to lose. Sasha answered the telephone.
‘Hello darling,’ said Liz on hearing Sasha’s voice, ‘how are you?’
‘Great grandma,’ said Sasha enthusiastically. ‘How’s Monica and Tammy, have you seen them?’
‘Tammy is here with me,’ said Liz, mouthing the word Sasha to Tammy. ‘I’ll put you on to her when I’ve had a chat with Daddy. The garden is looking fantastic. I can’t wait for you to see it.’
‘Me neither. I’ll ask Daddy if I can come to stay in the summer holidays.’
‘That would be wonderful,’ said Liz. She really missed her granddaughter.
‘Hang on Grandma, I’ll fetch Dad.’
Liz waited on the telephone and listened as Sasha trotted off into the distance and shouted, ‘Grandma is on the phone.’ She listened intently for his footsteps, which seemed to take forever. She was considering hanging up when she finally heard his sulky voice.
‘Hi Mum.’
‘Hi Adam, how are you?’ She didn’t wait for an answer but instead continued. ‘Adam, I wondered if you would pop in to see me one day during the week so that we can have a chat. I think we need to clear the air.’
‘No need, mum,’ said Adam, who obviously felt there was a need. ‘You don’t owe me an explanation. You can do what you like.’
‘Thank you, Adam, but I would like you to understand. I am not a silly old woman being taken in by a conman. Nick makes a living as an artist. He is a really nice man with a lovely family and I am sure you would like him if you gave him a chance. That’s all. No one can ever replace your father.’
‘I know mum,’ said Adam, who had calmed down considerably, ‘but isn’t he a bit young for you?
‘What makes you say that? There’s only a couple of years between us.’
‘I don’t want to see you make a fool of yourself.’
‘I won’t, Adam, please trust me, but don’t take my word for it. Come and meet him. I am going to have a garden party on the nineteenth of August for Tammy’s eleventh birthday. I would love it if you, Georgina and the children could come. You could all stay over. Tammy would love for Sasha to be here. They really are good friends.’
‘I’m not sure, I might be away. I’ll let you know nearer the time.’
‘Of course, I understand. I know you’re busy.’ She was disappointed. ‘If you are, you are. Perhaps if you are away the children could come and stay with me for a few days. I would love to have them.’
‘We’ll see. Anyway, I have to go, I’m off to play golf,’ and with that he put down the receiver.
Liz was distracted. ‘Ooops! Sorry dear,’ she said to Tammy, ‘I forgot to ask to speak to Sasha again.’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Tammy, ‘I’ll give her a call on my mobile.’ Tammy went outside into the garden to make the call. Sasha answered the phone.
‘Hiya,’ said Tammy, really happy to be speaking to her friend. ‘Liz told your dad about the party. I hope he lets you come.’
Sasha had missed Tammy. Her friends were mostly the over-indulged spoilt brats that she had been herself before a little dose of reality had made a difference to her outlook.
‘I don’t know,’ said Sasha honestly. ‘I think he is upset with grandma. He doesn’t seem keen to meet Nick.’
‘Doesn’t he realise that she is lonely?’ said Tammy.
‘I don’t think so,’ said Sasha, ‘he is much too selfish for that but I will try to talk to him.’
‘It’s not that long to go now. I’ll email you an invitation and I’ll put one in the post for the whole family, including Leo. I’d like to meet him.’
‘I’d love that,’ said Sasha honestly. ‘How’s the project going, you know, helping the bees?
‘Have you given away any plants where you live?
‘I haven’t had time,’ said Sasha. ‘I’ve been much too busy with my horse. I’m competing in a gymkhana next weekend. What about you?’
Tammy had little or no expectation that Sasha would do anything at all to help the bees on her own. She told Sasha that she might use some of the money Finn gave her to buy more pots. She had kept a list of addresses for those people who accepted the plants last time and thought about leaving plants on the doorsteps of the flats around the corner. They could certainly do with brightening up.
‘I don’t really have the patience for that sort of thing,’ admitted Sasha. ‘I need you to motivate me. Anyway, I’m more of an organiser. I need to be in a supervisory role.’
‘So what have your organised?’ asked Tammy.
‘I have sent a press release to the Enfield Gazette, or at least I am going to.’
‘Did you mention my name?’ said Tammy, wondering if Sasha had taken credit for the whole project.
Of course,’ said Sasha earnestly, ‘it was your idea. I just helped.’
‘Thanks Sash, I miss you.’
‘I miss you too. Don’t worry, I’ll work on Dad. See you soon.’
Tammy had just put the phone down on Sasha when the doorbell rang. Monica had come early. Tammy looked through the window before rushing to open the front door.
‘Did you have a nice time?’ she asked’
‘Great,’ said Monica, trying not to give anything away.
‘Did you meet anyone?’
‘Loads of people,’ said Monica, teasing. She knew full well what the question implied. ‘But no one special.’
‘Awww. Maybe next time,’ said Tammy.
‘You never know,’ said Monica, as she followed Tammy into the hall, ‘especially if you keep doing my hair.’ She hated lying to her but she didn’t want to give her any false hope either.
‘Hiya.’ Liz poked her head round the door of the kitche
n. ‘Come in, come in. Come and look at the garden. It’s finished.’
Monica walked straight through to the back door and stood with Liz and Tammy on the patio. ‘Wow!’ The summerhouse looked stately, set up three or four feet higher than the path with stairs leading up to it, its large windows and double glass doors making it bright and airy. It had a veranda to the front which would lend itself beautifully to a couple of easy chairs and a table.
‘That is an ideal spot for a glass of wine on a balmy summer night.’
‘I can see it all now,’ said Liz. I think I’ll use it as my studio.’
‘Very posh,’ said Monica, admiring the view.
Liz led the way around the garden, following the pathways as Monica admired the shady nooks and the exotic planting schemes that weaved in and out of the tiered flower beds. All the pathways lead to and from the central fountain. Exotic grasses in various shades of green edged the higher beds while smaller, dark, almost beetroot coloured grass bordered the lower levels and contrasted with the Lavender.
‘It is absolutely stunning,’ said Monica. ‘The boys have done an amazing job. It actually makes the garden look bigger.’
‘Can we see the fountain running?’ asked Tammy. Liz went over to the kitchen and flicked the switch just inside the door. Soon water began to gurgle and splutter until it bubbled through the top of the steel columns and cascaded down the sides.
‘Well, what do you think?’ said Liz, beaming with pride. ‘Don’t you think this would be a great place for a party? It’s fabulous and there is still enough room to put a couple of small tables and chairs around the fountain. I can’t wait to see it in the evening with all the lights on. Finn assured me that it will look magical when it’s lit. Now we can really start to plan,’ said Liz. ‘How are you getting on with the invitations?’
‘I’ll show you,’ said Tammy, and she went off to find the picture that she had decided on as the background to the invites.
‘Well,’ said Liz as soon as Tammy was out of earshot.
‘Don’t know,’ said Monica. ‘I felt a bit like a princess at first but I’m not sure that he is the prince I imagined him to be. When I think about it he talked an awful lot about himself although he did pay for dinner and walked me to my car, both of which are a bit of a novelty I might add.’
‘Well that’s something,’ said Liz. ‘Are you seeing him again?’
‘Not sure,’ said Monica. ‘I don’t want to rush anything. I haven’t mentioned Tammy yet. It may be a deal breaker.’
Chapter 23
Monica was in a funny mood as she walked into work on Monday morning. She wasn’t sure that Kevin would bother contacting her at all having failed to get her back to his lair on Saturday night. She was convinced that the dating desert she had been wandering around aimlessly in for the last few years was likely to stay on the horizon for the foreseeable future.
She wondered if she would ever meet a decent man and thought that perhaps it was time to consider dating websites or perhaps lowering her standards.
Nadia was busy painting her nails as Monica arrived at work.
‘Hiya.’ Nadia paused between her thumb and index finger on her right hand to chat. Monica felt miserable. On Friday she had a prospective boyfriend. Today she wasn’t so sure. She was convincing herself that she was already on the dating scrapheap. She was sure Kevin would move on to more amenable pastures.
‘You look a bit fed up,’ Nadia observed as Monica reached the reception desk. Nadia was nothing if not perceptive. Monica was certain that she could detect a mood at fifty paces.
‘Oh, just a bit,’ said Monica, not wishing to elaborate and hoping Nadia wouldn’t ask.
‘Don’t tell me,’ said Nadia, who obviously did want Monica to tell her. ‘Man trouble. They’re all selfish shits.’ She said this without taking a breath. Monica didn’t reply but merely nodded agreement.
‘Why don’t you come out with me and the girls from advertising this week? There’s a speed dating event at the new wine bar on Thursday night. You never know, you might meet the man of your dreams.’
‘I might,’ said Monica, who had never been out with the girls from advertising before. Monica considered it briefly and thought that would probably mean rejection at a faster than average rate.
‘At least you don’t have to waste too much time talking to them if you don’t want to,’ said Nadia. Monica had certainly kissed a lot of frogs but had serious doubts that she would find her prince in five minutes of polite conversation.
‘Come on, it will be a laugh,’ said Nadia. Monica could imagine Nadia picking off the poor unsuspecting hopefuls, chewing them up and spitting them out. She doubted that Nadia was fussy anyway, at least not as fussy as she was. ‘What do you think?’ Nadia looked hopeful.
‘I may have to work,’ said Monica honestly, ‘but I will if I can.‘
‘That’s more like it,’ said Nadia, ‘don’t let the bastards get you down.’
Monica moved off to go to her office and Nadia continued with her manicure. As soon as she got to her desk she turned on her computer and went straight to email. Nothing from Kevin. She refreshed the page as if doing so would cause the flurry of emails from Kevin to rush through. Still nothing. She checked her mobile. Maybe he’d sent a text and she hadn’t heard it. No, no text either.
‘Well, that’s it. He is only interested in one thing. I’ve had a lucky escape.’ She didn’t feel lucky. ‘How wrong can you be about someone?’ She was talking to herself.
Ten minutes later when she had decided to stop mooning over Kevin her mobile pinged. It was a message from Kevin. She opened it quickly. ‘Thank you for a lovely evening, wondered if you fancied meeting up next week. I’ll cook. Smiley face, and four X’s.’ I’ll cook was the new come up and see my etchings. It was too soon. It’s breaking the five date rule. Joanna had a five date rule, bar any deal breakers on dates leading up to date five. Deal breakers included bad breath or BO, excessive body hair, scruffy clothes, bodily noises or talking about their ex, being too touchy feely, clingy or whiny. Baby talk, couldn’t bear a man who resorted to talking like a child to get their own way. Being rude to waiters or bar staff, too controlling or jealous. The list was endless. Deal makers, on the other hand, was a much shorter list. Clean and smart, great smile, good listening skills, sense of humour, kind, patient and employed. Not too much to ask for.
She thought about Joanna and Max. Max had at least been funny and loosely employed as a guitarist for a reggae group, which was odd for a middle class white boy. He was in the happy position of being supported by his very well off parents.
She hadn’t known Max for very long at all. Maybe if she had obeyed her own rules she wouldn’t have been pregnant by date five.
What to do, she couldn’t decide. Should she make an excuse and maybe suggest something else, or go into the lion’s den and remain sober, although she wasn’t sure she could trust herself.
Maybe she should take him to dinner and mention Tammy before it went any further. If he was frightened off then there was no point at all in continuing to see him. If not she would consider testing his culinary skills. She texted back. ‘How about letting me take you out?’
‘I’m a modern man,’ came the reply, ‘I could live with that. Where will we go?’
‘I’ll think about it.’
She was pleased with this exchange. She expected some resistance but he seemed happy enough with the suggestion. Maybe she had misjudged him. After all, he did tick many of the other boxes. He was clean and well dressed, with a great sense of humour, and he was employed. What’s not to like?
* * *
When Tammy got home from school she had only one thing on her mind, her party. It was obviously the highlight of her social calendar and was coming up fast so she wanted to make sure that she got the invitations out before the end of term. She also decided to make sure that she had contact details for all of her class mates so she could do a ring round during the week before the pa
rty. Invites could be lost between the end of the school term and her birthday, which was three weeks later. She was nothing if not practical. She didn’t want to leave anything to chance.
She had found a picture to use as the background for her invitation and Liz helped her with the wording which she was able to overlay on the picture. She left a line of dots at the top of the words so that Tammy could write the name of the invitee, then followed it with the words, ‘You are invited to a garden party/disco to celebrate my 11th birthday. Please come to (they filled in Liz’s address) 2.00 – 6.00 on Sunday 19th August. Refreshments will be provided. RSVP: Tammy,’ and she added her mobile number and her new email address.
‘What do you think?’ said Liz, holding up a copy she had just printed out.
‘They look OK,’ Tammy had her index finger resting on her chin, ‘but I think they would look better on different coloured paper.’
‘Hang on a mo,’ said Liz, rummaging around in the desk drawers. ‘How about this?’ She was holding up several sheets of bright yellow paper which was slightly thicker than the usual copy paper.
‘Perfect,’ said Tammy. Liz fed one sheet through the printer as a test copy. The invitations looked very professional.
Liz printed out fifty copies. ‘OK young lady, now it’s your turn to fill in the names and get the addresses.’ Tammy got out the list of classmates and wrote twenty nine invites to give out at school. She asked Liz for the address for Finn, Devlin and Rory. Fantasy Gardens must be represented. She didn’t actually mind if Devlin wasn’t there but Finn and Rory were a must. She wrote one out for Nick and for his grandchildren, Bradley and Milly, and then Sasha and family. The family were not really a necessity but Tammy doubted that Sasha would be allowed to come without them. Monica could write out the invites for the aunts and uncles.
Nick had called up earlier to remind Liz that the art group would be meeting on Wednesday evening and he would pick her up at seven o’clock. She had forgotten all about it but was pleased to be going out to meet new people. ‘This is what life is meant to be like,’ she thought to herself.
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