Right Here Waiting for You

by Pugh, Rebecca

  He shrugged on his tailored suit-jacket, having managed to tear his eyes away from her petite and curvy frame. ‘Tonight’s been amazing.’ He walked towards Magda and stroked the side of her face, the movement slow and gentle, as if she were something precious. It had been a long time since someone had made her feel like that. The gesture was so tender she could have cried. ‘I’d really like to see you again.’

  Magda took a step back to create a gap between them. ‘I’ll call you,’ she muttered, although she had no intention of doing so. She didn’t plan to see him again. She looked at the floor and waited for him to leave. When he made no move to go, she glanced back up and said, ‘For the record, I enjoyed tonight too.’ She at least owed him that. She didn’t want him to walk out of there feeling worthless. As clichéd as it sounded, it wasn’t him, it was her.

  ‘Goodbye, then.’ He turned and left the room, leaving Magda staring at the closed door. She climbed into bed soon after that, her mind full of the past as she fell asleep cocooned within the duvet.

  ‘We’re always going to be mates, aren’t we? I mean, sometimes I think about where we’ll be in the years to come, and I just can’t imagine not having you there next to me. It’d be so sad, wouldn’t it? If we ended up in completely different places, living completely different lives? I don’t want that to ever happen, Magda.’

  Sophia eyed the rest of the group up ahead and laughed as they attempted to perform handstands on the sand. It was cold and dark, and the smell of the sea blew around them in the breeze.

  ‘Course that’s not going to happen. Don’t be stupid. Me and you will always be together. You know that. We’ve already got it all planned, haven’t we? I mean, we’ve planned to try and become pregnant at the same time so our kids can grow up together. It’s mad, really.’ Magda laughed and nudged Sophia’s shoulder with her own. They were sat side by side. ‘But don’t worry, we’ll never be apart. I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you.’

  ‘Come on, you two!’ Ben called from up ahead, waving at them. ‘Show us what you’ve got!’

  ‘Best friends for ever?’ Sophia held her little finger out towards Magda.

  ‘Best friends for ever.’ Magda hooked her own pinky finger around Sophia’s and they grinned at each other before leaping to their feet and joining the rest of the gang further out, laughing as they ran hand in hand across the sand.

  Chapter Two

  Sophia Good stared listlessly at the boiling kettle. Was it her imagination or was it taking longer than usual? Finally, once she was able to, she poured the steaming water into her cup of coffee granules and sugar and stirred it into the magical concoction known as coffee that would hopefully put some life back into her tired body.

  From the lounge, the sound of early-morning cartoons babbled away. It had become the soundtrack to Sophia’s mornings, if not her entire life. Esther’s giggle floated through to the kitchen, mingling with a theme tune Sophia hummed along to without even having to think about it. She knew them all, she’d heard them that many times. With her first cup of coffee of the day placed beside her on the small end table, Sophia sat down and eyed the back of her daughter’s head from across the room.

  ‘Come on then. Let’s get ready for a lovely day at school.’ Sophia clapped her hands in a businesslike manner and picked up the hairbrush she’d brought through from the kitchen. Esther didn’t move. Sophia glared at the smiley-faced cartoon characters on-screen who seemed to do a much better job of capturing and keeping her daughter’s attention than she ever could. ‘Esther? Come on, sweetheart. We haven’t got long until the school bell rings and you’re not even out of your pyjamas yet.’ Her attempts were again met with silence.

  She was beginning to reach the end of her tether just lately. It seemed her daughter didn’t want to listen to a thing she said. Sophia was trying her best to remain upbeat and positive, but the cheery act she often put on was beginning to wear thin. She was tired, drained of all energy, and would have given anything for a full night’s sleep or just a hot bath in peace. Esther only seemed to have two moods. She would either cling to her mother’s side like a limpet or, as was the case this morning, simply refuse to acknowledge Sophia was even there.

  Sophia rubbed at her eyes, still crusty with sleep. ‘Come on, darling. I need to brush your hair and get you into your uniform.’ She held up the small burgundy cardigan and made it perform a little dance in the air. She wasn’t sure why. Perhaps in the hopes that a dancing cardigan would entice her daughter to put the bloody thing on.

  ‘Five more minutes,’ whined Esther, still glued to the TV screen.

  Sophia closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘No, Esther. I need you to come and get dressed right now, otherwise you’re going to be late again, and that will be the second time this week. Do you think Mrs Harvey is going to be happy if you’re late?’

  Esther glanced over her shoulder but only for a second. The thought of upsetting her favourite teacher seemed to be the only thing with the power to shift her from her cross-legged position on the carpet. But it wouldn’t do to rush so Esther dawdled lazily towards her mother while performing an exaggerated yawn.

  ‘Good. Now we’re getting somewhere. Turn around so I can quickly brush your hair.’ Sophia looked at the tangled mess and gulped. ‘This might hurt, sweetheart, but I’ll try to be as gentle as I can, okay?’ Eventually, Sophia managed to brush Esther’s hair into a high ponytail and patted her on the bottom as her daughter put on her shoes. Sophia gulped down the last dregs of her coffee, wishing for an instant refill, before quickly brushing her own hair and nipping to the toilet. Afterwards, she tugged on her coat and prepared to leave, with Esther dragging her feet behind her.

  ‘See?’ Sophia sang, as she stepped out of the front door and locked it behind them. She deposited the keys in her coat pocket and felt triumphant that they wouldn’t be late after all. ‘That wasn’t so hard, was it? Now you’ll be on time and Mrs Harvey will be very happy. Come on then, let’s get down the road and into… Oh, my God…’ Sophia stumbled backwards and grabbed the fence that separated their garden from next door’s. ‘Esther, what have you done?’

  Esther grinned. ‘It’s make-up.’ She twirled on the spot and fluttered her lashes. If Sophia hadn’t been so shocked she would have laughed but, as it was, she wasn’t amused in the slightest. ‘Do you like it?’ asked Esther, ignoring her mother’s stricken expression.

  Sophia gathered herself and closed her eyes. She tried to keep her voice level. ‘Where did you find the make-up, Esther?’ Her eyes remained shut as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Sophia had taken to shutting her make-up bag away on the top shelf of her wardrobe because this wasn’t the first time Esther had painted her face with her mother’s make-up. How on earth had she managed to get hold of it this time?

  ‘In your bedroom,’ replied Esther, looking pleased with herself. ‘I got the stool and climbed up. Why do you put it so high? It’s silly.’

  ‘I can’t believe it. I take my eyes off you for five seconds just so I can have a wee and you’ve managed to do this to yourself. You know we’re going to be late now, don’t you? What is that?’ She bent down, licked the tip of her thumb and tried to rub away the vivid red smudges from her daughter’s eyelids. The rubbing only seemed to make it worse. ‘Have you… have you put lipstick on your eyelids?’ she whispered, leaning down to get a closer look.

  ‘It looks nice,’ Esther said stubbornly, turning away from Sophia’s close inspection. She frowned fiercely and her little eyebrows furrowed, as if she’d just been insulted.

  ‘Absolutely un-bloody-believable. We’re going to have to go back inside and try to wash this lot off your face now, aren’t we?’

  ‘Mum,’ Esther squeaked. ‘Swearing is naughty. That’s what you said. Bloody is a bad word.’

  Sophia hustled her daughter back into the house as beads of sweat began to form beneath her too-long fringe. ‘I know and I’m sorry. I didn’t mea
n to say that, it just slipped out. Please don’t repeat it because you’re right, it’s a naughty word. Come on, up the stairs and into the bathroom, please. I’d better give the school a ring to let them know what’s happened. Wait for me, Esther, and don’t touch anything! Do you understand me? Not a single thing. I’ll be five minutes.’

  As Esther bounded up the stairs, filled with glee at her makeover, Sophia held her mobile to her ear and waited for Rosie, the school receptionist, to answer. Thankfully, Rosie was understanding and even found the tale rather funny, tittering to herself.

  ‘You would think it’s funny,’ Sophia huffed once the call had ended. She trudged her way up the stairs feeling exhausted. It wasn’t even nine o’clock yet. ‘It’s not you who has to bloody put up with it.’

  Although Sophia had managed to scrub most of the make-up off her daughter’s face, by the time they left the house for the second time that morning, a faint redness bloomed on and above Esther’s eyelids where the lipstick remained and refused to budge. Sophia ushered her book-bag-holding, cardigan-wearing daughter up the road, past the local swimming centre and over the zebra crossing until the school gates came into view and they hurried through them. She felt ready to collapse by the time she delivered Esther to her classroom, red-cheeked and eyes streaming from the cold wind whistling outside. Today was her day off from her part-time job in the post office, and she couldn’t wait to get back home and into the warmth. How was it possible to feel like she’d been defeated by the day already?

  Once she was back home, Sophia scooped up the small pile of envelopes from off the carpet and took them through to the kitchen. While the kettle boiled, she hung her coat up in the hallway and returned to open the post. It was the usual stuff. Bills. Tacky fast-food flyers. A leaflet with an offer to clean her windows for a fantastic price. Just as she was about to abandon the post, the last envelope caught her eye and Sophia paused as she looked down at it in her hands.

  The envelope was pearlescent. She turned it this way and that, watching how it shone, before sliding a finger beneath the seal. As her eyes scanned the invitation, Sophia went dizzy. Her stomach dropped and she sat down in the nearest chair to read it again, knowing she could read it a million times over and it would still announce the same thing. A reunion. A school reunion, right here in Worthington Green.

  Immediately, her mind swarmed with memories of her childhood and teenage years, of the people she’d grown up with, and one person in particular, the thought of whom made Sophia’s stomach clench. The same person who had made it so hard for Sophia to make and keep friends as an adult because she found it so damned impossible to trust anyone. The thought of seeing that face was enough to have all her old insecurities come rushing to the surface, along with a certain sense of sadness that felt crushing in its strength. She’d happily moved on since all of that but this invitation was dragging memories back up and she could hardly bear it.

  Sophia tried to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat but it wouldn’t budge. She stood to open the window and remained beside it for a moment or two to relish the feel of the cool air on her face. She closed her eyes and steadied herself against the wall. The invite and the envelope lay on the kitchen table and Sophia stared at them, unable to comprehend the possibility of bumping into the woman who had ruined everything. How long had it been since they’d spoken their last words to each other? They’d been eighteen at the time. It had all happened so quickly, Sophia had barely had time to register what was going on. But she hadn’t forgotten what that woman had done. The deceit. The betrayal.

  How could the arrival of such a simple thing shake her world up so much? She felt uneasy now, unable to carry on with her plans for the rest of the day. Knowing she had no choice but to carry on because there was housework to attend to, Sophia snatched up the invite and its envelope and shoved both behind the breadbin. Out of sight, out of mind. Probably.

  ‘Do you think you’re in love with Tom Archer?’ Sophia was curling her hair in the mirror when Magda asked the question.

  Magda was painting her toenails on the bedroom carpet, eyes focused on the brush.

  ‘Maybe,’ Sophia shrugged. ‘Who knows?’ She spun round and looked at Magda, wondering how it was possible for her best friend not to think Tom was the sexiest lad in the world. ‘What I do know is that whenever he’s near me, I get this weird flutter in my chest. My heart starts to beat really, really fast and my legs feel like jelly. Is that stupid?’

  Magda shook her head quickly. ‘No, I don’t think so. It sounds like you do really like him though.’

  ‘I do,’ nodded Sophia. And she meant it. Tom Archer had been her one true desire since before she could remember. She still couldn’t understand why he liked her when he could have his pick of any of the girls in town.

  She settled down beside Magda on the floor and perused the different colours of nail varnish before picking up a hot pink. ‘He’s actually asked me out. He wants me to go round to his and watch some movies.’ Her stomach flipped and she bit into her bottom lip at the thought of being alone with him.

  She saw Magda smile. ‘And are you going to go?’

  Sophia wavered. On the one hand, she wanted nothing more than to be alone with him, but on the other, it would eat into her time with Magda, and she didn’t want her friend worrying about being replaced. ‘Maybe,’ she said in the end. ‘I haven’t decided yet.’

  Chapter Three

  Arriving home after her night in the hotel, Magda pulled up in the driveway and switched off the engine. Rather than heading inside straight away, she sat and stared at the exterior of the house, mentally building herself up to take that step.

  Greg would no doubt be in his home office, pretending to work but secretly texting and emailing whichever woman of the moment he was trying to get into bed. He was a private accountant, bringing in most of their income, while Magda was a content writer for an online magazine, focusing on fashion and beauty. She adored to write, and it was possibly one of the only things she had ever been good at. She didn’t earn anywhere near as much money as Greg did, but she didn’t care. She enjoyed it.

  Greg liked to hide away in his office. Magda wasn’t stupid and she wasn’t sure why he thought she was. She was clever. Clever enough to put together the pieces of evidence Greg left behind him like a trail of breadcrumbs and reach the nasty conclusion that he’d been having numerous affairs behind her back. She wasn’t entirely sure how long it had been going on for, but she didn’t think it really made any difference.

  ‘I’m back,’ she called into the empty quietness. Her voice echoed around the hall. She heard a noise from behind the door of his study.

  ‘There you are,’ Greg said once he’d stepped into the hall. ‘Good. I tried to ring you last night.’

  Magda forced a smile. ‘Yes. Sorry I didn’t answer. I was invited out to a spa day at the last minute and I had such a good time I decided to stay over. I ended up drinking a bit too much at the bar so driving back wasn’t an option by then.’

  Greg narrowed his eyes and spoke his next words in an infuriatingly condescending manner. ‘Yes, you seem to be getting a bit fond of the drink lately. I’d slow down a bit if I were you.’

  ‘I know, and I will.’ She felt like shrinking beneath his stare. She wanted to tell him that he was the reason she was drinking so much, that it was because of him and his lies that she felt drinking was the only option she had.

  ‘Good. Dinner tonight? I thought we could go out and grab a bite to eat.’ Everything he said was a command. Anything that sounded like a question was one of the rhetorical kind that warranted no answer from his wife. ‘I’ve booked us a table for eight. I’d better get back to work.’ Greg spun round, strode back up the hall and disappeared back into his study. Left to her own devices, Magda tugged her suitcase up the stairs and pushed open the door to her bedroom. They’d long since stopped sharing a bed, but Magda preferred it that way. How could she possibly get a good n
ight’s sleeping beside such a lying bastard?

  *

  It was while chopping vegetables in the kitchen the next afternoon that she came across the envelope, propped in the post holder along with the other household bills and letters. Magda wiped her hands down the front of her blouse and picked it out. Once she’d opened it and read the invitation, inviting her to a school reunion back in Worthington Green where she’d grown up, she had to take a seat to gather herself. She’d been such a fool to give that life up and, standing there in the kitchen, sweat beading on her forehead, sweltering over a hot stove, making a meal she didn’t even like, for people she didn’t like either, she felt like the most stupid person in the world.

  For a moment, Magda imagined she was back by the harbour in Worthington Green, feeling the cool spray of the sea on her flushed and burning cheeks. It would be such a blessed, sweet relief.

  ‘They should be here soon,’ Greg announced as he strode into the kitchen. He was referring to his parents, who had invited themselves round for dinner – a habit of theirs. Magda wouldn’t have minded the visits if Greg’s parents were people she enjoyed spending time with. As it was, she couldn’t stand being around them so the thought of spending the evening sitting around the table with them was one that filled her stomach with a feeling of dread.

  The small heels of Greg’s shiny black shoes clicked across the marble tiles with every step he took. ‘You’re not eating dinner dressed like that, are you?’ His eyes travelled down the length of her body.

  ‘No,’ Magda murmured, ‘of course not. I’ll go and sort myself out now. I was just checking on the vegetables one last time.’

  ‘What’s that?’ Greg nodded towards the invitation in Magda’s hand.

  ‘Oh, just something about the car insurance. Nothing important.’ She hastily folded the invitation back into its envelope and hurried out of the kitchen. ‘I’ll just go and get dressed. I shouldn’t be too long.’