by Mandy Baggot
‘Straight through, into the den. He’s set up a bar in there. We were thinking of going out in the garden but boy it’s gotten cold.’
‘Drink, Freya?’ Nicholas asked her.
‘Yes please.’ She followed Jolie into the kitchen.
‘I’m so glad you two could come tonight. I know how busy you both are,’ Jolie said, picking up some napkins and glasses.
‘We wouldn’t have missed it for the world. You and Sam have been so great to us since we moved here,’ Freya said, taking some of the glasses from Jolie.
‘Come through and have some food,’ Jolie said. She led the way into the large family room at the back of the house.
‘Hey, Freya, I like your costume and as for Nick’s, well, I’ve suggested to him he ought to think about taking on a different role in his next movie. Maybe a sequel to Tootsie. What do you think?’ Sam called. The store owner was dressed as Dracula.
‘Now do you see what you’ve done, babe? I’m the town clown,’ Nicholas said. He straightened his face and then broke it with a laugh.
‘If only your millions of adoring fans could see you now,’ Freya said, taking the beer Nicholas was offering her.
‘I think you look great, Nick. Take no notice of the old man,’ Jolie said, smiling.
‘Ha! She’s been calling me “the old man” since I got up this morning. You would think I’d turned fifty not forty.’
‘Well, I don’t think you look a day over thirty nine and this is a little gift from us. Happy birthday,’ Freya said. She passed Sam a gift-wrapped box and kissed him on the cheek.
‘Oh thanks, guys. You didn’t have to get me anything,’ Sam said.
‘What is it, Dad? What is it? Get off me, Adrian. I want to see!’ Michael (Krueger One) shouted, pushing his brother out of the way in order to watch his father open up the present.
‘The boys bought him a remote control jeep, which of course they both wanted to play with. Sam liked it so much they haven’t had a chance to have a go yet,’ Jolie told Freya.
Sam unwrapped the present, opened the box and revealed a watch.
‘Whoa! Is that real gold?!’ Adrian (Krueger Two) shouted out loudly. He tried to grab the box from his father.
‘Nick, Freya, this is too much. I don’t know what to say,’ Sam spoke, running his fingers over the watch and admiring it.
‘Don’t say anything. It’s your fortieth birthday. You have to have some nice treats on your fortieth birthday. Besides, it isn’t real gold. But don’t tell the boys,’ Freya whispered, smiling.
‘It’s great, thank you both. Here Jolie, take a look,’ Sam said, passing the box over to his wife.
Nicholas took Freya by the arm and gently pulled her towards him.
‘I thought you didn’t believe in extravagance,’ he whispered to her.
‘I don’t know what you mean.’ She took a swig of her beer.
‘You bought Sam a gold watch.’
‘No flies on you is there.’
‘I had one just like it until you made me auction it off,’ Nicholas replied.
‘I wanted to get Sam something nice and I never said we couldn’t splash out on our friends. It’s just unnecessary extravagance that pisses me off, like you having five different expensive watches and only two arms to wear them on. Or the fact you used to have four cars and only ever drove one of them.’
‘Alright, you’ve made your point.’
‘He will treasure that watch and now he thinks it isn’t real he’ll wear it every day at the store. That will give me a little rush of pleasure every time I see it on his wrist,’ Freya explained.
‘If he doesn’t get mugged for it.’
‘You’re a killjoy, Nursie and I cannot take you seriously while you’re wearing a dress.’
‘Well, Doctor, if you promise me a large dose of your bedside manner later I might let you take it off,’ Nicholas whispered to her.
‘Hello, Freya, would you like a cup cake? I made them myself,’ Brian announced. He appeared at her side, holding a tray of cakes coated in pink icing.
‘Oh did you? Well, Brian, I will take one for later because I think Sam’s starting the barbecue. I hope we’re staying indoors to eat. Are we expecting snow?’ Freya asked, taking a cake.
‘Just to let you know, I ran out of sugar halfway through the recipe so I used bicarbonate of soda instead. Adrian says they taste different to the ones his mother makes,’ Brian told her.
‘I suspect they do. Are you noting this? “Brian Episode” number two,’ Freya whispered to Nicholas.
‘Noted,’ Nicholas answered.
‘Freya, come and meet my sister,’ Jolie ordered and she took Freya’s arm and pulled her away from Nicholas. She led the way out of the glazed doors and towards a group of women on the patio area.
Freya held her breath as the cold wrapped around her.
‘Lisa, this is Freya. Freya, this is my sister, Lisa,’ Jolie introduced. A brown-haired woman of about her age smiled. She was dressed in a Cleopatra outfit.
‘It’s nice to meet you. Don’t you two look alike,’ Freya commented, visually comparing the two women.
‘Everyone says that. I must be wearing well, I’m the eldest,’ Lisa replied.
‘Well whatever night cream you wear I’ll endorse it.’
‘Freya’s a photographer, Lisa. She has her own studio in Carlton and the other week she took some risqué pictures of Kiefer Sutherland,’ Jolie informed her.
‘Oh my God! You know Kiefer Sutherland?!’ Jennifer, one of the other women at the table shrieked. She was dressed in a Princess Leia outfit and her headdress almost fell off.
‘Well, I wouldn’t say I know him. I mean I met him last week for the photographs and he was really nice but we didn’t do lunch or anything,’ Freya told them.
‘I love him. 24 was one of my favourite shows,’ Jennifer said, her eyes glazing over.
‘I suppose being engaged to Nicholas Kaden, you become kind of immune to celebrity,’ Lisa suggested.
‘I guess so. The thing is, I don’t even think of Nick as a celebrity. He’s just, you know, normal,’ Freya said. She looked over to where Nicholas was helping Sam, Brian and Casey light the barbeque.
‘Believe me, honey, there aren’t many “normal” men on the planet that look as good as he does,’ Lisa told her.
‘Oh don’t tell him that. I don’t want him getting the idea that he’s handsome or anything,’ Freya joked with a smile.
‘So, when are you two going to get married? Have you talked about a date yet? And where do you think you’ll do it? You know if you live in Mayleaf you get to have a wedding in the square if you want it,’ Jolie said.
‘Oh, we haven’t really talked about a date. We’re just so busy, there hasn’t been time to think about it.’
She hadn’t thought about it. Not at all. Was that strange? When she’d accepted his proposal she’d accepted because she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, but the actual getting married part she hadn’t really considered. What did she want and when did she want it? She knew there was barely a gap in her diary for the next six months.
‘I remember when Sam asked me to marry him. I said I wasn’t going to get engaged to him until we’d set a date for the wedding. Long engagements are just a man’s way of putting off the big day if you ask me,’ Jolie remarked to the group.
‘Well, we haven’t had a long engagement yet. I mean, we’ve only been engaged six months or so,’ Freya answered. Why did she feel like she had to justify why they hadn’t set a date?
‘Oh Freya, I wasn’t meaning Nick was trying to put things off. Me and my big mouth! No, I just meant that for me a long engagement was out of the question. Well, I was pregnant with twins,’ Jolie explained with a laugh.
‘Are children something else we should have had by now?’ Freya asked.
Their faces told her they weren’t sure if she was joking. She laughed and they relaxed.
‘My advice, leave off having k
ids for a few years. Your life’s not your own once they’re here,’ Jolie said. The others at the table all nodded.
‘Or better still, don’t have them at all. They mess up your house and they don’t understand the importance of not covering Mommy with sticky finger marks before she goes to work,’ Lisa added.
‘How old are your children?’ Freya asked her.
‘Seventeen and nineteen and the sticky hands and messy house still applies.’
Eight
It was gone midnight when the party drew to a close and everyone began to leave.
‘Brian’s asleep in the dog kennel, Sam. He can’t stay there, he’ll freeze to death,’ Jolie told her husband as he said goodbye to his guests.
‘Oh my God this is the fourth “Brian Episode” of the night! I’m just going to take a picture,’ Freya announced. She hurried back through the house and out to the garden.
‘Freya really does take photographs of everything, doesn’t she?’ Jolie remarked as Sam followed Freya in a bid to wake Brian up.
‘Yes she does,’ Nicholas replied with a smile.
‘She’s very talented. I saw the photographs she took of the Christian Fathers bridges. They’re beautiful,’ Jolie told him.
‘She has a thing about those bridges. Some things she sees she just gets taken with and she kind of immerses herself in them. Put it this way, she gets more excited photographing those bridges than she did taking pictures of Kiefer Sutherland in the buff,’ Nicholas tried to explain.
‘An unnatural reaction I would say.’
‘Unusual I admit, but I’m not sure the same would apply if it were Bruce Willis with no clothes on.’
Freya returned, a smile on her face and her small digital camera in her hand.
‘You should have seen Brian. He had his head in Rusty’s biscuit bowl and a bone in his hand.’
‘Has Sam woken him up yet? I could really do without him staying over tonight. We have to be up early in the morning,’ Jolie said, looking at her watch.
‘Sam and Casey are going to walk him home to make sure he doesn’t just pass out on the lawn outside,’ Freya told her.
‘We’ll go, Jolie. Thank you for a great evening,’ Nicholas said. He lent forward and kissed her on the cheek.
‘Thank you both for coming. I’m sorry you got cornered by Sam’s uncle Joe. He does like to talk,’ Jolie said, kissing Freya’s cheek.
‘He advised me to get out of acting and into property development. He said that’s where the real money is,’ Nicholas said, smiling.
‘Oh I’m sorry. He has no idea who you are,’ Jolie spoke, sounding slightly embarrassed.
‘I’m glad, particularly as I’m wearing this outfit.’
‘Say goodbye to Sam for us and I’ll probably see you later in the week,’ Freya said. They left the house and started to walk down the path.
‘Thanks again for coming. Take care getting home, it’s almost freezing out there,’ Jolie called.
Nicholas took hold of Freya’s hand and they started out across town towards their home. It was certainly chilly and not the sort of weather to be outside for long when you were wearing flimsy fancy dress costumes.
‘It was a nice evening,’ Nicholas said.
‘Yes it was and Jolie’s sister is a real laugh. Apparently she lives a ten hour drive away. And there I was moaning about the flight times to Corfu,’ Freya told him.
‘Casey told me she’s going through a divorce.’
‘Really? She never mentioned it. That’s sad.’
‘Yeah, divorce is never nice even when it’s amicable,’ he agreed.
‘Well I wouldn’t know, having not been in that position.’
‘Would you like to be?’
‘Would I like to get divorced?’
‘No! You know what I mean. Would you like to be in a position to get divorced? Would you like to be married?’ Nicholas asked her. Despite the roundabout way this conversation had started, his tone was serious.
‘Are you making me a proposition, Mr Kaden?’ She smiled.
‘I did that in Corfu remember? But, perhaps now’s the time to reaffirm that intention,’ he suggested.
‘Has Sam been talking to you about long engagements?’ Freya queried.
‘Sam? No. What made you ask that?’
‘Because Jolie asked me tonight if we’d set a date for the wedding. When I told her we hadn’t, she said she didn’t believe in long engagements or indefinite engagements,’ Freya explained.
‘Well, I think I have to agree with her.’
‘You do?’
‘Yes, I think we should set a date.’
‘But when? I mean you’re off filming in Africa soon for four months and I’m up to my eyes working on the Every Day project. I just can’t see us having time to organise a wedding.’
‘We can make time, Freya. I mean, for all the work we both do, charity or otherwise, we still have to have time for us,’ he reminded her.
‘I know but…’ Freya started.
‘Have you changed your mind about wanting to marry me?’
He stopped walking and turned to face her.
‘No. God, Nick no. Don’t be stupid,’ she exclaimed, taking hold of both his hands and squeezing them tight.
‘Then what is it? What’s freaking you out about setting a date for our wedding?’
‘Oh I don’t know. The thought of planning it all probably. I mean weddings are about families and I don’t have one. That kind of means your side of the church is going to be packed full of people and mine is going to have the Petroholis family,’ Freya said, sighing.
‘I haven’t exactly got a big family, Freya. Anyway, if we invite all the Petroholis family, including all their aunts, uncles and cousins we’ll need to hire the entire Empire State Building for the reception.’
Freya smiled. He was right. Once that Greek family got together it was like a crowd inside a baseball game.
‘And it takes a lot of organisation, which is fine if you’re Emma, but not so good if you’re me. I mean, I couldn’t organise a personal organiser,’ Freya told him.
‘So, do you want a lavish white wedding with ten bridesmaids and a team of coordinators? Or were you planning to sell the rights to the photographs to Shooting Stars magazine?’ Nicholas asked her.
‘Well, no.’
‘Then what’s the problem? Let’s set a date and plan the wedding we want. A quiet wedding if that’s what you’d prefer,’ he suggested.
‘But is that what you want too? It isn’t just about me.’
‘I want whatever you want, Freya. I just want to make a commitment to you. I want you to be my wife. How we make the commitment isn’t so important as long as it’s special, for both of us.’
‘So, if I said I wanted to just fly to Las Vegas one day and get married in a drive-through chapel with two witnesses and an Elvis impersonator you would be cool with that?’
‘Yes I would. If it means making you Mrs Kaden I’d be cool with anything,’ he told her.
She nodded and then turned away from him and began walking across the street towards the road to their home.
‘So? Is that the end of the conversation? Do you need time to think about it or something?’ He hurried to catch her up.
‘No one’s been able to tell me if we’re going to get snow here. Do you think a winter wedding would be cool?’
‘You want to do it now? Near Christmas?’ The excitement in his voice was clear.
‘Yes, is that too soon for you? I thought that if we’re going to do it, we’d better do it before you go all Out of Africa on me.’
‘A winter wedding sounds fantastic. Come here,’ he ordered her. He took hold of her arm and pulled her towards him.
Looking down at her, he gently ran his fingers across the surgeon’s headscarf covering her forehead. He cupped her face with his hands. Freya smiled at him and put her arms around his neck, pulling him towards her to kiss him.
‘I love you, Freya.’
He kissed her nose and slipped his hand into hers.
‘So do you really want to go to Vegas?’ he asked.
‘I haven’t decided how I want to do it yet. But one thing I do know…I’m going to be the one wearing the dress.’ She pulled at the hem of Nicholas’ nurse uniform and ran off up the road laughing.
Nine
Elvis was singing to her. It was ‘Love me Tender’ and he was dressed in a white flared jumpsuit covered in rhinestones. His hair was jet black, styled in a quiff and he was wearing huge gold sunglasses. And then her nose felt wet and scratchy. It was like someone was rubbing a damp emery board across it.
Freya opened her eyes and felt fur touch her cheek and whiskers poke her eyes. It was Willis, licking her nose.
‘You hungry?’ Freya asked him.
She turned on her side, trying not to make Willis topple from the bed and reached for her glasses on the nightstand. She caught sight of the time on the clock radio. It was almost seven thirty.
‘Daddy up early again, Willis? Come on, let’s go and get you some breakfast and see what he’s up to,’ Freya said. She stroked the cat’s head.
She got out of bed, tied her robe around her and headed out of the bedroom. Willis skipped in front of her and led the way down the stairs.
The door leading to the basement was open. That meant Nicholas was working out. Converting the cellar into a state of the art gym was the only modification they’d made to the house since moving in. Freya knew he found it tiresome, but keeping himself in shape was essential for Nicholas’ profession. When the equipment was first installed, she’d attempted to have a turn on the running machine. She soon found out it wasn’t an activity you could multitask on. She had nearly choked on a chocolate muffin and almost scalded herself with a hot cup of tea. She hadn’t been near the equipment since.
Willis weaved in and out of her legs as she negotiated the stairs down to the gym. Nicholas was seated, his back to her, bare from the waist up, using the lateral pull-down.
Freya stood and watched him. He had an amazing physique she could look at all day. She quickly pulled a small digital camera out of the pocket of her robe and snapped a couple of pictures.