by Mel Sparke
“How do you know he thinks that?” asked Kerry, her eyes glued to the snog-a-thon going on below.
“He phoned me up last night and told me!” Catrina cackled, obviously enjoying Matt’s discomfort about leaving his girlfriend alone and defenceless with her. “He told me I’d better not blab about us two having gone out together in front of Gaby.”
“But you wouldn’t, would you?” asked Anna hopefully. She certainly didn’t want any scenes on her first ever night of ‘entertaining’.
“No, of course not!” said Cat, looking slightly hurt, as if dropping Matt in it was something she’d never, ever been guilty of. “Matt’s not going to be here tonight, so what would be the point? I do it to wind him up and if I can’t have the pleasure of seeing him squirm, then there’s no fun in it, is there?”
A movement from below - Gabrielle finally getting out of the car - made all three girls duck out of sight behind the swathe of aqua-blue sari material pinned up at the window.
They couldn’t help giggling at the glimpse they’d caught of Matt’s panic-stricken face.
“I’m sorry, Maya, but you’re a real disappointment,” Cat tutted, leaning back against the sofa, her arms folded across her chest.
“Oh, yes? And why’s that?” asked Maya, who’d only recently arrived at the flat above the End, breathlessly hurrying from her photography club.
“You go all the way to Florence and don’t even snog any beautiful Italian boys. Not one!” Cat exclaimed.
“I told you, Cat - I wasn’t on a Club 18-30 holiday! This was just a sightseeing, family holiday. You try flirting when you’ve got two parents and an obnoxious sister hovering about, never mind having a seven-year-old welded to your hand!”
Cat stretched over to the basket of tortilla chips Gabrielle was passing round and grabbed a handful.
“Thanks, Gabs. Well, I have to say, Maya, if it was me, I’d have managed somehow…”
“I bet you would,” replied Maya, flicking through the Polaroids Cat had passed to her the moment she got in. “These look good, Cat!”
The Polaroids were of the make-up designs Cat had come up with at Winstead CFE for the upcoming Christmas show. Kerry, Gabrielle and Anna had already seen and admired them.
“Listen, Maya - I’ve got a favour to ask,” said Cat, abandoning her teasing for a second. “We’ll need some photos done soon for the posters to advertise the show. Would you be up for doing them?”
“Yes! Of course!” Maya grinned. “I’d love to!”
“At least it would make up for not doing Sonja’s shoot…” said Kerry quietly. She guessed that Maya would have probably been hurt that her role had been so easily replaced by Billy, reading between the lines of what Sonja had told her about their original conversation.
“That’s a point, where is my super-dooper-model cousin?” asked Cat. “Don’t tell me the contract from Tommy Hilfiger has come through already!”
“Cat! Don’t be so horrible!” Kerry reprimanded her, but couldn’t help giggling. “She said she was coming; I don’t know what could have happened to her…”
Anna hadn’t said anything yet, but she’d been getting edgy about Sonja’s no-show - first, because she thought Sonja might still be bearing some kind of grudge about their disagreement, and second, because everyone was starting to get hungry. The Mexican food Anna had been preparing for tonight was just ready to heat up, once all the guests had finally arrived.
“Well, I say stuff her. I’m starving and whatever you’ve got in that pot over there…?”
“Refried beans,” Anna answered Cat’s question.
“Mmm, refried beans - get it on, Anna! Sonja can have hers cold, if she ever turns up!”
Anna shot a jokey salute in Cat’s direction and happily went over to the kitchen area of her small living room/diner. The set-up wasn’t exactly luxurious, but at least it meant that, being only a few feet away, she could still join in the conversation while she cooked.
Or hear the doorbell.
“Sonja, hi! Come in!” Anna ushered her inside.
“Sorry I’m late, Anna,” said Sonja, breezing in. “Hi, everyone. Sorry, got held up. I’ve been having a few hassles with my mother.”
Sonja pulled off her coat, threw it on a chair without making any comment about Anna’s flat and flopped herself on the sofa next to Kerry.
“What hassles?” asked Kerry, who almost felt one of the Harvey family, she’d known them so long. “You never have hassles with your mum!”
“Well, I do now!” Sonja said, running her fingers through her honey-blonde hair. “She went ballistic at me for going to see that modelling agency on Monday!”
“Doesn’t she want you to model?” asked Gabrielle, who only knew the bare bones of the modelling saga. Matt’s lack of interest in the subject had meant she was spared from the mind-numbing coverage the others had had to listen to.
“Mmm, well, she’s not too happy, but after a bit of a row last night, I finally managed to persuade her tonight to let me go ahead with it,” Sonja answered, without actually looking at Gabrielle.
Although Sonja had felt terrible when Matt stormed out the night before, she’d managed to forget it pretty quickly in light of her own troubles. That was, until Gabrielle’s presence had reminded her just now. There was no edginess about Gabrielle, Sonja noticed, so Matt obviously hadn’t told her about their falling-out.
“So Billy’s pictures worked out well then?” asked Maya magnanimously.
“Kind of,” shrugged Sonja. “I mean, they got me an appointment, but my agent - Tony - says they’re not really good enough. I’m getting more shots done this weekend, actually, in a professional studio.”
“This weekend? Wow, they’re not wasting much time!” said Kerry, trying hard to sound intrigued. She could sense that Maya was offended for Billy’s sake and that Cat was an inch away from saying something sarky. By jumping in first, she might avert a bad atmosphere, she reckoned.
“I know,” nodded Sonja. “And that’s why I needed to talk Mum round. I need money to pay for this photo shoot and for my agency joining fee, of course.”
Anna, standing back at the cooker, was about to question what Sonja had just said: from everything she’d read, proper agencies never made you pay for anything like that. But after getting her tongue bitten off once already when she’d offered an opinion, Anna chose to stay silent and carried on with her stirring.
Only Maya was brave enough to tackle it.
“Son - I hate to say this, but it doesn’t sound quite right; you having to shell out like that. Shouldn’t you talk to someone like Natasha to see if this agency’s playing straight with you?”
Out of the corner of her eye, Anna saw a shadow cross Sonja’s face and expected the worst. But before Sonja could speak, Kerry let out a groan.
“Ooh, don’t say that name! You make me feel so guilty!”
“How come, Kez?” asked Cat.
“I spoke to Ollie earlier,” Kerry grimaced, “and he seemed to be hinting so strongly that I should bring Tasha along here tonight, since she’s at home all by herself!”
“Well, why didn’t you ask her? What’s she like? Isn’t she nice?” asked Gabrielle, again not quite up to speed with everyone’s histories.
At Gabrielle’s question, Cat gave an involuntary snort of derision.
Anna was instantly aware of tensions rising and felt herself watching like an observer from her spot by the cooker. Kerry, she knew, didn’t particularly like Natasha - partly because they had nothing in common and Natasha never made the effort, and partly because of the strain Natasha had put on Kerry’s own friendship with Sonja at the start of the summer. When Kerry had come out with that little outburst just now, she must’ve forgotten that Sonja was sitting right beside her and that Sonja still - despite the fact that Natasha had been offhand the last time they’d met - considered her a friend.
The other problem with mentioning Natasha was, of course, that she’d gone out with Matt, and
that thorny subject was one that had to be avoided with Gabrielle in the room.
Could Cat stick to her promise and keep her mouth shut? Surprisingly, she could - only someone else couldn’t.
“There’s nothing wrong with Tasha,” said Sonja, turning to Gabrielle. “Catrina just doesn’t like her because she nicked Matt off her.”
Only the simmering bubble of refried beans broke the silence in the room.
CHAPTER 18
MATT MISSES THE POINT
“I can’t believe Sonja said that!” Cat shook her head, then licked the cappuccino froth off her spoon.
“I can’t believe she got in and goofed before you,” Maya answered.
“I can’t believe Gabrielle swallowed that cover-up you guys tried!” said Anna, joining the other two girls during her break for a post-mortem of the night before.
“I know, but what else could we do?” said Maya. “Mind you, once I’d explained it was a totally different Matt Sonja had meant, it might have worked better if Kerry hadn’t kept gabbling, ‘It’s not your Matt, Gabrielle! Sonja didn’t mean him!’ over and over again.”
“Still, I think we managed to cover it up OK,” Cat said with certainty. Even though she didn’t feel certain at all.
Maya and Anna nodded their agreement. Even though they were both even less certain than Cat.
“Happy?”
“Oh, yes,” smiled Gabrielle, although Matt couldn’t see her face. He was lying behind her on the huge leather sofa, his arms wrapped around her as they watched some old episodes of Friends on video.
“Good,” said Matt, giving her a little squeeze.
“Don’t know if my parents would be…” she laughed.
“Would be what?” asked Matt, feeling so lazily content that he wasn’t concentrating too hard.
“Happy… Happy if they knew that I come and hang out at an eighteen-year-old boy’s house so often and that his dad’s usually never here!”
Matt released his hold on her and pushed himself up on one elbow to see her better.
“Then why don’t I meet them some time? Just so they know you’re going out with someone who cares about you? I mean, you know my dad, right?”
“Matt, I’ve met your dad twice and both times, all we’ve said is ‘hello’, ‘cause he’s been on his way out somewhere,” she smiled. “I wouldn’t say I actually know him!”
“Yeah, OK, but what about it?” Matt said earnestly. “Go on - why don’t I meet your parents some time? Wouldn’t that be a good idea?”
Even as the words were leaving his lips, Matt could imagine his friends’ reaction if they’d heard what he’d just come out with. Matt volunteering to meet a girlfriend’s parents. In the past, he’d have run a mile if a girl had suggested it. Meeting parents ranked right up there with visits to dentists, getting a ‘proper’ job or smashing his precious music collection with a mallet, as far as Matt was concerned.
At least it had in the old days. Before he fell for Gabrielle.
“Mmm… maybe,” shrugged Gabrielle, a fleeting frown crossing her brow.
Matt gazed down at her perfect face, her soft brown skin, her huge dark Bambi eyes and wondered what she wasn’t telling him.
“You have told them about me, haven’t you?” he suddenly realised.
“No, I haven’t,” she answered simply.
“Well, why not?” asked Matt, the hurt apparent in his voice.
“You could also ask - why?”
“Huh?”
“Why? Why should I tell them who I’m going out with?”
“Because… because we love each other!” Matt reasoned.
“Yeah!” Gabrielle giggled in his arms. “But we’re not exactly getting married or anything, Matt! “
Matt felt stupidly let down. She was right in some ways, but he felt hurt that he didn’t seem worthy of taking home and being introduced to her family.
“But I thought they knew you were going out with someone…” he almost whimpered.
“Well, they know I’ve been out on a few dates with someone, yes; but they haven’t asked for more details and I haven’t offered any!”
“But your sister knows about me because she was there when we met…”
“Yes, and she tells me about the boys she’s seeing. But we just talk about it together; we don’t sit and discuss it with Mum and Dad! Do you?”
Matt said nothing, but looked off towards the widescreen TV where Friends was still playing, unwatched.
“What’s up?” asked Gabrielle, lifting her hand to his dark hair and rubbing her long, cool fingers through it.
“It’s just…” Matt struggled to put his disappointment into words. “It’s just that I think it’s a bit weird, keeping me a secret like that.”
“We all have our little secrets. Matt,” she smiled knowingly at him, but he seemed lost in his own thoughts, staring blankly at the TV.
On-screen, Rachel, Monica and Phoebe were all lying around on sofas gossiping, which brought Matt’s mind back round to the girls’ night at Anna’s.
“So you enjoyed yourself last night then?” he asked, changing the subject and hoping this foolish feeling of hurt pride would leave him.
“Matt, that’s only about the fifth time you’ve asked me!”
“I know, but I just wanted to check the girls had been nice to you…”
He knew he was sounding pathetic - just like Ross on Friends - but he couldn’t help it. He’d spent the whole of the previous evening biting his nails with worry over what Cat might be saying to his darling girl. He didn’t trust Cat one iota, even though she’d promised him over the phone that she wouldn’t go meddling.
“Like I told you already, they were all lovely to me, Matt. In fact we had some really interesting conversations…”
But Matt missed what she was saying as the mobile phone he’d left on the table warbled loudly into life.
“Sorry, sorry - I better get this in case it’s a job,” he apologised, stretching over her to grab it. “Hello? Yeah, Billy? Hi - what’s up? God, I forgot all about that. Right, OK, thanks. Talk to you later.”
Gabriel le gazed up into his face as a frown crossed his brow.
“Anything wrong?” she asked him, aware that a perfect moment to get him to talk might have just slipped by.
“Nothing drastic, but pretty urgent. I was meant to pick up an amp for The Loud’s gig earlier. I’d better phone Ollie and see if he can rearrange a time with the guy he’s borrowing it from,” he explained, punching in the number of the flat above The Swan.
Gabrielle sighed, now sure that the moment had well and truly gone.
“Ollie!” barked Matt down the line, before stuttering awkwardly, “Oh, it- it’s you…”
Gabrielle watched as his face, just above her, turned pink. With the phone so close, she could make out the faraway female voice that was answering back.
“Uh… yeah, yeah, it’s Matt. Oh… he’s not there? If you could just tell—? Yes, thanks. Er, bye.”
“All right?” asked Gabrielle, perfectly aware that he’d got through to Natasha.
Natasha, who - as she’d found out the night before - he’d once dated.
“Yeah, I, er, it was his mum,” Matt lied pathetically.
CHAPTER 19
ALL THAT GLITTERS…
“Right, let’s go!” boomed Tony, closing the door to First Call Models and leading the way up the stairs.
“I’ve got about five changes of clothes with me, and I’ve brought some clips and scrunchies and things so I can change my hairstyle too…” Sonja panted as she tried to keep up with him bounding up the steps two at a time.
“Good, good. Great stuff,” said Tony, stopping suddenly outside a door on the next landing. He took out a bunch of keys, unlocked the door and motioned her to go inside.
“Destiny Awaits Dating Agency?” Sonja found herself saying, reading the sign on the door.
“Yep, my daughter Hayley runs this part of the business. Straight throug
h - the studio’s behind that white door there.”
Sonja’s heart sank; the modelling agency and this dating agency were all part of the same business? That didn’t sound very cutting edge.
“Er… and the company on the top floor?” she asked tentatively.
“Doggy Locks? The grooming parlour? Yes, my wife Pauline runs that,” he replied, his chest puffed out with pride. “Keep it all in the family, eh?”
Sonja smiled a watery smile and tried to think herself positive about the forthcoming shoot. She’d almost had to keep this afternoon in the family too - her mother had been determined that she was going to accompany Sonja to the shoot, just to check out what sort of business it was that her daughter was getting involved in.
It had taken a lot of persuasion (and a bit of lying) to talk her out of it. It wouldn’t look professional, Sonja had explained, taking your mum along, and had promised faithfully that Maya would be with her.
Maya, however, was with her grandparents this Saturday afternoon, completely unaware that her name had been used in vain.
“The photographer’s not here yet then?” asked Sonja, glancing around the small studio, with its well-used equipment.
“What’s that?” asked Tony.
“The photographer - he’s not here yet?”
“You’re looking at him, Sonja, love! Anthony Jones, at your service!” he grinned widely at her. “Didn’t you realise I was the photographer?”
“Oh… oh, no I didn’t,” Sonja stumbled, hoping the disappointment wasn’t blindingly obvious from her face.
“Right, it’s going to take a bit of time to get the lighting and backdrop set up, Sonja, so why don’t you stick the kettle on and make us a cup of tea? Fantastic! And have a look at some of the pictures while you start getting ready,” he beamed, pointing at the various photos and magazine pages pinned to the walls. “See the kind of poses we’ll be going for today.”
Sonja slapped what she hoped would look like an enthusiastic smile on her face and wandered over to a worktop where a kettle and mugs stood.
Come on, Sonja - it’s not what you thought it would be like, but it’s still the real deal! she tried to convince herself. You can be out there modelling soon, earning money, doing something glamorous - and showing the others what you’re capable of!