‘See you soon,’ Stanley smiled, and together with his wife, they watched him walking away down the long corridor.
CHAPTER 12
The next morning, Patricia vacuumed the living room at 57 Lymington Road. It was only six thirty in the morning, and she was worried that any minute one of the neighbors would knock on the door and start complaining about the noise, but it didn’t stop her. Stanley was still in bed; he’d come back from Reading late the previous night after doing a round-trip for their clothes, toiletries and other essentials, so they could move into Vera’s for as long as they needed to be there. But he wasn’t asleep - the noise of the old vacuum cleaner’s motor prevented him from sleeping! Instead, he was staring at the early morning sky through the high window positioned directly above his head. He glanced at the clock on the side table; it was nearly 7.00am. Thanks to his wife’s chronic need to clean, he’d only slept for around five hours.
At nine o’clock, Patricia entered Vera’s bedroom with a mug of milky tea and toast with a scraping of butter.
‘We need to go shopping for food this afternoon,’ she announced. ‘Our daughter doesn’t seem to have anything edible in the fridge,’ she added. ‘I dread to think what she ate before the accident.’ She handed the tea and the plate of toast to Stanley, and dragged the dressing table chair to the side of the bed and sat down.
Stanley sipped his tea seating comfortably in bed. He looked around the room and asked,
‘How long do you think we should stay here for?’
‘Definitely for as long as Vera’s in hospital. And then until she’s fine to function on her own,’ she replied. ‘I wouldn’t dream of leaving her alone when she’s poorly. I’m sure you haven’t got anything more important to do at home, have you?’ She wondered how committed he was to staying.
‘I was going to rebuild the shed this week, but nothing is more important than Vera’s health right now,’ he said, looking up, watching yet another plane move across the sky through the window.
By early afternoon, Patricia had done all Vera’s laundry. She ironed and folded her clothes and placed them in the wardrobe. Earlier on, Stanley helped her to clean the dishwasher, dust the furniture, and even to drag out the furry rug from Vera’s living room, so that she could give it a proper shake and vacuum outside. When they’d first arrived, the apartment was stuffy, unaired and dusty. Vera’s clothes were lying all over the bedroom and bathroom, and many pairs of shoes were scattered on the floor in the corridor - despite an abundance of space in the shoe cupboard. Various make-up items were dumped all over the sofa too - no doubt because she’d left the apartment in a hurry. But now the whole place looked so tidy and so clean it was virtually unrecognizable. As Patricia stood in the living room door, admiring her work, she felt an overwhelming feeling of joy and satisfaction at what she’d achieved. Vera would no doubt love the apartment. More than ever, she needed structure and peace to progress with her recovery. Patricia looked at her watch; it was fast approaching 3.00pm, and they would soon have to leave for the hospital.
As it passed midday, Vera - who had been in heavy muscular pain since the accident - started feeling a little better. She still didn’t remember anything that had occurred prior to Sunday, the day of the accident, which gave her plenty to ponder about - mainly how her life had been before she lost her memory. Her parents had told her that she had a degree in journalism, and that she was a writer. She’d always wanted to write, so she was happy that she had fulfilled her teenage dream. Shane had said that they used to go out a lot. She’d been thinking about him too, and remembered how funny he was yesterday, and how comfortable and at ease he made her feel. She wondered how her apartment looked, or if she had a boyfriend. The answer to the latter came pretty quickly; she obviously hadn’t. If he existed, he would have been by her side along her parents.
The friendly nurse who’d looked after her since the hospital admission was popping in and out. Her name was Janine and she was small in height and chubby. She was originally from Newcastle. What Vera had learnt about her so far was that she was extremely energetic and positive, and also that she ended most of her sentences with the word ‘like’. Doctor Skelker visited her in the morning too, and Vera found out that the doctor and she were both the same age, and that they lived near each other. The doctor lived in Fortune Green and told Vera that Lymington Road was very near. It felt strange to be told by someone else about where she lived, but not knowing where it was.
Patricia and Stanley were on their way to the hospital when Vera’s mobile phone suddenly rang. Patricia kept her daughter’s phone with her, in case Shane wanted to get in touch. After rummaging through her bag, she finally got it out and pressed the green button. But before she even managed to say hello, a female voice quite literally exploded through the earpiece.
‘Where the hell have you been, Vera? And why aren’t you answering my emails? Have you suddenly fallen out with technology? Or, are you by any chance avoiding me on purpose, because you’ve fucked up the website job? The client’s furious! I have given the work to someone else and made up some fib about you being ill to excuse us. You owe the agency the advance, and we’ll charge you the discount we had to offer them …’ Patricia tried to say something, but she didn’t stand a chance of getting a word in.
‘On the other hand,’ the mystery woman’s continued, her voice sounding softer, ‘I’m also calling to tell you that I’ve read A Fair Affair, and …’ She paused for effect. ‘I love it! I fucking love it! I read it in one night. I barely slept because I couldn’t put it down! It’s funny, it’s sexy, and the characters are great. I want you to know that I’ll be approaching a few publishers. We need to meet as soon as possible to talk about everything: my commission; your advance; the type of deal we’ll push for … Vera, are you there? Can you hear me? Hello?’ She suddenly stopped talking and the silence filled the handset.
‘Actually, she’s not,’ Patricia finally managed to say. ‘This is Patricia Smith. I’m Vera’s mum.’
‘Er … hello. It’s Suzy, her agent, is she there please? I need to speak to her.’ She lowered her tone.
‘Unfortunately you can’t, dear. Vera was involved in an accident and she’s in hospital.’
It took another twenty minutes to fill Suzy in on what had happened to Vera on Sunday evening. As Patricia spoke, Suzy only interrupted her to say, ‘I can’t believe it, I really can’t believe it’, over and over again. During the course of the conversation, Patricia and Stanley arrived at the hospital car park.
Stanley was able to hear the whole conversation clearly, as Suzy spoke very loudly, so he nudged his wife and said, ‘Ask her about that book.’
‘Suzy, you said that Vera had written a book? Is that right?’
‘Yes!’ exclaimed Suzy. “I imagine she’s not mentioned it. She’s written a novella - a romantic comedy with a few naughty accents. They sell brilliantly these days, particularly since E. L. James wrote and self-published her saucy book, Fifty Shades of Grey. Hollywood has bought the rights to turn it into a movie, and now … but anyway …’ She stopped herself from going further. ‘I’m sorry, I do go on a bit, I know. I think Vera’s book has the potential to make her a lot of money. Trust me,’ she said, ‘I’ve been a literary agent for years, and I have an eye for a bestseller. We haven’t had anything like this at the agency for a while.’
Stanley had finally parked the car and they were both now walking towards the main entrance of the hospital.
‘Patricia, I would like to see Vera as soon as possible,’ Suzy said. ‘I know that she’s in hospital but I need her written permission to proceed.’ She paused. ‘There’s also the small matter of my commission …’ she added swiftly. ‘You don’t think it would be a problem to see her, do you?’ She fell silent in anticipation of a response.
‘I don’t know,’ Patricia said reluctantly. ‘It’s only been two days since the accident, and she’s very weak … and it will be a lot for her to take in, to find out about you
and that she has written this book.’ There was uncertainty in her voice.
‘But I won’t bother her other than a little talk and a signature, I promise.’ Suzy clearly wasn’t giving up. ‘And maybe seeing me and talking about the book might even help to refresh her memory. Just think’ she said, ‘it could trigger something in her head.’
Patricia couldn’t deny that the thought of that alone was extremely tempting. Besides, if this pushy woman was right, and Vera had really written a bestseller, it might set her up financially for life - and the money would be very welcome, especially now, when it was not yet known what therapy she would need.
She frowned and then sighed, and said, ‘Okay, call me later on. We’ll arrange something for later in the week.’
CHAPTER 13
After Vera had been in hospital for five days, and hadn’t made any progress with the recovery of her memory, she took the tests that would enable Doctor Skelker to diagnose her condition. She was feeling much better by now, and was able to sit up in bed without help from nurse Janine, eat on her own and go to the bathroom unaided. The muscular aches were almost completely gone too.
She took her general knowledge test in the morning. It was easy to a degree - she knew the answers to most questions, and they didn’t even seem very difficult, however, when it came to personal knowledge, things weren’t so easy at all. She still couldn’t remember what had happened in her life past the particular morning when she was seventeen, and no matter how hard, or how much, she concentrated on various ‘clues’ her parents provided her with, she wasn’t able to remember anything more. There was something else that was playing on her mind – a couple of days earlier her mother had told her about a woman called Suzy, who apparently was her agent, and also that Vera had written a book that Suzy was keen to pitch to a publisher. Vera was going to meet Suzy today; her mother had arranged for her to visit that afternoon, and she was going to bring a copy of the book, called A Fair Affair with her. Vera was nervous about meeting Suzy, but also strangely excited – it could shape up to be quite an interesting afternoon.
In preparation for her meeting with Suzy, Vera asked her mum to bring her some make-up, but since she didn’t really know what make up she owned (apart from the small collection of items in her handbag), Patricia brought the whole beauty case over. She also asked her mum to fetch her a cardigan, to cover the hospital pajamas. When she was putting on her make-up, nurse Janine entered the room and offered to backcomb her hair and put it in a doughnut bun. Vera watched her carefully in the hand-held mirror.
‘Lovely hair, like,’ Janine said in her Newcastle accent . ‘It’s so trendy to have two tones now. What do they call it again, like, let me think …’ She stared into space.
‘I haven’t got a clue, but I did wonder why my hair was looking so weird,’ Vera replied. ‘It’s like I’ve colored it blonde, but then decided not to do my roots.’ She kept looking in the mirror as she spoke. ‘So you are saying that it’s trendy? Really? How weird!’
‘It’s ombré! It’s called ombré!’ exclaimed Janine suddenly.
‘I beg your pardon?’ Vera didn’t understand.
‘The hairstyle. It’s called ombré. You only color the ends, and leave the top natural, like.’
‘Why would you not color it a bit higher though?’ wondered Vera aloud.
‘Not to damage it I suppose,’ she said, ‘and so there’s no need to redo it all the time.’ she added. ‘There, it’s done. Do you like it?’ she asked.
Vera examined her hairdo in the mirror. Nurse Janine had done an excellent job.
‘It’s wonderful, thank you.’
The nurse put away the brush and looked at Vera with a smile.
‘Looking gorgeous now, missy,’ she said. ‘But don’t get too tired with your visitors today, you still have to rest up. I’ll pop in to see you later.’
As soon as she left the room, Vera’s mind wondered back to Suzy, and the book she was supposed to have written.
Two hours later Patricia entered the room and gave a little cheer at the door.
‘Darling, you look wonderful. Doesn’t she look wonderful, Stanley?’ She turned to her husband.
‘She certainly does,’ said her dad. ‘She’s so beautiful she could charm the birds from the trees. No one could resist her,’ he smiled. ‘I take it your agent hasn’t turned up yet?’ he added.
Vera shook her head.
‘Sweetheart, I want us to drive a hard bargain here,’ started Patricia, while she dragged the chair from the other side of the room towards Vera’s bed. ‘That woman said it herself – “…the book is potentially a bestseller and she’d like to discuss a financial deal to represent you” - I don’t want you to be taken advantage of just because you’re poorly.’
Vera smiled at her mother. The advice to “drive a hard bargain” coming from Patricia was quite strange. Neither of her parents had ever been in business, and the most money they had ever had was the deposit for their Reading house they had bought when Vera was five. They were the kind of people who always preferred to hold steady, but low paid, jobs and sleep well at night, instead of taking risks and worrying about the consequences.
‘Mum …’ Vera began, ‘I know you only want what’s best for me, but I need to hear her out first and let her show me what she has to offer. And …’ she paused, ‘I would really like to meet her alone.’
‘But …’ started Patricia, ‘you don’t remember her, and we don’t know her, so don’t you think it would be wise for us to be here with you?’
‘Mum, we’re not signing a book deal here,’ explained Vera. ‘We’re only discussing her representing me and the financial aspect of the deal if she finds a publisher.’ Vera looked to her dad for support. ‘What do you think, Dad?’ she asked him.
Stanley rolled his eyes, knowing that he had to disagree with his wife - and that could prove difficult.
‘I think …’ He turned to Patricia, ‘that we should let Vera meet Suzy on her own. We have to let her do this. She can call us if she needs us.’
‘Okay,’ agreed Patricia reluctantly after a few moments. ‘But we will be outside if you need us,’ she added. Just please call for us.’
*
‘Oh Vera, I still can’t believe it, honey, you could have died!’
Suzy was sat on Vera’s bed eating the chocolates she brought for her. Vera felt strange; she didn’t know this woman at all, yet it seemed that she was very familiar with her.
Suzy was rather tall, had black curly hair, green eyes, great cheekbones and wore pink blusher. She was dressed in a floral patterned dress, black tights and wore a pair of black flats. She carried a huge bag filled with papers, grooming products, food and various electronic devices that Vera had never seen before - like the flat computer that was now resting next to her on the bed.
‘Anyway, I thought that you might have like to read a bit of your book,’ said Suzy, smiling. ‘So I’ll leave you a printed copy.’ Suzy grabbed a pile of papers from her bag. ‘Here!’ she handed her the draft. ‘It’s all yours.’
It was the strangest of feelings. It was her book, but Vera didn’t have a clue what it was about. It felt surreal.
‘Let’s talk about money now.’ Suzy’s rapid change of subject brought Vera back to earth. ‘We need to sign a contract so that I can represent you.’ She looked at Vera.
‘Yes, about that …’ said Vera. ‘Haven’t we got a contract already? Since we work together?’ She didn’t know this at all, but felt she had to say it.
‘Honey I am your agent, yes, but the percentage the agency keeps for your work is normally split between many different people. When you write fiction, you only have one agent representing you, and only that person gets the commission. And let’s just say that since we’ve worked together for the last couple of years …’ She looked at Vera playfully, ‘it would be good for you to “keep it in the family” and stick with me. After all, you submitted your book to me.’ She paused. ‘Listen, Vera.’ Suzy
leant forward towards her. ‘I promise you that you won’t work on small things anymore. You wrote a damn good book, and I will find you a deal. I don’t mean to be vulgar, but the money on this book is going to piss all over whatever pennies you were making freelancing. There’s a serious chance you are going to get rich from this - very, very rich,’ she said, with her eyes flashing. ‘In return for that, I’d take twenty percent of a home deal, and a further fifteen of any foreign one. I assure you that any other agent would take as much, or more. So …’ She looked at her intensely. ‘How does that grab you?’
Vera’s face lit up as she imagined the things she could do with the money. She also liked how confident and forthright Suzy was - the two qualities were definitely useful in business - and she could see that with Suzy’s attitude, she would try to squeeze a lot out of a potential publisher. Her instincts told her to trust her.
‘Okay, then,’ she said. ‘Hand me the paper.’
‘You won’t regret it!’ exclaimed Suzy. Then she grabbed Vera’s arms, pulled her towards her and hugged her, rocking side to side. When she pulled away, she reached for her bag and pulled out another bundle of papers, scanned through them, found the one she was looking for, and presented Vera with a copy. Ten minutes later, after Vera had gone through the contract, it was signed. When it was done, the two shook hands.
‘How soon do you think you can find a publisher?’ asked Vera as Suzy was packing the papers back into her bag.
‘I didn’t want to say anything before, but I’ve approached a few people already.’ Vera shook her head smiling. ‘People are already showing interest, to say the least. I’m going straight back to work to make more phone calls.’ She picked up her jacket. ‘In the meantime, read the book.’ she urged her. ‘We can’t have an author who has never read her own book or doesn’t even know what it’s about!’ she giggled.
Before We Met: What Happens When You Fall For The Same Man Twice But Don't Even Know It Page 7