Jim suddenly spluttered.
“Yes, it seems he might have been better than I thought at a few things, still I’m glad he’s not around here anymore. Those sort of fancy exercise plans are just what the Americans love and now it won’t matter if he is gay or not. He’s famous after that touchdown today. You can bet your life they’ll offer him just about anything to try and keep him there. He wouldn’t have wanted to come back to this sleepy part of Harrow anyway so I hope you didn’t make some silly plan that you think he’s going to be true to you Carrie, because if you did, you can kiss it goodbye now. I can tell his type a mile off, ten million dollars is a lot of money and I bet they offer him more later on. Gay or not he’ll have half the population after him one way or another and he won’t be interested in you anymore, so I hope you’re not still holding a torch for him.”
Carrie shot up from the bed, she was suddenly so furious with her father that she felt as though she was going to explode.
“Get out Dad! If you value your life and my sanity, get out of my room. I don’t want to hear another word against Daniel, ever. Do you have that clear? I’ve put up with your prejudices for over a year now and I’m not taking it any longer.” She started pushing the door of her room closed, but her father pushed back so that her mother could get out. Carrie ranted at the two of them. “I don’t know what’s going on with him and I don’t know what Paul was talking about either. I haven’t made any pact or any promises, but I’ll tell you now dad, if he does ever come back and says he wants to see me, gay or not, I’m going to be right here waiting for him. I won’t go out with another man until I know that it’s completely hopeless. I love Daniel more than anything in this world and I’m as jealous as hell of Lisa! I’d love to have Daniel’s baby any time he wants. He only has to ask!” She slammed the door hard and fell back onto her bed as she heard her father draw in a shocked breath.
She looked over at the camera briefly and saw that it was still angled slightly downwards. She sat back upright, tilted it upwards again and wondered whether to call Lisa back. She noticed that her hands were shaking slightly as her fingers hovered over the keyboard. She hesitated for a moment and then clicked the webcam off. She didn’t want to disturb Lisa right after she had given birth and she certainly didn’t want to hear how perfect everything was in their wonderful lives. She just wanted to curl up into a ball and die.
But then she saw her bag sitting by the computer. She grabbed it up and rummaged for her phone. She dialled Daniel’s mobile number and listened to his voice. She didn’t know whether to leave a message after what Paul had just told her, but then as the tone finished, she cleared her throat and said as cheerfully as she was able.
“Hey! Well, that was all a bit hectic but I think mother and baby are fine now. Thank goodness my mum was here. At least one of us had some idea of what to do…I love you fellow godparent.”
Chapter Nine
December 2008
The studio was cold. Carrie was the first to arrive and Antonio was keen to get started.
“We have a new set to learn. Joanne is shaping up well Carrie but I expect you to lead for a while longer.”
Carrie nodded and started warming up. She had told Antonio she was moving on before the next summer season of festivals. She had auditioned for and been offered a job on a world tour with one of the most famous singers around and she wasn’t going to have time to do the festival season. She had been lucky that Milana had agreed to her finishing her A levels in June before she joined the rest of the dancers in Madrid for the first leg of the tour.
Carrie’s father was sick with worry about it. He wanted her to go to university after her exams, but Carrie wanted a gap year before she started on a sports injury and physiotherapy degree. He’d put as many objections forward as possible to the trip, but Carrie had been adamant. Since the row after Lisa’s baby was born, things had been difficult at home and Carrie saw the tour as a way of putting some distance between them, without actually falling out permanently.
Jim kept a running update on Daniel, desperate, Carrie suspected, to catch him with some cheer leader or actress, but so far the worst that he had discovered was that Daniel liked to go fishing with Paul in his spare time. It had come up on a sky sports programme and Jim hated fishing. He had been about to comment on the fact that Daniel rarely did anything without Paul, when he had caught his wife’s furious glare from across the dinner table. He changed the subject rapidly.
Carrie kept up with her gorgeous godson’s progress via the internet. Earlier that evening he had been waving a chubby little fist madly at her and cooing “Ca, Ca” delightedly. Carrie had smiled and waved back at him and then she goodnight kissed the webcam just before a very proud Paul whisked his son away to bed, leaving Carrie to say goodbye to Lisa. She had shut down the internet link and had run to the dance studio.
When she had first seen the advertisement for dancers for Milana’s tour, she hadn’t even considered it as a possibility, but then the auditions began, and she thought why not give it a try. She didn’t want to be doing festivals every summer for the rest of her dancing life. Milana’s tour was being done in two parts with a long break over the Christmas period, and finishing at the start of the festival season the following year. It was a punishing schedule, with them moving every few days across the whole of Europe, Africa and Asia. She would just have time to consider what to do about her university placement before the following September.
At least the tour would keep her busy until Daniel came home. Her heart sank as she thought of the last news article about the Raiders. Daniel was now Captain of the team and going from strength to strength. His university degree was apparently going superbly and he was about to open his first sports injury clinic in Atlanta. He had been picked up by the advertising agencies and there were rumours of him being cast in films. He was living the high life and earning a fortune.
It was no longer about when he came home. It was if he came home. Carrie sometimes thought her father was probably right. If Daniel had wanted to speak or get in contact with her, he would have done it a long time before now, but he was continuing with the silent treatment. She tried not to think about it as she stretched her hamstrings.
Callum walked into the studio. He high-fived Carrie and dumped his stuff at the back of the room. He pulled his jumper over his head and his undershirt rode up with it. Carrie noticed his flat rack of a stomach and sighed deeply as she thought of what Daniel’s might look like.
Callum looked up at the sound. He grinned wickedly at her as he noticed the direction of her eyes.
“Like what you see babe?” He stood preening himself, turning this way and that so she had an all-round view of his midriff. It wasn’t the first time she had seen his stomach and as stomachs went it was pretty good, but it didn’t attract her at all.
She shrugged disinterestedly.
“It’s as good as any other I suppose. I’ve seen worse, but I’ve also seen a lot better. Some blokes have superb stomachs.” She couldn’t remember who’s might have been better, but she immediately thought that Daniel’s must be perfect, not that she had ever seen it in the flesh, well, not since the swimming gala at primary school when he had been about eight or nine.
Callum pulled his shirt down quickly, obviously insulted.
“Oh really, though why I care I don’t know. I’d heard that you weren’t interested in men. I thought it was the girls you preferred.”
Carrie laughed out loud, wondering why he thought she might be a lesbian. She couldn’t remember ever having given anyone that impression. She thought she ought to make her position on the subject plain.
“Girls? Are you mad! I don’t know where you got that from Cal. I definitely like blokes, especially ones with ripped abs and a stomach with a sexy triangle of hair that points down over his navel, you know, towards his…” She indicated downwards with her finger and waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
“Carrie Denton!” Antonio bellowed. “Yo
u can leave that kind of talk outside the studio and Callum, keep it covered up for goodness sake. We have to expose enough flesh when we are on stage, we really don’t need to see any more of it in here.” He huffed as he turned back to the stereo.
Carrie walked over to Callum and then bobbed down as she spoke.
“Who told you I prefer women?” She didn’t look him in the eye, but pretended to be retying her trainer.
Callum shrugged as he bent to tie his own trainers.
“I suppose we all just assumed it. You don’t go out with anyone and I know you’ve been asked. Toby’s brother Craig said you shot him right down in flames last summer. You were supposed to be going out with him and then called it all off. You can’t blame us if we talk Carrie.”
Carrie stood up quickly. She was completely stunned as she thought back to the conversation she’d had with Craig Bellamy.
“I didn’t even know Craig was Toby’s brother, and I didn’t call it off. I never said I’d go out with him anyway. I agreed to go out for a coffee after we’d done the summer tour, but he had asked Leanne Farnsworth to go out with him by then and I certainly wasn’t going to butt in. What a cheek, spreading rumours like that just because I turned him down!”
James, Joe, Toby and Pete suddenly came in through the door together. They were all laughing at something one of them had said.
Callum beckoned them over. He spoke far too loudly, over the top of their laughter.
“Hey you lot, listen up, we’ve got everything wrong. Carrie’s not batting for the other team!” He nodded at Toby. “Your big brother Craig was feeling rejected and told us all a load of tripe. Apparently our Carrie likes blokes with hairy bellies!”
Pete grinned at Carrie, immediately lifting his shirt over his head, exposing a chest and stomach covered in thick, black hair.
“Great!” He yelled enthusiastically. “I’ve fancied you for ages. Will you come out with me Carrie? I only get this lot waxed when we are on stage. The rest of the time I’m like coconut matting.”
Carrie blushed furiously as she stared at the carpet of hair that covered his torso.
“Eweh!” She grimaced rather disgustedly, but then her eyes widened in admiration. “Wow! You wax that lot! And I thought having my legs done was bad! You’re braver than I thought. Must be agony.”
Pete puffed out his hairy chest proudly as he strutted around Carrie.
“It’s okay, I’m tough, I can take it. So what do you say, is it good enough?” He pointed down at the vast quantities of dark hair. “Are you going to come out with me?”
Carrie shook her head and held up her hands.
“Sorry, no. Thanks, but no thanks. I know you too well to go out with you. Any of you!” She added quickly and backed away as James stepped forwards about to lift his shirt too.
Antonio was flapping again.
“Gentlemen! For goodness sake stop it. Put all that disgusting body hair away immediately and leave the poor girl alone. We’re not going to have her here for much longer so let’s make the time as pleasant as possible. I don’t want to hear anything more about chests or stomachs, hairy or otherwise, now come on, get warmed up or I’m going to have to put on the heating and you know that comes out of the wages for the company, so let’s make the heat ourselves eh?”
They all ambled onto the dance floor and started to warm up as the rest of the crew arrived.
Four hours later Antonio nodded his head, satisfied at last.
“Another rehearsal on Friday and then we are ready to roll. I’ve sorted out the new contracts and we all have a bit of a rise, plus a small bonus for doing all the publicity work for the band as well.” He waved down the whoops. “Carrie, now that you are eighteen you’ll have to let me know if you want to change any banking arrangements, but just for this week I’ve done the traditional thing and given you your first wages in cash. The rest of you will have the money put into your accounts as usual. Is that okay with everyone?”
Carrie was looking forward to having her first pay packet that she could spend. Until now any wages had gone into a savings account and while it was nice to see a decent amount piling up she was desperate to go and splash some cash. Maybe she would have some make-up or a new outfit for over Christmas. Or she might take some more driving lessons and actually pass her test this time.
That she had failed the last one miserably, back in the summer, was purely the fault of Daniel Lewis.
The driving examiner had made her drive past a huge advertising hoarding in town and she had unexpectedly seen a larger than life size picture of Daniel smiling down at her. He looked fit, tanned and toned, his dark hair tousled, his blue eyes sparkling and his smile wide. He held a bottle of some famous, nutrient giving mineral water in one hand and an equally fit, tanned and toned and obviously nutrient loving woman in the other.
Carrie had gritted her teeth and seethed with envy as the giant advertisement had grabbed her attention. Her foot had suddenly caught on the brake and the accelerator at the same time and the car had lurched all over the road, coming to a grinding halt as she completely forgot about the clutch.
That night she had left an annoyed message on Daniel’s phone.
“So! Sabotaging my driving test eh! I will be talking to you about that one when you get home and you had better have some damned good excuse for what you have in your hand, and I don’t mean the hand holding the bottle! Never the less,” she had added primly. “I still love you Daniel.”
She had decided not to take another test until the advertisement was removed and only last week she had seen that Daniel was now covered with a goofy looking child playing with an extra soft toilet roll. She thought that it was probably safe for her to drive past that.
She looked up as she realized that she had missed something that Antonio had said. He rolled his eyes as Carrie looked confused.
“For goodness sake Carrie, keep up. Right after the Christmas shows I’ve managed to get us a brilliant gig. It pays well and just for once it’s something fairly local. The American football teams are coming over to showcase their sport in late February. They will be playing until the second week in March. We’ve been asked to be the cheer team for the games played at Wembley. It’s a good gig, a two week slot and all the games are in the evening so they shouldn’t clash with either school or college.”
Carrie felt heat spreading through her body.
“Wh..what teams are coming?” She stammered slightly.
Antonio glared at her.
“How the devil should I know? I do know those local two lads are coming over with their team. There’s been something about them in the Gazette. Beyond that I don’t have a clue. All I’ve been told is that they want us for all the games. We’re going to split into two groups, one for each team. Here are the dates and times of the rehearsal schedules and games.” He handed out slips of paper.
Carrie looked down at hers. She could barely see the rest of the fixture list as the name “Atlanta Raiders” leapt off the page at her. And then the dates came into view. She started hyperventilating as she realized that some of them clashed with the world tour rehearsals.
“I won’t be able to do it Antonio. I will be revising for my A levels and rehearsing for Milana’s show.” She handed him back the slip of paper.
Antonio pushed it back into her hand.
“I already checked and these games are all evenings. If we can all make the rest, the two you can’t do due to commitments with Milana, can be covered by the rest of us. Don’t you want to see your boyfriend in action?” He winked at her.
Carrie felt her face turn bright red.
“I don’t have a boyfriend! Daniel is just my friend and he won’t want to see me prancing about in a cheer kit anyway. I’ll do the others but I’m not doing the Atlanta Raiders matches Antonio. If you won’t accept my decision, then I won’t do any of them!” She was suddenly shouting, tears streaming down her face. She turned away from the rest of the group as they stared incredulously at he
r outburst, then she grabbed up her bag and made for the door.
Antonio ran after her.
“Carrie!” He called as he ran. He caught up with her and matched her pace. “What’s this all about? I thought you would be pleased about it. After that woman wrote that article back in the summer about the two of you splitting up, I thought it would give you the chance to get back together. I thought it would be so romantic if you met up again just before your world tour. I really fought to get you lot this gig.”
Carrie stopped and turned on him. Antonio skidded to a halt in front of her. She took the handkerchief that Antonio thrust at her and dabbed at her eyes.
“That article was a load of rubbish, written by a twisted old cow who only did it because I won this contract with you and she didn’t. What she wrote wasn’t the truth. I wasn’t going out with him at all, so I can’t have been jilted. I don’t even know what the truth is, except that I love him. I can’t just turn up at one of his games and expect him to fall all over me. He’s not like that.” Carrie knew she was making a hash of explaining, but she didn’t know how to explain anyway.
Antonio stared down at her.
“But if you love him, why not try and win him back? I don’t understand, surely this is a perfect opportunity for both of you.”
Carrie shook her head.
“You’re not listening Antonio. He doesn’t want to see me. I’m in contact with Lisa all the time. Daniel lives with her and Paul and little Tommy. She lets me know what he’s up to, but he never speaks to me. He doesn’t want to even talk to me, let alone see me. I don’t know what I’ve done wrong but I have to leave it up to him. Paul says he’s sure everything is going to turn out fine, I just have to keep to our agreement but I don’t know what agreement he’s talking about. I’ve tried to explain to Paul, but it just goes over his head. He’s so wrapped up in becoming a husband and a dad, nothing else is as important to him.”
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