Pinstripes

by Faith Bleasdale

  “It’s not that, I just don’t like to think of Clara getting into trouble. She does seem to attract it.”

  “Yes.” Virginia agreed with him. Clara did attract trouble.

  “But you and Ella seem sensible. I’m hoping you’ll keep her on the straight and narrow.”

  “I’m not sure even we can do that.” Virginia relaxed a bit.

  “So, what’s happening? Did Clara’s boss get his comeuppance yet?” James looked her straight in the eye. Virginia looked away to stop herself from blushing.

  “Nearly. He’s going to be exposed in next weekend’s Sunday News,” she told him.

  “I’ll have to buy it. Look, are you sure you know what you’re doing? I mean, can you get into trouble from all this?” James was evidently concerned.

  “No. Ella’s the sensible one and the brains behind most of this. She wouldn’t let us do anything risky. It’s just, well, we don’t want to be victims.”

  James laughed. “You three hardly seem like victims. I wouldn’t like to cross you,” he said.

  “It wasn’t easy. We were all really upset at being fired.”

  “Of course. Actually, to show solidarity I’ve spoken to my father about moving our account to another investment bank.”

  “Won’t he want to know why?” Virginia felt worried.

  “I’ve told him they’re complacent with our money. SFH don’t work for the company, it’s our private money they look after, including Clara’s trust fund. It’ll do just as well somewhere else.”

  Virginia felt uncomfortable talking about the amount of money he had. Rich people intimidated her. “Well, that’s loyal,” she said eventually.

  “Or sensible. One woman’s lost a fortune for the bank and her clients, thanks to you, and a partner’s going to be exposed in the tabloids. SFH will take a beating over the scandal. It’s probably just as well that we go elsewhere.”

  Virginia didn’t know what to say.

  “Anyway, in the meantime I’ll entrust my sister’s welfare to you. And try to talk some sense into her about Josh, while you’re at it. I must say, you seem quite at home here.”

  “Well, I’ve just cleaned up and I’m cooking dinner tonight.” Virginia felt herself turn red again.

  “Oh, it wasn’t a criticism. I’m glad Clara has some proper friends, and not the silly giggling women she usually hangs about with. What are you having for dinner?”

  “Oh, just some chicken,” Virginia replied.

  “Great. What time shall I be here?” James asked.

  “What?” Virginia said, horrified.

  “Well, I’ve missed my sister and I’d quite like to see her so if you can stretch the dinner that far I thought I’d join you.”

  “Oh. Well, I suppose around eight.” Virginia’s heart dropped. Although she wanted him there, she knew Clara would go mad.

  “I’ll see you, then.” James got up. “I can see myself out,” he added, and winked at her.

  ***

  Clara took a taxi to an address in Camden Town. The man she’d spoken to had sounded nice, and as the cab pulled up, she saw he lived in a massive townhouse. She got out, paid the driver, went to the door and rang the bell. She waited, heard footsteps and eventually the door opened. A flamboyant man in a Paisley smoking-jacket stood before her.

  “Hello,” Clara said, thinking she must be in the wrong place.

  “You must be the lovely Clara,” the man replied.

  “Oliver?” Clara asked, amazed that he was a drug-dealer.

  “That’s me. Come in, then.” He ushered her into his house.

  “So, you’re Josh’s girl?” he asked.

  “Well, not really,” Clara answered, and followed Oliver into his living room. It was stuffed with dark wooden furniture, leather armchairs and books. She noticed as she sat down that he had the biggest television set she had ever seen; and a games machine was hooked up to it.

  “So, you’re not Josh’s girl?” He sat down too.

  “Well, we’re friends, really.” Clara was at a loss for an explanation.

  “Urn. Well, he keeps calling me and not for the usual reasons. He keeps calling to ask if you’ve called me,” Oliver told her.

  “Well, don’t tell him, I have.” Clara was annoyed that Josh was checking up on her.

  “I pride myself on client confidentiality. Just like a doctor. Which I’m not, by the way. Anyway, Josh has stopped buying cocaine lately. He said he was giving it up. Sad boy. Therefore I shan’t tell him anything. Rest assured.” Oliver smiled.

  “Good, then we’ll get on fine. How much can you give me?” Clara asked.

  “How much do you want?” He raised one very thin eyebrow.

  “Four,” Clara replied.

  “Oh, a heavy user, then. Sure. Wait there.” Clara was about to argue that she wasn’t a heavy user, but Oliver had disappeared. He returned and gave her a bag with some wraps in it. Then he took the money she handed him.

  “You want to try some?” he asked. Clara shook her head. She wanted to leave. “Fine. Call me any time.” Oliver stood up. Clara thanked him and left.

  She walked around Camden for a while, thinking how dirty it was. She felt uncomfortable about the number of tramps who approached her holding cans of Special Brew and asking for money. As soon as she could she found a taxi and asked the driver to take her to Knightsbridge. She felt depressed. There, she went to a bar and ordered a glass of champagne. She hadn’t been in there before and it was quiet. She went to the ladies” and sampled her purchase.

  When she returned she sat down and spotted a man looking at her. He smiled; she smiled. He was youngish and he looked nice. Not gorgeous like Josh but pleasant. He had light brown hair and sparkly eyes. He made his way over to her table. “Can I get you another?” he asked. His accent was foreign.

  “Sure,” Clara smiled. He ordered and Clara finished her first glass. “I’m Clara.”

  “Antonio. I’m from Italy.”

  Clara raised her eyebrows. He didn’t look Italian, although he sounded it. “Are you on holiday?” she asked.

  “I’m visiting my girlfriend. She’s English. I like English girls.”

  “So where is she, then?” Clara asked.

  “Shopping. I am meeting her in one hour,” he said.

  “Well, you shouldn’t be talking to me. She won’t be pleased,” Clara teased.

  “As I said, I have an hour.”

  Clara shrugged and lit a cigarette.

  “How much?” Antonio asked.

  Clara looked at him. “About four pounds,” she replied. How odd of him to ask her the price of cigarettes, she thought.

  “I mean for you,” he explained, looking suggestively at her breasts.

  The penny dropped. “I’m not – well, I’m not cheap,” she retorted, turned on by the idea.

  “I didn’t think you were.”

  “Five hundred.” She pulled a figure from her head, thinking he would either run or pay up.

  “Where can we go?” Antonio asked.

  Clara didn’t know what to think or say. She was aroused by the idea, appalled too. But, then, she hadn’t had sex in a while and this guy was quite tasty.

  “I read somewhere that in London a girl who sits alone in a bar drinking champagne is for sale.” He smiled, and Clara vowed not to do it again.

  “Follow me,” she commanded, and led him away from the table. She didn’t know where to take him, but she had decided to see it through. “Wait here.” She left him standing outside as she went into the ladies”. There was no one in there, so she put out her hand, grabbed Antonio and dragged him inside. There, she led him into a cubicle and locked the door. She took her trousers down, then her knickers. Antonio was staring at her. She yanked at his trousers. ‘do you have a condom?” she asked.

  “No, but I have a very hard one.”

  Clara rolled her eyes and grabbed her handbag. After scrabbling around for a while she found one. She put it on him, pushed him down on to the loo
seat and straddled him. It took him only a few moments to finish, and Clara was left unsatisfied, although the idea of shagging for money in a loo had appealed to her.

  “Thank you,” he said, pulling up his pants and trousers.

  “It’s my job,” Clara replied impassively, while she dressed herself. She unlocked the door, looked around, saw the room was empty and walked out. ““Bye, then.” She went straight out of the door to the bar.

  “But your money!” Antonio shouted after her, but she’d gone. Antonio smiled. It must be his lucky day. And he still had half an hour left before his girlfriend was due to turn up.

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Clara arrived home, hardly glancing at Virginia before she went to take a shower. When she came out, she looked around. “You’ve cleaned up. Thanks,” she said, without sounding as if she meant it.

  Virginia sighed. She knew she’d have to tell her about James and she really didn’t want to. “James called round.”

  Clara looked at her sharply. “What did he want?”

  “To see you, of course.”

  “Well, why couldn’t he telephone? What did he say?”

  “Nothing much. But he invited himself to dinner tonight.”

  “What?” Clara was annoyed.

  “Well, what could I do?”

  “You could have bloody well told him he couldn’t come, that’s what. Shit, Virginia, why are you so stupid?”

  “Well, I didn’t think you’d mind. You always say how much you like him.”

  “Of course I do, but I don’t want him here with you two. Shit, Virginia, I’m not pleased about this.”

  “I’m sorry,” Virginia said.

  Clara paced for a few minutes. “Well, there’s nothing we can do.” She seemed to accept it.

  “Where have you been?” Virginia asked, trying to make peace.

  “None of your fucking business,” Clara replied, and went into her room.

  ***

  “Hi,” Virginia said, as she opened the door.

  “Hello. How’s things?” Ella asked, bringing her bag in and walking into the sitting room.

  “Hi, Ella.” Clara walked in and sat down.

  “Hi,” Ella responded. Looking at Virginia’s pinched face and Clara’s relaxed one she guessed that all had not been well.

  “James is coming for supper,” Clara told her, as if she liked the idea.

  “Great,” Ella replied.

  “Yes, Virginia’s worked hard to get the flat tidy. What are you cooking?” Clara was sweet again.

  “Mexican chicken. It’s very simple,” Virginia answered, confused by Clara’s, volte-face.

  “Sounds divine. I’ll open some wine, shall I?” Virginia started cooking, while Ella and Clara sat in the kitchen with their glasses.

  “What did you get up to today?” Ella asked Clara. Virginia got ready for the onslaught, but Clara just smiled.

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she said.

  “Go on, then,” Ella prompted.

  “Well, I went to buy drugs, and then I went to a bar in Knightsbridge where I had a glass of champagne. This Italian man came over to join me and bought me another glass. Then he asked me how much something cost. I thought he was talking about my cigarettes, but he wanted to know how much I was. Gosh, it was so funny. I said I was five hundred pounds, took him into the loo and had sex with him.” Clara looked triumphant and Virginia dropped a saucepan.

  “You made that up.” Ella couldn’t believe what she had heard.

  “I did not. It really happened.” Clara pouted.

  “You had sex in a toilet for money?” Virginia asked, trying to retrieve the vegetables from the floor.

  “I forgot to take the money.” Clara giggled.

  “That’s disgusting,” Virginia said, shocked.

  “It’s dangerous.” Ella was staring at Clara.

  “Not really. We used a condom. Anyway, I told you I was a sex addict. This proves it.”

  “Clara, it’s not funny.” Virginia was getting angry.

  “Anyway, I was thinking, Virginia needs money so she could go on the game.” Clara giggled again.

  “Clara, shut up.” Ella had seen Virginia’s expression.

  “No, really. If it’s that easy she can. I could be her madam, or whatever they call it nowadays.” Clara began laughing hysterically.

  “Clara, shut up. If James knows what you get up to, you’ll be in serious trouble. Leave Virginia alone and stop behaving like a cheap slut. Christ, you could have been arrested. He might have been a cop. And you put yourself in danger – he might have been a murderer or anything.”

  “Of course he wasn’t a murderer. He was just some randy man who wanted sex. Anyway, I like danger,” Clara said defensively.

  “No, you don’t. You take too much cocaine, you drink too much and you convince yourself you’re a sex addict. I don’t think it’s sex you’re addicted to.” Ella’s voice was raised.

  “Well, what is it, then?” Clara yelled.

  “Drugs, Clara, that’s what. You’re a fucking cokehead.” Ella was angrier than she’d been in a long while.

  “I am not a drug addict. I’m not, I’m not,” Clara shouted, then burst into tears. She sat at the kitchen counter heaving with sobs, and Ella reached over to hug her.

  “OK, calm down. But, Clara, you are not behaving like this anymore. I won’t allow it. If you don’t promise to stop we won’t let you out on your own.” Ella’s voice was soothing.

  “I’m not a drug addict.” Clara sniffed, but she allowed Ella to hold her. “I need a bath,” she said, and went to her bathroom.

  Virginia was stirring the sauce for the chicken. She felt physically sick because of what she had heard. Especially as James had said they must look after Clara. “What are we going to do?” she asked Ella.

  “I don’t know. God, Virginia, she’s a mess. We can’t let her carry on like this.”

  “Why does she do it? She’s beautiful, she’s rich, her brother adores her, and men like Josh fall over themselves to be with her. Why behave like this?” Virginia was lost.

  “She’s all those things, but she’s bloody insecure too. She’s sweet and kind when she’s normal, but when she takes cocaine she turn into a monster. One minute she acts as if she wants us around, the next she’s being nasty. She has the lowest self-esteem of all of us,” Ella said.

  “I still can’t understand. If I was like her I’d be really confident,” Virginia said.

  “I know, but we don’t know what it’s like to be her. I don’t know what it’s like being you and you don’t know what it’s like being me. We all act like we’re in control but none of us is.”

  “I never act like I’m in control.”

  “Virginia, you are more in control than Clara is. Believe me.”

  “We need to help her.”

  “But how?”

  “What you said. From now on we spend all our time with her and we don’t let her out on her own,” Virginia suggested.

  “How the hell did we get into this situation?” Ella asked.

  “We got fired,” Virginia said simply.

  “Yes, we bloody did. And I thought that was the hard part.”

  “This is worse, isn’t it?” Virginia asked.

  “Yes. Oh, God. What are we going to do?” Ella sat still while Virginia carried on with the dinner. Neither knew the answer.

  ***

  Clara returned as Ella was setting the table. “You won’t tell James, will you?” she pleaded.

  “No. But you have to think long and hard about your behaviour.” Ella sounded like a schoolteacher.

  “I have been. You’re right. I shouldn’t do the things I do. I’m going to give up the coke,” Clara announced.

  ‘Really?” Ella asked, disbelieving her.

  “I promise,” Clara replied, not meaning a word of it.

  “And men?”

  “I’ll try, but you have to trust me. I need you to trust me.”r />
  “We’ll do our best,” Ella said, as Clara walked into the kitchen where she had the same conversation with Virginia. She believed her because she needed to believe her.

  James arrived at eight with four bottles of wine. He hugged Clara, who clung to him for longer than was necessary.

  “What’s that for?” he asked.

  “I’m just pleased to see you,” she said.

  Virginia served dinner, and James and Clara kept them all entertained with stories of their childhood. James had been the golden boy, Clara said. Clara was always in trouble, James said. They told stories with affection that ripped at Ella’s heart. Although her life and theirs were a million miles apart, she knew they shared what she and Sam had shared. They enjoyed the meal, and Virginia was pleased. She started to contribute to the conversation. Ella noticed that James stared at her constantly, but Clara seemed oblivious to this, as did Virginia.

  After dinner, James insisted on loading the dishwasher and making coffee. Clara didn’t pop into her bedroom at all, although she drank even more than usual. Virginia was so happy that she smiled and laughed all evening, and Ella was busy trying to figure everything out.

  “I should be off. Thank you for a delicious meal and wonderful company,” James said eventually.

  “You’re such a charmer,” Clara teased, hugging him again.

  “Well, if I always get a reception like that I’ll visit more often.” James kissed Ella on both cheeks then Virginia, lingering with her.

  “I’m going to be better,” Clara told them. “I’m going to see someone.”

  “Who?” Virginia asked.

  “One of those counsellor people. Someone who can help. You were right. I need to sort myself out. I’m really going to do it.”

  “Good.” Ella was still not convinced.

  “I’ll start next week.” Clara continued, thinking that that would buy her time away from the others. “And I would appreciate it if you’d help me through it. If you stay with me, I’ll get better more quickly.”

  Ella and Virginia exchanged glances.

  “Of course we will. Clara, I’m really pleased,” Virginia said.