Katie made a feeble protest in Tim’s defence. “He wasn’t always drunk,” she said quietly but her heart wasn’t quite in it and she figured the girls were right.
Sarah draped an arm along Katie’s shoulder while they made their way to the door and squeezed it reassuringly. “Lisa’s right, you deserve every penny, honey.”
The next two properties, one on Fitzjames Avenue, and the other on Cobbald Road were much better; so much so that Katie agreed she would be able to move in and simply unpack her cases but she did have doubts over the size and shape of the kitchens and knew they weren’t exactly what she wanted. But when they pulled up outside the last property on Grafton Road and she looked at the pretty building that housed the ground floor two bedroomed flat she felt a fluttering of excitement.
The door was opened by a good looking guy in his thirties wearing blue overalls and his dark brown eyes sparkled with amusement when he looked at them all. She couldn’t help but smile when she saw Lisa pull her shoulders back and tilt her chin provocatively in readiness to unleash her charm upon him.
“Come in,” he welcomed when they walked into the hall and Katie marvelled at the high ceilings and old cornices. She introduced herself, Lisa and Sarah, and he showed them around the bedrooms and small lounge. When they stood in the lounge he explained how it was his grandmother’s house and now that she’d gone into a nursing home his parents had asked him to get it ready to put onto the market. He’d managed to install a new bathroom, convert the kitchen, and re-wire the property but had now run out of cash.
“So, basically all it needs now is decoration and of course that will be reflected in the price. And because it’s vacant now a sale should go through pretty damn quickly,” he said grinning at Katie.
She hoped that it meant he would be open to doing a deal because although she hadn’t seen the kitchen yet she had a very good feel about this one.
While Lisa mounted her charm offensive on him Katie and Sarah continued down the hall to the back of the property and the kitchen. Turning the handle she silently prayed that the kitchen would be big enough. When she opened the door she gasped in delight at the newly built kitchen-diner, it was more than big enough she whispered to Sarah as they walked into the room. The room was a big square stripped bare and freshly plastered and led through into a longer shaped dining room and although she knew it would cost her around £7,000 to have a new kitchen installed it would be a blank canvas so she could design it any way she wanted.
“Sarah, this is fantastic,” she declared excitedly. “It’s massive and exactly what I need.”
Sarah walked ahead of her and admired the French windows from the dining room out into the garden. “Oh how lovely. I wonder if the garden belongs to the property?”
“Yes, it does,” the guy answered following Lisa into the kitchen. Turning to Katie he asked, “What do you think?”
Katie grinned with pleasure. “It’s exactly what I’m looking for,” she said enthusiastically.
Sarah asked sensible questions about the neighbours and gas and electric points and if they’d had any other interest while Katie stood in what she hoped would soon be the middle of her new kitchen and felt like dancing a jig.
Chapter Fourteen
Draining the blanched asparagus spears from the boiling pan of water, Tim put them aside to cool while he continued filling an inch of his round pastry flan with lightly flavoured cheese mousse. Jessie was hovering at his elbow while he stood each fat asparagus tip horizontally into the flan case until the cluster resembled the shape of a helmet.
“Aw, Tim, that’s brilliant,” she said admiringly and he beamed with pleasure.
Trotting alongside him back into the office to look for the camera, she said, “I think we should make it the centre piece when we get all the other main courses finished - it’ll look fabulous with the game pies.”
Tim glanced at his emails and saw Kate’s address. “Thanks, Jessie, I just need a minute, can you pull the door shut behind you?” he asked as she sauntered out of the room without a backward glance.
He wanted to be on his own when he opened the email to read what she had to say. Again it was short, business-like and to the point. She asked him to thank his mum and dad for the flowers, and gave him a temporary address for post and the settlement fee that his dad had told her to expect.
Christ, he didn’t know his mum had sent Kate flowers but there again he had ignored her messages on his mobile, and because of the extra work he hadn’t called to see her as planned. The image of his mum’s lovely face came to him and he mellowed - it was just the automatic kind gesture she would make to anyone, let alone his estranged girlfriend. He decided to go and see her straight after lunch time service was finished because it would be the best time to catch her alone without running into his dad.
Kate’s temporary address was neither her mum’s house, nor either of the girls and he wondered whether it was a flat or a house? And more importantly who it belonged to. Surely, she couldn’t have met someone else already, could she? Well, he decided glumly, she wouldn’t be single for long because she was so attractive and what most men would think of as a really good catch.
For some reason a sudden memory of the long weekend they’d spent in Menorca flashed back into his mind and he remembered how she’d looked on the beach in a skimpy pink bikini with two small triangles of material straining to hold her full breasts.
He remembered smoothing sun cream onto her flat stomach and sliding a finger under one of the triangles hoping nobody could see. “Erm, thanks very much for creaming my back, Tim,” she’d said. “But I can manage to do my stomach myself.
“I know,” he’d breathed, ragged with desire. “It was just an excuse to get closer to those gorgeous breasts of yours.”
She’d teased him with her giggle. It wasn’t a girly giggle that she had, it was more of chuckle which when they were making love would turn into a throaty sexual sound from deep inside her that drove him mad with desire. Oh God, he groaned thinking of the soft gasp of pleasure she always made when he entered her. He was filled with such a deep longing that it seemed to gather in the back of his throat into a ball of complete and utter misery. Grabbing his jacket he strode out of the restaurant and drove out to Belgravia.
Driving up to the house he prayed his mum would be home because now he’d made the decision to come he felt desperate to talk and when he thought of the last time he’d walked up this path with Kate, he cringed with shame at how obnoxious he’d been. Turning his key in the lock he could see her running down the last few stairs and she cried out with pleasure at the sight of him.
“Oh Tim, thank goodness you’ve come. I’ve been so worried about you?” she said reaching up to plant a kiss on his cheek and put her arms around him. At the warmth of her embrace and her clean familiar smell he leant down and buried his face in her neck and felt tears sting the back of his eyes.
“Hi, Mum,” he managed to say in a voice strangled by the same lump in his throat.
She stood hugging him and he remembered the day when he’d arrived back from school aged eleven and she’d gone. He’d dropped his school bag onto the floor and an old housekeeper they’d had scuttled through from the kitchen scolding him about leaving his things lying around then casually told him that his mum had left that morning with a suitcase and that she’d be staying to look after him and Jenny until his father got home.
He untangled himself from his mums embrace now and they walked arm in arm into the lounge where he sat down heavily on the settee and she automatically went to pour them drinks. “Not for me, Mum,” he said. “I’ll just have some juice because I’ve got to go back into work at five o’clock.”
He looked at her slender, elegant back standing at the drinks cabinet and remembered how long those three weeks had seemed when he was little and she simply hadn’t been there. He’d cried himself to sleep at night because he missed her so much and on the third morning had rolled over in bed onto a cold damp she
et and realised he’d wet the bed. The tetchy housekeeper tutted at him when he ate his cornflakes and grumbled under her breath about the extra washing, and although dad told him mum would be coming back after she’d had a little holiday on her own, he’d felt desolate. He hadn’t been able to understand why she’d wanted to go on holiday without him and Jenny because they’d always had such great, fun-packed holidays. And eventually when she had returned he’d often seen her wiping tears away from her eyes and forcing a bright smile onto her face. He’d followed her around the house for days and hadn’t wanted to go to school just in case she’d disappeared again when he got back, and even though she’d promised him faithfully that she’d never leave again, the morbid fear of losing her had never been very far from his mind.
She put a glass of orange juice onto the coffee table in front of him and he started to tell her about Kate and the argument and everything that had happened. She didn’t comment or interrupt but just sat next to him stroking his hand and smiling with encouragement for him to get it all out of his system. Her eyes filled with tears when he told her about the drinking and she squeezed his hand tightly more with concern and fear than upset, but still she didn’t speak until he finally came to a halt.
“And that’s about the gist of it…” he said sadly and looked across the room to a beautiful arrangement of white lilies and green foliage in a huge vase.
She followed his eyes. “I sent Katie some flowers when it first happened and a note telling her how much I’d miss her,” she said wistfully. “Because I will…”
“Not half as much as I do,” he mumbled.
She sighed, “Is there no way you can patch things up? I mean, what did she say when you talked to her?”
Feeling more in control now he released his hand from hers to drink the juice. “We didn’t talk. I mean, she emailed me and I answered her,” he said gulping the juice down greedily. His mouth was dry and he suddenly felt a wave of tiredness sweep over him. Emotional upset always made his body feel weary and he had to fight the urge to lie down on the settee.
She was aghast and looked in amazement at him. “So you haven’t even tried to explain or tell her what you’ve just told me?”
“No, I haven’t,” he said petulantly and shuffled uneasily. “She was the one who walked out, Mum, so I figure she should be the one to come and talk to me…” he said avoiding her eyes. “I mean, I’d always thought she was with me for keeps, and I couldn’t believe she would simply run out just because we were having a few tricky weeks.”
She shook her head slowly in obvious disbelief but before she had time to say anything more he butted in and bristled indignantly. “Oh here we go, I thought you, at least, would be on my side? So you’re telling me it’s all my fault?”
She took a large gulp of her wine. “No, of course I’m not, Tim,” she said, “I’m not taking anyone’s side, but it was a lot more than a few tricky weeks and you have to take some responsibility for what’s happened, darling.”
He stood up and started to pace around the room while she sat looking unhappily at him.
“You’re so much like your father,” she mused to herself.
Suddenly he swung around to face her with temper flashing in his eyes. “Don’t say that. I’m nothing like him!” he practically snarled at her. “I’ll never be a big shot, workaholic like him.”
“Your father is a good man, Tim,” she said defensively. “He is a man of great character and principles.”
“Yeah,” he snorted. “It’s a pity he wasn’t a family man and work had been more important to him than being around to see us grow up.”
She went to him and tried to stroke his arm but he pulled away from her and for the second time that afternoon he felt tears weren’t too far away.
“Look, Tim, I know he wasn’t around much when you were little but he worked hard to provide us with all this,” she said waving her arm around the room.
He grunted in retaliation. “And who told him we wanted all of this? I know you didn’t, because you’re not and never have been materialistic,” he said and then plonked himself back down onto the settee with his shoulders slumped in defeat. “I would rather have lived in a hut, Mum, and have him play a game of cricket or kick a ball with me, than all of this.”
“Well, Jenny didn’t complain?” she said huffily. “And, I will remind you that you wouldn’t be in the position you’re in today if it hadn’t been for all his hard work. And another thing, it’s very easy to be blasé about money when you’ve never had to live without it, believe you me!”
Feeling exhausted with just the thought of his sister, he said, “Ah, Jenny, let’s not go down that road. I haven’t the energy…”
He looked at her long neck and proud shoulders, and felt ashamed. What was he doing arguing and upsetting his mum when she was only trying to help. “Look, I’m sorry, Mum,” he said feeling contrite. “I didn’t come here to upset you and thanks for talking but I’d better hit the road.”
He stood up to leave and she went to him. “It’s okay love, I know you’ll never get along with your father but even though he doesn’t say much he does love you and has been as worried as I have since Katie left,” she said. “And you know, Tim, there comes a time in everyone’s life when they have to stop blaming other people for the way things turned out and accept that life is what you make of it yourself.”
She looked distantly passed his shoulder as though she too was lost in her own memories but when he bent down to kiss her cheek she shook herself back into mum-mode insisting that he come home for lunch on Sunday and that she’d also ask Jenny and Greg. He strode down the path to his car grimacing, and that, he thought, was surely a recipe for disaster.
Chapter Fifteen
“Oh no, Sarah,” Katie sympathised. “But he was lovely and good looking, and seemed well, just perfect?”
She’d just arrived at Sarah’s house for dinner and had listened to the account of how she’d broken up with Mark. Lisa was already there sitting on the bench swinging her legs and crunching a raw carrot.
“I’ve told her she’s mad but will she listen, no Sirree Bob,” Lisa said at which all three burst out laughing. “Sorry, I’m going to have to sack this American woman before I go completely USA barmy.”
Sarah was dressed in a short black tunic and thick denier black tights and with a clasp in the back of her hair holding back the loose strands that threatened to tumble down at any minute – Katie thought she looked about eighteen.
“I know, but I can’t help it,” Sarah moaned, stirring a salad dressing. “He’s trying to be my knight in shining armour ready to save me from the perils of the big nasty world and I can’t stand it!”
Katie sighed and pinched a carrot baton out of the salad bowl. “But couldn’t you have told him to stop and given him another chance?” she said crunching but knowing full well the advice would fall on deaf ears.
“I did last week and he told me he just wants to look out for me to which I told him it was very kind but that I could look after myself - he just laughed and took no notice.”
Lisa groaned. “You see, now isn’t that just typical of men. They simply don’t listen to a word we say. Half of them think we haven’t got a brain of our own to think with…”
“Hmm, I don’t think we can class all men the same and in a way I sometimes feel sorry for them,” Katie said and at Sarah’s bidding carried the salad bowl and bread basket through to the table in the lounge. “I mean we say we want our men to be strong so that can admire and trust them to make us feel well looked after, and then in the next breath we’re chastising them for smothering us and not allowing us our own independence!”
Lisa jumped down from the bench following her with a bottle of Pinot Noir into the lounge while Sarah brought the grilled fish and the mound of crumbly, golden spicy potatoes.
Opening the wine Lisa said, “Yeah, I suppose it’s finding the right balance between molly-coddling us and blatantly ignoring us?”
/> They settled themselves comfortably around the table and Katie smelled appreciatively. “Mmm, fresh mackerel, yum, yum,” she said.
It had been cooked impeccably and when she cut through the crispy brown skin to the moist, plump flakes, she complimented Sarah. “It smells divine - you’re certainly looking after our omega three levels tonight.”
Sarah chuckled. “I am, and from now on I’m going to try and stick to a more healthy diet,” she said and ate a forkful of mackerel. “Oh my, that is scrummy, what a lovely light taste?”
“So, I suppose the new diet doesn’t include pizza?” Lisa asked and they all giggled.
“No, it doesn’t,” Sarah said. “Have you ever actually cooked yourself a meal, Lisa?”
Lisa looked at both of them and slowly shook her head in disbelief. “Of course I haven’t, life’s far too short to stuff a pepper,” she joked pouting. “But I’m sure I had a smoked mackerel on a salad one day. So, tell me what this omega whatsit is doing for me?”
Sarah nodded proudly at her. “Well, that’s a good start, Lisa. Omega three is good for keeping joints supple and, in your case it’s supposed to help reduce the hot flushes in the menopause.”
“Really!” Lisa enthused. “And you made this meal especially for me? Wow, thanks, Sarah. Will you tell me how to cook it later?”
Katie raised an eyebrow at Sarah and suspected she hadn’t made it especially but it was just like Lisa to think she had and her gratitude for the friendly gesture was endearing to them both.
Katie offered, “I was reading an article the other day which said we should always try to eat the best a nation has to offer and because the UK is an island our fish is always superb.”
Lisa nodded tucking in to the fish. “That’s great, so from now on when I eat pizza I can just pretend I’m in Italy and eating the best they have to offer?”
They all laughed and Katie knew from now on Lisa would probably be eating mackerel for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. While Sarah and Lisa discussed her hot flushes Katie glanced across at Sarah’s settee and remembered the night she’d got here shaking and upset after the fight with Tim. A mere three weeks ago but it seemed like a lifetime away and then wondered whether he still thought of her like she did him.
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