‘Ah… not really, well ever since myself and Ruth broke up, well things were kind of awkward, I mean they were always more her friends if you know what I mean.’ Richard shrugged, he looked a bit sheepish. The thought of his failed relationship took the wind out of his sails a little bit.
‘Yes, yes of course, I suppose they are all married off by now anyway.’ Penelope mustered a bit of enthusiasm about the conversation.
‘Oh yes, absolutely, but I suppose we are all at that age now, everyone is settling down.’ Richard sat back as he said this, fixing his gaze on Penelope, waiting for her reaction.
‘Hmm, yes, I know what you mean, I’m too busy to even think about that kind of thing to be honest.’ Penelope was giving nothing away.
‘Really? I thought you girls were all mad about getting married?!’ Richard shot back, sitting bolt upright.
‘Well, it’s more about finding the right person really…’ Penelope trailed off, she did not want to get into a discussion about this with Richard.
‘I see…’ Richard looked a little confused, but not completely deterred.
Penelope arrived back home at 11 pm, a few glasses of wine had helped the conversation, and Richard didn’t make any inappropriate lunges in her direction.
‘I actually had a really nice night with Richard. He was very gentlemanly, and we had our first kiss tonight… discounting the ridiculous drunken one before. It was nice. He really is growing on me, and it is helping to keep my mind off Alyx. I’m seeing him again on Wednesday. He was talking about going up to the castle for the weekend, I don’t know about that, I think it is way too soon for anything like that… hmmmmm… … I’ll have to think about it…’ Penelope got into bed, she wasn’t sure how she was feeling, it definitely wasn’t a bad feeling, and it was kind of good, but was it good enough? That was the question…
Saturday turned out to be a lovely sunny day in Clapham. On days like these all of the urbanites gathered themselves, their friends, and picnic food from Sainsburys and headed to the common to soak up the sun. The residents of 72a Abbeville Road were thinking exactly the same thing, everyone was keen to make the most of the incredible weather. Penelope woke up bright and early and she bumped into Charlie in the kitchen.
‘Morning,’ Charlie grumbled. He was still half asleep.
‘Oh, hi Charlie,’ Penelope sighed through a yawn.
‘What has you so tired then?’ Charlie raised one eyebrow and gave her a cheeky grin.
‘Oh, nothing much, I was out with Richard last night and…’
‘What?! That gobshite! What were you doing out with him?’ Charlie exploded.
‘Erm, well, I was kind of on sort of a well… date,’ Penelope admitted sheepishly, she was quite taken aback by Charlie’s reaction.
‘With him?’ Charlie’s face was like thunder.
‘Yeah, I guess, we are maybe kind of a thing now…’ Penelope trailed off.
‘Hmm, right, see you later.’ And Charlie was gone. He was clever enough to not say any more in that frame of mind.
Penelope sat at the kitchen table, trying to take in what had just happened. She was already on the fence about Richard, and she was just heading to the right side, but now Charlie’s reaction had brought back the whole other drunken kiss experience. Confusion and ambivalence started to cloud her thoughts again. Was she doing the right thing? Just then, Zara walked in.
‘Hello there, how are you?’ She said cheerily, she was already in her denim miniskirt and vest top, bikini underneath, ready to head down to the common.
‘Oh, hi! Sorry… I was miles away there. ‘Penelope came back down to planet earth.
‘I can see that! Is everything ok?’ Zara put the kettle on.
‘Eh, yeah, yes… everything is… fine. Are you heading down to the common?’ Penelope asked.
‘Yep, can’t wait to get out into the sun, do you fancy coming along?’ Zara beamed at Penelope.
‘Ok, good idea, give me fifteen minutes to throw my bikini on and I’ll be with you then, no need for breakfast, I can grab something from Starbucks on the way down.’ Penelope got up.
‘I won’t have brekkie here, we can both grab a muffin and a coffee and bring it down with us, good idea Pen.’ Zara was so happy, she loved the sun, and couldn’t believe that Clapham was a place where you could go sunbathing, it was like being on holidays for free. A few minutes later Penelope breezed into the kitchen all ready to go.
‘Right, let’s go, I have five magazines in here, and you have the rug… I think we are good to go!’ Penelope announced, and the two of them headed down the stairs.
Just as they were double locking their front door, 72b opened up, and the lovely Australians arrived out, armed with frisbees, footballs and other common-related paraphernalia.
‘Oh hi,’ Zara blushed, she hadn’t expected to see him again so soon.
‘Oh hi Zara, are you two heading down to the common?’ Zack beamed at the two of them.
‘Erm, well… yes…’ Zara stuttered.
‘Yes, we are, would you like to join us… we just need to pop in to Starbucks to grab some breakfast first, where will you be?’ Penelope saw that Zara was floundering so she decided to take control of the situation.
‘Great, we will be by the pond near Firefly,’ Stu added.
‘Lovely, we’ll be down in a bit, save us a spot,’ Penelope beamed back at the three of them as she marched out the front door, Zara in tow.
As soon as they got to Starbucks, Zara felt it was safe to speak.
‘God, thanks for that Pen, he really took me by surprise there, I’m so embarrassed that I got embarrassed,’ Zara gushed, getting embarrassed all over again.
‘Don’t be silly, I know how hard it can be to chat to a knight in shining armour.’ Penelope chuckled. It was so obvious that Zara and Zack fancied each other like mad.
‘Yes, exactly! It’s great that we are meeting them down there, it’ll be such a laugh, and it’ll keep any pervy men away.’ Zara smiled.
‘Exactly!’ Penelope added.
Fifteen minutes later, with two skinny lattes, and two skinny blueberry muffins to go, the girls had joined 72b on Clapham Common. The common was completely packed, and it was as much fun taking in the sights and sounds around them, as playing frisbee with the Aussie guys. There were lots of groups of girls in bikinis, and gorgeous shirtless guys. It was early enough in the day to assume that most of these people actually lived in Clapham, come midday lots more twenty-somethings would be arriving in on the Tube from some less leafy areas, keen to soak up the rays.
‘Where’s Charlie today? Should we text him to see if he fancies coming down?’ Zara asked Pen.
‘Erm, hmm, I’m not sure, he went out in kind of a hurry this morning, so I assumed that he has the recording studio booked,’ Penelope stuttered.
‘In this heat!? He must be mad!’ Zara laughed.
‘Well, you know what he is like… music is the most important thing in his life.’ Penelope sighed and raised her eyes to heaven.
‘Yeah, I know what you mean.’ Zara laughed at her. Charlie was so funny about the music. It came before everything else.
Four hours, including three games of frisbee and lots of getting to know each other later, the girls sat chatting to the three guys at a table outside Firefly. The girls had a jug of delicious Pimm’s and the boys were knocking back beers like there was no tomorrow. Well, it was Sunday tomorrow so technically, there was no work tomorrow… same thing!
‘What are you up to later Zara?’ Zack looked directly at her as he said this.
‘Erm, no plans actually, I was just going to take it as it comes.’ Zara was feeling a lot more confident now after half a jug of Pimm’s.
‘Cool, well, we are all heading out on Clapham High Street after this, if you fancy it?’ Zack smiled at her.
‘Yeah, that’s cool, Pen are you up for that?’ Zara turned to Penelope, who was having a whale of a time with Stu and the other half of the jug of Pimm’s.
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‘Oh, yep, I’m in, that sounds like fun, if we are still standing that is!’ She giggled, starting drinking at 4 pm would be pretty heavy going even for blokes on a Saturday night.
‘Ok, great, we should probably just head home at six-ish, and grab showers and something to eat and head out early. Clapham will be packed tonight because it’s such a sunny day, everyone will go straight out from the common…’ Paul added, with a twinkle in his eye, he thought Penelope was gorgeous, and he couldn’t believe his luck that she lived next door!
‘Good plan.’ Zara smiled back at them.
‘We should definitely start off at The Sun bar, we can drink outside there, it’s so hot out today,’ Stu added.
‘Ah yes, Costa del Clapham, as we like to call it.’ Penelope laughed at the thought of it. On sunny days Clapham turned into a huge open-air resort, and The Sun bar was the best way to keep that Common feeling going as the sun went down.
At 6 pm they all headed back to Abbeville Road, Penelope and Zara were pretty hammered, but they were on a roll now, no point in stopping. They grabbed a quick sandwich and were back out with the guys at eight. George and her boyfriend arrived shortly afterwards, they had been at a barbeque all day, and they were also completely hammered. As predicted all of the bars were completely packed, but The Sun bar was a good choice because there was an extra bar outside, specifically for days exactly like this. Then they went on to SO.UK on the high street, and then later on they went on to Sand bar, it was just far away enough from the high street so that all of the ‘blow ins’ didn’t know about it. The girls were all hammered!
‘Oh my god Pen, I haven’t been here in ages, it’s brilliant!’ George slurred.
Sand bar was full of gorgeous people, drinking gorgeous drinks and dancing the night away. The music was always particularly good on a Saturday night.
‘Yeah, Pen, good choice… I can’t believe this is nearly on our road, it’s so near the house, it’s amazing!’ Zara bopped away with Zack as she said this, she was having the night of her life. She had never been to a place like this in her entire life before moving to Clapham, she couldn’t believe that she lived so near it. It was practically at the end of their road.
Penelope headed up to the bar, against her better judgment to get even more drinks.
‘Hi Henry, three more of your best Strawberry Daiquiris!’ Penelope beamed at the barman, it was well known, by those in the know, that he made the best Strawberry Daiquiris in London.
At 2 am they were all still dancing off the daiquiris, when the lights went brighter and the music stopped. The Abbeville roaders reluctantly dragged themselves out of Sand bar, and started the ten minute walk home. Zara hung back with Zack, and they walked hand in hand. When nobody was looking he leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the lips and procured her mobile number for further communication. Zara gave it willingly, and was so happy after a perfect day, and night, really being part of the scene in Clapham. She no longer felt intimidated by the gorgeous twenty-somethings in SW4. Now she knew that she was one of them. So much had happened in the past few weeks, she was struggling to keep up with it all. As soon as they were safely inside, Zara flopped down on the couch and told Penelope everything. Penelope was delighted for her, as she knew how hard it had been for Zara over the past few weeks. The two girls headed up to bed, still hammered, and buzzing from the music.
Chapter 22
Another Sunny Monday
Penelope was at her desk at 7 am. She felt fantastic, she had had a lovely weekend, a total disconnect from work, and her skin was glowing from the sun on Saturday. She was raring to go, and full of energy for work that week.
At 8 am Richard Lord arrived at his desk, refreshed from a weekend golfing, and satisfied that he had increased his network by golfing with the O’Donnell’s. He opened up his Outlook calendar and surveyed his social engagements for the week. It was going to be a busy week…
At 8 am Alyx woke up from a disturbing dream. He dreamed that he was in an airport and he kept missing his flight. He sat up in his bed and looked around, everything seemed normal, his bag was packed ready to go, passport, tickets… yeah, everything was fine. He was meeting the band at the airport, and he had made arrangements for his flat in Paris while he would be away. He got ready quickly and headed for Charles de Gaulle.
‘Hello, so you finally made it!’ Alyx laughed as the band turned up, late as usual.
‘Yeah, yeah, whatever,… look we are here now, stop moaning!’ the lead singer laughed at him.
‘I know, I know, don’t worry, I was just joking, are we all ready to go?’ Alyx surveyed the luggage, he hoped that all of the instruments were safely in the hold.
‘Yeah, yeah, all of the guitars are in outsized baggage, they should be fine,’ Chad sighed dismissively.
‘Ok, let’s go then.’ Alyx rounded them up.
Once they were all settled and seated, Alyx’s mind started wandering. The dream was playing on his mind, he didn’t normally remember his dreams. He had the feeling that he had forgotten something. He daydreamed for a while, and then it hit him… Penelope! He had forgotten to tell her he was going. He had emailed her and she hadn’t written back, but he should have emailed her to tell her about the trip at least… He would email her when he got there, after a few days, that’s what he would do… as soon as he had made that decision, Alyx dozed off, making up for lost sleep the night before.
At 9.22 am Zara reached street level at Tottenham Court Road Tube station. She strolled down to Dean Street walking on air. As soon as she reached her desk she found a little pink box with her name on it, she tore the ribbon up and opened it, and inside was a Krispy Kreme donut with pink icing, and ‘Glitter’ written on it in chocolate icing. She looked around and noticed that all of the girls’ desks had a little pink box, and all of the boys desks had a blue box on them. She ran downstairs to grab a cappuccino, thinking all the way… ‘I love my job, I love my job, I love my job!…’
At midday Charlie woke up, dazed from the night before. He was still fuming about Penelope meeting up with that idiot Richard. No good could come of it. That was one thing that he was sure of. He picked up his guitar, and started strumming, within minutes he was writing down some lyrics.
Chapter 23
Time Flies
The rest of the summer passed in a blur of barbecues, afternoons sunbathing and drinking on the common, nights out in Clapham, brunch in the sunshine on Abbeville Road, and the busy-ness of the working week in London. During the course of the summer the housemates settled into 72a Abbeville Road, and the life that came with that. For Charlie, that meant, the same as always, writing, recording, and hanging out with Gerry. For Penelope her time was dotted with the odd business trip, and busy busy days in work. She met up with Richard regularly, she still wasn’t sure about him, but he hadn’t actually done anything wrong, so she was reluctant to reject him. They were taking things very, very slowly.
Zara was halfway through her six-month contract at Glitter, and her confidence was growing daily. She was becoming really good at her job, and she was now encouraged to have a more client-facing role, as the Soho agency was so busy. Zara had fallen in love with Zack, and she couldn’t believe her luck that she had managed to find a nice boyfriend living next door to her. That was one habit that she had managed to keep going from home… she always ended up with the boy next door!
As September rolled in the evenings got shorter, and even though it was still lovely and warm, there was kind of a chill in the air. Penelope was doing a stupendous job of not thinking about Alyx. She hadn’t thought about him in ages, until, she logged into her computer one wet Wednesday morning.
To: [email protected].
From: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday September 17 3:00 am
Subject: On the road
Hi Penelope,
I am sorry that I haven’t been in touch in ages, the thing is, I am on tour with the band, it’s
a pivotal time for them and I will be away for a while. I just wanted to let you know that I think about you sometimes and it would be good to see you the next time I am in Europe. I am not sure when that will be, because things are a bit difficult with the band at the moment.
How are things with you?
Speak soon,
Alyx xx
Penelope sat back in her chair and stared at the screen, there was only one thing she could do…
‘George, hi, it’s me!’ Penelope sounded tense
‘Hi there lovely, what’s up?’ George answered.
‘Hmm, don’t go mad when I tell you this…but I just got an email from… Alyx,’ Penelope sighed.
‘Oh.’ George’s tone was of disbelief.
‘I know how you feel, George, I’m so upset, I had just literally forgotten about him completely, and now this. I haven’t written back yet, what do you think I should do? I really like him? He is on tour with the bloody band, not sure when he’ll be back. It has brought it all back!’ Penelope sighed.
‘I know, but things are going so well with Richard, and you need a boyfriend who is actually here, not someone who is off on tour! And we still don’t know whether he is actually available or not?’ George regretted this as soon as she had said it.
‘I know you are right, but I don’t want to just ignore his email, I ignored the last one…’ Penelope trailed off.
‘Ok, well send him back a quick response, don’t mention Paris, he still doesn’t know that you saw him there. And remember we don’t actually know that he is married, that could have been anyone. I wouldn’t close the door on that one, but I would focus on Richard, who is here and now,’ George added calmly.
‘Ok, I’ll write him a brief email back, and I’ll try not to think about him after that, I’ll leave the door open, but that’s it…’ Penelope sighed.
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