A Jarful of Moondreams: What Secrets Are Ready to Spill Out?
Page 8
Neil moved his stuff out of the office and Cleo closed the door. What a nightmare! She turned her laptop on but couldn’t face logging on to her work. She cleared her emails and surfed one or two favourite shopping sites.
It was almost bedtime when she ventured out to make a drink. Neil was in the spare room and she could hear that he was watching a film on his laptop.
Damn and blast, the kitchen was a disaster area of pans and washing up. Her crystal glasses were laying in tepid water with the grill pan. She was tempted to leave it for Neil to tidy up but the thought of drinking her morning coffee looking at that was too much. She was ready for something to chew on but her sugar-rush bowl was missing from the bench. He must be munching on her sweets as he watched the film.
Cleo rolled up her sleeves and spent half an hour putting the kitchen to rights before making a drink. She decided on a hot chocolate.
‘Cleo, is that the kettle I hear?’
Cleo paused. Sorry, Neil... can’t hear you. She swiftly took her mug, turned off the light and escaped to her own bedroom.
The apartment sharing struggled on uncomfortably. On Thursday night, Neil sent Cleo a text to say he was staying elsewhere for a couple of nights, house-sitting for a friend. She didn’t care what he was doing, she had time to herself.
After cleaning the apartment of Neil debris, empty mugs, apple cores, sweet papers and waste bins full of crumpled sheets of paper, Cleo appreciated getting her own space back.
She prepared for an important meeting with Tef. He had emailed her to say he wanted to discuss the TeMPS project again on Friday. She wanted to be ready for that and had even turned down her night out with Heather.
With no Neil to disturb her, she had finished her work by seven thirty.
She rang Heather. ‘I’ve finished my work, do you fancy coming over here for a while? It’s blissful just being on my own...no guest. That doesn’t include you of course.’
Heather arrived with chocolate bars for herself and a mix-up of Cleo’s favourite sweets to munch on as they watched Gone Girl, her first words were, ‘Guess what I heard today!’
‘Here we go. I can’t possibly guess what you heard, I give up already.’ Smiling at her friend’s excited face, Cleo waited for a snippet of gossip.
‘Dan told Mark that he’d tried giving you a call this week.’ Heather looked at Cleo with glee.
‘But, he didn’t, he hasn’t.’ Cleo frowned.
‘He did, but he didn’t get you. Neil answered your phone. Dan thought you might want to meet for a drink before he leaves for Australia. Anyway, Neil told him that he was living here and your week was all booked up.’
Cleo shook her head feeling confused. ‘I thought that Dan was really annoyed about Italy. I know he was OK when we met at your house but…’
‘Apparently he thought that he hadn’t heard you out properly but then Neil put his oar in. He answered your mobile. You must have left it lying around.’
‘Yes, I don’t carry it around when I’m home. Why would I?’
‘Looks like you’ll have to. I sent a text to Dan to let him know that you are definitely no longer an item with Neil and that you are having him here out of the goodness of your heart. Was that OK?’
‘Thanks, Heather. Will he believe that?’ Cleo scrolled through her phone. There was no call from Dan logged. It must have been erased by Neil, the sneaky so-and-so.
‘Maybe you should call him,’ Heather suggested.
Cleo knew that she just couldn’t do that, not when she still had Neil at her apartment.
‘I wouldn’t know what to say. I’ll leave it up to Dan,’ she said. ‘I’ve decided to go to Dunleith for the weekend, maybe he’ll be there.’
11
On Friday morning, Cleo was up early. She showered, dressed and had her weekend case packed for Dunleith before going into the kitchen to make her morning coffee. The unwashed mug in the sink caught her attention at the same time as she heard snoring coming from the spare room. So Neil had come back after all. What had happened to his house sitting plan? He must’ve come in really late, after Heather left.
Cleo decided to leave straight away and grab a coffee from the drive-in on the way to Tyneview. She was still livid with him for messing with her phone and didn’t want to row about it before work. In fact, it could all wait until after the weekend because she was off to Dunleith to finalise arrangements for ‘sistergate’ with Mum and Alex. Maybe she would run into Dan... have a chance to explain. She closed her apartment door at 6.30. That was a record, even for her.
Cleo was on tenterhooks before her meeting with the boss at lunchtime.
‘Come on in, Cleo. Take a seat.’ The financial slimeball was there again. Cleo sat in the seat that Tef had indicated and tried to keep her face blank. She had no idea what this meeting was about and didn’t want to give her feelings away like last time.
‘You’ll be glad to know that we’ve taken into account what you’ve done and we’ve been reconsidering our options, Cleo.’
What did that mean?
‘And... Mr. Gordon and I feel we were a little...a little too hasty.’
‘Yes. Too hasty, Miss Moon,’ nodded the ‘yes’ man.
‘What are you reconsidering? Do you mean you’re willing to forgo community sports and look at the TeMPS plan again?’ Cleo could hardly curb her excitement.
‘More than that, Cleo. We’ll definitely look elsewhere for funds for our sports plan. I’ve told financial services and the deputies that TeMPS can’t be discarded. We are backing you all the way with this. I want you to go ahead and run through your plans with Mr. Gordon now and we’ll get the ball rolling, get this up and running ASAP!’
Was she hearing right?
‘Now Mr. Gordon, if you’ll kindly leave here and go with Miss Moon, I have the rest of the school to run.’ Tef stood by the door and they were dismissed.
Cleo beamed, ‘Follow me, Mr. Gordon and I’ll show you the plans in detail.’ You can practice saying ‘yes’ to me now. She didn’t say that out loud.
At four o’clock she sent a text to Neil to say she was away until Sunday and turned her phone onto silent. For someone who excelled in communication at work, she wasn’t doing brilliantly with the Neil situation. She was never very good at facing difficult personal situations. Right now, she just wanted to play Bruce Springsteen all the way home and tell Mum that she’d been right after all about giving Teflon Telford a chance.
Cleo plugged her iPod into the music system, opened a bag of sweets and, as music surrounded her, she was off and carefree. At least she would be if she could enjoy chewing her wine gums and stop chewing over today’s events. What had made Tef do such an about turn? It seemed too good to be true. Whatever it was, she was on her way to making things up to Mum. Teen mothers in this area would have a real chance to stay in education.
As she headed towards Dunleith, her thoughts turned to Dan and his call. Was he really willing to forget Neil and Italy and meet up with her? Would he take notice of what Mark told him about Neil? He was going back to Australia and she did want to see him again. Was it his call or hers?
She was five miles off the village when a red mini travelling south flashed her. She was sure it was Mary Collingwood’s car but Mary didn’t drive fast. That meant, damn it, it would be Dan at the wheel and, by the looks of it, he was headed out of Dunleith. No chance of bumping into him over the weekend then.
12
Teri and Alex were out in the garden. Teri was weeding one of the flower beds and Alex was sprawled on the grass beside her telling her about the two week trip to France that the twins were going on in August and how the EllaBellas has assured her that the Collingwoods would ask her along too, if only Teri would agree.
‘We’re not discussing this, Alex. I’ve explained that I really want you with Cleo while I’m away. I wouldn’t feel happy leaving if you two weren’t together and looking out for one another,’ Teri stopped weeding and looked out onto her garden.
‘She hates me!’ The conversation stopped right there as Cleo rounded the corner.
‘Mum, great to see you! You’re always working at something; you should get Alex to help you.’ She walked over to where Teri was kneeling and dropped a kiss on her head.
Alex sat up and greeted Cleo with an angry glare, ‘I do help. I do loads of stuff that you never did, so shut up.’
Cleo ignored her. ‘I’ll just take my case inside, Mum.’
Teri had brewed a pot of tea by the time Cleo came downstairs carrying two parcels.
‘Here you are Mum, open this first,’ she said with a grin. Teri, tucked the parcels under her arm, carried the tray outside and put it beside Alex.
‘We’ll pour the tea after we’ve opened these.’ She took the second package and handed it over to Alex, ‘Here, this must be for you, darling. Really Cleo, it was kind of you to think of us. Did you have a lovely time?’
Cleo circled past Pharos who was sunning himself on the doorstep and joined them on the lawn.
‘It was interesting, Mum. Lake Como was absolutely stunning but, I mentioned on the phone that Neil wasn’t always the best of company.’
‘I had so hoped that he might be your Mr Right.’
‘No, he isn’t. He’s Mr not-even-ok, so we’re going our separate ways.’ She glared at Alex who was taking a great interest in this latest failed relationship. ‘Now go on and open your present.’
Teri unwrapped the chunky wooden sign saying ‘to the garden’ in Italian and laughed in delight. Cleo could be so thoughtful, ‘This is a great companion for our French sign. How lovely Cleo, thank you.’
She wondered what Cleo had chosen for Alex, ‘What have you got, sweetheart?’
As Alex unwrapped beautiful beige leather gloves with three buttons at the opening that were clearly not meant for her, Teri noticed Cleo’s discomfort. Too late, she realised what had happened. Cleo had bought her both gifts and had left Alex out. She should have twigged before handing Alex the packet.
Alex looked as if she guessed as much too; her face was guarded as if trying not to show any emotion.
Time to avoid another fall out, ‘Very chic, Poppet. You’ll be able to wear that colour with anything,’ she assured her.
‘They... they’re rather sophisticated for me, Mum. I’m sure they’d suit you better.’ Alex looked steadily across at Cleo who was embarrassed.
‘Oh no,’ she said, ‘Sorry, you’ve got the wrong packet, Alex. Hang on. She disappeared back upstairs and came back into the garden with a different package.
‘Wow! thanks, Cleo.’ Alex smiled in genuine surprise at the black leather gloves with a triangle of studs decorating the back of each glove and red lining.
‘These gloves are yours too, Mum,’ she explained and Teri was relieved that the tricky moment had passed. Maybe they would enjoy a lovely family evening.
Next morning, Teri sat in her studio above the garage waiting for the girls to walk over from the house. She felt closest to Mac in here. Their studio was large and airy with panoramic views of the countryside right to the coastline and she could see as far as Alnmouth. Mac’s architect’s equipment still lay on a table at the far end, dusted but unused for seventeen years. She rather hoped that Alex might follow in his footsteps.
Teri’s design and sewing area was at this end with the mini kitchen and communal table in the middle. The windows at this side out onto their paved courtyard linked the studio and the garage, which had once been an old barn, to the main house.
Mac had designed the house to be built on the foundations of three farm workers cottages. He had used the original stone and timber in his design and had made High Rigg a contemporary house that blended with its surroundings as though it had been there forever. They’d loved it, loved building it. Oh Mac, I miss you just as much now, she thought. How I wish you could tell me if I am doing the right thing.
Teri had arranged all of her papers and financial affairs in order and had updated her will to make sure that there would be no misunderstandings if something should happen to her on this trip or afterwards.
After the ‘misunderstanding’ about her donation to Tyneview, it was a relief to know her affairs were in order. She’d been meaning to do all of this during that last ghastly illness and it had all seemed too complicated but, once she’d enlisted the help of her lovely solicitor, Mr. G. Moore, it had been painless and such a weight off her mind.
She wanted to go over the finances with both girls present and then file her papers away in the studio safe. Some of her personal papers and her jewellery were stored in the lid of the moondream jar in the garden room, but they weren’t details that she needed to discuss yet. The compartments in the lid and base of that jar were hard to open up and probably the safest place in the house.
She watched Pharos, his silver coat glinting as it was caught in a pool of sunlight, saunter across the yard towards the studio door followed by Cleo. She had seemed happy when she’d arrived yesterday and it had been thrilling to hear her school news over dinner. Teri was relieved to know that Cleo’s enthusiasm about her TeMPS project had not diminished and it was all going ahead.
Ever since she’d heard of Cleo’s idea, she’d worked with George Moore, her solicitor, to become a benefactor of the school but to keep her identity secret. The pregnant schoolgirls unit was her ‘baby’ too but Cleo didn’t know that. It might be too much pressure on Cleo if she knew that she was using family money. Besides, the girls weren’t exactly in the know as to how much she had made in her designer heyday in the eighties.
After the utter treachery of Mr. Telford, who had been only too happy to receive half a million for the project, she had worried that she’d messed up and her hard earned money was going to be spent on something else. Her solicitor had assured her that the use of her donation was watertight and had let Mr Telford and his financial manager, know this very forcefully. It had been a bumpy few days, but now all was sorted.
Cleo had walked into the village and brought back the papers. Thank goodness she was walking over in old jeans that Pharos couldn’t cover in cat hair or claw at. She smiled to see Alex, her baby, at the back door in a hooded onesie and Uggs looking as if she’d just rolled out of bed. At 10 o’clock on a Saturday, she had!
Both girls appeared together at the top of the stairs with Pharos weaving around their feet. He plaintively called his human sounding ‘Maam’ and sat by the fridge in the tiny kitchen area of the studio. Teri poured him a dash of milk topped with water into his saucer. She’d read that cats could be lactose intolerant so didn’t give him a lot of dairy nowadays. She must remember to tell her cat sitter, Betty from next door, about that.
After Pharos was settled, Teri resumed her business-like attitude by indicating seats and sitting herself at the top of the table. It didn’t take long to explain who her solicitor was, where her papers were kept and to outline the allowance she was paying monthly into Cleo’s bank for keeping Alex in the manner to which she was accustomed.
‘That’s too much,’ argued Cleo.
‘You’re clearly not used to what your sister can eat in a week or how much she might like to ‘borrow’ from next week’s allowance,’ explained Teri.
Alex looked embarrassed, as if she didn’t know whether to frown and deny this or ignore it.
Teri gave her a hug and said, ‘Most teenagers need to learn to budget and don’t start off too successfully, darling.’
‘I always managed on mine at that age, Mum.’
Cleo was right but it didn’t help matters right now.
‘You were never like most teenagers, Cleo,’ Alex answered, regaining her cool before Teri explained what her own personal allowance would be.
‘But Mum, that’s the same as when you’re here and
you’ve just said that it’s never enough. You’ve heard that she... that Cleo won’t let me borrow. What am I supposed to do?’
‘Budget dear sis. Spend wisely.’
Teri knew she’d have to interrupt before another war of words made her even more nervous about leaving the two of them together.
‘Let’s say no more about allowances. We’ve just about covered everything except for valuables and the safe. I’ve got some personal valuables in the moondream jar as you know and I’ll just show you how to lock the safe.’ As she showed them the combination, Teri noticed that Alex was looking out of the window and heard Cleo say, ‘Are you listening to Mum, Alex?’
Teri stifled a grin; she couldn’t help noticing that Cleo could sound just like a schoolteacher when she talked to Alex. Hopefully, they’d mesh together because they had to. No good having misgivings now.
‘I’m perfectly aware of what Mum is doing, but I’m looking at Pam waving up at us, actually. I’m just wondering what she wants.’
Teri crossed the room to the window to get a view of Pam, Betty’s daughter, who was beckoning one of them to come down to her.
‘I’ll go and see what she wants, save your legs,’ said Alex. She smiled at Teri as she headed downstairs and towards the fence adjoining their property to Betty’s.
As they both watched her progress, Teri said, ‘Cleo, I’m ever so grateful that you’re doing this but it’ll be hard for Alex, so please don’t…’
‘Don’t what, Mum?’ Cleo interrupted,’ Don’t expect her to pull her weight, don’t ask her to do anything, don’t expect her to keep to her allowance? You’re far too soft and, if you trust me, as you keep saying you do, you’ll have to just let me do things my own way.’