Mad About the Boy

by Maggie Alderson

  I watched the evening unfold with a sense of wonder. Antony Maybury chatting to Stacey, who became quite animated with his playful banter, Percy and Spider comparing tattoos, Suzy, Daisy and Dee squealing with laughter over some private girly joke and Jasmine playing Cluedo in a corner with Tom, Vita and Bald Matt. It was a great night.

  Hugo and Greg came too, as, after our big row, we were back on speaking terms. It had been necessary really, to clear the air between us and, as time passed, I’d even grown quite fond of Greg – in fact it had been he who had engineered the rapprochement between Hugo and me, making us both see that our stand-off was unfair on Tom. Even more amazingly, Hugo had actually started the divorce proceedings.

  When the party was at its height, he came and found me in the kitchen, where I was mixing up a few more jugs of margaritas to keep it going with a swing. He came up and put his arm round me, squeezing my shoulder.

  ‘I’m so glad you’re happy, Ant,’ he said. ‘That James of yours is a really decent chap and Tom clearly adores him, which is marvellous.’

  ‘Thanks, Hugo,’ I said. ‘And I’m glad you’re still happy with Greg. At least you haven’t left the one you left me for, as the song goes.’

  ‘No, we’re pretty solid.’ He paused and scratched the top of his head in a gesture so familiar I felt a tiny pang – a very tiny one.

  ‘Yeah, taking Greg home to meet the folks next month, actually,’ he said.

  I nearly dropped the margaritas I was so astonished.

  Hugo laughed. ‘Amazing, isn’t it? I’ve actually told the parents. Did it on the phone, which was a bit tacky, but just had to get it over with. Didn’t like myself much, living a lie like that. That’s why I was such a shit for a while. It was getting to me. Sorry about that.’

  I shook my head.

  ‘Blood under the bridge, Hugo,’ I said. ‘All in the past. How did Margot react?’ I asked tentatively, dying to know.

  Hugo bent down and leaned in towards me, propping himself on the kitchen counter in one of his characteristically ungainly postures.

  ‘Do you know, she didn’t seem to mind at all,’ he said.

  ‘Are you serious?’

  ‘Deadly. She’s been doing some kind of a counselling course or some such bollocks and it’s changed her attitude on a few things. It was almost as though she were pleased I was a poofter. Now I can be a holy project of forgiveness for her. Plus she said she didn’t want any more grandchildren and she never liked you anyway …’

  I set about him with a tea towel. I knew he was joking about the last bit. Well, I hoped he was.

  After all the excitement and action it was good to settle down to a relatively normal life again, at least until all the court cases started. Roger and Frankie were in jail on remand and Dee and I were back in the shop. We saw a lot of Suzy, who had given up her job – she had quite enough money of her own to live on, without touching Roger’s tainted millions – and was devoting her time to writing her memoirs and doing the chat-show circuit. She was a TV natural, it turned out.

  James’s career was taking a new direction too. He had set up as a motivational management consultant, working with large corporations to help them develop team spirit and something called ‘transparent lines of communication’. Working, in short, to dismantle – in a constructive way – the kind of impersonal big business culture that had killed his father. He’d called it Grasshopper Consulting.

  He was helped on his way in his new venture by Hugo, who had been so impressed with the story of how James had saved the King George, he had made Cadogan’s Grasshopper Consulting’s first corporate client. Then he did a very good job of promoting James’s skills to all his CEO chums.

  Tom was happy too. James had given up his Bondi flat and we were living together officially, which made Tom quiver with delight. One day I overheard him boasting to Vita that he had one mummy, three daddies and a great-uncle, which I thought was pretty good.

  One afternoon in March, a few days after Mardi Gras – Percy had featured on another float – I had left Dee in charge at the shop while I dropped Tom off at a birthday party. Then I’d nipped home, hoping to catch Percy by himself. I had something important I wanted to tell him without Tom around to earwig.

  When I walked through the door, the house had an empty feeling to it. Percy was clearly out and about. I’d have to catch him another time.

  I went into the kitchen to see if there was any post and saw there was a huge vase of peonies on the table. Next to it was a note.

  Goodbye, my darling girl.

  Thank you so much for having me. Had a divine time. Have gone to Paris to stay with Karl. Will write. Stay happy, darling heart, and look after your two beautiful boys.

  Your loving friend,

  Percy H xxx

  PS You can call the baby after my mother.

  And so we did. Esmé Spider McLoughlin.