MADE IN ESSEX

by Laura Ziepe

  ‘I need to ask you something,’ Aaron said finally, his eyes gazing into her own. ‘You have to promise you won’t tell Donna. I just can’t keep it in any longer. I have to tell you.’

  This is it! Adele screamed with happiness inside. She always knew she would go out with a footballer one day. ‘I think I know what it is,’ she replied huskily, rubbing his shoulder with her hand.

  He frowned slightly and Adele lunged towards him, plastering her lips on his mouth and holding the back of his head with her hands and drawing him closer.

  He jumped back, looking as though he’d been scalded. His eyes were wide open in horror. ‘Adele! What the … what are you doing?’

  Adele cringed, realising she’d made a mistake and that he wasn’t just playing hard to get. Whatever he was going to tell her, she could tell judging by the look on his face it wasn’t that he fancied her. ‘I thought … I … I’m sorry,’ she said breathlessly, wanting the ground to swallow her whole. She was so mortified she didn’t know where to look.

  Aaron wiped his mouth as though she was contagious and looked at her, disgusted. ‘Why the hell did you just do that?’ he demanded, his eyes darkening.

  ‘I’m sorry!’ Adele exploded, wishing she could go back in time. She rubbed her eyes. If he told Donna, she would never want to talk to her again. She needed him to keep this quiet. She had never been knocked back by anyone before. This was beyond humiliating! She knew she wasn’t right for Aaron anyway; the thought of listening to those CDs of his made her shudder. She’d gone too far this time and now she felt bad. Donna had always been nothing but good to her, she realised. From going anywhere she asked her to, to helping out in a shoe crisis and lending her Louboutins, she was there for her. When she thought about it, despite only becoming really close to her since she’d been back from Marbella, Donna was her best and only true friend. She breathed hard. ‘Please Aaron. Just forget that happened. Don’t tell Donna. It was a huge mistake and I’m really sorry.’ Her eyes were hot and Adele blinked her tears away.

  The shocked expression was still engraved on Aaron’s face. His voice was calm and serious. ‘I don’t see why I shouldn’t. You’re supposed to be her friend.’

  Adele nodded, closing her eyes and trying to block out the horrified look on his face. ‘I know, I know, and I am her friend. I promise I am. It was just a silly mistake. Donna never needs to know about it.’ She looked at him, her eyes pleading.

  He thought for a moment and then exhaled. ‘Okay, I won’t say. But please don’t think it’s because of you that I’m keeping this a secret. I’m only thinking of Donna and her feelings. She’d be so hurt if she knew what you just tried to do. Just don’t do anything like that again. I’m with Donna and I love her. That’s what I was going to tell you. I’m even going to propose; I want her to be my wife.’

  Adele’s jaw popped open. He was going to propose to Donna? Talk about a bad time to try to snog him! She felt a wave of envy wash over her, but brushed it away, trying to feel happy for her friend like she knew she should. ‘That’s great news!’ she spluttered, leaning forward and going to give him a hug. Aaron leaned back, a terrified look on his face. Adele gave a nervous laugh. ‘Okay, maybe a bit too soon for a hug after what just happened. I’m really happy for you though; I mean it. Donna is going to be over the moon.’

  Despite the situation, Adele watched as Aaron smiled happily. ‘I may not have been with her for long, but I’ve never felt this way about anyone. It feels right.’

  Adele nodded and grinned. ‘You’re perfect for each other.’ As she said the words, she realised that she meant them, too. Donna and Aaron were a perfect match. ‘Thanks for the lift,’ she said as she opened the car door to get out.

  ‘That’s okay,’ Aaron managed a lopsided grin. ‘Remember; not a word to Donna about the proposal and I won’t say about what just happened.’

  Adele signalled her lips were sealed by moving her hand across her mouth. ‘I promise I won’t say.’

  He nodded and started the engine. ‘Bye Adele.’

  She waved him off and then walked through the gates of her nan’s huge house. What a waste of time, she thought miserably, now she needed to get a taxi home. She couldn’t believe it; Donna was going to be getting married. Would this mean that everything was going to change? There was no way she was ever going to want to go to Faces or Nu Bar anymore now she was going to be someone’s wife! Adele wanted to be happy for her, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t help but wonder; where did that leave her?

  CHAPTER 12

  Kelly looked at the state of the kitchen and sighed. There were vegetable peelings everywhere, mess on the floor and empty packaging, pots, pans and cutlery spread out all over the kitchen surfaces. It didn’t matter though; she’d done it. Kelly had finally prepared her first ever meal and she couldn’t wait to impress Billy with her new-found cooking skills. The chicken in white wine sauce was going to be delicious and thank God, it was now in the oven, ready to be cooked. She quickly checked her appearance in the mirror, grimacing as she wiped her slightly sweaty forehead on a tea towel. Cooking was hard work! She didn’t even sweat this much when there was a sale on in Selfridges! She filled her empty glass with some more wine, which she poured from the second bottle she’d opened. By the time Kelly had to make the sauce, she realised she’d almost drunk a whole bottle to herself. Well, it was stressful and she needed it, she consoled herself as she filled another glass for Billy. As she made her way into the lounge, Kelly realised she actually felt quite tipsy.

  ‘Alright, babe?’ Billy asked, looking up from the programme he was watching as Kelly walked into the room.

  Kelly walked over to him and sat on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him on the lips. ‘I’m fine,’ she hiccupped. ‘You’re going to be so proud of my cooking.’

  Billy rubbed his lips together and tasted them. ‘Have you been drinking?’

  Kelly giggled. ‘I just had a couple of glasses of wine while I was cooking. I’ve got you a glass as well,’ she said as she nodded to the coffee table.

  ‘Thanks.’ Billy leaned forward and picked up his wine. ‘I need a drink after the day I’ve had.’

  Kelly climbed off him and sat up straight. ‘You can tell me all about it over dinner.’

  Billy flicked through the channels on the television and patted his stomach. ‘Can’t wait, I’m starving. How long until it’s done?’

  Kelly smiled, looking forward to serving it to him. ‘Thirty minutes.’

  Twenty-five minutes later, Kelly went in the kitchen to check on the dinner. She inhaled deeply by the entrance, trying to catch a whiff of the delicious cooked chicken and was baffled when she couldn’t smell anything.

  ‘How is it looking, babe?’ Billy called in to her.

  ‘Errr … I’m just checking it,’ Kelly shouted back, as she made her way over to the oven with dread. Her heart sank as she opened the oven door to reveal cold darkness – meaning she’d forgotten to actually turn the oven on! How could I be so stupid? Kelly cursed herself, blaming the wine. She jumped as she heard Billy behind her.

  ‘Let’s have a look at this lovely dinner then,’ he said, placing his hands on her waist.

  She turned to face him with a sheepish grin. ‘Billy … I …’

  He looked behind her at the uncooked meat lying in the dish and his mouth started to twitch as it dawned on him what had happened. ‘You didn’t turn the oven on, did you?’

  Kelly bit her bottom lip and looked at the floor like a naughty schoolgirl. ‘No.’

  Billy burst into laughter and Kelly slapped him playfully.

  ‘Shut up, Billy! I can cook, you know. I just forgot that one simple thing! Anyone could forget! People do it all the time!’

  Billy held his stomach as he continued to laugh. ‘Oh, you make me laugh so much. How could you forget to switch it on?’ He looked closer at the dish and made a face. ‘Kelly, is that chicken frozen?’

  Kelly frowned. ‘Ye
s, why?’

  Billy shook his head, incredulous. ‘Kelly, you can’t cook chicken from frozen like that! You need to defrost it. We could have got salmonella poisoning!’

  Kelly’s mouth opened wide. ‘Oh my God, shut up!’ She thought for a moment, her forehead creasing into a frown. She wasn’t going to admit that she only thought you could get salmonella poisoning from salmon, he was laughing at her enough as it was. But really, salmonella from chicken? How bizarre. She was annoyed with herself for messing it up, just like he guessed she would. Why couldn’t it have just gone right? She wanted Billy to be proud of her and to think that she was at least capable of making a decent meal. She sat down at the kitchen table, depressed. ‘I really wanted to make you a nice dinner,’ she sulked, sticking out her bottom lip.

  Billy looked at her lovingly and walked over to her, putting his hand on her shoulder gently. ‘Oh babe, don’t get upset. It’s lovely that you tried, I really appreciate it. It doesn’t matter. Come on, why don’t we go out and have an Indian? My treat. You can cook me dinner another time.’

  Kelly looked up at him and managed a weak smile. ‘Okay, Indian it is then,’ she mumbled, feeling defeated.

  Thirty minutes later they were sitting in Jaipur Indian restaurant in Chigwell, munching their poppadums. Billy broke a piece off and dipped it in some mango chutney. ‘I’ll explain what happened today,’ he said as he chewed a mouthful.

  ‘You know you can tell me anything.’ Kelly stopped eating and squeezed his hand across the table.

  Billy paused and took a deep breath before clearing his throat. ‘There’s a bit of a problem with this guy called Alfie, who’s been supplying us with various tickets for our clients. Basically, we’ve bought tickets from him for the last few months and he’s been great. He’s the cheapest around and we’ve never had any problems with him. But, we recently bought a lot of tickets for Wimbledon, the Olympics and a rugby match at Twickenham and we can’t get through to him. Our clients have paid us and we’ve paid him. The rugby match is a week and a half away and we should have received everyone’s tickets to send out to them, but we haven’t. Now he won’t even answer the phone; Gary is fuming.’

  Kelly’s big blue eyes opened widely. ‘Oh no! What are you going to do? Does he work for a company? Can’t you just call the company up?’

  Billy shook his head and exhaled sharply. ‘No. He just works for himself, from home. He’s been given all our clients’ money for tickets, which he hasn’t sent to us yet. The last we heard from him he said they were on their way. But now he’s just ignoring our calls. He’s never normally like this; we’ve bought from him quite a bit in the past and the tickets are always on time. I don’t know, maybe we’re panicking over nothing. Maybe the tickets will turn up tomorrow. I’m just really worried.’

  Kelly didn’t know what to say. She knew how important Billy’s business was to him and he rarely told her anything that went on. If she was honest, she never really understood half of what he usually told her and just nodded along and pretended she was keeping up with him. The fact that he was telling her he was worried made her feel uneasy; things must be bad. ‘How much money has this Alfie been given?’ Kelly asked, curious.

  Billy took a deep breath and paused. His voice was shaky. ‘Just over a hundred grand.’

  Kelly’s heart sank. She was hoping it wasn’t going to be much, but a hundred grand? That was a huge amount of money! She panicked for him.

  ‘So what happens if he doesn’t send the tickets?’

  Billy shook his head and took another bite of poppadum. ‘It doesn’t even bear thinking about. We’re not insured so it means we will lose all our clients’ money, every penny we’ve invested in the company and I reckon we’ll have to close it down.’

  Kelly was horrified. ‘How come you’re not insured?’

  Billy shook his head and swallowed hard. ‘I don’t know, babe. I’ve always been worried about it, but Gary always insisted it’s a waste of money and we don’t really need it. I wish I’d kept on at him now.’

  Kelly gasped and put her hand on her lips. Why would Gary convince him that they’d be fine without insurance? It seemed odd. Billy would be heartbroken if he had to close his company down. His company was everything to him. No wonder he seemed like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, the poor thing! She tried to remain positive for him and hope for the best. ‘Don’t worry, hun, I’m sure the tickets will turn up. Maybe Alfie is ill or something? Maybe he’s lost his phone?’

  ‘We’ve emailed him too,’ Billy said blankly.

  ‘Maybe he’s lost his computer?’ Kelly realised how stupid that sounded. ‘Or … or … or not lost his computer, maybe it’s broken? That’s it; maybe he’s lost his phone and his computer is broken? Stranger things have happened.’

  Billy looked doubtful as he ran his hands through his hair and sat back in his chair. ‘Thanks for trying to cheer me up, babe. Let’s just hope the world has gone crazy and you’re right.’

  Kelly nodded as she placed her napkin on her lap. ‘It will all be okay, you’ll see,’ she said with as much conviction as she could muster. For some reason she couldn’t explain though, she had a very bad feeling about this indeed.

  *

  Jade brushed through her long hair, which had recently been highlighted a bit blonder for summer, and stepped into her beige Giuseppe Zanotti heels. She’d had a spray tan and was wearing a pretty nude-coloured Reiss dress to show off her bronzed legs, teamed with a white blazer. It was a Saturday and she was waiting for Kelly to pick her up and take her to Lisa’s, as the three of them were going to go for lunch. Jade decided to take her cream Jimmy Choo bag, which had lasted her for years. She smiled as she remembered buying it. It was just before she’d gone to university and she didn’t want to spend a fortune, so she was just going to buy a cheap copy from a Chinese website she’d found online. No one would know the difference anyway, she’d told herself. Kelly had come over and spotted the website up on her computer. Jade recalled how Kelly had gasped and made a face as she clicked through the fake designer bag website.

  ‘A real friend would never let a friend wear fake designer!’ Kelly had declared, outraged that Jade was even considering it. ‘Just save for a real one if you can’t afford it just yet. That’s what I do. My bank account always wants me to stop shopping, but my heart doesn’t.’

  Jade had laughed and promised Kelly she’d save for a real one. Jade’s dad had wanted to get her a ‘going away’ present in the end, so he’d helped put some money towards it, and Kelly, Jade and Lisa had gone to Harrods for the day. She had so many happy memories with her friends and didn’t know what she’d do without them.

  Twenty minutes later, Kelly and Jade were outside Lisa’s flat. She opened the door looking stunning as always in tight jeans, a black vest and cropped leather jacket. Her long, dark hair was as shiny as ever and Jade always felt a pang of envy whenever she saw it; Lisa certainly didn’t need hair extensions.

  ‘Come on in, girls,’ Lisa said with a smile as they made their way into her flat.

  Princess Cupcake came running over excitedly and Kelly bent down to stroke her. ‘Hello my little beaut,’ she said as she lifted her up. ‘I should have brought Lord McButterpants today, shouldn’t I? Then you would have had a little friend.’

  Jade walked over to Princess Cupcake and stroked her soft fur. She seemed to have got bigger and a bit calmer. It was amazing how quickly she was growing up. She did look adorable in her little red frilly dress, she thought to herself. She hated to admit it, but she’d actually missed the little dog. Yes, she had been hard work at times, but her little cheeky character was actually quite endearing and Jade realised now, she had only been disobedient because she was a puppy and needed to learn. As she stroked her, Princess Cupcake licked her hand and Jade felt that it was her way of telling her she was forgiven for telling Lisa they could no longer dog-sit. All of a sudden she heard a little bark, which wasn’t coming from Cupcake. Jade was stunn
ed as she saw a miniature Yorkshire Terrier come bundling towards her, which was the dog Adele had told them she was getting. The dog jumped up at her and Jade bent down to stroke him.

  ‘Babe, is that Buddy?’ Kelly asked Lisa the exact question on Jade’s lips.

  ‘Errr … yeah,’ Lisa answered, hesitantly.

  Jade frowned, confused, and stood up. ‘Why is Buddy here in your flat?’

  Lisa brushed her hair back from her face and hesitated. ‘I’m just looking after him for a bit until Adele gets back from the gym. It’s not exactly hard seeing as she lives dead opposite. She’ll be back soon and then we can go.’ Lisa turned, unable to look either of them in the eye.

  Kelly’s brows knitted and her jaw dropped. ‘What? Since when do you talk to Adele and do her favours?’

  Lisa turned to face them, her face a little pink. ‘I don’t. It was just a one off. I don’t know why we’re even talking about this.’ She batted her hand in their direction, dismissing their baffled expressions.

  Jade was incredulous. Why was Lisa even in contact with Adele, let alone looking after her dog? She guessed Adele must be taking advantage of Lisa’s kind nature. ‘Lisa, if she’s been coming round here and just dumping her dog on you to look after, you have to stand up to her. You know what she’s like! She’ll walk all over you, now you’ve agreed this one time. Say something, before it’s too late.’

  Kelly was nodding furiously beside her. ‘I bet she keeps coming round here trying to be friends, doesn’t she? Just wait until she knocks to pick up Buddy; I’m going to give her a piece of my mind.’

  ‘Please just stop it you two,’ Lisa said with a theatrical sigh as she sat on the sofa. ‘It’s not a big deal. I don’t mind looking after Buddy for one morning. Adele really isn’t that bad when you get to know her. It’s the least I can do for her.’

  Jade’s eyes narrowed. ‘Why? What does she ever do for you?’

  Lisa exhaled sharply and said heavily, ‘If you must know, she’s been dog-sitting Cupcake for me every day.’