Mates, Dates and Sizzling Summers

by Hopkins, Cathy

  ‘Er . . . sort of . . .’ No need to explain that actually we weren’t friends, I thought, or that I was Nesta’s friend and had almost stolen her boyfriend. No need for details.

  ‘He’s at class tonight,’ she said. ‘Acting class.’

  ‘Oh, right. Yes,’ I said. ‘Sorry. Thank you.’

  ‘What’s your name? Shall I tell him you called?’

  I could feel myself blushing. I started to back away. ‘Oh. No. Thanks. I’ll come again.’

  Mrs Biasi looked amused. I bet she’d seen a hundred bashful girls come in and ask for her son over the years.

  ‘OK. Right. Bye then,’ I said and left as fast as I could.

  I felt disappointed as I walked up the street. Deflated. And I felt tired and no longer in the mood for running home. I crossed the road and went to stand at the bus stop where, luckily, I didn’t have to wait long as already I could see a bus lumbering up the hill. It drew up at the stop and the doors opened. I stood aside to let the passengers off. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a tall guy get off and head down the hill then swing back.

  ‘TJ? TJ Watts?’

  I glanced up and my heart almost stopped.

  It was Luke.

  ‘Oh. Ah . . .’ I said as I stood frozen to the spot.

  ‘You getting on or going to stop there all day?’ called the bus driver when everyone was aboard.

  ‘Er . . . I . . .’

  Luke pulled me into a bear hug. ‘She’ll catch a later bus,’ he said.

  ‘Ohmigod!’ said Izzie later that night. ‘And then what happened? Eyes met. Stomachs lurched. Arms touched. I can hardly take the suspense. Then what?’

  I’d called Izzie immediately after getting home. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell Lucy or Nesta about seeing Luke, it was just that Izzie had been so supportive of me through the whole painful saga with him before Christmas. I knew that she’d listen without jumping to conclusions or judging me in any way. Even though I loved all three of my mates, I sometimes felt that Izzie understood me best.

  ‘We went and had a coffee in a café up the other end of the road to Biasi’s. He seemed sooo pleased to see me . . .’

  ‘Coffee? Coffee? Didn’t he sweep you away to some romantic little spot and confess his undying love to you?’

  ‘No. We went to a burger joint.’

  ‘Burger joint? Pff. He’s got to work on his romantic locations, TJ.’

  ‘But it was romantic. Anywhere he is feels romantic.’

  ‘Ah. So you still feel the same about him?’

  ‘Yep. Stronger than ever.’ Seeing Luke again had been amazing and he was twice as gorgeous as I remembered. Tall with shoulder-length hair, chiselled jaw, wide mouth. With his looks, he was classic Hollywood material. ‘I really do, Iz. And seeing him again has only made me more sure that there’s something special between us. He has this effect on me that is totally amazing. Like time stands still, like the world is a happy place . . .’

  ‘Eewww. Totally vomitous.’ Izzie laughed at the other end of the other end of the phone. ‘But I always knew you had it bad for this guy. Did you snog him?’

  ‘No. I wanted to. Boy, did I want to. Boy, did I want to. But no. I haven’t forgotten how he was two-timing Nesta and I, and God knows who else.’

  ‘So what did you do?’

  ‘We talked.’

  ‘Talked?’

  ‘Yeah. He asked how my writing was going. I asked about his acting classes. Then we talked about our dads. Remember his dad is like mine in that he’s way strict. He was actually lovely about Dad, really sympathetic. And he held my hand all the time and stroked my hair. And he was so pleased to see me. He said . . . he said that he’d thought about me a lot and wished that things could have been different and that he was sorry he blew it.’

  ‘Amazing how you just bumped into him like that,’ said Izzie. ‘Where was it?’

  ‘Well . . . er . . . down near the Archway Road.’

  ‘Isn’t that near where his parents’ restaurant is?’

  ‘Is it? Oh . . . um yes, it is, isn’t it?’

  Izzie laughed. ‘And you just happened to be passing.’

  ‘Yes, actually. It wasn’t planned.’

  ‘Yeeaah. Right. Sounds to me that you’re in denial about Luke, and I don’t mean the river in Egypt.’

  ‘No really, Iz. OK. So I do still fancy him. Yes, the chemistry is very strong, but I hadn’t planned to go in and see him . . .’

  ‘Not consciously. But it sounds like your unconscious knew exactly which way it was thinking.’

  ‘So what do I do?’

  ‘I don’t know. Do you want to see him again?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘But what about Ollie?’

  ‘What about Ollie?’ I asked.

  ‘Ollie Axford? Last seen in Muswell Hill snogging your face off. Aren’t you going out with him?’

  That shut me up for a moment. I hadn’t even thought about Ollie.

  ‘TJ, TJ, are you still there?’ asked Izzie, as I took a few moments to wonder if I should be considering Ollie Axford. The image of him nibbling my ear up in Muswell Hill flashed through my mind. Hmmm. He is cute and fun to be with and now that Dad’s getting better maybe I should reply properly to his texts and e-mails.

  ‘Yeah, I’m still here. Thinking about Ollie. It’s not exactly as if I’m going out with him. Oh God, I don’t know. I like him too. But we’re just getting to know each other, really. He’s great company but it’s not like we’re in a relationship.’

  ‘Are you going to see Luke again?’

  ‘He did say that he’d like to and I told him that I’d think about it. It would be OK, wouldn’t it? It wouldn’t be like I was two-timing either of them.’

  Izzie was silent at the other end of the phone.

  ‘Izzie . . . are you still there?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘So what are you thinking?’

  ‘I’m thinking, my dear TJ, that you sound just how Luke must have sounded when he talked about you and Nesta. Liked both of you, etc, etc. Very tempting to see both of you, etc, etc.’

  ‘But I wouldn’t do that. He was dating Nesta and he told lies,’ I said. ‘I’ve been on the other end of that and I know how it feels.’

  ‘So you’ll be telling Ollie about Luke then will you? And Luke about Ollie?’

  ‘Yeah. Of course, if it comes up. Oh, I don’t know. I like both of them. Why does it have to be like this? Boys, huh? They’re like buses. You wait for ages, no sign of any and then along come two. Do I have to choose?’

  ‘Some time,’ said Izzie.

  ‘But I can’t. And it would be mad to tell either of them about the other when it’s such early days. They’d be like, er, what’s your problem? We’re not even dating regularly. Can’t I just see both of them and then decide?’

  ‘Yeah. You could,’ said Izzie, then she was silent again.

  ‘Holy crapoley,’ I said. ‘I’m a love rat!’

  Denial is not a river in Egypt.

  In the end, I decided it wasn’t Ollie or Luke that I needed to talk to. I discussed it some more with Izzie and we both agreed that there was someone far more important to tell.

  ‘Hey, Nesta, can I have a word?’ I asked when I saw her come through the school gates the next morning. Luckily she was on her own. Izzie and Lucy had already gone in as they wanted to go to the cloakroom before assembly.

  ‘Looks serious. Are you OK? Is your dad OK?’

  I nodded. ‘He’s going to be fine. No, it’s . . .’

  Now that she was standing in front of me, I felt nervous. Luke had almost broken us up as friends and now here I was about to ask her permission to see him again. No. I couldn’t do it. ‘Er . . . tell you what, Nesta. It doesn’t matter. Temporary loss of insanity. Forget it.’

  ‘Wow. It really is serious. Come on. You can trust me.’

  ‘I know. And that’s exactly why I . . . um . . . have changed my mind.’

  Nesta began to moc
k-strangle me. ‘Then I vill have to kill you. I hate it when someone begins to say something then holds back on me. My imagination goes into overdrive.’

  ‘Sorry. I hate that too, but really, it doesn’t matter.’

  Nesta’s expression grew concerned. ‘It’s about William, isn’t it? You’ve seen him with another girl? You know something about him that you don’t want me to know . . .’

  ‘Nooooooooo. No. Course not. It’s not about William. OK. It’s . . . it’s about Luke.’

  ‘Luke?’

  ‘Yes. I saw him when I was out jogging and we went for a coffee and . . .’

  ‘You’re still crazy about him?’

  I nodded.

  ‘How does he feel?’

  ‘Sorry. Said he was sorry. But pleased to see me and . . . look, I’m sorry too, Nesta, but I still really like him a lot. And I think he’d like to see me again but I’d never ever, ever do it if it made you unhappy for an instant, because our friendship is a million times more important than he is.’

  ‘Only a million, huh?’

  ‘Squillion.’

  Nesta was thoughtful for a moment, then she nodded to herself as if she’d made up her mind about something. ‘Go for it,’ she said. ‘I mean it. Go for it. He was always yours. I always kind of knew that, and if he’d met you before me then there wouldn’t have been the mix up. Besides, I have William now. It would be mean of me to pull a strop for no good reason.’

  ‘You sure?’

  She made a sign of the cross over me. ‘Go in peace. You have my blessing.’

  I laughed. ‘Sure? Double sure?’

  ‘Triple,’ she said, as she linked arms with me and we walked into school. ‘Hey, but what about the gorgeous Ollie Axford? Shame to see him go to waste.’

  I grimaced. ‘Well, see here’s the thing: I like Ollie too, and at this stage, to be honest, I’m still not exactly sure about Luke. I just wanted to check out how you felt first, because if you didn’t want me to see him again, then I wouldn’t. Not for a second. So that was number one on the to-do list. Next is to check out the Luke situation. Is he involved at the mo, because if he is, then no way am I getting caught up with him.’

  Nesta laughed. ‘Wow, you sound organised!’

  ‘Just . . . I don’t want to get hurt again, you know . . . after last time . . .’

  Nesta nodded. ‘Course. And I don’t blame you. But I can check the Luke situation. Don’t forget, William knows him.’

  ‘Oh. OK. If you don’t mind, but, er . . . Nesta, will you do it . . . you know . . . subtly?’

  Nesta looked horrified that I could ask such a thing, but she has got a big mouth sometimes.

  ‘How else?’ she said.

  ‘Well, I wouldn’t want it to get back to Luke that I’d been asking about him or anything, especially as nothing may happen.’

  Nesta tapped the side of her nose. ‘Trust me.’

  ‘And I’m going to check out Ollie. For all I know, he may have a whole harem of girls. If he’s available and really is interested in me then I’ll decide between them.’

  ‘Cool,’ said Nesta. ‘Sounds like a plan. And I’m sure it will become clear who is the real contender.’

  ‘You think?’

  ‘Yeah. Like if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. As our Iz always says, fate or destiny will make it clear.’

  Later that day, another man came back into my life.

  When I got back from school, Mum was arguing with him in the hallway.

  ‘Go to your bed this instant!’ she commanded.

  Dad rolled his eyes to the ceiling then beckoned me over to him. ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, give me a break,’ he said to Mum as we hugged each other. ‘I’m fine. I’m going to work on the computer and that’s not strenuous, it’s just sitting. Hello, daughter.’

  ‘Hi, Dad,’ I said. It felt great to see him back on familiar ground again, harrumphing around like he normally did. ‘I got Mum’s message that you’d be back this afternoon so I got some DVDs on the way home for you. You could lie on the sofa and watch them.’

  ‘I could,’ said Dad. ‘I could, but I have some calls to make. Better things to do than lie about watching DVDs!’

  ‘Everything’s taken care of both here and at work,’ said Mum. ‘You can relax. I’ve taken a week’s leave to look after you and Dr Miller said you have to take it easy. You know you should.’

  ‘I will. All in good time,’ said Dad. ‘But first there are things to do. There’s a pile of mail for one thing, plus I’m expecting Dr Rollands. He wanted to pop in to see me at the hospital again, so I told him that they were letting me out and to come here.’

  Mum sighed but I started to laugh. Whether at home or at the hospital, Dad proved to be a difficult patient who wouldn’t do as he was told.

  ‘And TJ,’ he said when he spotted me laughing. ‘Go and make me a cheese sandwich, will you? With tomatoes. And plenty of mayonnaise. It’s been hours since I had that lunch you sent me, which was delicious by the way.’

  ‘Cheese? Mayo? Richard,’ said Mum, ‘we have to look at your diet. All that fat is not good for someone with your condition.’

  Dad rolled his eyes.

  ‘Lucy’s dad runs the health shop in Muswell Hill,’ I said. ‘He says you are what you eat and I’ve heard him says loads of times that people can change their health by changing their diet. I’ve seen loads of tip sheets in there to help various conditions. Would you like me to pick one up for you?’

  ‘I would not. I know all about that stuff. I’d rather have a cheese sandwich and die happy than eat brown rice and lentils and be miserable,’ said Dad. ‘Oh, come on. I’m just out of hospital. I’ve been dreaming of a decent sandwich. And excuse me, but who is the doctor round here? I know what’s good for me and what’s not.’

  This time, both Mum and I sighed. You couldn’t tell Dad anything as he always thought he knew best even though Mum was a doctor too.

  At that moment, the doorbell rang.

  I opened it to find that it was Dad’s friend, Dr Rollands.

  ‘What are you doing out of bed, man?’ he said when he saw Dad in the hallway.

  Dad threw up his hands in exasperation. ‘Can a man get no peace in his own home?’ he exclaimed, then stomped into the living room.

  Dr Rollands then proceeded to have a discussion with Mum about Dad and his condition, his progress and so on.

  It was funny because, unseen by them, I could see Dad was listening from behind the door.

  ‘ . . . Hmmm, yes, I can see that,’ said Dr Rollands. ‘Must be difficult. But then he always was stubborn. What he needs is to get away. Somewhere quiet with no distractions. Complete rest and recuperation.’

  ‘OHHH for heaven’s sake,’ said Dad coming out from his hiding place. ‘I’m fine. Get away? Are you mad? Travel is one of the most stressful things on the planet. Delays. Traffic. All the yobs you have to mix with to get where you going. Strange beds to sleep in. No, forget it. I’m staying here. And if no one is going to make me that cheese sandwich, I’ll do it myself!’

  Dr Rollands put his hand on Dad’s back and ushered him into the living room where he made him sit down. He then produced an envelope from his briefcase. ‘Ah, now that’s where you’re wrong,’ he said as he pulled a number of photos out of the envelope. ‘Take a look at these.’

  I went over to Dad’s chair and looked over his shoulder. Inside the envelope there were photographs of an idyllic detached pink cottage in a garden full of flowers.

  ‘Cornwall,’ said Dr Rollands. ‘You couldn’t find a more peaceful spot if you tried.’

  ‘Yes. Lovely. So?’ Dad asked.

  ‘So. It’s mine and I’m offering it to you and your family,’ said Dr Rollands. ‘It’s been our second home for years and we were down there every summer while the boys were growing up, but now they’ve flown the coup. We won’t be using it this year; in fact, we seem to be spending more and more time in France. The place is yours if you want it as a place to
go and recuperate for a week or so.’

  Mum took the photos and had a look. ‘We do love that part of the world, don’t we, Richard? And Marie will be close by in Devon. In fact, we even thought of moving down there last year, didn’t we?’

  ‘But you’re not going to?’ I asked, as a sudden panic hit me. ‘You knocked that idea on the head, right?’

  Dad nodded. ‘Don’t worry, TJ. No. We decided we’d miss London too much, but . . .’ he took the photos and had another look. ‘It does seem tempting. What’s it like inside? Water? Heating? All mod cons? I can’t be doing with any of these go-back- to-nature-type trips away.’

  ‘Do me a favour,’ said Dr Rollands. ‘There’s a computer there with Internet. The cottage even has cable. All the sports channels. And the movies.’

  After Dr Rollands had left, while I made Dad his sandwich, Mum and Dad had a chat. For once they seemed to be in agreement.

  Mum got on the phone fast to make arrangements. She didn’t want to waste any time. The plan was that she and Dad would drive down there on Sunday so that Dad could begin his recuperation as soon as possible. My brother Paul would come up to stay with me in the interim and then we’d drive down to join them a week later for half-term. And she also called Lucy’s dad to ask him to pop in with the diet sheet.

  ‘He may be a top surgeon,’ she said to me after she’d put the phone down,‘but nutrition is not always top of the agenda with any of them. It’s never too late to learn some good new habits.’

  ‘Could be fab,’ said Izzie, when I told her the plan later on the phone. ‘But you’ll be away for a week leaving me alone with the love-bubble couples. Lucy and Tony. Nesta and William. And Izzie and Izzie. I’ll be a billy loner. What am I going to do without you?’

  ‘We can text, and apparently there’s a computer there so we can e-mail.’

  ‘In that case,’ said Izzie, ‘I’m going to do something that I’ve been meaning to do for ages: set up a private chat room for the four of us so we can all talk while you’re away without it costing a fortune.’

  ‘Excellent idea,’ I said.

  ‘I’ll do it next week so it’s ready for half-term. So . . . a week up here with Luke with no parents to cramp your style? Hmmm. Could be interesting.’