CHAPTER 32
On the Sunday, Gran came round to Eagle House for dinner as usual, and seemed strangely preoccupied. As soon as we’d finished eating, she sat in the armchair and fell fast asleep.
‘I’m worried she’s not well,’ Mum said, watching her sleeping. ‘It’s not like her to be so quiet, and tired.’
‘Actually, I thought she seemed a bit quiet last time I popped in to see her, too,’ I agreed.
Mum was in the kitchen when Gran woke up, and I was glad to have a chance to chat to her on our own. She and Mum so often rubbed each other up the wrong way.
‘Are you feeling all right, Gran?’ I asked her quietly. ‘You don’t seem quite like your usual self.’
‘And what would that be?’ she muttered.
‘You know. Lively. Funny. Full of lots of good stories.’
‘Yes, well. Perhaps I haven’t heard any good stories lately.’
‘Why’s that?’ I pressed her.
She shrugged, and for a few moments I thought she wasn’t going to say any more. Then she glanced at the kitchen door, beckoned me closer, and said:
‘Don’t tell your mother this. But I’ve become addicted to late nights with zombie films and sherry.’
‘What!’ I burst out laughing, and she shushed me at once, looking quickly around her again. ‘Gran, what on earth do you mean?’ I chuckled more quietly. ‘Since when have you watched zombie films?’
‘Since Sidney in the bungalow behind mine kept on asking me in to watch them with him,’ she said, her voice low with conspiracy, ‘to let me hear the screams.’
‘Oh yes. The screams you were worried about.’ I felt ashamed to realise that neither Mum nor I had asked her about this recently. Gran hadn’t mentioned the screams for a while now, so I suppose we’d both presumed she was satisfied that the zombie films were the cause. But we certainly hadn’t anticipated Gran watching them herself – let alone becoming addicted, as she’d put it. ‘But, Gran – are you enjoying watching these films?’
‘Not particularly. To be honest, I think they’re daft.’
‘So why do you keep going to watch them? Especially if it’s so late at night.’
She looked a bit embarrassed. ‘Well, it’s company, isn’t it. We have a couple of sherries together. And he likes watching them late at night, he says it’s more atmospheric.’
‘But don’t you find them a bit … scary?’
‘Not really. Like I say, they’re all a bit daft. Dead people walking around, all that stuff. And anyway, we watch them together, so it doesn’t feel scary.’
I sat back in my chair, suddenly understanding. It wasn’t the films, or the sherry, Gran was getting addicted to. It was Sidney! Or at least, his company.
‘Can’t you suggest watching something different occasionally?’ I asked her gently. ‘Something more romantic? And maybe suggest watching it a bit earlier in the evening?’
‘I keep thinking I might do,’ she said, nodding at me. ‘But, well, it’s not really for me to choose, is it. It’s his house.’
‘You could always invite him to yours, for a change,’ I suggested. ‘He might like that. You might have to buy the sherry, though!’
She laughed. It was nice to hear. I wondered how long she’d been struggling to keep this secret from us. No wonder she’d been so quiet.
‘It’s all right for you young girls,’ she said, beginning to forget to keep her voice down. I smiled. I’d always be a young girl to my gran! ‘You’re used to taking the lead. You know, asking men out.’ She looked down, evidently embarrassed now. ‘It wasn’t like that for my generation. We just thought ourselves lucky if anyone asked us.’
‘Well, it’s not like that anymore, Gran. We don’t have to do what they say. You go for it! Ask him round to yours for an early evening with a nice romantic comedy. Much nicer than all those zombies.’
‘Will you show me how to work the video machine, Nicky? Your mum bought it for me years ago, but I never use the damned thing.’
‘Of course I will,’ I smiled. ‘I’ll come back with you this afternoon.’
Mum came back into the room then, and we tried to pretend we were talking about something else. But of course, she’d overheard a great deal of the conversation, and as soon as I got back from showing Gran how her DVD player worked, I was asked for details.
‘Don’t tell her I’ve told you,’ I warned Mum, when she’d stopped laughing. ‘She seems to think you won’t approve.’
‘Approve? Well, I don’t honestly know why she wants to get involved with a man,’ Mum said with a sniff. ‘But I suppose, if she just wants a bit of fun, bloody good luck to her.’
I smiled a little less enthusiastically at that. If only she knew how I felt now about having fun. I’d rather sit at home and do a jigsaw than go out with another man, thank you very much.
But the next day, I decided I couldn’t put it off any longer – I needed to talk to Sara. Amber was right, I’d have to face her – and Craig – sooner or later, and it would be better if the first time wasn’t in front of everyone else. The thought of having the showdown with Craig was, at that point, even less appealing than talking to Sara. I called her that evening and, trying to sound cool and civil, suggested we had a chat.
‘Come round for a drink now, if you like,’ she said, without any warmth in her voice.
Sara lived in a smart little cottage in a turning off Fore Street. I’d often admired the place from the outside – it was painted a pastel pink, with a thatched roof, a brick porch and lead light windows – but I’d never been invited in before. She opened the door to me and ushered me through to the lounge without a word, before pouring two glasses of wine and putting one on the coffee table in front of me.
‘Thanks. Well, look, I suppose I should say I’m sorry,’ I forced out straight away. ‘I honestly didn’t know you and Craig were … involved.’
‘We’ve been going out, on and off, for about four months,’ she said stiffly.
‘Four months?’
‘Yes. Why are you so surprised?’ She was glaring at me again. This wasn’t going well.
‘Because, Sara,’ I snapped, ‘you never told me. How was I supposed to know?’
She sighed, shaking her head, seeming to shrink back against the sofa cushions.
‘Craig never wanted the rest of the group to know we were seeing each other. He thought the rest of you could feel awkward.’ She sighed. ‘It sounds a bit silly, now.’
‘Yes, it does. Because he said the same thing to me.’
‘Did he?’ She looked up at me sharply. ‘How long have you been seeing him? I thought you were still married.’
‘I’m separated, pending a divorce,’ I said, feeling myself flush. ‘Sara, I’ve only had three dates with Craig. It was never going to be anything serious.’ I sighed, deciding suddenly to be completely honest now – with myself as well as with Sara. ‘Actually, I had mixed feelings about it all along. Being asked out by someone just made me feel a bit better about myself, after ending my marriage. But I am upset at being treated like this, and I’m going to tell him exactly what I think of him.’ When I’d worked up the courage. ‘Who does he think he is?’ I added crossly.
‘He thinks he’s some kind of Lothario, obviously,’ Sara said. She took a gulp of her wine, and I realised she’d calmed down and wasn’t looking angry anymore. She just looked sad, and kind of defeated. I was glad now that I’d opened up to her. ‘The thing is, he can’t seem to help himself – if another girl so much as looks at him, it’s a challenge he can’t resist. I’ve dumped him twice and taken him back. I must be mad. This time, he made all kinds of promises about it not happening again. That’s why he took me away that week. I had no idea he’d been seeing you at the same time.’
‘I can’t believe I fell for his lies about working all that week.’
‘Quite. And now he’s doing it again. He’s obviously seeing that girl he was with at the pet show. But he’s been calling me with excuses a
bout having too much work to see me at the moment.’
‘Why on earth are you putting up with it?’ I said, incredulous now. Sara might not have been my favourite person up to now, but she was far too good for him: clever, elegant and beautiful. She didn’t need this. ‘For God’s sake, he’s doing it because you let him get away with it.’
‘You’re right. I know,’ she said, flatly, ‘he just … seems to be able to overcome all my common sense, somehow. Every time he comes back to me with his apologies and his promises, I find myself believing him. Getting sucked in again.’
‘Come on, Sara.’ I took the wine glass away from her and grabbed both her hands. ‘You’re stronger than that. Amber told me to use my anger, to tell him where to get off – but you’ve got even more reason to do it. You’ve wasted four months of your life on him.’
Her eyes filled with tears. ‘He’s actually not a bad guy, Nic. He just can’t—’
‘Don’t give me that crap again, that he can’t help it. What is he, a two-year-old? Of course he can help it. He’s behaving appallingly, and you’re … you’re enabling him.’ I sighed. ‘Look, he couldn’t really have hoped to get away with it for long – seeing us both, behind each other’s backs – but to be honest, he didn’t even care, did he. He doesn’t care who he hurts. He’s just another selfish, arrogant bastard, and he needs us both to stand up and tell him so.’
‘I know. You’re right.’ She gave me a weak smile. ‘Thank you, Nic. I’ve known it for ages, obviously. But now you know how pathetic I’ve been, I can’t keep on—’
‘Not pathetic,’ I said. This was a new side to the usually stuck-up, bossy Sara, and I was actually feeling really sympathetic towards her now. She was just like the rest of us, after all – ready to believe a man’s lies, because we want them to be true. ‘Maybe just too trusting.’
‘Not anymore though.’ She freed her hands from mine, picked up her glass again and raised it towards me. ‘Here’s to us, Nic. Standing together against men’s crap.’
I smiled and picked up my own glass to clink it against hers.
‘Putting sisters before misters,’ I agreed with a chuckle. Then I took a deep breath. ‘So who’s going to call him first to dump him?’
‘What – now?’ she said on a little gasping breath.
‘No time like the present. We don’t want to change our minds, do we?’
‘You go first, then.’
I nodded. He wouldn’t be too surprised to hear it from me, probably wouldn’t even care very much – I was just a new potential conquest. But if Sara stuck to her word and made it clear she really meant it this time, he might be slightly more shocked. To say nothing of the realisation that we’d been talking about him together.
I picked up my phone. Craig was about to get a mouthful. And Sara and I, brought together by the recent turn of events, seemed suddenly to have become friends.
CHAPTER 33
‘So what did he say?’ Louise squawked with barely concealed excitement. We’d come back to Eagle House together after school the following day so that I could tell her all about it while Mia and Eddie played together. ‘Did he try to make excuses for himself?’
‘No, not at all.’ I thought back over the conversation. I hadn’t held back – I’d called him names I’d forgotten I even knew, but he hardly bothered to protest. ‘He … just seemed to accept it. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the first woman to rant at him like that.’
‘Probably not the last, either, from what you’ve said.’
‘No. Well, I wasn’t the last, because as soon as I’d finished, I told him Sara was sitting next to me, listening, and wanted a word with him too. He did sound slightly thrown by that.’
‘Good.’
‘Yes, but when Sara started on at him, he tried to wriggle out of it, would you believe? Told her he hadn’t asked me out on any dates, he’d just taken me for a drink a couple of times as a friend.’
‘Nooo!’ Louise clapped her hand to her mouth. ‘The cheek of him!’
‘I know. Luckily we were on speakerphone, so I yelled back that the way he’d been snogging me in the car, and inviting me back to his flat to sleep with him, were definitely not what you’d do with just a friend.’
‘Good for you, Nic. So do you think Sara will stick to her guns, or is she going to weaken and take him back again?’
‘I hope not. She really gave him a hard time, shouting and crying at the same time, poor thing.’
‘It sounds like you’ve got a bit more time for her now.’
‘Yes.’ I thought about how I’d held Sara, after she’d finally finished the call, and reassured her, while she wiped away her tears, that she’d done the right thing and could now move on with her life. ‘She’s OK, really. We’re very different, but let’s face it, in some ways, we’re all the same, aren’t we?’
‘We all tend to go for the bad guys?’
I shrugged. Perhaps it was true. But on the other hand, I’d never thought of Josh as a bad guy. He’d just stopped loving me – that was all.
I continued to walk Smartie on my own, but Sara and I had agreed that we’d both go to the meeting that Thursday evening, so that we were facing everyone together, and after that we’d try to get back to normal.
‘I don’t want to break up the group,’ I said.
‘No. But Craig probably won’t want to be part of it anymore,’ Sara said, managing to sound hopeful and wistful at the same time.
‘Well, look, he knows now what we think of the way he’s treated us – especially you. But maybe we should be the ones to show him how to behave with maturity.’
‘Meaning?’
‘He ought to stay in the group, face up to us and carry on politely like a grown-up.’
‘Huh! I can’t see that,’ she said, pulling a face.
Neither could I, unfortunately. But for the sake of the companionship of our group, to say nothing of the committee working for the wider community, I hoped, somehow, we could make it work.
I was the first to arrive at Smiths for the meeting on Thursday, but as soon as I’d got a drink and sat down, Simon joined me. He took a seat next to me and gave me a worried look.
‘Are you all right, Nic? We haven’t seen you since the pet show. Amber said she thought you and Sara were both suffering from some kind of bug.’
I snorted with laughter. ‘You might call it that! Simon, do you really not know what’s happened?’
He was shaking his head, but I wasn’t sure if he was just pretending ignorance, to be kind. Or perhaps I should be thanking Amber for her diplomacy. I gave Simon a quick summary of the situation, watching him raise his eyebrows in surprise at the part where Sara and I both dumped Craig over the phone at the same time.
‘He’s like a stupid spoilt child,’ he said dismissively, shaking his head. ‘He needs to grow up. He can’t go around treating women like that, especially when you’re supposed to be friends.’
‘Well, let’s hope he’s learned his lesson. I doubt it, though.’
‘He needs to turn up here tonight and face the rest of us like a man,’ Simon said crossly, making me smile again.
‘Yes, that’s what I said.’
Sara arrived just then, and I gave her a nod and a smile. ‘Let’s see whether he does or not.’
‘He won’t,’ she said curtly. ‘He’s emailed his apologies.’
‘Wimp!’ Simon said.
Amber arrived and we started the meeting, just the four of us. I’d already called her to tell her about the result of my evening with Sara, and she chose, wisely, to keep off the subject apart from giving both of us a quick hug and whispering Well done.
‘OK,’ Sara began, seemingly back in control in her preferred role of leader. ‘So, as you know, we’re proposing to hold a fireworks evening for our next event. The council have given permission, and have emailed me a document listing the legal safety requirements. They all seem fairly common sense. We can have a bonfire, with just one person nominated to light
it. And we either employ a professional company for the fireworks, or do it ourselves – following all the usual precautions, as in their document.’
‘I’m happy for us to do it all ourselves,’ Simon said at once. ‘I can get as much wood for the bonfire as we need, from my work. And Craig and I can be responsible for the fireworks. If he’s capable of anything that serious, that is.’
Amber and I exchanged looks, but Sara pressed on:
‘Good idea. I agree, the cost of hiring a professional company could wipe out any profit we make. So, we need to start advertising the event right away. Questions: How much should we spend on the fireworks, to make the display last a decent length of time? And how much to charge for admission in order to make a profit? I’ve played with some figures you can all look at here.’ She passed around copies of a spreadsheet. ‘And are we going to sell food? Hot dogs and burgers, I suppose? Soft drinks only? Alcohol and bonfires don’t mix. And we’ll need volunteers to man the refreshments.’
We were all talking at once now, looking at the figures, making our suggestions, Sara raising her voice above the rest of us to add:
‘Don’t forget, whatever we can raise from this event will add to what we made from the pet show and go towards the new adventure playground – if the council agrees to us keeping the park open. If it’s a success, there’s more chance of that happening.’
By the end of the evening, our plans were coming together well. I knew Louise would help, and we would circulate an email to everyone in the village who’d signed up to the Friends of Furzewell Park, telling them about the fireworks night, asking for their support and for volunteers for the evening. I was feeling motivated and excited about it, glad to be back in the company of my friends again and actually beginning to feel pretty daft for caring about the situation with Craig at all. Even Sara seemed to be back on form, but then, she was always at her best when she was telling us all what to do. I realised now that there could be a lot going on under the surface that she wasn’t allowing us to see. In fact it was Simon, with his barbed comments about Craig’s immaturity, who seemed to be the most bothered about it tonight.
The Lonely Hearts Dog Walkers Page 26