Same Time Next Week

Chapter 61

Six months later

‘Well, there they are, Mr and Mrs van der Meer,’ said Erin, as she watched Sky and Bon about to climb into the silver Rolls en route for their wedding reception in Ray’s diner. Sky could have picked anywhere, but she wanted just two things on her big day: to be married in the church where she had said her last goodbye to her father, because she would feel him close to her then, and a reception at Ray’s diner, because that was a happy place for her. It was the happy place for them all, because there they had each found friendships and through them, the strength and courage to take the paths that had led them to today.

‘How gorgeous does she look?’ said Erin looking over at the newlyweds. Sky looked beautiful, glowing, well, loved. And Bon, handsome, happy. Happier than she had ever seen him before.

‘Don’t you feel the littlest bit odd about it?’ Mel asked Erin.

‘Nope,’ said Erin. ‘Not at all.’ Her dearest old friend and one of her dearest new ones, a perfect match in her eyes. ‘He will absolutely cherish her.’ She had no doubt about that. But she felt pretty cherished herself, she wasn’t missing out on her fair share of that.

‘I bet you’ll miss her, Astrid,’ said Mel, having to look a long way up because Astrid had her big heels on, sky-blue silk to match her long silk frock. Sky had asked her to be a bridesmaid, to make her wish come true.

‘Very much. But I have Venus, one of my employees from work moving in with me soon as a tenant. It will either be the biggest mistake of my life or the best fun.’

‘I think you know which one it’s going to be.’ Mel thought Astrid’s fond smile was a good indication.

‘I still can’t believe I am a managing director,’ said Astrid. ‘I have a parking space with the sign over it. Me.’

Astrid had slipped into the role as if she had been born to it. ‘The Queen of Crackers’, the local newspaper had called her in an article. Venus had said the title was right on more than one level. Iris had told her not to be so bloody cheeky.

‘It must be true then, Astrid Kirschbaum-Clegg. You have to use the double-barrel if you’re an MD.’

‘Mel, can I make the observation that you’ve started to absorb the Mancunian accent?’ Amanda gave her a nudge.

‘I have absolutely no idea how that could have come about,’ Mel replied, giving her words the full Liam treatment.

‘Do you have any raised lettering on your backside you wish to disclose?’

‘As if I’d tell you lot,’ Mel grinned.

At least these days when she put clean sheets on the bed, it wasn’t too long before they smelt of Oud Wood again. Who would have thought postmen were so hot in the sack.

‘How’s the baby?’ asked Astrid.

‘He’s gorgeous,’ said Mel with a doting sigh. Pat’s daughter now had the most beautiful little boy and it was magic to be able to spend time with him. Pat’s family were as warm and welcoming as Steve’s weren’t.

‘You two must be the coolest grandparents on the planet,’ Amanda said with a chuckle. ‘I vaguely remember mine on my dad’s side and they never looked like you two dudes.’

Mel laughed. ‘I’ll take that.’ She sometimes teased Pat about being a grandad and he shut her up in the most wonderful of ways.

‘Can’t wait to see the wedding cake, Amanda,’ said Astrid.

‘Oh, it’s pretty spec if I say so myself.’ Amanda had put everything and more into it. Just as a one-off for a friend, though in exactly seven weeks her new business would be opening up at the diner: ‘Ray-to-Go’, cakes by Amanda to take away. Ray was a great boss, and she got all sorts of bonuses that his other staff didn’t get.

Linus had been as good as his word and made her redundancy happen with a generous walk-away package. He’d even put on a small party for her in the boardroom and name-checked her whenever he had to talk about his initiative to help women in the workplace. The company had bought her a beautiful gold bracelet as a parting gift, something she wouldn’t be trading in. She took a solo trip to Venice after she’d finished at Mon Enfant, paid for by her mother’s rings and two chunky necklaces which didn’t even make a dent in her daddy’s cache of gold.

Dolly was a regular up at the diner these days and often brought with her a couple of new friends to introduce to the place, and the latest gossip. The two Big Baps sandwich shops were up for sale, for a pittance apparently because they had no customer base left.

The four friends walked towards the waiting taxi. Another change to get used to: Sky becoming Mrs van der Meer. Hard to think that when they first met, Amanda had been resigned to always being second best and now she got nosebleeds from the height of the pedestal she’d been put on. Sky had been hiding in a long, dark shadow and in love with a man she never imagined would want her – and yet here she was today, a bride bathed in bright, happy sunshine. Astrid: lonely, unfulfilled, grieving, now counting her many blessings with a circle of close friends to call on anytime. Erin: damaged and fearful, had her confidence back, her faith in love restored. And Mel, broken and desperately lost, these days as resplendent as her red hair, thanks to all the fun she was having and those regular ‘injections of joy’.

Life, as they’d found, came with no route map, no instruction book or guide rope and they’d learned that the best navigational tools they could have were friends who looked out for each other, who were there when the sun shone and the rain fell. And they couldn’t have been luckier in finding the best of them in the back room of a diner every Tuesday night.

As Bon van der Meer had put it to Erin, there were no guarantees in anything, but you shouldn’t let fear hold you back from taking your chance, because we only have one life and it shouldn’t be full of regrets.

Every one of the five was determined they were going to make up for lost time, to savour the years that followed, adjust to the changes that would inevitably come, never settle for less when they could have more. And they’d be there for each other, to make sure they did exactly that.