The High Life (The Mercury Travel Club #3)

Chapter Two Girls Talk

I’ve been house-sitting Patty’s home while she’s been on the cruise ship. I phone Michael and tell him about the dinner party on Saturday. He takes absolutely no persuading and says yes to coming along. He doesn’t know Patty well as she left for her cruise contract just as we were properly getting together. He’s very curious to meet my best friend and her partner properly. He’s heard the tale of how they met several times and there’s the added bonus of a decent meal to look forward to. My culinary skills are legendary for the wrong reason.

‘Someone who can cook is making Saturday night’s meal,’ I tell him.

‘Praise the lord. I haven’t replaced the battery in that fire alarm yet. It’s worn out.’

‘Ha, ha very funny, that’s the last time I cook for you.’

‘Good God, all I need now is a brand new Jaguar to appear on the drive and I’ll have had all three of my wishes.’

I admonish him then tell him he must find something glam and gorgeous to wear. Knowing his wardrobe, I cannot imagine what he’s going to conjure up. His job rarely calls for glamour. Michael runs a property maintenance company, so the dress code is generally overalls of some sort. I was delighted to discover that he’s one of those really practical men. Whatever he finds — lawnmowers, cars, remote controls — you name it, he can fix it and he loves doing so. If Michael ever goes missing or doesn’t answer his phone, I know I’ll probably find him in the garage or garden completely absorbed in some repair with a screwdriver in his hand.

‘And a proper screwdriver, not the cocktail version,’ I often tell people, in case they assume he’s more like me.

As I’m tidying up Patty’s house a little before she arrives, I think ahead to the group of people who’ll be getting together this weekend and wonder how they’ll get on. It can be a little strange when other halves meet, as even very close friends pick very different partners. Charlie picked his perfect match in Peter: he always wanted to marry a guy who’d be the perfect host and that’s what he is. Peter makes it his mission to put everyone at ease the second they walk into their home.

Michael isn’t too hard to imagine. He seems to have one setting — permanently laid-back and at ease. We met when I reversed out of my drive and hit his cat. The cat was fine but I was terrified at having to explain myself to a complete stranger. I needn’t have worried, Michael was just lovely. He was so completely concerned for me and the shock I’d had that I’d taken a gamble and asked him to that evening’s New Year Eve party.

The doorbell rings and I rush to open it, surprised that Patty didn’t just barge in.

‘What’s with all the plants?’ she asks, noticing the key change to the house as she looks around and is greeted by a jungle of foliage. She feels the leaves to check they’re not plastic. Neither of us could ever be described as green-fingered, so the rainforest of healthy-looking houseplants is rather out of place.

‘Michael’s starting bringing plants every time he comes to dinner,’ I explain.

‘He comes a lot then.’

‘Well, he has to visit so they get watered. He realized that fairly quickly.’

‘So what else does he tend to when he’s here? Do the mattress springs need replacing?’

‘Patty! You could be just a little more subtle — ask me how things are going like a normal person would.’

She just shrugs.

‘Open that wine,’ I tell her, hoping to change the subject. ‘Tell me all about the cruise.’

Patty is more than happy to have the conversation turn to her adventures and we get through three-quarters of the bottle before the conversation turns back to me.

‘The business is still going well and all the Mercury Travel Club trips sell out quickly. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I’m really happy,’ I tell her.

‘And how are your parents and Zoe?’ she asks.

‘Mum was devastated that she wasn’t picked to appear on Catchphrase but has decided the producers must have known she was too intelligent and would have won too much money. I think Dad was relieved though — he was dreading her believing she had celebrity status when they went shopping.’ I giggle.

‘Can you imagine the freebies she’d try to blag?’ Patty laughs.

‘I try not to. And as for my wonderful daughter — well as you arrive then she leaves. She apparently applied for a secondment to the hotel’s New York chain a few months ago, not expecting to get it but she has. And James got a contract out there too. It all happened incredibly quickly but they’re both living the dream in the US of A and still totally besotted. She said to say she’s sorry to have missed you but hopes to catch up soon.’

‘Good for her,’ Patty says. ‘So come on, it’s just us. Tell me about Michael — are you besotted too? How’s the love life going? Jack and I...’

I let her delight in the details of their love life and open another bottle in the hope that she forgets she’s asked about mine. No chance. As soon as she’s finished the tale of their last night at sea, she takes a gulp of wine and asks again.

‘For some people these things are private, you know.’ I sound more prudish than I’d intended. ‘Anyway, if you must know, we haven’t got that far.’

Patty sinks onto the sofa, eyebrows raised in disbelief.

‘You’re kidding? It’s been at least a couple of months now hasn’t it, since you finally got your act together and started dating?’

‘That’s not so long is it? It’s flown past. Anyway, we’re taking it slowly, getting to know each other first. We get on so well.’ I take my own gulp of wine and decide to get it off my chest. ‘And I really don’t want to cock it up like I did before.’

The first relationship I attempted after my divorce was just awful. It hadn’t been long but I’d thought I should be ‘getting back on the bike’, as people kept telling me. After all, my ex had no problem in bedding someone new. I wanted to show him that I could move on, too. In the end, I rushed things and it was a complete disaster ― in fact quite humiliating.

‘I still cringe when I think about that now,’ I tell Patty. ‘I think I’d give up on sex completely if I ever had a session like that again.’

‘Oh, girl, it won’t be like that.’ She puts her arm around me. ‘You weren’t ready back then but you really like Michael.’

I nod. I really do and that’s why I don’t want to cock things up. So, yes, I have taken my time with Michael. Maybe it seems a long time to others but I have a picture in my head of how our first time will be and that’s what I’m holding out for. It will be wonderful — I am determined it will be.

‘Then there’s this place,’ I say, trying to lighten up the conversation. ‘Everywhere I look, I imagine you still here shouting out instructions. I half expect you to jump out of the wardrobe shouting ‘Surprise, Surprise’. And then there was your parting joke about the nanny-cam, it’s hardly conducive to romance.’

Patty guffaws then asks, ‘What about his place then?’

‘You mean where his wife died?’

Patty nods in understanding.

‘No, I’ve decided to wait until I move into my new place,’ I continue, ‘where hopefully there’ll be no one to haunt me and tell me I’m getting things wrong.’

In a few weeks, I move into an apartment of my own. It’ll be the first place I’ve owned alone.

‘Going to christen every room then?’ Patty teases and gets a friendly thump.

‘Stop ruining my romantic vision with your smut,’ I tell her. ‘Now get your things and I’ll see you at Charlie’s. And if you dare mention christening rooms...’

‘Cross my heart.’ She does a tiny little x across her chest.

I hug her again as she leaves. Deliriously happy that the people I love most in the world are back together again, I head upstairs and turn the radio up full volume. Jefferson Starship’s ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’ fills the room and I dance along as I flick through the wardrobe deciding what I’ll wear this Saturday. Glam and gorgeous calls for a cocktail dress with masses of bling. I root through my jewellery box and pull out every costume piece I own. I’ll probably end up looking like Zoe when she used to dress up as a little girl but, hey, I’ll probably feel just as good too. I find an old lipstick that I never wore because it was just too glossy and leave that out too. I doubt anything will be too glossy at Charlie’s. Jefferson Starship are now telling me that they built a city, and as I bellow along with them, I feel invincible. With the business going well, my best friend back and the perfect moment yet to come, this is going to be a good year. I can just tell.