Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
LONDON
The Three Musketeers
May 2006
‘I mean, who gets pregnancy cravings for pickled onions and lime milkshake? I bet there’s not a single real lime in it, either,’ Mandy ranted as the three musketeers sat in her bright and airy kitchen.
‘Onions are good for you, though,’ Orla said loyally.
‘Poor Steve,’ Vic added, looking at Orla. ‘She trumps like an elephant at the best of times.’
Orla and Vic fell about laughing. Mandy shook her head. ‘Children, I’m doing pizza and garlic bread for tea, if that’s all right. I couldn’t be bothered to mess about.’
‘Perfect,’ Orla declared.
‘Where is Steve, anyway?’ Vic popped open a bottle of wine.
‘Working away tonight. Hence me actually making some kind of effort for my friends.’
Vic filled her and Orla’s glass then cleared her throat. ‘I’ve got something to tell you all.’
‘That sounds ominous.’ Orla took a large slug of wine. ‘Are you OK?’
‘Yes, yes I’m fine.’ Vic smiled weakly. ‘It’s just, Nate has asked me to go and live with him in the Lakes. Wants us to try again, says he loves me and can’t be without me.’
‘Wow. OK.’ Mandy took a sip of her fizzy water.
Orla jumped in. ‘The same Nate who said he didn’t want to be with you just a few months ago. Who turned his back on you when you really needed him?’
‘I’m not going,’ Vic said softly. ‘I need time to think. Because also…’ She sighed deeply. ‘I kissed Jerico Flint.’
‘Jerico Flint?’ Mandy screwed her face up. ‘He sounds like an actor, with a name like that.’
‘He’s a client of Ray’s. I do illustrations for his book covers, but he actually does look like he could be on the set of a film.’ Vic smiled as she thought about him. ‘He’s handsome and clever – so quick-witted and fun, really fun. He doesn’t seem to realise just how hot he is, and I love that about him too.’
‘Listen to you. I’ve never heard you talk about Nate like that once.’ Orla topped up her own wine glass. ‘And just kissed, you say?’
‘Yes, just kissed. I can’t be with him either, though, girls. Actually, I could, but I can’t tell him. Because I really like him. And if he can’t cope with the HIV then I’m scared I might lose him, and I don’t want him to look at me as this tainted woman. I want him to see me as me – just Victoria; just me – without this fucking-awful time bomb of a virus.’ Tears pricked Vic’s eyes.
‘Oh, darling.’ Orla squeezed her hand. ‘But what if he’s totally cool about it?’
‘I don’t think I can bear to take that chance.’
‘Well, you can just see him and not have sex with him – be friends?’ Mandy suggested innocently .
‘She can’t,’ Orla replied wisely. ‘You really like him; I can tell.’
Vic nodded. ‘But then there’s Nate.’
‘You’re not in love with him, are you?’ Orla sighed.
‘But does that really matter?’ Vic breathed out noisily. ‘We could have a good life. It would be OK, and maybe OK is as good as it gets now.’
‘No!’ Orla banged her hand down on the table. ‘Be careful not to compromise what you want long term, in favour of what you want or feel you need right now.’
‘Wow, that’s very profound, Orla.’ Mandy got up to turn the oven on.
‘My therapist actually said it to me the other day.’
‘Ray said that to me as well, in so many words,’ Vic added.
Orla looked smug. ‘See.’
‘I’m so glad you’ve decided to have therapy.’ Vic smiled.
‘Me too.’ Orla bit her lip. ‘Thanks to you.’
Mandy’s brow furrowed. ‘But, Vic, what are you going to do about Nate – or this Jerico, for that matter?’
‘I know exactly what I am going to do. I’m actually taking your advice, Orla O’Malley, and I’m going to do nothing and see what comes to me, because I’ve also got some other big news, which is going to take up a lot of my time.’
‘I feel like I need to sit down for this.’ Mandy sat at the kitchen table and put her hand to her pregnancy bump.
‘Well, you know how I’m working freelance for Ray now?’
‘Yes,’ Orla and Mandy answered in unison. Mandy suddenly looked worried. ‘This will pay your rent and allow you to live, will it?’
‘I will be fine. I saved a bit of my Christmas bonus and Ray gave me a decent pay rise so I’ve saved a bit of that, too. Plus, I will have the deposit from the flat. And, well, the other news is that I’m moving to Brighton for the summer to exhibit and sell my work at Danny’s gallery. As well as still doing any bits for Ray if he needs me, of course.’
Orla was wide-eyed. ‘Oh my God, mate. That’s what you’ve always dreamt of doing.’
‘Well, my own gallery would be my ultimate,’ Vic replied modestly.
Mandy rushed over and threw her arms around Vic. ‘Proud, so bloody proud of how far you’ve come with everything you’ve had to deal with.’
‘He says in July I can have the front display window, which is saved for the big shots, usually.’
‘He clearly thinks you are a big shot,’ Mandy enthused.
‘Maybe he feels obliged to,’ replied Vic, who, despite Danny’s reaction to her work, still felt she needed reassurance.
‘No, of course not, Vic.’ Orla was stern. ‘He has a business to run; he’s not going to do anyone any favours.’ She went to the fridge to retrieve more wine. ‘I bloody love Brighton. Are you going to be staying at his?’
‘Yes, in the two-bed apartment above the gallery where it all happened that fateful night.’
‘Maybe you can just have wild unattached sex with him – then you’re sorted. New job, new knob, all in one go.’ Orla refilled her glass then topped up Vic’s.
Mandy shook her head. ‘Is that even an option?’
Vic smiled. ‘Me and Danny work far better as friends, and he’s seeing someone now anyway.’
‘See, he’s done it,’ Orla said knowingly. ‘Found somebody pretty quickly too.’
Mandy stood up. ‘Let’s get these pizzas in. I’m starving, but before that, a toast to our gorgeous girl, Victoria Sharpe.’ Mandy put a thimble of wine into a glass and lifted it into the air. ‘Here’s to Victoria having the best time and selling all her paintings in Brighton. ’
‘To Victoria,’ Mandy and Orla said in unison.
‘One for all and all for one ,’ added a now-tipsy Orla.
‘One for all and all for one ,’ they all repeated.