Chapter 15
Bedhead Annie:
White cotton embroidered pyjama bottoms
Pink vest top
Layered overnight serums
Pink silk sleep cap
Sometimes when something bad has happened, or is in the process of happening, it can be the worst in the morning.
First thing in the morning, as your brain is just coming back to consciousness, the terrible thing that has happened comes to mind and for one hopeful little moment you can almost convince yourself that it was a bad dream.
You might even smile with relief, just as Annie was doing at this very moment, as her brain told her that falling out with Svetlana…
not having a venue… the show being on the brink of collapse…
was all a dream. She was going to open her eyes and it would all be over and back to the way it was before.
But then, she woke up properly, really opened her eyes and realised with a thud of weight on her chest that no, it was all real.
Svetlana had not got the permission they’d needed, they’d had very strong words on the phone, and for now, at least, there was not going to be a show.
Was it time to cancel things, she wondered.
Should she be phoning caterers, chair suppliers, models, the gorgeous dancers, the DJ?
Should everyone be told? Or was it too soon?
She tried to imagine sending out emails cancelling all the invitations and the enormous fuss it was going to cause.
VIPs with carefully planned diaries would have gaps!
Dates and dinners would have been rearranged to accommodate Svetlana’s big event.
Limos might have been booked, new outfits bought.
She did not want to be on the receiving end of all this disappointment and even anger, when none of this was her fault.
She had asked Svetlana over and over about the permission and Svetlana had absolutely reassured her that everything was in place.
Annie had known Svetlana for years, and in recent times they’d grown much closer, real friends was how Annie had thought of them – and it had taken a long time for the client/adviser hierarchy to break down.
But now, it felt as if their friendship had been torpedoed too.
For whatever reason, Svetlana hadn’t been able to be honest with Annie, her friend.
And honesty, well, that was the key ingredient.
If you couldn’t be honest with your friend.
If you couldn’t say, ‘I haven’t done the paperwork’, or ‘please help, I’ve dropped that ball’, or whatever reason there was for this epic fail, if you couldn’t say what was on your mind, then where were you as friends?
And Svetlana had put Annie’s name on that invitation.
She knew – or should have known – how much the success of the show meant to Annie and meant for her future, her friend’s future.
‘Hello, Mumma.’ It was something of a surprise to have Max pop up at her side of the bed. He must have crawled very quietly over the plush carpet, into the room and round the side of the bed to pull this trick off.
‘Hello! Am I late?’ she wondered, glancing at her bedside clock. ‘Did Daddy send you up to tell me to go have my shower?’ Although it occurred to her that without the show, what did she have to get up for? What did she have to shower for even? What did she have to hustle along and do today?
‘No…’ Max told her, pushing his squishy little face right up in front of her. She couldn’t resist giving him a kiss.
‘What’s up?’ she asked. ‘Is Minnie driving you crackers?’
‘No.’
‘Do you hate your breakfast this morning?’
‘No!’ this came with a giggle.
‘What are you thinking about then?’
‘Minnie said they were making pizza at nursery today.’
‘Ohhhh… pizza?’ Annie had an inkling of what this could be about. Max nodded.
‘And you like pizza A LOT!’ she said, which was putting it mildly.
Tantrums had been had, cars had once been turned around back towards pizza restaurants, in fact, the meal was all but banned at home because once he’d had pizza, Max was reluctant to go back to eating anything else for days. Max nodded again enthusiastically.
‘Do you think Minnie will bring you some pizza home?’ Now there was a vigorous shake of the head.
‘No! She said she was going to eat all her pizza and there would be none left for me.’
‘Oh dear, what a shame…’ Do not offer to make pizza with Max at home today, do not do it, Annie warned herself.
The idea was to make sure Max was so bored he wanted to go to nursery, the idea was NOT to run a tiny nursery at home for Max.
Hold the line. A critical moment was approaching and she knew she had to play this right.
‘Mumma? Do you think…’ Max began carefully. Do not offer to make pizza, she reminded herself.
‘I’m very busy today, Max,’ Annie added quickly, although what she would be busy doing wasn’t entirely clear – maybe quietly crying in her bed. That was a strong contender for top activity today.
‘Could I go to nursery for the morning, when they are making the pizza and you could come and get me afterwards?’ Max was suggesting going to nursery!
After just one day! Although on the other hand, maybe she was a very bad mother.
Just one day of Mummy day care and Max had swapped sides.
This was what she wanted, of course, but did Max have to want to go back to nursery quite so much? !
‘If you go to nursery, Max,’ Annie began carefully, determined not to blow this, ‘you’ll have to go for the whole thing because, the pizza will get made in the morning, then it will get baked and you’ll want to stay and eat it for lunch and then you’ll probably need to have a little nap because you know how everyone gets tired after pizza. ’
‘No, they don’t!’ Max protested.
‘Anyway, by the time you’ve had lunch, there’s story time, then playing outside – and you like both of those things – and then it’s time to come home.’
‘OK, I’ll go to nursery with Minnie. Otherwise, she will get all the pizza,’ Max declared.
This was so surprising that Annie was frightened to say a word in case she ruined it. ‘Well, I better get my skates on and have a shower,’ she decided that was safe enough. ‘Can you tell Daddy I’ll be down in five minutes and can he please make my coffee?’ This made Max burst into laughter.
‘What’s so funny about that?’ she wanted to know.
‘Because you always say that. And do you know what Daddy says?’
‘No…’
‘He will say “five minutes? Ha, ha… I don’t think so… more like twenty-five minutes. So, I’ll make the coffee later.”’
‘Well, he’s a very cheeky daddy!’
This made Max laugh again.
‘OK, go have some food, put on some clothes. And I’ll get scrubbed up.’
* * *
In the shower, under the spoiling, fragrant foam, she remembered the astonishing trove of legendary clothing that had arrived at the door last night. She’d quizzed Ed closely about the woman who had dropped it off. ‘A grey bob…’ he’d recalled. ‘And dramatic spectacles, I think they were purple…’
‘Was she wearing black?’ Annie had asked.
‘Yeee-ees,’ he’d hesitated. ‘I think so. She was small and she was wearing a dark, quilted coat, with a very distinctive collar… like a big, squishy doughnut, but in a good way. Even I could tell that it was stylish.’
‘Oh. My. God… very well spotted, excellent work! I think I know who that could be.’
So, this morning, just as soon as M&M were at nursery – would Max honestly, willingly go, without wailing?
But if that happened, she would come back to Highgate and as there was nothing to do right now for the show, Annie would track down the woman whose door she had turned up at when she was distributing flyers.
The fascinating lady in the Yohji Yamamoto…