Chapter 34
Night-time Minette:
Pink and white pyjama onesie with cloud pattern
Bear dressing gown with ears on the hood
Knitted pink bootie slippers
Hair in four plaits ‘to make it princess-y’
It was unbelievably late by the time the taxi approached the Valentine-Leon home.
Annie might have expected to be completely exhausted by now, but all the drama, success and sheer excitement of tonight had pumped litres of adrenaline into her system and in fact, she felt ah-mazing.
Like an athlete, who’d just won gold, or an actress clutching her Oscar, she didn’t want this night to end and kept mentioning all the highlights to Lauren, who seemed equally hyped-up and Ed – not quite so much – and their taxi driver, who seemed surprisingly keen to hear all about the show. He’d even heard of PaigeP.
‘She helped me to pick out my clutch,’ Annie told him, waving the vintage Jacquemus about for his benefit, making it sound as if she and PaigeP regularly nipped out for a shopping trip together. ‘But really, I think she’s a bit of a Mean Girl.’
‘I suppose she has to be in her job,’ the taxi driver said.
‘So… I’ve been asked to come for a meeting at M&S…
they want to make me an offer I can’t refuse…
’ she repeated once again to Ed and Lauren.
Because it really had not sunk in and she thought if she said it out loud to herself just a few more times, maybe she would start to believe it.
‘That is right, isn’t it, Ed? I didn’t dream that bit? ’
Ed turned from the front seat to look at her and his face had that quietly amused look that she loved to see. ‘Yes, you’ve got a meeting and they do sound very keen, so if it’s the right thing for you, on the right terms… then, yes, it will hopefully work out.’
‘Oh my God… I could be never knowingly undersold.’
‘I think you’ll find that’s the John Lewis slogan,’ was Lauren’s response to this.
‘Oh my God… what is the M&S slogan? I need to know this.’
‘Is it still dressing the nation?’ Lauren wondered.
‘Oh!’ Annie felt a little overwhelmed at that. It could be a very heavy responsibility, dressing the entire nation.
‘But you know, when you go into that meeting, you need to keep never knowingly undersold in mind,’ Ed told her, turning round to meet her eyes.
‘Absolutely do not undersell yourself, because you really are amazing. What you put on tonight was stunning and raised so much money! And it wouldn’t have come together or been nearly as amazing without you! ’
‘Thank you, babes… and I love, love my necklace. Thank you so much.’ And as Annie put her hand over the gold heart he had put around her neck as her anniversary gift at the end of the show, she thought about all the people who undersold themselves every single day and didn’t have someone like Ed in their corner to brush them down, boost them up and send them back into battle once again.
And that was when she remembered that she did have a present for him. That crazed, late night, last-minute, over the Internet purchase that she really, really hoped was going to work out and not turn out to be some terrible scam. Taking her phone out of her bag, she looked for the right app.
Oh good grief, here were a flurry of messages.
The delivery driver hadn’t found her address…
then it turned out he had… oh, yes! The delivery had been made, late, 10.
45 p.m. this evening. Fingers crossed… fingers very, very crossed.
For a moment, she wondered if she should tell Ed…
but no, better to leave it as a wonderful surprise at the end of a wonderful day.
* * *
As the taxi pulled up, Annie glanced at the house and was surprised to see lights on in several upstairs windows and light peeking through the gap where the sitting room curtains hadn’t been pulled tightly shut.
The babysitter had planned to go home once the twins were fast asleep, leaving Owen and his now lightly bandaged hands in charge of not very much.
Maybe he was watching TV downstairs, having forgotten to turn the light off in his room?
But now she saw that the light was also on in the twins’ room. What was going on?
The taxi was paid and the three of them hurried through the light drizzle to the front door, and into the warmth of the hall. Voices, laughter and the background sound of the television were coming from the sitting room.
‘What on earth—?’ Ed began as he opened the door to the room.
Owen was sitting in the middle of the large, squishy, beaten-up sofa.
He had that sort of harassed-happy look most often seen on new dads or big brothers, when they are trying to control a toddler riot but are also quite enchanted by it.
Meanwhile Min, in her pyjamas, was standing on one arm of the sofa, while Max, also in pyjamas, was sprawled on his back on the rug, giggling like a mad thing.
‘Owen!’ Annie began. ‘It’s 1 a.m.!’
‘I know!’ Owen replied. ‘But they won’t go to sleep. I’ve tried stories, snacks, bribes, threats… they won’t go. And I can’t make them do anything,’ he held up his bandaged hands.
‘But why did they wake up?’ was Ed’s question as Annie scooped Min from the edge of the sofa, then sat down beside Owen and encouraged Max to come up for a hug.
‘I dunno…’ was Owen’s first response, followed by a thoughtful, ‘actually, there was this delivery guy. It was after Megan left, so it was pretty late. He was ringing the bell, knocking on the door. I finally heard him over my headphones. But I couldn’t do anything.
’ Owen waved his mitts in the air again.
‘Couldn’t undo the locks, open the door or anything, so I was shouting through the letter box at him. ’
‘Oh God!’ Annie jumped up, practically bouncing the twins from her lap. All this chaos going on in the house had momentarily put the anniversary surprise out of her mind, but now it was rushing right back in again.
‘Urgent handbag delivery?’ Ed asked, turning to Annie with something between a grin and a frown on his face.
‘Where did he…?’ she began, seriously worried about the whereabouts of the delivery now.
‘Chill out, Mum,’ Owen said. ‘I told him to go round to the back and see if the shed was open. So, he did and it was and that seemed to put his mind at rest. I told him you’d be back soon. He took a photo of my face at the letter box and everything.’
But none of this was putting Annie’s mind at rest. ‘It’s Ed’s present!’ she blurted. ‘Ed’s anniversary present! I have to go and get it. Right now!’
‘OK…’ Ed was looking at her with an expression of surprise.
‘Annie, it is still 1 a.m. and it is still tipping with rain. If you don’t want to go out to the shed right now to fetch my new designer suit…
new designer guitar case… or whatever lovely, thoughtful item you have managed to find for me, even when you said we weren’t going to do presents, that’s totally fine.
We can do this at breakfast tomorrow. I mean, everyone looks very tired.
And when I say breakfast, I’m meaning brunch.
I’m thinking no one should even consider leaving their room,’ he turned to the twins, ‘until the small hand is pointing to the number nine.’ Minnie was nodding solemnly.
But Annie was already at the sitting room door.
‘Stay here, everyone,’ she said, then changed her mind and asked if Lauren wouldn’t mind just coming out to the shed with her to give a hand, ‘in case it’s heavier than I thought.’
‘Set of weights?’ Ed guessed. ‘I mean that would be very thoughtful, but I might be a tiny bit offended.’
‘Ha!’ Annie said as she went out of the room, followed by Lauren, and headed for the door in the kitchen that led out to the garden.
Outside, Annie took the wet path through the rain towards the shed, feeling a jangle of nerves and hoping that her big surprise was going to be OK.
Her big surprise… it was something of a surprise to her.
Had she really done this? She was suddenly so tired, she was just about delirious.
‘I hope it’s all right, I hope it’s all right,’ she worried out loud.
‘Mum, it will be fine. No one is going to have crept into our shed to steal whatever big spendy thing you’ve bought for Dad from The Store.’
‘No! It’s not like that. I really, really thought about what he would want,’ she explained. ‘What would make him happy. This is definitely not about me. This is for Ed… and also everyone else. If it’s what I think it is…’
‘What?’ Lauren said, pulling open the shed door. ‘Was this a 4 a.m. in the morning online purchase by any chance?’
‘Something like that…’ Annie admitted, feeling very guilty. This was exactly the kind of purchase she should not have made on a whim, or in a fever dream, or by accident.
‘Intriguing,’ Lauren said, as they stepped into the shed and enjoyed the brief respite from the rain.
The big cardboard box in front of them didn’t give anything away, although it was perforated with small round air holes.
And then came the tiny, plaintive miaow, such a heart-rending, little baby miaow that had Lauren dropping to her knees and gasping.
‘No! You haven’t! Is it really…?’And Annie felt a little overcome by the conflicting emotions of huge relief that the little fur-baby was OK and almost immediate nerves and regret about what she’d done and what she was about to launch into her already quite full-to-the-brim family life.
‘Thank God I’m moving back for good!’ Lauren said, as she took hold of one side of the box.
‘What?!’ was Annie’s reply as she took hold of the other. ‘Yeah, I didn’t want to steal your thunder, but I’ve been offered a new job too. Publicity and marketing with Clean Up Fashion.’
‘That’s amazing, Lauren, congratulations,’ Annie beamed. ‘And quite right too! Telling Svetlana all about them when the money was rolling in and she was feeling super generous was—’