35 #3
“She never has plans Jerome,” snorted Liz.
It was true, Liz’s mother Carol, lived a very mundane life.
She worked nine to five in an insurance company.
Her husband was in corporate banking. They went on holiday twice a year.
One holiday would be somewhere in the Mediterranean for two weeks, usually June time, when it wasn’t too hot and always an all inclusive.
The second was for a week city break either in the UK or Europe, at the end of September, when the prices dropped.
They lived a structured and very monotonous life.
They ate out every Friday at the same Chinese restaurant and once a month they went out for Sunday lunch.
There was no excitement or spontaneity at all.
Their circle of friends were boring and Liz’s step father’s family were dull and tedious.
Every time she visited her mother it brought back memories of the unexciting life she had led and the exact reason for wanting to leave that mind-numbing existence.
“I could leave on Boxing day morning. I’d be there in two hours, possibly longer if there’s traffic.
Maybe stay overnight and come back the following evening.
Or even the day after, I mean if I’m going down all that way, I should stay at least a couple of days and you’ll be tied up at work anyway.
What do you think?” The more Liz thought about it the more she liked the idea.
She’d be able to leave the children with her mother on some pretext of visiting an old friend, or shopping and meet up with Jonathan.
Her mother wouldn’t even question it or suspect anything, relishing the time with her grandchildren.
“Er, sure,” Jerome answered, a little stunned that her unexpected suggestion meant, Nina got more than her two days off, his family would be together on Christmas Day and he was able to work at La Casa and Sky at the busiest time.
All without an argument or much of a compromise.
He’d miss the children but it was the least he could do.
Carol only saw them half a dozen times a year because of the distance, so this way she’d get some quality time with them.
“Right. Well I’ll go and ring her with the good news and then we can have lunch?”
“Great.” Jerome nodded, relieved. He watched a surprisingly happy Liz leave the kitchen and head upstairs. He sighed to himself. She really was trying to make things work, he was going to have to try that much harder to forgive her.
“I NEED AN ESSPRESO and I need something to eat!” huffed Gia, lowering herself into one of her sumptuous chairs.
She’d spent the first part of the morning setting up her Facebook account and then going over a few basic steps with Dani.
They’d then spent the rest of the morning, as well as lunchtime, at the wholesalers selecting the decorations for the fortieth anniversary.
The Mondays that they’d been spending together had brought the two women closer, creating a unique familiarity between them.
Initially their relationship was fuelled by work but recently, and especially over the last two weeks, their relationship had definitely become more personal.
Dani genuinely looked forward to their time together.
Gia seemed to fill the gap the death of her mother had left.
The weather had turned just as they unloaded the last of the items into the foyer and then the heavens had opened.
“I’ll make the coffee,” suggested Dani. “I didn’t think we’d make it in before it started coming down!”
“Me neither. I’ll go to the restaurant kitchen and see what I can put us together for a late lunch.”
Within an hour, they were in the function room, having quickly eaten some ravioli and salad and were now organising the decorations. Dani brought down Gia’s laptop so they could search a few new ideas while they started assembling everything.
Dani was determined to make the room as chic as possible.
There was a tendency to go overboard on a particular colour, or element when function decorations were done and Dani felt they came off a little gaudy and cheap.
She’d visualised something that had a touch of red rather than overpowering the whole scheme of the room.
Gia fell in with whatever she suggested, glad not to have to make too many decisions and just enjoying the company of a like minded younger woman.
Dani was just finishing off one of the table decorations when Gia’s laptop made a pinging sound indicating she had a message.
“You’ve got a Facebook message Gia!”
“Really?”
Gia twisted the laptop around to face her and blushed. “It’s from Raymoundo. We just became friends on Facebook.“ She couldn’t hide her excitement.
“Well, you remember how to answer don’t you?”
“Er, yes. But what shall I say?” Gia darted her eyes to Dani.
“Hello might be a good start,” Dani answered dryly.
Gia rolled her eyes. “Very funny, I mean after that.”
“Are you seeing him again?”
“Well we didn’t make plans as such. He knew I’d be busy over the weekend, with the restaurant, so we left it open ended.”
“Do you want to?” Dani asked tentatively.
Gia nodded.
“Then ask him out.”
“Me? I don’t know, isn’t that a little…” Gia tilted her head from left to right.
“Forward?”
“Well yes. I would’ve said brazen even,” agreed Gia. “Ask a man out?” she squirmed at the thought.
“No! Make it casual. Like… um… ‘What are you up to later?’ and then he may take the hint.”