Chapter 10 #3
I watch as my sister struts the length of our deck; hand on hip she turns, looks over her shoulder, total duck face going on, and then starts walking/swaying back to where the other two pair of idiots are still laughing.
Georgia actually walks the walk pretty well. She’s modelled a few times at various charity events over the years, so she has had some practice.
I stand and shake my head before giving in and asking what the fuck they’re doing?
“Paige.” They all say together.
I raise my eyebrows in expectation and hold my hands up, gesturing for them to elaborate.
“In the bar … the man …” Ash laughs as she attempts to explain.
Jimmie is now up and attempting ‘the walk,’ but she’s wearing the shoes that George has just taken off and they’re obviously too big. She only makes four strides before going down like a sack of shit and landing in a heap on my Tasmanian Oak decking.
I actually join in the laughter this time, regretting only that I’m not filming this so I can show Len and Cam when they arrive and play it back to the girls tomorrow.
I help Jim to her feet and sit her on a chair. “Why are you taking the piss out of Paige? I don’t understand?” I question, although really not expecting a coherent answer.
“Oh my God, Marls, we told you,” Ashley whines.
“Actually, babe, you didn’t.”
Jimmie knocks back the last of the champagne from her glass and tries to top it up from the bottle, but it’s empty. They’ve drunk the lot.
“S’gone. Gononother, Marls?” Georgia asks.
“Not till you tell me why you’re taking the piss outta Paige.” They said ‘man’ and ‘bar.’ Not that I’m green-eyed or anything, but I want to know what that’s all about.
“The man in bar … bar, the bar,” Ashley starts. This could take a while.
She tilts her head and looks up at the sky before looking back at me and my stomach goes over. What the fuck happened today? I grow concerned for my wife because she’s suddenly looking like she’s about to cry.
I watch her throat move as she swallows before continuing with a shaky voice. I’m not sure if it’s the alcohol or some kind of trauma that’s caused this, and panic sets in as she looks at George, Jim, and then me. Taking a deep breath, she starts talking.
“A bloke in the bar, he… he started ch—chat—chatting with Paige. We thought he recognised her, but it was … it was George, and then me.” She’s slurring but making sense, sorta. She blinks and looks down into her lap, and when she looks up, I watch as she brushes a tear from her cheek.
“Ash, baby?” I draw in a breath as I start to feel the panic rise, not having a clue where this story is going. Ash shakes her head, hopefully to let me know that she’s okay. Taking a deep breath and speaking slowly, she continues.
“He spoke to Paige so that she—he, I mean. So that he could ask her if G was Georgia McCarthy. He was a massive Carnage fan, Marls.” Her voice rises and she sobs and then nods her head, silently composing herself before continuing.
“He had all your albums on his playlist and told us all about the times he’d seen you live.
He asked for mine and G’s autographs and we posed for pictures with him.
” The tears run freely down her face as she speaks and cries now.
“He bought us all a drink and then he just got a bit emotional and overwhelmed. He cried, Marls.” She sobs again while still trying to speak.
I look across to Jim and George who are both just staring out at nothing as they listen to her.
“He cried so hard. This man, he knew exactly where he was when he got the news about Sean and he started to tell us, but he just broke down.” She wipes her nose on the back of her arm, coz my baby’s classy like that, and I wouldn’t change her for the world.
“It’s hard. It was hard to watch. He’s a stranger, a complete stranger and he cried.
To see him, watch him cry like that was hard, and it just brought it all back.
” Her voice breaks into another sob before she takes a few deep breaths.
“I love Cam. Honest to God, Marls, Cam, and the kids, I fucking love them, but why? Why did we have to lose Maca and Beau like that to get them? It hurts and it’s shit, and I fucking hate it, but yeah, anyway.
” She shakes her head and I wipe at my own nose which is now running right along with the tears down my face.
“Anyway, Paige’s face was a picture when she realised he had no clue who she was, and he was only interested in her old aunties. It was funny. So, so funny.”
She forces a smile on her beautiful tear-stained face as she ends her story. I stand and nod my head for a few seconds, not wanting to make eye contact with my sister right now, but not sure what to say either.
“So you all decided to get drunk to celebrate?” I go for the ‘trying to be funny’ angle.
“Ferzactly,” says Jim, “but the shervice here is sit—too slow, so now we’re nearly sober again.”
“Oi. You can soon fuck off, back to your gaff if you don’t like the service at mine.” I tell her over my shoulder as I walk back to the kitchen to find them more champagne.
“Love you, Rock Star,” I hear Ash call out.
“Love you, Baby.”
“We love you, Butt,” Jimmie and George shout out, and then proceed to cackle again.
Yeah, I’ll explain that inside joke later.
The girls become a little more subdued for all of ten minutes, but once the champagne starts flowing again, the noise level rises, all except for George, that is. She remains quiet, staring out over the pool and the tennis courts.
My alarm system bleeps, letting me know that someone has punched in the gate code and is approaching the house. I check on the monitor and see Cam’s Range Rover heading up the drive.
The front door is unlocked and I know that he’ll just let himself in.
Georgia doesn’t notice as he stands, leaning against the doors that lead from the house to the deck.
He gestures with his finger to his lips for me not to announce his arrival, and I get the pleasure of watching him look at George with complete and utter devotion written in his eyes as he raises his sunglasses to his head.
G must sense she’s being watched as she turns and looks right at him, her face lighting up.
I’m turning into such a sad ol’ fucker. I can’t help but grin as I watch the silent exchange between my sister and her husband.
He walks towards her, lifts her from her chair and sits in it himself, placing G on his lap.
“Kitten,” is all that he whispers into her hair, kissing her head as he does.
“T,” she greets him.
“Love the fuck outta you.”
“You better.”
“Heard we’ve had some tears. Tough day?”
“S’all better now you’re here.”
“I’m always here, Mrs. King, always.”
“T.D.H! How’s it hanging, dude?” My wife greets Cam, ending their moment as she leans in for a kiss to his cheek as she does.
They share a special bond, those three—well, the four of us, I suppose. We were all there to witness Cam and Georgia’s twin girls that Ashley had carried for them, being delivered by caesarean section over eleven years ago.
I can honestly say that it was like watching my own children being born, and equally as stressful.
But just like with your own kids, when the drama of the birth was all over and the calm set in, I had the pleasure of witnessing this giant of a man fall apart when first one, then his second daughter, was placed in his arms.
My alarm bleeps again, letting me know that Lennon is approaching with food.
The rest of the evening is spent with the girls being noisy and us blokes just sitting back and enjoying the show.
Nobody made it to bed before three in the morning and the last to leave were Len and Jimmie at around noon on Sunday. Georgia and Cam left a little earlier to get back to the kids.
All of this means that I don’t get a chance to read again until Ash has gone to bed on Sunday night.