Chapter Forty-One
Joe
One year later
Everyone was at the house, and we were all waiting for the first episode of House Shared to come on the telly. It was Freya’s idea to have a big premiere party at our house to celebrate, and she had literally invited everyone we knew. We had even, for the big night, bought a much larger television set, which we’d had a man put up on the wall in the kitchen diner. It felt like a huge moment because when The Mornings had aired in 2005, Freya and I celebrated with Carl at a pub in Soho, but this felt even better and perhaps more significant. Then I was just a kid, and it was impossible to really appreciate what a huge moment it was. Also, then I hadn’t gone through the wasteland of failure, and so my comeback felt so much sweeter.
‘Where’s the champagne?’ said Freya eagerly.
‘In the mini fridge in the garden,’ I replied, as the clock ticked down to nine o’clock, when the very first episode of House Shared was going to air. Dolly was next to me with her girlfriend, Elle.
‘Are you so excited?’ said Dolly.
‘I’m ninety-nine per cent nerves,’ I replied.
‘He’s always like this before anything,’ said Freya, who had returned with two bottles of champagne. ‘He puked in the toilets at the pub before The Mornings premiered.’
‘Thanks for that historical nugget,’ I said to Freya. ‘I just want people to love it.’
‘And they totally will,’ replied Dolly with a smile.
‘Right, five minutes to go,’ said Freya. ‘Let’s get these bottles open!’
‘Need a hand?’ said Stuart, who had come back to Brighton with Lucy and the boys especially for tonight. They had moved to Rugby at the beginning of the year, and we missed them terribly, but Stuart’s new language school was going from strength to strength, and they all seemed happy. ‘I did a course once, and we were shown how to correctly open a bottle of champagne.’
‘Of course you did,’ I said. ‘Anything you can’t do, mate?’
‘Umm, let me think,’ said Stuart, and we all looked at him, before Lucy gave him a nudge.
‘Tell them about the dance class we took last month,’ said Lucy, with a delicious grin. ‘What did the instructor call you?’
We all looked towards Stuart, who said slowly and quite despondently, ‘The worst dancer with the least amount of rhythm she had ever seen.’
‘Sorry, mate,’ I said, clapping Stuart on the back. ‘But could you still open the champagne?’
Stuart smiled then opened the bottles of champagne we had bought for the occasion. There must have been about forty people in our kitchen. Freya’s mum and Marmalade were there, and Marmalade was very excited about the prospect of meeting someone famous. Unfortunately, none of the stars of the show could make it, and so he just had to make do with me. Dad and Juliette had come across from France, and it was great to see Dad so happy and, probably for the first time in his entire life, tanned. He had lost weight, too, and looked like a different man.
Barney was there with Phoebe from Bristol, who was now Phoebe who formerly lived in Bristol but now lived with Barney in Brighton, and they seemed to be really happy together – there were even rumours of an impending engagement. Carl had come alone because his girlfriend had caught him cheating, and so another relationship seemed to be over for him. We had invited other friends, and some of the BBC team. All the members of the expanded Cold Water Club were there, and there were twelve in total now. I had gone along once, but never again. I would leave the freezing cold water to Freya and her ladies. My testicles still hadn’t forgiven me!
Freya lined up all the plastic champagne flutes on the kitchen island and filled each one with champagne as we got ready for the show.
‘Everyone get a glass of champagne!’ said Freya. ‘Dolly hit the lights.’
‘Righto,’ said Dolly, who turned off the lights, and the room was suddenly almost dark except for the light from the television.
There were about four minutes to go, and I just wanted to say a few words before the show began. Once everyone had a glass of champagne, I walked to the front of the room, and looked out at everyone.
‘I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone for coming tonight. We’ve worked so hard on this show, and it’s taken us a long time, but we’re finally here and I’m so proud of it. Thank you to my wonderful daughter Dolly, for all her support and help, to Carl, my erstwhile agent, for always believing in me when many others wouldn’t, and lastly, to my beautiful wife, Freya, who made this all possible. We had some pretty dark times there for a while, but we came through them, and I can say now, without a shadow of a doubt, that we’re happier and more in love than ever. So, here’s to marriage, and to sharing a house even when you think it might be over!’
Everyone raised their glasses, and we toasted, just as the show before House Shared ended, and then the continuity announcer started speaking.
‘Turn it up!’ Dad shouted, and Freya turned the volume up as everyone went quiet and looked towards the television.
‘And now on BBC One, we have a brand-new comedy about love, marriage and parenting that asks the question… is it possible to move on when you haven’t even moved out? This is House Shared .’
Everyone in the room clapped and cheered, and then the opening credits rolled with the music they had written for the show along with a montage of old family videos. As I watched, I felt a huge wave of emotion grab me, and I reached out and held Freya’s hand on one side of me, and I put my arm around Dolly on the other. I thought briefly of our remarriage in the Maldives that Christmas. It had been incredible and so beautiful; it was impossible to put into words. We had fortunately managed to squeeze it in between breaks from writing the show and with Freya’s busy new schedule as she trained to be a solicitor. There had been points over the last ten years when I thought this would never happen again. There had been moments over the last couple of years when I wasn’t sure Freya and I would still be together. I couldn’t help the tears that leaked out of my eyes and down my face. Somehow we had made it, and staying in this house, sharing these moments, had not only saved our marriage but given me the chance to have another show on television. I had everyone and everything I needed in that room. For a second I looked towards Freya, her face lit up from the light from the television, and then I looked at Dolly, and I smiled to myself, before I turned back to the television, where the opening scene in a coffee shop in Brighton had just started.
‘I see a table back there,’ said Kate.
‘Right, I’ll get the coffees. The usual?’ said Dan.