Chapter 3
Eden
“How’s the McFerren painting coming along?” Gran calls down the phone. Pots and pans bang in the background.
“It’s getting there. I’m not sure I want to take on too many animal commissions, Gran.”
“You can’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Eden. That fella’s paying you a bloody fortune to encapsulate his ferret.”
Don’t I know it! Who the bloody hell spends thousands of pounds on a portrait of a ferret?
Mr McFerren, that’s who. He’s a wealthy Scot with more money than sense.
I don’t know how Gran finds them…but she does.
McFerren is just one of a long line of clients I’ve had since starting college, thanks to my gran.
When her arthritis became so bad she couldn’t sculpt or paint, the woman took it upon herself to become somewhat of an agent. My agent. I was halfway through a lecture when I got an email from her with a list of clients who wanted to commission me for all types of paintings.
My bank account has never looked so healthy. The sales I’ve made are the reason I can afford a nice apartment. One I could pay for by myself, but I don’t want to live alone, which is why Bella, the tiny menace, is my roomie. Becca too, I guess, because she’s all but moved in.
“I know that, but I’d like some variety.” I sigh. I long for the days when my dream life was to finish college, move to a cottage by the sea and paint. I was more than happy to be a starving artist, but noooo! Gran had to make me a successful painter, didn’t she? God, the nerve.
I’m just fucking about. I’m over the moon that my work is getting recognised and that so many people want to work with me. I’m beyond fortunate to have someone as tenacious as my gran in my corner.
“Well, how’s this for variety…” she asks, and then trails off.
“What? Are you going to finish the sentence?”
She chuckles. “I just like messing with you, kid. Yes, I’m going to finish the sentence. You, my dear Eden Sawyer, have got yourself a gallery show…in London!”
My brain misfires and goes blank. There’s no way she just said I have a gallery showing. In London, right?
“Eden? Are you still there?”
“Can you repeat that, please?”
“I asked if you were still there,” Gran replies.
Huffing, I shake my head. “Gran, stop titting about. Repeat the bit about the gallery show.”
“Oh, that,” she says. “Yeah, you have a gallery show in London.”
It’s still not computing. “I need more information. What…how?”
Gran tuts. “You’re just like your granddad when surprised. A proper numpty.”
Well, that’s nice to know, I suppose. Wouldn’t want to be the only numpty in the family.
“Gran!”
“Alright, keep your knickers on. Remember the commission you did for that rather striking lady, the blonde one, tall. Sort of looked like…never mind. You remember?”
How could I forget? Yes, she was twenty years older than Sloane, but her features were eerily similar. It took all my strength not to cry every time we video called.
“Mrs Villeneuve,” I mutter.
“That’s the one. Well, she was so happy with your work she talked to her gallery owner friend, and Bob’s your uncle!
He took one look at her painting and then your portfolio and booked you in.
He wants to showcase some of your older work and a couple of new pieces that he’s happy for you to choose. ”
“Fuuuuck!”
“That’s what I said.” Gran laughs. “The show is in five months, so that gives you time to get the ferret done and then pick what you want to include with your older work.”
“Gran…this…I…”
“You’re going somewhere, Eden. I told you it would happen, didn’t I? I’ve known you were made for big things since you were a kiddy painting on my walls.”
“You let me!”
“Of course I did, I’m not complaining, honey. It was your mum who got all silly about it.”
“Yeah, because she knew I’d start decorating the house as soon as I got home.”
Gran cackles down the phone. “And you did! Bloody hilarious. I told your mum it was retribution for all the times she deafened me with her music growing up.”
I grin. “Glad I could help you out.”
“So, the show. Are you up for it?”
Gran knows me better than anyone, so she knows full well I’m up for it.
“Of course! Let me have a think. I want to make something new. Something unlike my other work.”
“That’s my girl. Right, I need to finish making your grandad his breakfast. I’ll transfer over the payment for the ferret as soon as it’s finished. Are you still on track with the deadline?”
“Yup, next week will be good.”
“Perfect. Say hello to your mum and dad for me. Better yet, tell them to pick up the bloody phone once in a while. Oh, and tell Jenna she better be visiting this summer, otherwise I’m writing her out of the will!”
Laughing, I agree to pass on the messages. When we’ve hung up, I have to remain seated for a minute or two. I can’t believe I’m going to have my own gallery show. I’ve always dreamed of it, and I would’ve settled for a local showing in town, but this? London! Wow!
In the living room, Bella is spread out on the couch with her laptop and piles of snacks.
She gets like this when she has an important job to finish with a tight deadline.
I don’t have the foggiest what she does, except that it has to do with code.
My brain stops functioning when she starts yapping on about it.
Computers and I are casual acquaintances at best.
“I’m going over to my parents’. Want to come?” I ask.
Bella looks at me with a Jolly Rancher hanging out of her mouth. Her eyes look glassy, so I’m guessing she’s been hard at it for some time.
“I didn’t know you were even home,” she replies.
“Nice,” I snort. “Where’s Becca?”
Bella looks around the apartment. “Isn’t she here?”
“Jesus Christ, woman. No, she isn’t here, I am.”
“Right. I have no idea where she is then.”
Walking over to her, I close the lid of her laptop. “Break time.”
“Eden—“
“Nah, Bel. You’re resembling a cave troll. Time for some fresh air, and food that isn’t ninety percent saturated fat or sugar. Come on, it’s a nice day. Mum and Dad will be grilling.”
Scrubbing her face, Bella nods. “Yeah, okay. Food and fresh air.”
I wait for her to pack away her shit and stick on some boots. It’s a million degrees outside, but Bella refuses to wear anything but Doc Martens. She’s like me in that respect, which is why I like her so much.
The walk to my parents’ house is twenty minutes. If Bella weren’t with me, I’d run it, however she is with me, and the chance of getting Bella to run voluntarily is zero.
“So, what’s the skinny?” Bella asks. “What’s happened in your life since yesterday?”
Throwing my arm around her, I laugh. “Oh, you know. Cleaning my room, painting a ferret…getting my own gallery show in London.”
Bella stops walking, turns and pulls me down by my very cool Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle suspenders until I’m eye level with her.
“Say that again.”
Grinning, I stare into her eyes and repeat. “My own gallery show…in London.”
Bella erupts into a fountain of cuss words that I know are encouraging, yet sound hella insulting. Laughing, I grab hold of her shoulders to keep her from bouncing into the road.
“Calm down, you nut bag!”
“Calm down?” she shouts. “Eden, this is fucking epic! Oh my god, I’m so proud of you. Will you have to go to London? Can I come? Can Becca come? Have you told Pia?”
“Will you slow down? Bloody hell, I’ve only just found out myself, so I’ve no idea if I’ll have to go to London, and no I haven’t told Pia in the ten seconds it took me to walk from my bedroom to the living room after talking to my grandma.”
“Call her! She’s going to be so happy.”
“Bella, Pia is going to be hormonal and sweaty. Nothing I say will make her happy.”
Pia is eight and a half months pregnant. She and Todd forgot one too many times about birth control and that was that. Baby Pia is on the way. Her parents hit the fucking roof when they found out. It was only when Todd asked Pia to marry him that they calmed the hell down.
Pia was a mess for the first three months, and not just because she was barfing every morning. She didn’t appreciate Todd bowing down to her parents and putting them both in an impossible position.
I remember the three weeks Pia spent sleeping in my bed in my dorm room.
She turned up with a suitcase and tears streaming down her face.
I was expecting her because Todd gave me a heads-up.
Even though Pia was super pissed at him, he still made sure she was safe by booking her ticket to California and having a Lyft waiting at the airport.
My roommate was cool with a snotty and hormonal Pia hogging the couch and the TV.
After three very long weeks, she was calm enough to go home and talk things out with Todd.
Turns out she was actually excited about tying the knot with him, which came as no surprise to any of her friends.
They’ve been in love forever and belong together.
Granted, their life plans are steaming along much quicker than any of us predicted, but hell… if they’re happy, so am I.
“She will be sweaty, but she’ll be smiling!” Bella replies. We start walking again because the sun is fucking relentless. It’s hot enough I didn’t even contemplate bringing a hoodie.
Pulling out my phone, I shoot Pia a text to see if she wants to come to my parents’.
Even though Pia’s mum and dad are cool about the baby, they still manage to spend eighty percent of the time travelling.
Pia and Todd live on the same street as them because Pia’s mum insisted they stay close, which is ironic.
Todd works for his dad and is out of the house a lot, which leaves Pia alone.
Like in high school, she spends a lot of time at my parents’ house, even though I no longer live there.
My mum supplies her with endless support and chips.
I get a message back telling me she’s already at the house, which makes me smile.
We round the corner, and Bella starts to skip up the walkway until she lands on my parents’ porch.
Like most of my friends, she doesn’t knock but walks right on in.
My parents have no boundaries with the people they love, and my friends fall squarely into that group.
Especially as they kept me going through…
it doesn’t matter. Bella, Becca, Pia, and Todd were, and are, beautiful people and I’m so pleased we all ended up back here after college.
“I’m here,” Bella calls. “Come give me some love, Sawyers!”
I hear Mum laugh before she steps out of the kitchen and straight into Bella’s arms. Dad calls from the backyard, where I can smell the grill cooking veggies. “Come on out here, little one, and say hello.”
I think my dad is the only human alive who can get away with calling Bella “little one.”
Pia follows, or I should say waddles, after my mum. Opening my arms, I draw her in as much as physically possible. She’s fucking huge. I’m scared she’s going to push out a full-grown human at this rate.
“Hey, P, how ya feeling?”
She mumbles into my tank top. I can’t make out the words, but her tone makes me think she’s not super happy about still being pregnant.
Pulling away, I cup her face. “You look great, P. Glowing!”
She frowns. “Don’t lie to me, Eden. I look like Jabba the Hutt!”
Biting my cheek, I take a beat before answering. Pia doesn’t take kindly to being laughed at. I learned that the hard way.
“You look breathtaking, love.”
“I just want it out,” she moans. Mum steps up behind her and massages her shoulders.
“Soon, Pia. You’re almost there. Now, why don’t you take Bella to the kitchen and grab the salad. I want to say hello to my daughter.”
“Her favourite daughter,” I add with a grin.
“You’re such an arse,” Jenna shouts from the top of the stairs. I still love ribbing her, and it really doesn’t take much.
“Oh, I didn’t see you there, Luce.”
She rolls her eyes. “The Lucifer joke is so old.”
“And yet I still find it funny.”
To be fair, Jenna isn’t the surly arse she was four years ago.
In fact, she’s a lot more outgoing and confident now.
She doesn’t hide her love of pop music and cheerleading.
Also, she’s stopped regarding her cereal like Smaug guarding a pile of gold.
I told her that once, and she looked at me totally confused because she’s never seen any of The Lord of the Rings films. Seriously, how are we related?
“So lame,” she says, but gives me a hug.
“You look good, Jenna.”
She shrugs. “I’m busting my butt to stay in shape. Speaking of which, when are we starting our running club?”
“Jenna, it’s hardly a club if it’s just you and me!”
“Whatever,” she snorts. “When are we starting?”
“Monday? Meet here at six?”
She fist bumps me. “Deal.”
I go to walk into the kitchen, but Jenna stops me. Her face has slipped from carefree silliness to serious.
“Um, E, can I talk to you before we eat?”
“Can it wait until after? I’ve got something to share with you all.”
Her smile is there, but not one I’d associate with actual happiness. She’s looking at me with a weird look of sympathy in her eyes.
“You good?” I ask.
She swallows and nods. “Yeah. It can wait until later. Just…just promise me you won’t leave until we talk.”
Looking over my shoulder, I make sure neither of our parents is in earshot. When I’m satisfied we won’t be overheard, I take Jenna by the hand and lead her to the living room.
“Jenna, are you in trouble?”
She sighs. “No, I promise I’m not. I just have something to tell you, and I don’t want to wait, okay?”
“Alright. Once we’ve had lunch, I’m all yours.”
The interaction has left me feeling weird.
Jenna gives me another small smile and heads outside.
I follow and do my best to get back into the spirit of the day.
Mum and Dad are busy fawning over Bella and Pia.
Mum asks where Becca is, but we still don’t know.
Bella messages her but doesn’t hear anything back during lunch.
When we’ve finished eating, I stand and tap my beer bottle. “Can I have your attention, please?”
Everyone stops their conversations and turns my way. When I’ve finished explaining about the gallery show, I’m surrounded by arms squashing me and squealing in my ear. The only person not excited is my sister.
What the hell does she need to tell me?