Chapter 29
29
Jess successfully whiled away the days counting down until big-date Wednesday by throwing herself into her work, taking time off only to heed Nora’s advice and upgrade her underwear drawer. It was ironic, really, that the gorgeous pale green, French lace bra and briefs she’d splurged on probably cost more than the entire contents of her wardrobe put together! She definitely drew the line at second-hand undies, though, she’d mused as she carefully snipped the tags off, and after the shock of her support knickers, Nick deserved every penny she’d spent on her new lingerie. She must remember to tell her mother she’d upgraded in that department, too, because it might shut her up for five minutes.
Actually, she thought, frowning, it was strange that she hadn’t heard from Marian. She’d have put money on her ringing with a pre-date pep talk. She’d kept expecting the phone to ring, half of her hoping it would be Owen with an update about Wilbur and the other half hoping Nick would call just to see how she was. It had, however, remained stubbornly silent on all fronts.
It wasn’t until Tuesday morning, though, that she realised she’d been so busy tapping away at her laptop that she hadn’t heard from Nora either. For all she knew, she could be laid up in a French hospital with a broken leg thanks to her ridiculous waterskiing expedition. What kind of a friend was she? Jess chastised herself, picking the phone up, images of poor injured Nora swimming before her eyes as she speed-dialled her friend at work.
Nora answered on the fifth ring. But instead of the usual harried ‘I’m so busy’ tone she reserved for work, her voice was despondent.
‘Hey, you sound awful. What’s up?’
‘Nothing. I’m fine.’
‘No, you’re not – spill.’
‘No, I’m not.’ Nora finished with a sniffling sound.
Jess knew better than to try to get to the bottom of whatever the problem was while Nora was at work. She was too much of a professional to offload between the hours of nine and five, so she decided to take action instead. ‘Right, that’s it. Nora Brennan, I’m calling a girly get together. Be at my place, seven o’clock tonight.’
‘But I’m?—’
‘Nope. Whatever it is, cancel it. I’ll ring Brianna. See you then.’
Nora obviously knew better than to try to argue. ‘Oh, all right – and Jess?’
‘Yes?’
‘Thanks.’
‘You don’t have to thank me. That’s what friends are for.’
Jess hung up, frowning, and wondered what on earth had her normally upbeat and in-control friend down in the doldrums. It was most unlike her to let a man affect her the way Ewan apparently was.
‘Don’t let him have packed it in with her,’ she said aloud to the empty room before tapping out Brianna’s number. Nora would be devastated if that were the case.
Brianna was home, and the girls spent ten minutes speculating as to what could have happened between love’s young dream before agreeing that Brianna was in charge of crisps and dips while Jess would get the crackers and whip up one of her famous cheese balls, a Kiwi party staple of old. They’d both buy wine. They had a feeling they were going to need plenty.
Jess stopped work late that afternoon in order to trot off down to Tesco’s. She was a woman on a mission, tossing the necessary cheese ball ingredients of both cheddar and cream cheese, salad cream, chopped nuts and some token greenery – a bunch of chives – into her basket. Throwing in a box of crackers, she decided that if the circumstances were as dire as she suspected they might be, then they could be in need of serious reinforcements so she added a king-sized bar of chocolate to her groceries – just in case.
When she got to the wine aisle, the only special she could find worth bothering with was an Australian Sav, so muttering, ‘It’ll have to do,’ she plucked a couple of bottles off the shelf.
At the checkout, she received a sympathetic smile from the girl serving as her comfort food got stacked into a plastic bag. ‘I always find Milky Bar does the trick personally,’ she said, waving the bar of fruit-and-nut chocolate under the scanner.
Chocolate was indeed the universal language of sisterhood, Jess thought as she headed home to begin rolling her big cheesy ball.