Chapter 43
‘Drinking hot water? What’s that all about?’ Terri rounds on Logan as he fills a mug from the kettle, adding a squoosh from the cold tap to bring it down to a drinkable temperature.
‘I just like it,’ he offers.
‘It’s weird!’
‘It’s cleansing,’ he states, and she splutters, looking across to where Amanda is installed at Celia’s kitchen table with her laptop.
The three have been hanging out together on this bright and sunny Sunday morning.
They have had breakfast together – bacon rolls made by Terri – and now they are on a second pot of coffee and enjoying the fact that no one has any pressing commitments today.
Logan is back home on a brief visit – to check up on his mum, Amanda suspects.
‘ Cleansing? ’ Terri sniggers now. ‘My God, Amanda. What’s up with the youth of today? Why aren’t they smashing up phone boxes?’
‘Phone boxes?’ Logan splutters.
Amanda smiles dryly. ‘I think Terri’s stuck in 1986.’
He smirks. ‘And I’m hardly the youth any more. I’m nearly twenty-five.’
‘Virtually middle-aged,’ Terri agrees with a nod. ‘You’ll be in funeral plan adverts next.’
She catches Amanda’s eye and they laugh. They’re close, Logan and Terri; that’s obvious to Amanda, and she’s conscious of a tiny kernel of what she can only label as envy. Of course, living upstairs, Terri has witnessed him growing from being a little boy to a fine, handsome young man.
Terri isn’t at all what Amanda thought her to be at the start.
She is kind and warm, and incredibly hard-working – there’s a lot to look up to, Amanda decides.
So she has given up on maintaining a front that everything about her own life is perfect.
Now both Terri and Celia are aware that being married to Jasper isn’t quite what she’d envisaged.
They know about the potato printing and the gradual trashing of her flat.
Amanda picks up her phone, seeing that Celia has sent her a bunch of photos from the beach.
‘Oh, look at these,’ she enthuses, and Logan and Terri gather around to see.
There are bright yellow irises, something cooking in a pan over an open fire, and an attractive, dark-haired woman with strong features who can only be Enzo’s sister.
A photo of Celia too, sun-kissed and laughing to the camera.
Amanda can’t help comparing this Celia to the version who’d turned up at her wedding, stressed and alone, with a busted wheelie case, just six months ago.
She looks so happy now; the opposite of how you’d expect someone to be after they’d been lied to and cheated on.
‘Why didn’t you two go?’ Logan asks, clutching his mug.
‘Too busy with work, love,’ Terri replies.
‘And I just thought…’ Amanda starts, then hesitates. ‘I just thought your mum might like to hang out with them.’ She shrugs. ‘Without me around, I mean. She’s had an awful lot of me over the past few weeks.’
She catches Logan giving her an inscrutable look, and she sees Terri registering this too. Nothing needs to be said, Amanda feels. Celia just needed a bit of time away from this flat.
The morning passes pleasantly, with Logan having retired to his room, presumably to enjoy further mugs of hot water without ridicule. Amanda checks her emails and Terri rummages in her bag and pulls out a CD. ‘That’s old school,’ Amanda remarks.
‘It’s a favourite of mine and Celia’s,’ she says, popping it into the antiquated CD player on the shelf.
‘Oh, Celia and I always loved this music,’ Amanda enthuses as the first track fills the kitchen.
‘We do too.’ Terri grins. ‘But it was banned from the flat, so we only ever got to play it at my place, or in the car…’
‘Banned?’ Amanda stares at her. ‘By who?’
‘Who d’you think?’
A look is exchanged. ‘What did you think of him really?’ Amanda asks. ‘Before Caravan Day, I mean?’
Terri shrugs, hesitating, as if being careful how she puts it. ‘I think Celia felt as if she didn’t have much choice, back in the day.’
Amanda frowns. ‘I wish I’d known what was happening. I wasn’t a very good friend to Celia back then.’
‘You were in London,’ Terri reminds her, ‘living your life. And you’re here now, aren’t you? That’s what matters.’
‘I hope so,’ she murmurs.
Terri pats her arm. ‘Celia’s going to really miss you, you know.’
‘I’ll miss her. And you too.’ They hug, and Terri slings her bag over her shoulder, ready to head back upstairs. ‘You coming up?’
Amanda nods. ‘I will, yes. Leave Logan in peace for a bit…’ Terri smiles, and then she indicates the space on the table once occupied by Spike.
‘How d’you think she revived it? The cactus, I mean?’
Amanda laughs. ‘Honestly, I have no idea.’
Terri’s gaze meets hers. ‘She’s pretty amazing, isn’t she?’
‘Yes, she is,’ Amanda agrees with a smile. ‘She’s always had the magic touch.’