CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘You have to make an entrance!’ crowed Pepper.
She, Raina and Solana were sitting on stools around the kitchen island.
Raina had just revealed her plan to reject Tom Branimir’s feature.
The food was all laid out so beautifully it looked professionally catered.
There were bottles of champagne and prosecco chilling in buckets of ice.
There were carefully protected candles and little tealights dotted all around the ground floor of Raina’s little townhouse, giving it a distinctly romantic atmosphere.
A playlist that Pepper had devised (with Raina’s approval) was playing softly in the background.
Solana had even tied little glittery balloons to the front gate. Raina had laughed at the sight of them. She often received comments on her social media, criticizing her for ‘not acting her age’, and the balloons felt like a fun fuck-you to those people.
‘Please make sure I’m close by when you tell him that he doesn’t get to bother you any more,’ Pepper said gleefully. ‘Oh, please.’
‘It’s not going to be some big confrontation,’ Raina chuckled, a little uneasily. ‘I just need to set a boundary.’
Pepper’s dislike for Tom was palpable. She hadn’t been there to see the Tom Branimir who squared up to a bully during the London marathon, nor the Tom Branimir who spoke candidly about his mother and touched Raina’s feet with firm attentiveness.
‘It’ll be disappointingly civil, Pep,’ she said, steadfast in her resolve. ‘Sorry about that.’
‘Yeah, we’ll see,’ Pepper said, grinning. ‘He gets right under your skin. We’ll see how long the civility lasts.’
Raina took a moment to breathe and relax, smiling as she watched Pepper and Solana gush over each other. Raina’s hair and make-up were mostly done but she was still wearing a terrycloth robe and fluffy pink slippers.
‘Start getting dressed – people will arrive soon,’ Pepper instructed. ‘Take your time. Breathe. We’ll let you know when it’s time.’
‘In a subtle way, please,’ Raina said, laughing as she went back up the stairs.
‘I’ll play burlesque entrance music, super loud,’ Solana yelled after her.
Guests started to arrive, startlingly punctual – something Pepper despised, but Raina loved.
She shimmied into her dress and dabbed specific points of her body with perfume.
Vanilla with just the faintest hint of coconut.
She could hear the loud and excitable voices of some old colleagues from her days in the pub, as well as some of her old neighbours from her time in Poplar.
Inevitably, there would no doubt be a couple of mutual friends that she shared with Pepper.
Then a loud, booming cadence she hadn’t been anticipating.
Her heart almost stopped and her throat closed up for a millisecond, as if the sound of that voice had triggered an almost anaphylactic response.
Matt. Matt Fletcher. Ex-boyfriend.
Raina moved out onto the landing to make sure that the raised hairs on her arms were correct. She could just see him moving from the hall into the living room, with his friend Nicholas. The two had been rather inseparable, so Raina wasn’t surprised to see Nick there with him.
But she was surprised to see Matt here at all. She hadn’t, for a second, thought he would actually accept the impersonal email invite she’d sent out. She had barely thought about him during recent weeks.
She returned to her room. Her getting-ready process was a little slower, a little less exuberant.
Tom walked the empty streets of Barnes, glancing up at the detached houses and the tall, caged trees. Expensive cars and quiet, breathable air. It was a different little pocket of London, and not one he would have pictured Raina living in. It was too safe for her. Too bland.
He spotted a house with shiny balloons tied to the gate.
It was her place. He could hear music bleeding out, and the bay window at the front of the house revealed that about thirty partygoers had already arrived.
He looked down at the purple Liberty bag he was carrying her gifts in, as well as the hydrangeas he’d bought.
He knew nothing about flowers, but seeing the cluster of pale blue had reminded him of her.
‘HelloTomOhMyGodItIsSoGoodToMeetYou!’
Tom almost fell backwards down the steps as the onslaught of verbal excitement hit him in the face. A grinning girl with long dark hair was standing in the doorway and beaming at him.
‘Come in, come in,’ she shouted over the music, reaching for him.
Tom stepped into the beautifully furnished house.
He took in the narrow hallway, the stairs and the chandelier hanging down.
It was beautiful, but not how he imagined Raina would decorate a home that she completely owned for herself.
It didn’t have that slight touch of colourful eccentricity he’d come to expect.
‘Oh, you brought flowers and gifts. My God, you’re so thoughtful. Give them to me. I’ll put them in the kitchen. She’ll love these – she loves blue.’
‘Who are you, sorry?’ Tom asked.
‘Solana,’ she said, almost bruising his wrist in an aggressive handshake.
‘The little sister.’
‘She told you about me!’
She’s the sun and I’m the rain. ‘Briefly.’
‘She’ll be down in a minute. Come through.’
Tom did as he was told, following the bubbly Solana into the front room. A window had been opened but it was still warm, and full of bodies who were drinking and merrily shouting at one another.
He looked around for Pepper and was relieved to find her absent from the room. There were two men on the sofa by the window, loudly debating something, while lots of women stood in huddles, sipping prosecco.
‘What drink would you like, Tom?’ Solana asked brightly.
He would like to see her sister. ‘Whatever lager you’ve got is fine, thank you.’
She dashed out of the room, leaving him sitting awkwardly on the unoccupied sofa.
He questioned how Solana Lewis knew who he was, found himself wondering if Raina talked about him to other people.
She’d seemed incredibly happy to meet him, so whatever she’d been told, it couldn’t have been terrible.
The idea that Raina was perhaps speaking well of him behind his back made him sit up a little straighter on the sofa.
When Solana reappeared, she was carrying a small glass snifter.
‘No lager, sorry,’ she said breezily. ‘I got you Scotch.’
He smiled, despite himself. He hated whisky. Not very patriotic of him, he knew, but he’d never liked it. However, Solana looked so pleased with herself, he sipped it in a show of gratitude and said nothing.
It was Jack Daniels, not Scotch. He said nothing about that, either.
‘Bless her, she’s no good with booze.’
Tom looked up to see a man wearing a checked shirt. He had a weak beard with a ginger hue and young eyes. He was looking at Tom expectantly.
‘I don’t mind,’ Tom replied carefully, wondering who this man was. ‘Tom Branimir.’
‘Matt Fletcher. And this is Nick.’
The other man, who seemed a little less socially fluid, nodded from the corner of the room.
‘How do you know Solana, then?’ Matt asked.
‘I don’t. I know Raina.’
The man’s demeanour changed, almost imperceptibly. ‘Oh yeah?’
Tom downed the rest of his pretend Scotch. ‘Yes.’
‘She always did take too long to get ready. I still haven’t seen her yet,’ said the man, laughing in a way that made Tom want to find someone else to speak to. The possessive note in Matt’s voice when he spoke about Raina made Tom feel argumentative.
‘Excuse me,’ he said stiffly, getting up and heading for the kitchen.
He found Solana and Pepper by the kitchen island.
‘You came,’ Pepper said dully.
‘I have to just say,’ Solana interjected before Tom could fire back a retort at the heiress, ‘I’m such a fan of yours.’
Tom’s brow furrowed. ‘A fan?’
‘I’m confused as well,’ Pepper said frostily.
‘I am!’ Solana said. ‘I was telling Raina, I’ve quoted you in every single one of my essays for Modern Political Studies. I even use screenshots of your old tweets.’
Tom’s earlier firefly of hope was instantly crushed. ‘You know me from social media.’
‘Well, the news, too. When you do next day’s papers. And Question Time. I printed off that entire thread you wrote, laying into the shadow chancellor. It was so good!’
Tom managed to muster up a weak smile. It was, of course, what he wanted to see – someone interested and engaged in politics.
He’d just really been hoping that her warmth towards him was because of Raina.
He could feel Pepper glaring at him, so he met her gaze and nodded. ‘Evening.’
She made a noise of acknowledgement.
‘I’m not here on work matters,’ Tom added warily.
I don’t want to write about her any more. I want something else entirely. The piece is over.
‘Aren’t writers always working?’ Pepper replied.
‘He brought her beautiful flowers,’ Solana pointed out.
Pepper’s interrogation was cut short at the sound of high heels on the staircase. Solana squeaked and hurried out into the hall. ‘Birthday girl is coming down!’
Her words brought most of the partygoers out into the hall, where they gathered at the foot of the stairs.
Pepper shoved Tom with her shoulder, but he managed to find a spot.
He saw Matt and his comrade emerge from the living room, the former staring up at the top of the stairs.
All the strange, greasy bravado from their introduction was gone; he now gawped with amazement.
Tom turned to see for himself. His whole body tightened and his heart stopped.
Raina was standing on the top step of the stairs, smiling bashfully down at her guests. She was a glinting, gleaming vision in silver. Tom watched her hand shake just slightly as she laid it on the banister, beginning her careful and steady descent.
The women at the party were yelling in appreciation while Tom felt dazed and staggered.
She always looked good. She always dressed well. But this was different.
This was something extraordinary, and suddenly Tom couldn’t bear to be at this party if she truly didn’t want him there.
‘Thank you for coming,’ Raina said, beaming at everyone while never directly making eye contact. ‘I can see you started without me so . . . carry on.’
The crowd did just that and Tom watched as Raina made a beeline for three women who were standing by the coat-rack.
‘How are you?’ cried the hostess, hugging each one individually.
Tom found himself standing with Pepper, watching the back of Raina’s head. He turned to her and said, ‘Who’s Matt Fletcher?’
Pepper’s eyes filled with something Tom couldn’t quite read. Something dangerous. ‘He’s Raina’s ex-boyfriend. Neither of us thought he would show, and yet there he is.’
Matt, the man in question, was lingering in the hall. He was pretending to laugh loudly at whatever his friend was saying, but every part of his body language told on him. He was waiting to get a moment with Raina.
Tom watched Pepper as she watched Matt, and he found the cold hatred in her face both fascinating and unsettling. She watched him with the cool calculation of an assassin.
‘What?’ Tom murmured.
Pepper’s eyes flitted to his for a moment and then back to her target. ‘I just can’t stand seeing him here, acting like he didn’t do anything wrong. He did everything wrong.’
Tom was starting to realize that he’d grossly underestimated Pepper Cousins.
He had her penned on his writing board as a loyal, overprotective friend who was a little spoiled and frivolous.
This new Pepper, or this new side he was now witnessing, revealed something much darker. Something a little troubling.
‘What are you going to do?’
She shrugged, her face suddenly morphing into a blank and careless expression. ‘Nothing that he doesn’t deserve.’