Chapter 8 #2
‘I’ll just have one,’ Sive said, taking a glass of champagne as a girl proffered a tray. ‘I don’t want to drink too much. We have to be up early in the morning.’ She took a sip. ‘What time are we meeting up for striking the set?’ she asked Sam.
‘Early,’ Sam said. ‘Around ten?’
‘Cool. I’ll be there.’
‘You don’t have to,’ Sam said. ‘We have plenty of volunteers.’
‘I know, but I want to. Besides, I need to organise the costumes.’
‘You’re striking the set?’ Andrea asked Sive. ‘That’s very democratic of you.’
‘That’s the ethos of Halfpenny Lane,’ Sive said happily.
‘Well, I’m sorry I can’t join you,’ Andrea said, with not an ounce of regret in her voice. ‘But I’ve got a brunch with friends booked. I feel quite guilty now, but I haven’t seen them in months, what with the show and rehearsals.’
‘Don’t worry about it, you’ve earned a break,’ Sive said, determined to play nice.
Andrea, Mimi and Mitch had all been working a punishing schedule of daytime rehearsals and evening shows for the last couple of weeks.
Still, she couldn’t help wondering why an actress with Andrea’s skill wouldn’t make more of an effort to portray the emotions she claimed to feel.
‘And we’ve got plenty of helpers,’ Sam said.
‘How are you enjoying A Christmas Carol?’ Andrea turned her attention to Sam. ‘I must say, I was surprised when I saw you were in the cast. I never knew you were an actor. Where did you train?’
‘Oh, I didn’t. Unless you count the drama society at college. I’m self-taught.’
‘Like Aoife and Andrew Scott,’ Sive said, daring Andrea to make an issue of it.
‘Really?’ Andrea raised her eyebrows dramatically.
‘And now you’re playing young Scrooge? Lucky you!
Well, they do say this business is all about who you know.
’ She glanced across the room at Mimi. Sive had almost forgotten that Sam had pretended to date Mimi last year.
It was just a ruse for Rocco’s benefit, to convince him that Mimi was over him, but Andrea didn’t know that.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ she asked, bristling. ‘Sam’s very good.’
‘Oh, of course you are,’ Andrea put a consoling hand on Sam’s arm. ‘But it’s about getting the opportunity in the first place, isn’t it? I mean, there’s no shame in it. You have to make the most of anything you can use to get a foot in the door, so good for you.’
‘I did audition…’ Sam said.
‘My sisters and I aren’t even involved in casting decisions,’ Sive said furiously. ‘Mimi and I auditioned ourselves. And Sam got that part fair and square because he deserved it.’
‘There’s no need to be so defensive,’ Andrea said. ‘It’s not that long ago that the casting couch was considered a perfectly acceptable route into the business.’
‘Casting couch!’ Sive fumed, aghast, while Sam blushed. ‘If you’re suggesting—'
‘Of course not,’ Andrea said with a tinkly laugh. ‘Don’t mind me. I’m just joking.’
‘I don’t see what’s funny about implying my sisters and I are—are—' Sive stuttered, feeling her face burn with indignation.
‘I’m sorry, I honestly didn’t mean any offence. I forget that not everyone has my sense of humour.’
What sense of humour was that, Sive wondered – the unfunny kind?
‘Oh, there’s Nina,’ Andrea said, glancing across the room at the director of Private Lives. ‘I must go and say hello.’
‘Yes, “stand not upon the order of your going,”’ Sive mumbled under her breath, quoting Lady Macbeth as Andrea walked away.
‘Phew!’ Sam wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.
‘Wow, I knew Mimi didn’t like Andrea, but I had no idea what she’s had to put up with the last couple of months. The cheek of her, implying that Mimi’s some kind of awful predator, making people sleep with her for parts,’ Sive spluttered indignantly.
‘Well, to be fair, Mimi did bribe me to date her in exchange for putting me up for young Scrooge,’ Sam said with a smirk.
Sive laughed. ‘Oh god, that’s true.’
‘It was just pretend, though. It’s not like I had to make the ultimate sacrifice,’ Sam said melodramatically and Sive giggled.
‘Just don’t let Mimi hear you referring to sleeping with her as the ultimate sacrifice.’
They were interrupted by a loud tinkling and turned to see Rocco and Mimi standing in front of the fireplace, Mimi tapping a fork against her glass to command attention.
Sive turned to Aoife who had materialised at her side and they looked at each other, eyebrows raised. This was unexpected. They’d none of them ever been given to speech-making at parties.
‘Sorry to interrupt,’ Mimi said, her voice carrying through the room as conversation fell off and a hush descended over the assembled guests. ‘We won’t keep you long. Don’t worry, we’re not going to start speechifying, but we have a quick announcement to make.’
‘First of all, thank you all for being here,’ Rocco said, raising a glass.
‘We have news, and we wanted you all to be the first to hear it.’
‘I asked Mimi to marry me,’ Rocco said, slipping an arm around Mimi’s waist and looking at her adoringly.
‘And I said only if he’d marry me back,’ Mimi said, and the quiet was broken by a ripple of laughter.
‘And we both said yes!’ Rocco grinned.
‘So, long story short, we’re engaged!’ Mimi held up her left hand, showing off a ring that definitely hadn’t been there before. There was no way Sive would have missed that.
There was a moment’s stunned silence, broken by clapping and shouts of congratulations as glasses were raised. Then the pair of them were surrounded as everyone rushed forward to hug them and examine Mimi’s ring in a flurry of kisses and questions and more congratulations.
‘Well, that explains why they insisted on having the whole family here,’ Sive said, turning to Aoife, who’s eyes were welling up as they joined the throng around Mimi and Rocco.
‘Congratulations!’ they chorused when they finally got their turn with the happy couple, hugging them both in turn before Rocco was engulfed by another of his siblings.
‘I’m so happy for you,’ Aoife said. ‘Let’s see the ring.’
Mimi held out her hand. She was beaming, and Sive didn’t think she’d ever seen her sister so completely and simply happy.
‘Oh, it’s beautiful,’ Sive breathed taking Mimi’s hand to examine the ring.
It was chunky, a large rectangular emerald flanked on all sides by sparkling diamond clusters, and it was nothing like the standard engagement rings that filled the windows of every jewellery store in the city. It was so Mimi, and it was perfect.
‘Gorgeous,’ Aoife said. ‘Vintage?’
‘Of course. Art deco.’
‘This is a bit sudden, isn’t it?’ Aoife said.
‘Hardly,’ Mimi said with a laugh. ‘I mean, give or take four years, we’ve been together since we started acting school. And we’ve agreed we’re not mentioning those four years ever again. They’re wiped from the record.’
‘Understood,’ Aoife said.
‘And when you know, you know,’ Rocco said happily, turning to join them.
‘I mean, it’s not as if either of us was going to marry anyone else, is it?’ Mimi said. ‘We want to be together and have a family, so why not get on with it?’
Sive gasped at the mention of having a family. ‘You’re not—’
Mimi laughed. ‘Calm down. No, I’m not pregnant. We’re not moving that fast.’
‘But watch this space,’ Rocco said with a grin.
‘Golly! This is … wow!’ Lost for words, Sive grinned at them, but she felt her face crumbling and her eyes welling up.
She didn’t know why she felt so emotional, but she was suddenly overwhelmed.
At least they’d be written off as happy tears – but she knew they weren’t, at least not entirely, and she couldn’t fathom why.
She was genuinely thrilled for them. She adored Rocco, and she loved seeing her sister so happy.
‘Sorry,’ she said, swiping at her eyes. ‘I’m just …’
Aoife threw an arm around her.
She was grateful when Mimi’s attention was drawn away by another wave of well-wishers. She never thought she’d be so glad to see Andrea.
‘Congratulations!’ Andrea beamed, taking Mimi’s hand and peering at the ring on her finger. ‘I’m so happy for you both.’ She threw an arm around Mimi and pulled her into a brief hug.
‘Thanks.’
‘I can’t help feeling I had a little part to play in this.’ Her eyes darted coyly between Mimi and Rocco.
‘Oh?’ Mimi raised her eyebrows. ‘Can’t you?’
‘Well, if a certain someone hadn’t given you a nudge …’ Andrea gave Mimi a conspiratorial smile.
Sive could tell Mimi was seething, but she plastered on a closed-mouth smile.
‘I saw this coming from the start, didn’t I?’
Big deal, Sive thought. You’d want to have the sensitivity of a sledgehammer not to see that Rocco and Mimi belonged together.
‘I know I gave you a bit of a run for your money for a while there,’ Andrea said in a low voice as Rocco moved away. ‘But the better woman won. No hard feelings.’ She gave Mimi’s arm a friendly rub.
‘That’s really big of you, Andrea.’
Andrea drifted off to join the group around Rocco, congratulating him.
‘Ugh, that girl!’ Mimi said through clenched teeth when she was out of earshot.
‘She’s unbelievable,’ Sive laughed. ‘Earlier she was being mean to Sam and implying he only got a part in A Christmas Carol because he used to go out with you.’
‘What?’
Sive nodded. ‘She even mentioned the casting couch. As if we’re some kind of horrible impresarios making people shag us for parts in our plays.’
Mimi growled.
‘Though you did only promise to put Sam up for the part if he’d be your boyfriend,’ Aoife pointed out.
‘Fake boyfriend, though.’ Mimi sniffed. ‘It’d never stand up in court.’
They were interrupted by Mitch and Nina coming to offer Mimi their congratulations, and Sive drifted away.
‘Well, that was a surprise,’ Sam said, appearing at her side. ‘Or was it? Were you expecting it?’
‘No, not at all.’ Sive was annoyed to feel tears pricking the backs of her eyes again. She blinked rapidly to dispel them.
‘Are you okay?’ Sam frowned at her in concern.