Chapter Seventeen
How the hell could she be married? She had spent all her daydreams on the perfect dress, the perfect pieces of music, and the perfect menu and it turned out that for her wedding she was dressed in nylon, listening to Radio 2 and eating sarnies from the catering trailers. That was her special day? Where was all the rose petal confetti? Where was the horse drawn cart, where were her sisters? She liked foreigners but she hadn’t expected there to be so many Germans on her special day. She wiped a tear away, this was ridiculous, she was overwhelmed with self-pity. Her emotions were all over the place recently. Well what did she expect? she thought with a laugh, new brides were bound to be emotional. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she took a steadying breath and looked around her.
She was sitting in the National Gallery cafe waiting for Aster. She loved this space and had often sat here as a child with her parents. Trips to the free museums and art galleries were all they could afford but her parents would always insist on buying a drink and a packet of crisps from the cafe as a way of saying thanks to the institutions. Raising five girls on basic wages was always going to be a struggle but Paddy rarely felt they did without. Instead of going to stadiums to watch the latest pop star, her folks had started to take the girls to the local band nights at the nearby social club. That had been fun and some of the bands were really decent. Her overwhelming memory, though, was that adults could be quite stupid and were rubbish dancers. It made her stop and grin to think she was probably older now than some of those ‘adults’ she had so blithely dismissed. To be so young and certain. But on one thing she could agree with her younger self: adults could be very stupid. Pulling out her phone she hit favourites and was gratified when her agent answered straightaway.
‘Hello, Duncan. I need your help, I’ve screwed up.’ She could just picture Duncan rolling his eyes and waving at his secretary to pour him a coffee. He had begged Paddy not to do the film shoot without a proper contract; now he was settling down for his favourite pastime: being proved right.
‘It’s that German film show thing, isn’t it? I knew you should have been properly signed up.’
Paddy moved her phone to the other ear as a young family squeezed past her table and started to settle down behind her.
‘So, what’s gone wrong? Tell me all about it and I’ll tell you how we’ll fix it.’
‘Hmm, well it’s tricky.’ Paddy squeezed her tea bag and looked around the room. Deciding no one nearby would be remotely interested in her conversation she took a deep breath, but Duncan rolled on.
‘Holly, dear, there is nothing you can do that I can’t fix. Besides you don’t do anything. You are my golden girl. How can you screw that up? I had Coco in here the other day and, well I can’t tell you what she did, confidentiality clauses and all that, but trust me, nothing you say is going to outshine that.’
Confident that no one could overhear her Paddy continued, ‘Did she accidentally get herself married? No? Then I win.’
Paddy could just picture Duncan’s face.
‘Wait, are you joking?’ Duncan switched from gossip queen into the ruthless agent she knew and loved. ‘Of course you’re not. Right. Give me all the details. Leave nothing out.’
By the end of the call Paddy was exhausted. Duncan had asked her to go over every scene and exchange and finally had chided her for going to the meeting without him. ‘It’s what you pay me for. Now are you certain that I know everything?’ Deciding he didn’t need to know absolutely everything, she told a tiny lie and then hung up. Finally, she relaxed as he reassured her that not a word of this would get out.
‘Hello Ugly!’ Paddy jumped.
‘Aster! Stop doing that! Do you like bloody float or something?’ Leaping up she gave her little sister a huge hug. It had been almost two months since Ari’s wedding and she missed her very much, tucked away down in Cornwall.
‘Sorry I’m late. You know, London.’ They both shrugged; despite growing up there they had mostly avoided the centre. Like all Londoners, they did all they could to avoid the tourist hot spots.
Aster began to tell Paddy about her day, making her laugh at all her observations. ‘There was this one woman that had totally smudged her lipstick and I was about to tell her when she shoved me out of her way.’
Paddy rolled her eyes. ‘God some people are so rude. Why do they have to be like that?’
‘Ah don’t worry, it gets better. The man she was with, helped catch me as I fell, and he didn’t have a single trace of lipstick anywhere on him!’
‘No!’
‘Yep. Cheating baggage. I hope he spots it and kicks her to the kerb.’
Paddy laughed. Aster was so incredibly observant and so black and white. The woman had been rude to her and now deserved everything that was about to rain down on her.
‘So, tell me all about that phone call. Why did Duncan want to know the ins and outs of your meeting? Wasn’t he there, and how can you possibly be married?’
Paddy groaned and once again she related the sorry mess, and as ever Aster’s grilling was even more thorough than Duncan’s. At the end of it she just looked at Paddy and pursed her lips. ‘You’re protesting quite a lot about all this?’
‘Damn right I am. It’s my reputation at stake.’
Aster dipped her finger into the crisp packet for the final crumbs. ‘The reputation relating to the career that you are leaving?’
‘Yes. Oh don’t say it like that, you always try to twist everything! If I leave now under a cloud people will think I was driven out.’
Aster raised her eyebrow and asked Paddy if she was finished with her packet. Cleaning that one out as well she leant back on her chair. ‘Fair enough. That makes sense I suppose. Now shall we go and have a look at the new exhibition and see if we can spot any of Otto’s work.’
Paddy laughed, pleased the moment of tension had passed. Aster was always the most astute of any of her sisters and she hadn’t wanted her to see just how upset she was by Hal. She knew she didn’t have to ask Aster not to tell the others about the wedding. It wasn’t that Aster was discreet it was more that she hoarded, only releasing her treasure when she felt it benefited the family and for no other reason.
As they left the café, Paddy wondered what she was going to do about her feelings for Hal. When he had walked into the producer’s office her heart had somersaulted and she could still see the marks in her skin where she had dug her nails into her palms to keep the smile of her face. The fact of the matter was, that was had fallen for the charms of a scoundrel and the less her sisters knew, the better.