Chapter 10
Jack looked from the tall blonde woman on his left to the shorter brunette on his right and back again.
‘Do you two know each other?’
‘Do we?’ said Anna, a grin taking over all her features.
Tam’s face mirrored hers and she found herself opening her arms and they embraced in a long, tight hug.
Anna’s lovely perfume filled Tam’s nose and took her back ten years to the joyous days of university.
A million images and sound bites and feelings flooded her memory, rushing at her like the best sort of assault.
‘We were best pals at uni,’ said Anna, when they eventually drew apart, that grin Tam had missed just getting wider.
Jack held the chair out for Tam and she sat cautiously, checking the chair was in position because she’d never quite trusted someone not to whip it away as a ruse, a ‘trick’ of her brother’s.
He had a puerile sense of humour and she hoped he didn’t do things like that with his patients, stabbing them in their irises for a laugh.
He’d done the chair thing to Meredith at a family event.
Poor Meredith, she hadn’t said a word, but she’d kept rubbing her back surreptitiously throughout the meal.
And the embarrassment must have hurt as much, if not more.
Anna’s hand closed over Tam’s. ‘I can’t tell you how good it is to see you.’ She’d lost nothing of her broad burr despite the years in Spain and then the Netherlands, then London. Not that Tam had been checking . . .
‘You two can catch up when I’ve gone,’ said Jack. ‘I’m sure you have a lot of that to do.’
‘I’d love to,’ said Anna, her eyes trained hopefully on Tam.
‘How . . . how do you two know each other?’ asked Tam, looking between Anna and Jack.
Anna filled her in. ‘A firm I worked for was in a bit of a mess and Jack was brought in to sort it out.’
‘It was one of my biggest challenges,’ nodded Jack. ‘Thank goodness for Anna being there. I was always determined to try and poach her when the opportunity arose.’ He prodded at the menu. ‘Choose. The sooner I eat, the sooner I’m gone and I can leave you to your reunion.’
Her mind reeling, Tam forced herself to concentrate.
She was supposed to be having dinner with Harris tonight, looking at houses on Rightmove, so she went for a light bite ravioli and a small accompanying wine.
The curator of the wine list at Carlo’s was too gifted to resist, she’d never had a bad one yet.
Not that she knew much about them. She certainly didn’t do the dipping-her-nose-into-the-glass thing and swilling the contents around like Harris did in restaurants.
She hated when he decided he didn’t like it after all and would ask for a fresh bottle.
Despite being a self-styled gent, he could be terribly pompous with serving staff, which made her cringe.
She couldn’t prove it, but she suspected some waiters must have spat in his soup.
‘Tam thought I was getting rid of her,’ said Jack as the wine was being poured. He thanked the waiter, Tam noticed.
‘Well, you didn’t exactly say you weren’t,’ she said in her own defence, still struggling to accept that she was once again face to face with Anna Anderson.
‘I’d just told you that you were exceptional – I thought that might have been a clue.
’ He smiled and she thought that she must have seen him smile more today than she had done in all the weeks before.
He looked so different when he smiled, younger, less like a man who had his own starchy Wiki page full of his fabulous corporate achievements and a brief history of his ex-wife who was nifty on a violin.
‘In my old friend’s defence, if you had been about to get rid of her, you might well have used the: “You are a woman of many talents, an exceptional asset to any company” build-up before you added the “unfortunately, not this one”.
Terribly manipulative tactic to make yourself look better while delivering a fatal blow that some lesser corporate dickheads of industry might have used.
Not you, of course, Jack. I know you’re well above such moves. ’
It’s so good to hear her dulcet, earthy tones, thought Tam. And it was stupidly wonderful to hear herself referenced as ‘my old friend’. It made Tam glow from the inside out.
Jack had cannelloni and mopped up the rich tomato sauce with thick chunks of Italian bread.
She hadn’t got him down as such a hearty eater, and the amount of Parmesan he had applied was on a par with what she’d put on every Italian dish if she could without risking disapproval.
No sooner had Jack swallowed his last mouthful than he checked his watch, stood, and lifted his jacket from the back of his chair.
‘I’ve got a meeting,’ he said. ‘Anna, clear the bill for me and I’ll . . .’
‘Yeah, I’ve got it,’ she replied. Their relationship was easy, familiar. Tam got the feeling they were definitely more than old colleagues.
‘Tam, don’t rush back. It’s been quite the day, so enjoy your lunch. Anna, I’ll phone you later.’ Anna stuck up her thumb by way of an answer.
‘He’s quite something, isn’t he?’ Anna said admiringly when he had left the building.
And Tam replied, ‘If I’m honest, I don’t know him that well.
Today is the first time we’ve really spoken.
’ And she’d spoken quite a lot today too, which was a problem as she was becoming increasingly uncomfortable about how much she’d disclosed in the lift – stupid trivia, irrelevant detail.
She had told him things she hadn’t told anyone else.
Mainly because there wasn’t really anyone else to tell.
‘Maybe it was a good thing that you ended up being trapped in the lift with him then. It gave you both the chance to get to know each other. He’s great fun out of his suit.’
Oh they were definitely close, Tam decided.
Anna lifted her glass and sipped, wearing a look of someone turning things over in her head. She placed the glass back on the table slowly, pushing it into dead centre of the coaster, building up to something.
‘I owe you a massive apology,’ she said at last.
Tam raised her eyebrows.
‘Do you? What for?’
‘For being the worst friend ever. For committing the cardinal anti-sister sin of dumping a pal for a man.’
Tam gave a little snort of derision. ‘If you mean Leo, that was a long time ago and you were smitten. I’d have done the same to you.’
‘No, you wouldn’t have, Tam.’ Anna shook her head in protest. ‘Anyway, it didn’t work out so I was left with nothing. C’est la vie.’ And she shrugged.
‘How’s your mum?’ asked Tam, not quite sure what to say.
‘The same. I don’t see her all that much,’ said Anna. She’d had a difficult relationship with her mother, who had always prioritised her brief and dysfunctional relationships over her daughter. ‘How’s your mum and dad?’
Tam tried not to cringe, remembering that she’d brought Anna to the house to stay for a couple of days and her parents’ cold politeness had made it quite obvious that they didn’t really approve of this person with her pronounced accent.
Anna hadn’t said as much, but Tam knew she had seen them for the snobs they were.
‘The same,’ replied Tam.
‘Blood isn’t really a guarantee of anything, is it, Tam?
I’ve learned to pick my real family from my friends.
I have collected some great mates over the years from various places, but none were ever quite as close as you and .
. . I missed you.’ She smiled; it sat on her lips heavy and sad.
‘I wanted to get in touch with you so many times, but I thought you’d tell me to do one, as you had every right to.
Especially because I had the strongest urges to find you when things were going wrong in my life. ’
‘Oh, I wish you had got in touch. I felt the same. Then I worried we’d have changed too much, lost what we had.’ Tam grinned. ‘For the record. It’s just as if the last time I saw you was yesterday.’
Anna reached for Tam’s hand and squeezed and felt the stone of her ring digging into her palm. ‘You’re engaged,’ she exclaimed excitedly.
‘Yes, and I’m getting married next month.’
Anna leaned in, her sheet of white-blonde hair swinging over her shoulder in her enthusiasm. ‘Wow. Give me all the details.’
‘I had to kiss a lot of frogs before I found the prince.’
Anna laughed. ‘I’m still at the kissing-the-frog stage.’
Tam found herself laughing too and it really did feel like old times. ‘Oh, where to start . . . he’s called Harris Bullivant. He works in banking. We’ve been together four years. He’s thirty-five. Our families really get on too.’
‘So you’ll have all your wedding plans sorted by now then. How exciting!’
‘More or less,’ Tam said, before rushing on, ‘but there is one thing I’m unsure of. I don’t suppose you’re free at the weekend, are you? I could do with your advice.’
Tam had a spring in her step for the rest of the day.
She bounced over to Harris’s apartment that evening eager to tell him how today had gone, because it really had been a smorgasbord.
She didn’t like Harris’s place; it was all about the style and not about the comfort and it always felt cold, however much the central heating was tweaked up.
Tam really wasn’t looking forward to moving in here permanently after the wedding as it was very much Harris’s place with not much room for the things she wanted to bring with her, but it would have been weird them living apart as husband and wife.
It would be better when they could find somewhere together, though blending their tastes was going to be a challenge.
She knew she would have to cut back on her love of the kitsch and kooky and try to acquire his minimalist taste, and he would have to break up his clinical colour schemes with some pastels at least.
When he opened the door, she breezed in, reaching up to give him a smacker on his lips, joy bubbling out of her.
‘You’ll never guess what,’ she said, but giving him no time to guess what. ‘I’ve been promoted. I’ve got my old position back and then some more. And—’
‘Tamantha, will you slow down,’ Harris protested. ‘Take a breath.’
‘I’m excited.’
He arched a brow. ‘So I see.’
‘I’ve brought some champagne.’ She strode into the kitchen. ‘Shall I open it now?’
‘I’m not in the mood for drinking anything,’ he said grumpily. ‘I’ve had a tough day.’
‘Oh, okay,’ said Tam, feeling her firework of excitement begin to fizzle out and drop back to earth.
She had so wanted to tell him about the lift and the fusties in the boardroom getting obliterated and lunch and Anna, but she didn’t.
She knew she could be annoyingly fizzy and over-talkative – hadn’t that been proved today in the lift?
Instead, they looked at some houses on the internet then ate together and she resisted thinking that if the situation had been reversed, she would have swallowed down her rubbish day and let him talk ad infinitum about his lovely news and rejoiced with him.
After they’d cleared dinner away, Harris didn’t try to persuade her to stay over and she didn’t ask.
He was tired and she was wired, it wouldn’t have been a great mix.
Instead, she went home and lay in bed, replaying her day.
The most perfect day she’d had in a while.
But even more than the part about reuniting with Anna, she thought about what had happened in the lift.
How Jack Cesaroni was nothing like she’d imagined really.
And most of all, Jack’s words – Do you mind if I tell you what I think about you?
. . . I think you’re exceptional – were playing on a loop in her head as she fell asleep encased in the scent of his cologne.