Chapter Nineteen #2
I pulled a face and kissed him back, eyes closed, revelling in the warm glow of his words, as I ignored the little voice that wondered what Emily would have to say when he turned up tomorrow with the fridge.
I missed that train and the one after.
When I got home, to my massive relief, Emily didn’t emerge from her room although she was clearly awake as I could hear drawers and wardrobe doors rattling as if she was feverishly searching for something to wear.
As I quickly made myself a cup of milk-less tea, I resolved to tackle the contents of the fridge. Tomorrow.
* * *
When the train arrived the next morning it was packed. As I squeezed my way on, I couldn’t help checking every face even though it meant raising my head.
As the train pulled into Vauxhall, my phone rang.
‘Barney?’
‘Olivia. Thought I’d let you know. I’ve spoken to the police and gave them Peter’s address.’
‘Great. So you spoke to the person who recommended him? What did they say?’
‘Not much. But I gave him short shrift for being so casual about it all. He was horrified. Got a feeling he might have words with Peter, even though I told him to leave it to the police. I’ve drafted up some new terms and conditions to make sure this doesn’t happen again.’
That was unexpected. ‘Thanks,’ I said, voicing my surprise.
He sighed. ‘Olivia, you’re family. This guy’s been terrorising you and it’s indirectly my fault. I’m not all bad you know.’
‘No,’ I said grudgingly. ‘I suppose you have improved a bit since you were eighteen.’
‘Don’t overdo it, will you.’
‘I wouldn’t want you to get big-headed,’ I replied sweetly, and then more sincerely. ‘Thanks Barney.’
‘Speak to you later.’
* * *
Emily made a brief appearance in the office and then left just after lunch to go to the dentist, which I thought was odd as she’d not mentioned it before. Taking advantage of a client meeting finishing early, I decided not to go back to the office. It wasn’t like I didn’t put the hours in normally.
When I got home, I surprised Emily.
Black bin liners and boxes overflowing with clothes were spilling from the open boot of the cab parked outside the flat. No wonder she’d been avoiding me for the last twenty-four hours.
The driver was lazily smoking a cigarette, leaning against his car door, jabbering unconcernedly on his mobile.
A box emerged from the flat, piled with books, CDs, one of my saucepans and a bedside lamp and was dumped into the back of the cab.
Emily’s bottom backed out, straightened and turned, walking right into me.
‘Olivia!’ Her voice was high-pitched and strangled. I was obviously just that bit too early.
‘Going somewhere?’ I asked.
She squared up, her jaw thrusting out pugnaciously.
‘I’m moving out. Well, you’d hardly expect me to stay .
. . a stalker-in-waiting and you mooning all over my boyfriend.
’ Rehearsed to perfection, her bitter words came tumbling out.
‘Let’s face it. You’ve been making eyes at him for ever.
Idiot . . . do you think he’s interested in you? ’
She stalked past me up the stairs back towards her room.
She grabbed another bag from her bedroom and turned to face me.
Feebly my response was, ‘So where are you going?’
Every bit of pity and disdain she could muster was summoned up and delivered in her scathing glance. It was completely wasted on me, bouncing right off into the ether. My mind was busy lighting candles, setting the scene for seduction.
‘I’m going to stay with someone. You know him quite well.’
I had a pretty good idea. All the clues suggested Mr Loathsome from the speed-date who liked sushi and knew someone who could get tickets for Phantom, but a little gut instinct kept telling me it didn’t stack up. He was a bit too smooth.
I pulled a face and shuddered very deliberately which was a bit theatrical and downright rude but she deserved it.
‘You’re just jealous,’ she said, dismissing my childish gesture, flouncing past me towards the stairs, ‘that your cousin likes me more than you.’
Cousin!
‘Barney!’ I squeaked. She had to be kidding.
She shrugged. ‘Why not? We really clicked that night at the speed-date. Who did you think it was?’
I couldn’t bring myself to admit how wrong I’d been, instead I opted for the cheap way out. I hadn’t planned to do this but she was such a cow she deserved no mercy. I delivered the coup de grace as she was carrying the last box out.
‘David told me you’d resigned.’
A sly smile lifted the corners of her mouth. She looked like the cat that has swallowed the golden canary as she preened, waiting to hear the next bit.
‘He said . . .’ I let her preen a bit longer, ‘it was up to me . . .’ I enjoyed the dimming of her self-satisfied smile, ‘. . . when you go.’ I paraphrased him.
‘So you can either fuck off tomorrow and we’ll pay you up to the end of the week, or you can work the full month, bearing in mind your reference depends on how well you behave.
’ The power had completely gone to my head, I really wasn’t a nice person — but God, I enjoyed it.
Her face darkened with rage.
‘You can’t do that,’ her voice cracked. ‘I’m on a month’s notice.’
‘What, like the month’s notice you’re giving me?’ I asked, looking pointedly at the box in her arms.
‘I was going to give you the rent,’ she said haughtily. We both knew that wasn’t true. It was hard enough getting her share of the bills at the best of times. ‘Anyway, you still have the deposit. In fact, you’ll owe me, that was a month and a half rent.’
‘What, after bills?’
She shrugged. ‘Let me know what I owe. My new job pays a lot more. I can afford it.’ And with that she tossed her head and marched down the stairs.
The decisive slam that accompanied her departure almost shook the foundations, and for a fleeting moment I felt sad that it had come to this but that was quickly overtaken by indignation that she could get away with behaving so badly.
It was amazing how quickly I’d become so reliant on Daniel, my first thought was to ring him but then I remembered he was probably already on his way with the temporary fridge.
Until then, I had the flat to myself and I knew exactly what I was going to do.
Perhaps I’d just give him a quick call and ramp up the anticipation.
Tell him that Emily had gone and we had the place all to ourselves.
There was time enough to tell him the shocking revelation about Emily and my cousin.
My throaty message on his voicemail was full of invitation. Whether he would arrive in time to scrub my back in the bath was debatable.
In my next life I might come back as a hippo — there’s nothing quite like having a bath to calm you down, especially when you’re wallowing in someone else’s expensive bubbles that she left behind.
Breathing in the scent of mimosa and frangipani and watching the steam rising off the water, I wriggled my shoulders in satisfaction deliberately ignoring my mobile ringing in the other room.
It finally rang off, the answer service must have kicked in but less than a minute later it started again.
Bugger it, I was staying put. Let it ring.
When I finally emerged from the bathroom, and looked at the dratted thing, there were five missed calls. All from Barney.
There was one message from him.
‘Call me. On my mobile. ASAP. I need to talk to you.’ Against the background sound of traffic, he sounded slightly breathless as if he was walking quickly along a busy street.
I didn’t want to call him, guessing he wanted to come clean about Emily.
Bet she hadn’t told him the half of it. I still felt shocked.
Emily and Barney. Never saw that one coming.
But what if he was ringing with news on Peter?
I had to call, but he didn’t answer. Where the hell was he?
Now my curiosity was piqued. I left a quick message desperate to know what he had to say.
His call had undone all the good of my bath.
Restlessly I wafted round the flat rearranging things to my satisfaction, stacking all of Emily’s magazines in a neat pile on the coffee table, moving the sofas so that they didn’t both face the TV and putting the ugly spare dining chairs into her empty room.
When the knock at the door came I jumped in eager anticipation, glancing at the clock. Daniel had made very good time. He must have left work early.