Chapter 30 #2
‘Thank you so much! I’m good. I’m meeting Jez tomorrow for a walk in the park. Before you tease, he’s introducing me to his girlfriend.’
‘Girlfriend? Jez? I never knew. I hope she likes the eighties,’ said Rae, and she laughed.
‘He looked smitten when he talked about her.’ Eliza took a large suck of cocktail. ‘She’s called Pepsi. I mean, Pepsi? What sort of name is that? A bit too glamorous, if you ask me,’ she grumbled.
The other two grinned.
‘She sounds fizzy and full of fun,’ said Ariana, and gave Eliza a mischievous look.
‘Maybe it’s some weird sex game nickname,’ said Rae, innocently. ‘Perhaps they pour Pepsi Max over each other and—’
‘Ew!’ said the other two. Eliza giggled as if she were in school again.
‘You really like him, don’t you?’ Ariana asked in a no-nonsense way.
Eliza stared at the bottom of her glass. ‘I do. Never thought I would be interested in a man again, after my husband. Mind, it has taken twenty-five years.’
‘Timing stinks sometimes,’ said Rae. ‘Cillian Murphy went and got married when I was only four.’
‘Rae! Get over it!’ said Ariana, grinning. ‘We’re going to see a new film with him in it. Eliza, say you’ll come as well, you can help me stop Rae drooling the whole way through.’
Eliza put down her glass. ‘I’d love to!’
‘Anyway, it is possible for the timing of these things to land just right,’ said Ariana. ‘I went onto my online dating app for the very last time to delete it, but gave one last swipe and that’s how I met Izzy.’
Rae looked serious and patted Eliza’s shoulder. ‘Sorry, if you really like Jez and he’s dating. Unrequited love sucks.’
Eliza sipped her drink again. Ariana and Rae clinked her glass with theirs and gave supportive glances.
Eliza bit her lip. Okay. Go for it. She didn’t want to break a confidence with Carrie, but her intentions were good. ‘Maybe Carrie has drunk ouzo cocktails out in Paros. It sounds from her emails like she’s having fun, despite romantic timing not being good for her at the moment.’
Ariana raised an eyebrow and Rae turned to face Eliza.
‘She’s got close to that pop star but something is holding him back.’
‘Giannis GoGo!’ said Rae. ‘Go Carrie! Lucky her. He’s one hottie! I mean…’ She cleared her throat. ‘That’s what I would say if we were talking.’
‘I messaged her, privately, after she contacted us on WhatsApp, Rae,’ said Ariana, and she blushed.
At that moment the waiter came over and asked if they’d chosen their meals. Eliza asked for five minutes and a stony silence wafted across the table from Rae whilst the three of them studied the menus. The waiter came back and they ordered.
‘I messaged her last Tuesday,’ said Ariana after the waiter left. ‘I was going to tell you, Rae, after she replied, which she did today. She says hi; says again that she’s sorry, that she loves you.’
‘Who cares?’ said Rae, not meeting Ariana’s eyes.
‘You know you do,’ interjected Eliza. ‘That’s why you’re upset.’
Rae glowered at her cocktail.
‘As she can’t officially work there at the moment, or earn money, she’s volunteering at a cat rescue centre and is working at a bar in return for food. The pop star owns it,’ said Ariana.
‘It would seem she’s making the most of a challenging situation,’ said Eliza, hoping that her granddaughter wasn’t struggling to pay the basics.
‘Let’s see her reply,’ said Rae.
Ariana passed over her phone. ‘I told her about my promotion first… it felt easier just messaging someone about it, whilst I was still unsure.’
Rae nodded.
‘Promotion?’ said Eliza.
‘I’ll tell you about it later,’ said Ariana, and she smiled.
‘Okay, maybe I do miss her,’ mumbled Rae, staring at the phone. ‘Annoyed that I do, but there it is.’
‘Same,’ said Ariana.
‘I know that she regrets upsetting you two,’ said Eliza. ‘Why don’t we send a message from all of us, with some photos of our Greek food?’
Rae gave Ariana back her phone and folded her arms.
‘It doesn’t need to be long,’ said Eliza.
Their meals arrived and quickly, before anyone tucked in, Ariana took photos of gyros, moussaka, and two plates of skewered pork. The atmosphere relaxed again as they tasted one another’s dishes and the waiter served them wine.
‘Dessert?’ he said, once they’d all finished. ‘I highly recommend our honey and rosewater baklava with cinnamon syrup.’
They nodded and it arrived swiftly.
‘The Nutella baklavas Carrie is eating in Paros sound amazing, and this is so yum,’ said Rae and wiped syrup from her face.
Eliza swallowed the last mouthful, reached into her rucksack and took out a small notebook and pen, having come prepared. ‘Come on. Let’s brainstorm a message to Carrie. You don’t have to commit to… anything. It can be as short as you like.’
‘I’ll send it from the group chat?’ said Ariana. ‘With photos of our food?’
‘Whatever,’ replied Rae, twirling the used dessert spoon between her fingers.
‘Great,’ said Eliza.
The three of them put together a brief message. Eliza tore the page out of her notebook and handed it to Ariana. The waiter came over and stacked their dishes. Eliza was the only one who’d drunk all her coffee, the others finding it too sludgy.
‘My queen,’ he said to her and grinned. ‘Would you like another? On the house?’
Eliza didn’t reply and visibly shuddered. Rae thanked him but said they were about to go.
‘What’s the matter?’ she asked Eliza in a tone more gentle than usual.
‘It’s just… him calling me that… My ex-husband…
because I was called Elizabeth like the queen at the time, when we got married, he insisted on calling me “Queenie”.
He was a huge royalist. I hated it by the end.
He loved the Royal Family more than the Church, and aspired to their grandiose position and lifestyle.
We never said grace or read religious texts at home.
Like so much in his life, it was all about show. ’
Rae’s jaw dropped. Ariana rapidly blinked.
‘“Queenie”?’ asked Rae faintly, the warmth gone from her voice.
‘Cringeworthy, isn’t it? He acted as if he were better than everyone else,’ continued Eliza, ‘and having me on his arm, with that name, made him think he was something special. Even my parents took to my new name. No one knew I was really called Eliza for years, apart from places like the HMRC and DVLA.’
‘“Queenie”, is that a… a common name for your age group?’ asked Ariana politely.
‘It was during the Victorian and Edwardian eras, but no, not amongst my peers. In all my life, I’ve never met another woman called that. I never used it again after leaving him.’
‘“Queenie” would have been a far too pretentious name for someone living in Reddish,’ said Rae tightly.
‘Quite. But enough about my late husband and his weird ideas.’ She shuddered again, too focused on changing the subject away from Howard to sense the change in her new friends’ mood.
‘Lovely night, everyone. I’m so glad you are going to send that message to Carrie.
It’s fine as it is. Right, better order my Uber! ’