11. New Talulah, old problem – 1978 #2
Ursula strode back out in a silver space-age satin jumpsuit with a wide belt as ‘The Model’ was playing.
Anton was still in the corner. She made him smile with a cheeky wink this time.
Andi laughed as they passed each other. They were both having a ball.
Next, Ursula wore a gaucho outfit, then an Arabian style one, and finally a black lace puffball dress with long black gloves and a bolero jacket in silk that received the biggest applause.
Cass left the music playing and breezed into the office with a tray of drinks as they were getting changed into their own clothes. ‘Girls, you were marvellous. Weren’t they marvellous, Wanda? Let’s have a drink to the new Talulah.’
As soon as their glasses clinked, she went back into the shop to mingle. Andi knocked her drink back. ‘I’m going to find some more. You two coming?’
‘You girls go,’ said Wanda. ‘All I want to do is get home and put my feet up.’
They poked their heads through the curtain. The shop was full of expensive looking women in great clothes. ‘This is fantastic, isn’t it?’ said Andi. ‘Urs, let’s do this when we’re older. Let’s open our own place like your mum and Cass were going to.’
Ursula laughed, but then she saw that Andi was serious. ‘Do you really think we could?’
‘Yeah, I do. We wouldn’t let anything come between us like your mum and Cass did and, let’s face it, we’re bloody brilliant.’
‘We are, aren’t we? We could go to London.’
‘Yeah. We could do anything we want. Let’s get drunk to celebrate.’
‘In a bit. I’d better just say hello to Anton.’
They went through the curtain, Andi to look for more booze and Ursula to find Anton. Before she could go any further, Andi grabbed her arm. ‘We should make it a promise.’
‘Which bit, opening up our own business or letting nothing come between us?’
‘Both of course. And that should be nothing and no one.’
‘Okay. It’s a promise. Save me a drink, I won’t be long.’
Anton was nowhere to be seen in the shop so Ursula went outside where a crowd had spilled onto the street, but it was mostly women who’d had too much to drink.
She was about to go back inside when she saw Cass with a man who could have been Anton. It was hard to tell because she could only see the back of him and even that was half in the shadows.
Ursula went over to check, but as she got closer she heard Cass talking: ‘I asked you not to come. You need to go.’
The man laughed. ‘I just wanted to see with my own eyes who these so-called models were that were so much better than your lovely nieces.’
‘My other niece. The one you appear to have forgotten.’
Ursula froze, but then Anton touched her shoulder and broke the spell. ‘Ursula, there you are.’
At the sound of his voice, Cass looked past Bernard Fry and stared at Anton first, and then Ursula.
Bernard Fry turned around and suddenly, he and Ursula were eye to eye.
It seemed to take him a while to recognise her.
Then, he gave her a smile that sent a shiver straight through her.
All those promises to herself about telling him to fuck off were meaningless now because all she could do was back away and run.
Behind her, Cass and Anton were calling her name but she kept on running.
Anton finally caught up with her and took her arm. ‘Come.’
‘No. I can’t be anywhere near that man. I need to go home.’ She pulled away from him. She didn’t want him. She wanted to curl up on the sofa with her mum and listen to funny stories from the office and pretend she hadn’t come face to face with that despicable bastard who was her father.
‘You’re freezing. You can’t get the bus home like that. I’ll take you.’
He was right. She didn’t even have her bag with her.
She let him take her back to his building and they climbed a flight of stairs to a room with doors leading off it.
They went through one of them and he sat her down on a leather chair then fetched his overcoat and put it over her shoulders. ‘You’re very upset.’
‘It was seeing that man. He’s my father. We don’t speak.’ She felt calmer now. Angry, but more with herself than anything for going to pieces like that.
Anton said nothing, but he was watching her. She looked beyond him and noticed how very ordered the room was. Hardly a thing out of place. Hardly a speck of dust. She pointed to a table that held a white model of a building. ‘What’s that?’
‘That is my passion project. It’s the house I want to build when I find the right land.’
In spite of everything that had happened, the idea of Anton being passionate about anything made her smile. ‘I thought I was your passion project.’
He looked as if he was giving it some serious thought. ‘Not yet. I’ll take you home.’
She stood up so they were facing each other. He looked into her eyes and she thought he was going to kiss her but he just pulled the coat more closely around her. ‘It’s cold outside and we must walk to my car.’ He went over to the desk, took out a red woollen scarf and wrapped it around her neck.
‘What’s this?’
He shrugged. ‘It’s a red scarf. I was going to surprise you and wear it in the morning, but you need it tonight, so…’
He’d done that for her? The sweetness of it made her want that kiss. She pressed her mouth against his. They stood slightly apart, their lips still glued together, then he moved his away and touched her cheek. ‘There is such beauty in you, Ursula.’
And in that moment, Ursula thought she might actually be falling in love with Anton Moller.