by Laura Ziepe
Grace was taken aback slightly, unsure how to answer; the truth was, she wasn’t in the same boat as Rachel at all. She was seeing Simon again and they were already married. She didn’t know for certain that things were going to work out and wouldn’t just go back to how they were before, but she did know that right now she felt happy and content. They were back on the right track. ‘Exactly.’ She cleared her throat and studied her nails, unable to look Rachel in the eye. ‘And you will meet someone, Rach, one day. I just know you will.’
Rachel narrowed her eyes at Grace suspiciously. ‘What about you?’
‘I’m happy being single.’ Grace gave a nervous laugh, her eyes flicking back to the menu.
Rachel’s eyes were thin as slits as she observed Grace’s every move. ‘You’re seeing someone, aren’t you? I knew you seemed happy this morning. There’s no way that smile was from something your sister said so don’t deny it,’ she stated boldly, looking certain she was right.
Grace opened her mouth to protest but decided against it. What was the point in lying? ‘You’re right.’ She smiled widely.
‘I knew it!’ Rachel laughed. ‘Oh my God, Grace, I can’t believe it. You’ve really taken this dating game like a bull by the horns, haven’t you? You’ve surprised me. I need to take a leaf out of your book. I didn’t even realize you’d been going out with people. Who is it? That Steve guy from the wedding?’ Rachel didn’t wait for an answer. ‘Good for you. I admire you for not only leaving a relationship that clearly wasn’t working, but being brave enough to seek happiness elsewhere. You’ve always believed in happy endings, haven’t you? Maybe it’s about time I did too.’
Grace couldn’t speak. The words were on the tip of her tongue that it was Simon she was seeing again. The man she’d been unhappy with. But looking at Rachel’s respectful gaze the words just wouldn’t leave her mouth. She remained silent and questioned why that was. Was she embarrassed that she’d run straight back to the comfort and familiarity of her husband? Or were things going so well that she didn’t want to jinx it and hear any negativity about the situation?
‘So, are you seeing him again soon?’ Rachel asked curiously.
‘This week,’ Grace answered, feeling relief that at least this part wasn’t a lie. She was usually so honest and lying really didn’t come naturally to her. ‘We’re going to see a Christmas film at the cinema.’
‘Oh lovely.’ Rachel shot her a friendly smile. ‘So do you think things could become serious between the two of you? What’s Steve like?’
Grace took a deep breath, trying to work out what to say. ‘I think they could become serious, yes. I wasn’t sure at first; I wasn’t certain he could make me happy, but he’s beginning to change my mind.’
Rachel beamed. ‘I’m so happy for you, Grace. It’s lovely to see you looking so full of life again. It just goes to show, doesn’t it? You wasted all those years being married to the wrong guy, and now, here you are, smiling from ear to ear about someone new. You give me hope,’ she told her excitedly.
Rachel’s phone vibrated then, and her face lit up as she read a message. ‘It’s Nick,’ she said brightly. ‘He’s apologising for his behaviour and asked to meet up again.’
Grace tucked her hair behind her ears and tried to push aside the feelings of guilt because she hadn’t been entirely truthful to her friend. She flashed her a hopeful smile. ‘Perhaps you’re about to start believing in happy endings much sooner than you think?’
Chapter 18
‘So I told Gill she needs to start saying no to babysitting all her grandkids. She had Ollie’s children every day of the week while Suzy went to work and then Caroline’s three stayed over Monday and Tuesday night. The poor woman doesn’t get a break; she looks tired all the time. I told her it’s time to start saying no.’
‘Most definitely,’ Diane agreed, looking slightly outraged. ‘People don’t seem to be looking after their own children these days. They’re always relying on their parents or putting them into nurseries all day.’
Amber drummed her fingers on the table in the bar they were sitting in as she listened to the mundane conversation between her mother and Diane. Where was Jack? She’d called him earlier that day to confirm where they were meeting at the O2 and he’d seemed to be really looking forward to it. She glanced at her watch again noticing that he was now twenty-five minutes late.
‘He’s probably caught up with work,’ Amber’s mother stated, reading Amber’s mind.
‘Yes, he does tend to work long hours,’ Diane said in agreement, checking her phone. ‘He hasn’t called me so I assume he’s just running a little behind. Why don’t you call him, Amber?’ she suggested.
Amber tried calling Jack for the second time, frustrated when it went straight through to voicemail again. Still, perhaps that meant he was on the tube unable to get signal. They were right; Jack was most likely working later than planned, unable to get out of the office. She wished he’d hurry up though; it certainly wasn’t the same without him.
‘Did you hear that Rosie Connolly’s daughter is pregnant with twins? Identical girls apparently,’ Amber’s mother said, changing the subject and turning back to Diane who gasped in shock.
Amber heaved a heavy sigh. It wasn’t like Jack to be late. She wasn’t worried about him coming though; he’d never let them all down, but she couldn’t help but wonder what the hold up was. Maybe there was a signal failure and he was stuck on the tube? He still had plenty of time before the concert started.
‘Another wine?’ Amber’s mother offered. ‘Shall we get Jack a beer for when he arrives?’
Amber’s mobile rang then and she smiled when she spotted Jack’s name flashing on the screen. ‘I’ll just ask him; that’s him calling now,’ she said happily.
‘Hello, Ambs?’ Jack’s voice came down the phone.
‘Yes, where are you? We’re waiting in the bar and just wondered what drink to order you. Beer?’
There was a pause. ‘Listen, tell your mum, and mine for that matter, that I’m really sorry I can’t make it,’ he said.
Amber’s heart sank and she frowned deeply. ‘Why? What’s happened?’ she questioned wanting to scream in disappointment.
‘It’s Natalya; she’s really unwell, the poor thing. Her parents are away and she lives alone. She needs someone with her,’ he said.
Amber was fuming and struggled to hide the anger in her voice. ‘Hasn’t she got any friends to sit with her? We’ve all been really looking forward to this. Surely she has someone else?’
‘Apparently not,’ he replied, sounding just as upset for letting them all down. ‘Most of her friends live quite far away from her.’
‘Right,’ Amber said in disbelief, biting her lip furiously. There was no way that Natalya was ill and there was even less chance that she didn’t have someone else to look after her. This was about control and power. It was about the fact she hadn’t been invited to the concert. It was about showing Amber who was boss. How could Jack be so oblivious? Couldn’t he see what Natalya was doing?
‘She feels really bad and wanted to say sorry to all of you,’ Jack added.
‘I’m sure she does.’ Amber couldn’t help but laugh sarcastically.
‘What do you mean by that?’ Jack asked, his voice becoming sharp and unfamiliar. ‘She’s not going to make up being ill, Amber,’ he said, sounding unable to believe that she was hinting at such a thing.
‘I know, I know,’ Amber said hastily, cursing herself. ‘Forget I said that. Wish her well from me and we’ll speak soon,’ she said sadly. Jack was making it very clear that he wouldn’t tolerate Amber saying anything bad about his precious Natalya. It saddened Amber; they had been so close once, but now she just felt he was slipping away. She loved Jack and would love nothing more to be with him, but right now, she would be lucky if she even got to be his friend. It felt like he was being torn from her into the arms of a psychotic bitch. Slowly but surely, Jack was being manipulated and was exactly where Natalya wante
d him.
‘What’s happened?’ Diane asked, when Amber put the phone down. ‘Why is he not coming?’
‘Natalya,’ Amber replied, still seething inside. ‘She’s really ill and needs Jack to look after her. Her parents are away and her friends don’t live close enough.’ She knew she sounded as though she didn’t believe it, but she didn’t care. It was a lie. Amber could feel it in her heart.
‘Oh, what a shame,’ Diane replied crestfallen. ‘I was looking forward to seeing him.’
‘Ah but there’s not much he can do if his girlfriend’s ill, is there?’ Amber’s mother said, clicking her tongue. ‘Such a nice boy going to look after her. Perhaps she has the flu; I can’t believe how many people I’ve heard that have gone down with it. Still, I guess it’s the cold bringing people down, isn’t it? My sister is always ill at Christmas. Every single year, I swear it.’
Amber’s nose felt tingly and her eyes burnt, threatening tears. ‘Yes Mum, I’m sure it’s probably the flu,’ she pretended to agree, attempting breezier tones. She cleared her throat. She was going to have to swallow it down and accept that Jack was always going to be on Natalya’s side. He wasn’t going to notice all the little ways she was trying to control him. Natalya was going to be the winner so Amber was going to have to be careful. She was going to have to do her best to ignore it, or she could lose Jack for good. She scraped her chair backwards and stood up. ‘Now shall I get that wine?’
Amber decided not to call Jack the following day. She was too upset with the situation and, anyhow, meeting up with him alone was almost impossible now. As soon as Natalya caught wind of it, she’d be joining them with some excuse or another. Amber was just going to leave it to him to contact her.
She lay in bed feeling miserable, knowing what she had to do. She clicked onto Facebook and then through to Natalya’s page. She remembered seeing her tagged into something with her mother and sister a few weeks back. Amber clicked through to Natalya’s mother’s page, noticing that she had her place of work stated. Natalya’s mother, Lorraine, worked at a hair salon and Amber found herself clicking on the hair salon’s Facebook page, her finger hovering over their telephone number. Should she call and check to see if Natalya’s mother was away like she said? If she was away on holiday then Amber could relax a bit more and accept that maybe she was obviously a bit paranoid. Hopefully this was the case and then she would make sure she would relax where Natayla was concerned. It would mean Natalya was telling the truth and that Amber needed to give her a break. Was there a chance it was all in Amber’s head because she wanted Jack for herself? Maybe Natalya was perfectly innocent?
Amber’s heart began to beat faster as she clicked on the number and it started to ring.
‘Hello, Sophie Louise hair salon,’ said a young-sounding lady on the phone. Amber could picture her now; a teenager earning minimum wage with some kind of trendy hairstyle, bored out of her brains while she answered phones, swept the floors and if she was lucky, got to wash some hair.
Amber could hear the sound of hairdryers in the background as she opened her mouth to talk. ‘Oh, hi there. I was just wondered if I could get a haircut today,’ she spoke slowly.
‘A haircut? What time did you want?’
‘I don’t mind,’ Amber responded, feeling bad for wasting the poor girl’s time. ‘I was hoping that Lorraine could do it?’
‘Lorraine?’ The girl answered.
Amber’s mouth was dry. This was the moment she was waiting for. ‘Yes please. She cut it before, a while back. I was really rather impressed.’
‘She can fit you in at one o’clock. Or she has three o’clock, but she’s fully booked for the rest of the day apart from that.’
Amber exhaled slowly, relief flooding through her that she wasn’t going insane. She knew Natalya was lying. ‘Was Lorraine in yesterday?’ she questioned, just in case Natalya’s parents had only arrived back late the night before or something.
‘Errr … yes,’ she said sounding puzzled. ‘Lorraine was in all day yesterday. Did you want to book in today?’
‘I’ll just see if I can rearrange a few things and call back,’ Amber told her, keen to get off the phone.
‘Okay. no problem.’
Amber hung up and stretched out in bed. She had been right, just as she feared. She needed to get up for work; she was going in later today after booking the morning off a while back. She’d assumed she’d be a little hungover after drinking with Jack at the concert, but after being stuck alone with just their mums, she felt as right as rain. She’d only had a couple of glasses of wine in the end.
An hour later, just as Amber had parked her car and was about to walk into work, her mobile rang. She was surprised, yet happy to see it was Jack calling. Maybe he’d worked out that Natalya was lying and had called to tell her? Maybe he could finally see her for what she truly was?
‘Morning,’ she answered, unable to help but smile.
‘More like afternoon. You on your lunch break?’ he asked.
‘I took the morning off,’ Amber explained, putting her car keys in her bag as she walked to Tidemans.
‘How was last night?’ he asked.
‘Rod was good, sang loads of Christmas songs you would have loved, but it wasn’t the same without my singing buddy,’ she admitted despondently. ‘How is Natalya?’ she forced herself to ask. The lying little cow.
‘She’s feeling a lot better today thankfully,’ he replied. ‘She’s gone to work.’
Amber rolled her eyes. ‘That’s good. Lucky it wasn’t something serious,’ she said, trying to sound genuine when she was really being caustic.
‘Yes, she’s feeling fine now, which is good. I feel so bad not going last night though. I still have your mum’s card and present to give her. I just spoke to my mum and I’ve arranged to make you all dinner to say sorry on Friday night at my place.’
Amber’s spirits lifted a little, but her thoughts immediately turned to Natalya. ‘Who will be going?’ she questioned, assuming that she was worming her way in somehow.
‘Just our mums and us,’ he said. ‘I owe it to you all for bailing out.’
‘It wasn’t your fault,’ Amber told him, feeling immensely pleased that Natalya wasn’t invited.
‘I know, but still, it’s going to be 7.30 p.m. on Friday at mine, okay?’
‘Perfect,’ Amber smiled widely.
She opened the door to Tidemans feeling a little better about everything. But there was still a niggling fear that she couldn’t shift. A fear that Natalya was going to ruin this night in some way too and eventually take Jack away for good.
Chapter 19
Rachel couldn’t help but notice that Amber looked distracted as she waltzed into work. Her mind was very clearly elsewhere.
‘Everything okay? How was the concert?’ she asked.
Amber pulled a face. ‘It was great, thanks, but Jack didn’t end up going. Natalya was ill.’ She threw her eyes upwards. ‘Such a liar. She would have said anything to stop him going.’
‘What? Do you think she made it up so he wouldn’t go?’ Rachel was stunned someone would actually do that. ‘I’m sure she wouldn’t. Maybe she really was ill?’
‘Of course she did!’ Amber replied, looking thunderous and throwing her scarf and gloves off onto the counter as though it were their fault. ‘Apparently there was no one around to look after her. She told Jack her parents were away. I wanted to check if I was going crazy being so suspicious and imagining things, so I called her mum’s hair salon and found out it was just a big fat lie. Her mum is in work today and she was yesterday too. She made it all up. She’s trying to control him. She wants Jack all to herself.’
‘You actually called up the salon?’ Grace asked in shock, appearing out of nowhere.
‘Yes, I did. I know it may seem a bit stalkerish—’ she held out her hands ‘—but I had to know that I wasn’t just being an overprotective friend.’
Rachel was astonished. Natalya had seemed really nice in
person the day she came in to get her make-up done, and if she was honest, she’d just assumed everything bad Amber had said about her was because Amber was jealous that she was with Jack. But maybe she was wrong? ‘What did Jack say?’ she asked inquisitively.
‘I haven’t told him obviously,’ Amber looked at Rachel as though she had two heads. ‘I’m scared to say anything bad about her. He sticks up for her right away. Honestly, I feel like I’m treading on eggshells when we speak about her. He just can’t see how manipulative she’s being.’
‘Maybe he knows but doesn’t want to admit it to himself?’ Grace offered. ‘Or maybe he really doesn’t see it. He obviously loves her; sometimes it’s hard to see the faults in the ones we love.’
‘Nonsense. You could see the faults in Simon, couldn’t you?’ Amber asked rhetorically. ‘You weren’t crazy enough to stay with him.’
Grace looked away looking slightly uneasy and Rachel assumed she was embarrassed she’d put up with it for so long.
Rachel didn’t know what to say; she really felt for her friend. Amber was head over heels in love with Jack and Rachel couldn’t believe she’d never seen it before. It was so obvious now Amber had finally admitted it. To watch him fall in love with another person was hard enough as it was, but for it to be someone deceitful and conniving was a different matter altogether. It was a very tricky situation and she understood that Amber didn’t feel she could voice her opinions in fear of losing him.
‘Changing the subject, has Grace told you she’s in love?’ Rachel grinned.
‘I am not,’ Grace gave a light laugh and turned her back on them, looking a little self-conscious as she looked through the foundation drawer.
‘Why have I not heard about this?’ Amber asked interestedly. ‘In love with who? Where did you meet him? Tell me everything.’
