Abi's House

by Jenny Kane

  Abi nodded again, ‘You will always be welcome here. Always. I won’t be demanding the keys back or changing the locks or anything.’

  ‘A fact which makes me love you all the more, my girl. It’s your turn now. Your turn to make this place your place, to love it, fill it with happiness and children and fun, and I have a feeling you’ll do just that.’

  Abi felt tears approaching as she held out her hand for Stan to squeeze.

  ‘Now then, I’m sure Sadie would appreciate that walk I see you were about to go on. I think I need a little rest, then I’ll call the bank. It’s time to get this house move going once and for all.’

  Hanging up the phone two days later, Abi looked at Beth as her friend washed up their breakfast dishes. ‘Well, that’s it then. I no longer own a house in Surrey.’

  ‘How do you feel?’

  ‘A bit weird, to be honest. Relieved though.’

  ‘Shame it came through while you were staying here and not with Stan, he’ll be so pleased for you.’

  ‘He’s so happy with his family right now, and we have so much to do, that I think I’ll leave telling him to later. Maybe when Sally brings him to the gallery tomorrow night.’

  ‘Talking of tomorrow night …’ Beth picked up a pile of RSVPs from their invitations, ‘The postman has just brought another two positive replies for the opening.’

  ‘But we’re already full? I thought everyone we had invited had already replied.’ Abi frowned. ‘You didn’t send out these extra two then?’

  ‘No. I stuck to the list we discussed. All the local shopkeepers, all the artists we are to feature over the next six months, Felicity and Mark from the magazine, Barbara from the hotel, my old schoolfriend and long-suffering estate agent Maggie, plus the chap from the local paper, and Max and Stan of course. The only extra I was expecting was Sally.’

  Abi took the two extra replies from Beth. ‘Oh, well you know who this is from. It’s the auctioneer; Peter.’

  ‘Oh yes, of course,’ Beth smiled, ‘I remember Jacob saying he was interested, and I told him to take an invite out of the drawer to give him.’

  ‘Well it looks as if Jacob took another invite as well.’ Abi read the names off the stubs, ‘Who is Sarah Clifton anyway?’

  Beth went pale. ‘Did you say Sarah Clifton?’

  ‘Yes. Look.’

  ‘I read that as Sarah Griffon. Terrible handwriting. You’d expect a television newsreader to have neat writing wouldn’t you?’

  ‘A what?’

  ‘Sarah Clifton is the presenter on the local news, you must have seen her? She lives not far from here actually.’

  ‘The one with the perfectly bobbed blonde hair? And she is coming to our launch? Oh my God!’ Abi closed her eyes and counted to five before opening them again, ‘You don’t think she’s coming here in her television role, do you?’

  Beth sat down. ‘She can’t be. Jacob would have said, surely? Wouldn’t he?’

  ‘Not if he didn’t want to worry us. And anyway, how come he knows a television presenter?’

  Beth was already ringing him. ‘Jacob, what have you done? And before you answer I think I should warn you that I have Abi here, and my mobile is on speakerphone, so make your excuses good and clean!’

  The girls could hear laughing. ‘You got a reply from Sarah then?’

  ‘Yes! What did you do?’

  ‘Nothing. Well …’

  ‘Jacob, I am in a position to seriously withhold services here, so tell me the truth right now.’

  ‘Oh, double standards! I have to keep things clean, but you can threaten to withhold sexual services in front of Abi!’

  Beth rolled her eyes in Abi’s direction. ‘You know full well that I meant that professionally. I could withdraw your pottery from my gallery! Now, talk.’

  ‘All I did was pinch an extra invite from the drawer when I took one for Peter.’

  ‘We’ve had a reply from a Sarah Clifton. That isn’t the woman off the news, is it? Must be another Sarah Clifton, right?’

  ‘She said yes?’

  ‘Yes, Jacob, what is going on? We’re already going to be packed out. We invited more people than we can actually fit into the place because we didn’t think that everyone would come, but only three people have said no, so we’re hardly going to be able to move around here to serve drinks, let alone swing a cat.’

  ‘Was cat-swinging part of the plan then?’

  ‘Jacob!’ Beth pushed her notepad across the table to Abi, showing her the to-do list for the day. It was dauntingly long. ‘If you don’t start telling us what is going on I’ll hit you where it really hurts, and lock your Ali Baba pots in the cupboard during the launch.’

  ‘OK, OK. Yes, it is the Sarah Clifton who reads the BBC news for the south-west.’

  ‘Seriously?’ Abi chipped in. ‘Why didn’t you tell us you’d invited her, we could have been more prepared.’

  Speaking before Jacob could reply, Beth doodled thoughtfully on the corner of her notepad, ‘OK then, so how do you even know Sarah Clifton? Am I going to have to stop her drooling all over you, as well as that Felicity?’

  Jacob laughed. ‘Trust me, Beth, women that leave so little to the imagination do nothing for me at all. I mean, blatant is so dull. Smacks of desperation.’

  Abi laughed, ‘Well, that’s Felicity in her place then! So, how about Sarah?’

  ‘Honestly, I don’t know her. You’ll have to ask Max. I pinched the invite for him.’

  The girls looked at each other.

  ‘Max?’

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Abi had set up an easel by her desk, upon which was the third set of sketches of the little blue squashy-looking alien she’d been working on for her latest set of illustrations, and of whom she was becoming quite fond.

  With its midnight blue sky, and the crater-covered planet surface in the foreground, the plan was, in between chatting and helping serve drinks, to finish colouring in the figure of Squidgy as he tried to catch a fish out of a water-filled crater.

  In the spare room of Beth’s flat Abi had already changed into the smart business suit that she hoped showed the right level of professionalism and practicality. Beth had wanted her to wear a cocktail dress, but as Abi pointed out, it wasn’t terribly practical to wear something like that if she was supposed to be painting, and her only concession to posh clothing was going to be a pair of high heels which, she smiled to herself, should make reaching up to kiss Max a little bit easier.

  Undoing one extra blouse button over her cleavage, and wishing that she had rather more to flaunt, Abi put her shoulders back and, with a critical look at her reflection, decided that it was pointless to add a fresh layer of lip gloss until the last minute, as she’d have licked it off several times by then.

  She could hear Beth and Jacob giggling together as they got ready. Max had volunteered to escort Stan and his family to the launch, so she hadn’t seen him yet. Abi studied her appearance again. Maybe she should have worn a dress after all? She was sure Felicity would arrive in something drop-dead gorgeous to flirt with Jacob, but what about Sarah?

  Beth had been gobsmacked when they discovered that Max had been the one who’d invited Sarah Clifton. Apparently he hadn’t told them because he didn’t want to raise their hopes, but the show really was coming to interview them about their opening. Abi had been delighted until she’d found out exactly how well Max knew Sarah. He’d sat her down at Beth’s table the evening before, after Beth had winkled the truth about the invitation out of him, and explained himself fully.

  ‘The week after I returned to live in Cornwall after my separation I met Sarah in the pub and we hit it off. I was so hurt and angry with Lucinda, and it turned out that Sarah had been similarly treated by her errant husband. As the Victorians used to say, “we took comfort in each other”. It didn’t last long, and the only real feeling involved was mutual relief that we could be found attractive by other people, and that there wasn’t actually anything wrong with us
. I was a bit ashamed of myself for using her like that to be honest. I never even told Beth.’

  Beth had been gobsmacked when Abi had told her later about Max and the newsreader, her personal feelings in turmoil. Abi hadn’t seen Max as a casual sex sort of guy – but as Beth had reminded her, everyone can be a casual sex person sometimes, especially when life has left you wrung out, dumped on, and feeling unattractive.

  Max had remained friends with Sarah in a ‘say hello when they bumped into each other’ sort of way, and when Felicity had offered to do some publicity for the gallery in Cornwall Life, he’d thought about asking Sarah if the BBC might be interested.

  ‘He’s done us a massive favour,’ Beth insisted, ‘although I’m scared stiff. I’ve never been on the telly before.’

  Now, as she ran a hairbrush through her hair, Abi forced herself to stop picturing Max and Sarah together and tried to focus on how she was going to make small talk.

  ‘At least,’ Abi told her reflection, ‘I don’t have to make any bloody chococcino muffins!’ Sighing, she pulled off her suit and put on a body-hugging peacock blue cocktail dress. ‘Oh, sod it! How the hell else am I supposed to compete with a TV celebrity!’

  ‘Jacob, close your mouth!’ Beth dug her boyfriend in the ribs as he ran an appreciative gaze over Abi’s outfit. ‘You look incredible. I’m so glad you didn’t go with the suit. You looked great in it, but chances to knock Max out don’t come along all that often.’

  ‘I’m not wearing this to impress Max. I just don’t want to let you down.’

  ‘Bollocks.’ Beth straightened her own charcoal grey, cleavage-enhancing dress, and slipped on her court shoes. ‘So, are you ready to go and sell your soul to the goddess of mammon?’

  Abi hovered nervously, ‘You look gorgeous. If any of the dads from your school come in, they’ll never be able to look at you in the same way again during parents’ evening!’

  Beth grimaced, ‘Ugh, what a thought!’

  Jacob, who looked like a gypsy James Bond in his tuxedo with loosened bow tie, held out both of his arms, ‘Ladies, may I escort you all the way down to your empire?’

  Taking a mutual deep breath, they answered, ‘You may.’

  Abi tried to stop her gaze from continually straying to the door. The gallery was already full of people, and Abi was glad she’d opted for the dress, as the place was packed with high heels and tight-fitting frocks.

  The compliments for her work had been entirely effusive, and Jacob was positively drowning in compliments for his breathtaking ceramics, not to mention admiring glances and suggestive comments from many of the women.

  Taking a breather behind the counter to refill her glass of champagne, Abi asked Beth out of the corner of her mouth, ‘Don’t you mind all those people hitting on Jacob?’

  ‘Nah, it’s quite flattering.’

  ‘Flattering?’

  ‘I get to take the hottest guy in the gallery home. They just get to buy a pot!’

  Wishing she could think like that, Abi had just decided that she should stop looking out for Max, when she spotted Stan and Sally coming through the door. Immediately picking up two glasses of champagne, Abi made a beeline for them. ‘I’m so glad you came. Now I feel like the launch is really happening!’

  Stan gave Abi a half-hug so that he didn’t spill his drink. ‘You are always so kind!’ He looked about, ‘I must say, you girls have done Jack proud. He’d have loved this. His shop full of people all happy, all laughing, especially those girls.’ He pointed to the potter’s little fan club. ‘That Jacob is an awful lot like Jack. Not surprising Beth likes him so much.’

  Abi laughed, ‘That makes sense. Where’s Max, didn’t he bring you?’

  ‘He did, but he said he had to go and fetch someone called Sarah before he could come in.’

  ‘Oh.’ Abi’s shoulder muscles tensed. ‘He’s bringing Sarah? I hadn’t realised. If you’ll excuse me, I’d better go and warn Beth that she’s on her way.’

  Sally put her hand out to Abi. ‘It’s OK, you know, he’s just giving her a lift, he isn’t “bringing her” in a date sense.’

  Embarrassed that she’d given herself away, but grateful to Sally nonetheless, Abi whispered, ‘Thank you,’ before rushing off to warn Beth that the television cameras were coming.

  ‘There will be some who’ll say you’re very brave to open another gallery in Sennen, when the village already has one of the most famous and established galleries in Cornwall in the shape of the Roundhouse. What makes your enterprise different?’

  Having anticipated this question, Beth and Abi had rehearsed what Beth should say. As Abi listened to her friend talk calmly into the microphone about how Art and Sole was to be an enterprise to promote an ever-changing array of artists from the south-west as well as a chance to witness an illustrator in action, she was full of pride.

  Sarah, who was as together and as pretty as Abi had expected her to be, was kind and friendly, and despite herself Abi could see exactly why Max had found her attractive. Once the interview was over, and she and Beth had been filmed walking into the gallery three times before the cameraman got the shot he wanted, Abi left Beth to the pleasantries, disappearing back into the gallery to make sure everyone was happy, only to find a gaggle of Jacob’s groupies waiting at the till to buy some of his ceramics.

  ‘You look gorgeous.’

  Abi looked up from wrapping the last of Jacob’s vases up in silver tissue paper, straight into Max’s clear green eyes, and her stomach instantly did a backflip. She wasn’t sure what it was about a man’s evening dress that worked, and she didn’t care. She was just glad it did. Her chest tightened as she felt her body react to his presence.

  ‘You look pretty handsome yourself.’ Keeping her voice light she asked, ‘Where’ve you been? It’s been mad here.’

  ‘Part of the deal to get Sarah here was to mend her mother’s toilet cistern. I’ve just this minute finished it.’

  ‘What? Tonight? She made you do that tonight?’

  ‘I dumped her. The only time I’ve ever done that in my life. It was horrid, it made me feel awful. I owed her, I guess. The timing was crap, but isn’t it always?’

  Abi felt her heart swell in the face of his honesty. ‘Come on. Let’s find you a glass of champagne.’

  At last everyone had gone. Jacob, Beth, Abi, Stan, Sally, and Max stood in the centre of a rather depleted collection of Jacob’s ceramics and a totally empty table where the pile of children’s books had previously sat.

  ‘We did it!’ Beth yawned as she spoke. ‘When do you think we’ll be on the television?’

  ‘Tomorrow night’s programme, I should think.’ Max started to collect up the empty glasses that had been abandoned on Beth’s grandad’s old bench, ‘then this place will really be on the map. I bet you’re busy next week.’

  Abi let out a squeak. ‘But next week I’ll be on my own, you’ll be back at school, Beth!’

  ‘You’ll be fine.’ Beth looked at the empty tables and plinths that dotted the room. They’d even sold one of Jacob’s Ali Baba pots to the ever-hopeful Felicity. ‘And it won’t even matter if you don’t sell a thing. We made more money tonight than I projected us to make in the next month.’

  ‘I beg to protest,’ Jacob said with a smile, ‘I’d like you to sell everything I have! But don’t worry, Abi; I’ll be here in the afternoons to chat to the stray tourists.’

  A massive yawn from Stan reminded them of just how late it was, and how tired they all were. Sally immediately began to make ‘time to go’ movements, and with thanks and hugs, soon just the four friends remained.

  Beth scooped the money from the till into a bag. ‘Do you mind locking up, Abi? I want to get the takings safely sorted and put away upstairs before I crash out.’

  ‘Not at all. I’ll pile up the rest of the dirty dishes to clean tomorrow, and then I’ll be up as well.’

  As Jacob followed Beth upstairs with a suggestive smirk of things to come, Max put his hands out to
Abi. ‘You have no idea how much I want to follow Jacob’s example and follow you up those stairs.’

  ‘Well, you don’t have to go …’ Abi, who had hoped he’d do exactly what he suggested, saw that she was about to be disappointed.

  ‘I happen to know that Beth’s spare room bed is tiny, and the idea of making love to you with Beth and Jacob cheering us on from the next room is not what I have planned for our first time together.’

  The hope that had begun to die rekindled again in Abi’s veins. ‘You have plans in that direction then?’

  ‘Oh yes, Mrs Carter. I have plans.’

  ‘And you’re sure he’s alright?’

  ‘Stan is in his element.’ Max grinned at the memory of the old man’s face as he’d walked into the flat complex’s main reception. ‘I wish you could have seen him. Turns out he went to school with two of the other residents. The staff are going to have their hands full when those three are in the communal rooms at the same time!’

  Abi had said nothing about how much she’d wanted to be there to see Stan safely settled, but there had been no room in Max’s van for more than Stan and his stuff. Anyway, Sally and the children naturally wanted to help him unpack, and Abi hadn’t wanted to butt into their family time, especially as it was so rare and precious. ‘I can well imagine.’

  With Max’s reassuring presence close beside her, Abi scanned the garden, mentally deciding that most of it would have to be pulled out and replanted next spring.

  ‘Now you can stop beating yourself up about evicting an old man from his home, which I know you’ve been doing, even though you did no such thing in the first place.’

  Letting out a long slow exhalation of air, which Abi felt she’d been holding in for weeks, she spoke slowly. ‘Once I’ve signed the paperwork I really will own Abbey’s House, won’t I?’

  ‘You will. Lock, stock, and overgrown garden!’ Putting his arms around her, Max followed her gaze across the long narrow garden. ‘I’m sorry I have to dash off. I’ve got to get back to work.’