‘Shhh! She’ll hear you… and this place is starting to grow on me,’ Charlie hissed at Penelope, he had made up his mind and nothing was getting in the way of this.
‘Mrs Evans, has there been a lot of interest in the house?’ Penelope put on her most innocent expression, she didn’t want to seem too keen.
‘Oh, yes dear, I have had to traipse up and down these stairs at least ten times a day for the past two days, we are expecting it to be taken quite soon.’ ‘Now that’s it,’ Mrs Evans thought to herself, ‘I have them now, what’s a little white lie in business, and anyway I should not be climbing all of these stairs with my angina.’ Mrs Evans waited for Penelope’s reaction.
‘I see.’ Penelope started to get nervous, this house was growing on her and up until this point she thought that they had been the only ones to see it, but she knew how fast a rented house could go in London, sometimes… in a matter of minutes. That was the reason they went to view houses midweek, the weekend house hunting circus is a complete nightmare in London!
‘Yeah, if you believe that, you’ll believe anything!’ Charlie whispered to Penelope, he didn’t believe her at all.
‘I don’t know… it’s kind of growing on me… let’s see what the two bedrooms on the top floor are like…’ Penelope whispered back.
‘Oh I have to catch my breath! Those stairs get me every time… I have to be so careful with my angina…. now, here are the final two bedrooms, these are not identical to the two on the second floor, the double room here is bigger and the single room is slightly smaller than the one downstairs…’ Mrs Evans droned on and on.
‘The big room is lovely. There’s going to be a fight over this one if we decide on this house,’ Penelope stated, she loved the room, she could actually see herself fitting all… well nearly all… of her shoes into the built-in wardrobes.. The big original sash windows were lovely and because it was on the top floor there was an amazing view. It was also so high up that street noise wouldn’t be a problem.
‘Mrs Evans, is the landlady open to the idea of the bedrooms being painted also?’ Penelope had her fingers crossed behind her back.
‘I’m not too sure dear, I will have to check… now where did I leave my glasses. I know I left them here somewhere… I’ll leave you two lovebirds up here while I have a look for them…’ Mrs Evans straightened the jacket of her tweed suit, while she clipped the clasp of her handbag open to look for her glasses.
‘Does she think we are married?! That’s hysterical!’ Penelope exploded with laughter as soon as Mrs Evans was out of earshot.
‘What’s so funny about it? Do you not think that I would make a good husband?’ Charlie looked offended, trying his best to keep a straight face.
‘Em… no!… potential rock stars make the worst boyfriends, let alone husbands!’ Penelope shrieked with laughter.
‘You shouldn’t be so narrow-minded! Musicians are not all the same, I’m quite hurt by that actually,’ Charlie sniffed ‘We have feelings too you know… and for your information Penelope, we do make nice boyfriends…. isn’t that why we have all of these girls fighting over us?’ Charlie sighed… as if it was such a burden. ‘There we are trying to concentrate on the music and we have all of these hysterical women throwing G-strings at us… it’s a tough life.’ Charlie sat down on the stairs for extra emphasis, with his palms facing Penelope, as he shrugged his shoulders. Charlie loved all of the attention, he loved every single second that he spent on stage, and he was constantly living for his next gig.
‘I don’t believe a word of it!’ Penelope couldn’t stop laughing, Charlie was staring intently at her, with his mock-serious tone trying to convince her that all of the attention was a burden… what a joke!
‘And I’m not a potential rock star! I’m a serious musician thank you very much!’ Charlie retorted as he stood up proudly.
‘Here they are!… I found them in the kitchen… eventually… Have you two made a decision yet?’ Mrs Evans glasses had been on her head the whole time that she had been looking for them… but nobody mentioned this…
‘We do really like it, but we are going to have to go away and think about it, if that’s alright with you?’ ‘Never let them see how keen you are’, Penelope thought to herself, ‘that’s a major rule in negotiations…always be willing to walk away… well at least make them think that!’
‘That’s quite alright…’ ‘I will be very surprised if these two don’t take this place, very surprised indeed,’ Mrs Evans thought to herself. Penelope and Mrs Evans eyeballed each other in the hall, each knowing what the other was thinking. Charlie tried his best not to laugh, and spoil the moment.
‘One of us will give you a call tomorrow, either way.’ Penelope broke the silence, and then the two of them made their way down to the front door.
‘I will look forward to it… now… where did I leave those keys…?’ Mrs Evans rummaged around in her little handbag for the keys.
‘We’ll see ourselves out. Thank you Mrs Evans.’ Penelope smiled sweetly.
‘Alright, Goodbye, dear,’ Mrs Evans called after them.
‘Thanks, bye.’ Charlie couldn’t wait to move his stuff in.
Charlie and Penelope took one of the tables outside the nearest café on Abbeville Road. It was strange being around in the middle of the day during the week, but they were grateful to get a seat outside in the sunshine.
‘Well, what do you think?’ Penelope asked as she sipped her oversized cappuccino. Penelope was really keen, and now that she was far enough away from the flat she was happy to let her emotions show.
‘I thought it was cool, I could totally get all of my amps and stuff in the end of the living room, and that shed in the garden could be really handy for the band’s stuff.’ As far as Charlie was concerned they were moving in.
‘I suppose that is one selling point for you… but I was hoping to just have to get one other person in, and not two… the less strangers we live with the better.’ Penelope sounded tense… life in London is hectic, and Penelope knew she didn’t have time to get to know strangers… let alone to put in all the effort to find housemates.
‘Would you relax… it’ll be cool… we are hardly going to move an axe-murderer in!’ Charlie could not see the problem, he couldn’t understand why girls got so worried about everything.
‘Well… you never know..’ Penelope had heard some real horror stories about living with strangers.
‘It’s in a pretty cool area too… did you see all of the bars… I wouldn’t have to stagger far to get home.’ Charlie thought it was time to change the subject, and to focus on the advantages..
‘That’s a major bonus for both of us.’ ‘Hmm, he has a point, after all we do go out around here all the time, it would be so great to just wander home and not have to fight for a taxi.’ Penelope considered this, it did make sense.
‘And we go out around here all the time, so it’ll just make everything more convenient.’ Charlie was convinced now, that this was the end of the house-hunt.
‘That’s a good point.’ Penelope knew he was right, her free time was scarce enough, and anything to make life a bit more convenient was very welcome.
‘And I really think it’s the best place that we have seen so far, and I think we could get away with sharing with one other person if we set the rent at the right level.’ Charlie knew that they could both agree on that, some of the other places had been pretty grim.
‘I definitely agree with that! Ok… even though I’m not a huge fan of sharing with people we don’t know… let’s do it!’ Penelope hugged Charlie.
It was as if a great weight had been lifted off their shoulders, they had been looking with no luck for two whole weeks, and finally the search had come to an end. Two weeks may not seem like a long time, but in a city full of young professionals, all looking for a place to rent, two weeks is like a lifetime. Finding the right flat in the right location, is an essential make or break step towards happiness or complete misery in Lo
ndon. It’s important to live near, if not with, some friends, and of course the all-important transport links. Clapham South was perfect for Charlie and Penelope on both accounts.
‘I’ll call Mrs Evans first thing to let her know.’ Charlie was relieved, he couldn’t face the prospect of another afternoon of rejecting what he thought were perfectly good houses!
‘Provided that we can change the Wicca HQ!’ Penelope was so excited about their new place, she was mentally packing and organising all of her clothes and shoes and picking out the right space for them in her new built-in wardrobes.
‘What the hell is that?’ Charlie laughed nervously.
‘You know… the purple living room!’ ‘Sometimes you just had to spell it out for guys’… Penelope thought to herself.
‘Oh yeah, right, I’ll make sure we can repaint it.’ ‘What a relief! I thought she was talking about something serious there…’
‘Great.’ Penelope was really excited now. She was dying to live with Charlie. She had only lived with other bankers since leaving University, and she had the feeling that living with Charlie would be a whole new experience..
Chapter 3
The First Day of the Rest of Our Lives…
It’s funny how these things happen sometimes. It doesn’t really seem that significant at the time, but when you look back you realise that one chance encounter can potentially change the whole direction of the rest of your life. Penelope hadn’t seen Charlie since the beginning of University. They both went to University in London, but he dropped out after a year to focus on his music. They hadn’t kept in touch so much since then, as their lives had taken very different paths. Penelope followed the more traditional route, business degree, a masters in economics and a job in banking in ‘The City’. Charlie was happy enough living off his Trust Fund and fuelling the song-writing process with lots of life experience… well that was one way of putting it… Charlie was constantly teetering on the edge of ‘getting signed’ or ‘getting a deal’ or ‘writing a number one’. If you speak to any of the thousands of aspiring musicians in London, this is the kind of chatter that you will hear, so nobody really took him seriously as a musician. On the other hand, he was very good looking, with his 6ft4 frame, his shoulder-length brown hair, hazel coloured eyes and lightly tanned skin. He always used this to his advantage of course. Countless young blondes fell under his spell, and he left a trail of them dazed and confused the length and breadth of the country.
Penelope was every parent’s dream. She came in the top ten in her class in University. On the surface she was successful and glamorous and she had no end of city bankers running after her. Her mother was expecting her to march any one of them down the aisle any day now… this was the last thing on Penelope’s mind however, but she didn’t let her mother know that. It was expected of her that she should ‘marry well’, ‘after all they had done for her’ and sometimes it felt like everyone was watching and waiting, and dusting off their best hats for the big day. There was also the constant reminder that her parents had already been married for some time at her age. At 28, Penelope was positively ancient as far as her mother was concerned. The dreaded 3-0 was looming and it would be game over for her mother if she wasn’t ‘settled down’ by then. She didn’t want to let her parents down, so she would keep the charade going for as long as she could get away with it. Even at this age she definitely wasn’t ready to settle down, after all… surely she hadn’t even met the one. She was confident that she would know the minute that that happened. You just know… that’s what everyone said. Being an only child really had its drawbacks sometimes, the pressure was on and Penelope had become something of an expert at deflecting it. Living with Charlie was exactly what she needed at this point in her life.
It was no wonder that Charlie and Penelope had fallen out of touch. She could be found regularly in places like Le Pont de la Tour, The Oxo Tower and The Criterion “on expenses”. He was more likely to be found in the Barfly in Camden, or the Boogaloo, with the other “struggling” artists “on stage”. Of course he wasn’t exactly struggling himself, but that was hardly the point… it was all about the music. It’s amazing how for years you can have so much in common and then it seems like all of a sudden you are twenty-something and everything has changed, some people are grownups and some people are fighting the urge to be!
Then one day, quite out of the blue, Charlie and Penelope’s paths crossed again. It was a grim, grey day in London, it had been lashing rain all day, and the streets were really badly flooded. These days are not too uncommon in London… but this day the rain was particularly heavy. It felt like the city itself had a heavy heart as the commuters battled with each others’ umbrellas, leaped across puddles and struggled to go about their business. Charlie was on his way to Euston, to catch a train to Manchester. His band, The Stone Rats, were supporting a new up and coming band up there for three nights. He was meeting the guys there at 2 pm, he was… as always… a little late.
By the time he had arrived at the platform it looked like the guys were on the train already, so he headed on… not a care in the world, he would definitely find them on board. Penelope was also on this train. As the train began moving away from the platform Charlie fished out his mobile phone to call the others but the battery was dead. They had only been going about two minutes when the train lurched to a halt, and then… silence. Everyone sat there waiting for the driver’s announcement, and within seconds there was some garbled announcement about an electrical fault… muffle… muffle… fault… muffle… muffle… delay… muffle… muffle… heavy rain… There was a collective grumble on the train, and then silence again. The silence was broken by the shrill sound of a mobile ringing, which was promptly answered with a curt ‘Penelope Chesterfield’. Charlie couldn’t believe it… no it couldn’t be… but it certainly sounded like Pen. He had a good look around and couldn’t see her, then he saw the woman on the mobile phone, he had to have a really good look at her before he decided that it was in fact his mate from Uni. She looked nothing like the girl that he had known back then, she used to be slightly bohemian and she had a real free spirit. He was quite shocked at what he saw, she was dressed like somebody’s mother, in her cream suit and tailored trench coat, everything matching! She had cut her long blonde hair into a neat bob. But when he took a good look at her face she still looked quite young… it could be her… yes it definitely… could… was it her? He took a good five minutes before he decided to go over to say hello. When he did, the stern face he saw when she had been barking into her phone, melted into the warmest smile that he had ever seen. Thanks to the rail company they had a good two hours to catch up, and they swapped numbers, promising to meet up soon.
Charlie lost Penelope’s number.
Pen saved his into her mobile, and for some reason the chance meeting played on her mind. She really had left that life behind her, the wild parties in Uni, dating artists, actors, and crazy scientist guys… Why was it all so serious now? Had someone waved a magic wand, and all of a sudden she had to take life so seriously. No, that’s ridiculous, she made her own destiny… and this was the way that she wanted her life to be. She was successful and you could be fooled into thinking that that was all that mattered in a city like London. She wanted to see him again soon, he was such a breath of fresh air, an antidote to all of the stuffy people she had to put up with in work. She made a firm decision to call him, after all, it sounded like his band needed all the moral support they could get… and that’s how their friendship started up again.
Chapter 4
The Big Move
‘How many runs are you going to have to do to bring all of your things over?’ Penelope was keen to plan the day, so that she could bring her stuff over while he was collecting his next load, it was the most logical way of organising it!
‘Just one,’ Charlie muttered.
‘One! But you are moving house?’ Penelope looked horrified, she assumed he was joking!
‘Unlike y
ou Pen, I don’t need a pair of shoes for every day of the year.’ Charlie couldn’t help teasing her, she had so many boxes of things!
‘I don’t have over 300 pairs!’ Penelope retorted. ‘Do I? Oh my god…do I? That’s scary!’ Penelope panicked at the possibility that she did, indeed, own more than 300 pairs of shoes.
‘What’s in all of those boxes then?’ Charlie challenged her, he knew he was right…
‘Oh, they are not all full of shoes’ Penelope stammered, ‘Quick! Change the subject, I’m crap at lying!’ ‘They are full of things for work…’‘brilliant he’ll never question that!’ She began to relax a bit, she knew that he would not question work things, after all her work was highly confidential.
‘Well why do the boxes have “SHOES” written on the side of them?’ Charlie smirked at her and pretended to be ready to open one of the boxes.
‘Erm… good question… and the reason is… the reason is… that we bought the boxes, in work, from a shoe factory, to put the files in,’ Penelope shot back at him. ‘This is getting easier by the second,’ she thought to herself.
‘Let’s have a look then!’ Charlie knew Penelope couldn’t lie to save her life, but he was certainly enjoying seeing her squirm!
‘No!’ She shrieked, ‘I mean, I don’t think that would be a good idea, those are C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-T-I-A-L work papers… and I could get fired!’ Penelope was really panicking now, she couldn’t be known as the girl with a pair of shoes for every day of the year, she just couldn’t.
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