by Agatha Frost
"I'm sure it'll look fine when it's finished," Julia offered as she slammed the dusty book shut. "I bet you're both glad work has resumed after that dreadful incident with - Oh, what was he called? The builder who was in charge? My memory is like a sieve."
Julia clicked her fingers as though trying to conjure up the name. She shot Barker a look that she hoped said 'be quiet' when she noticed his lips forming the letter S.
"Shane?" Harold offered after a long pause.
"That's it!" Julia exclaimed, snapping her fingers with a flourish. "Shame about what happened to him. Did you know him?"
"Not really," Harold replied without looking up from the laptop screen. "He came across as a bit of a pig. Overheard him saying some stuff to Candy about Mikey being 'queer'. My brother's gay, so I didn't like that. We're living in a different time now, so it's shocking that people like that still exist. Well, not that he exists anymore, but people like him do."
Julia thought back to hearing that same word leave Shane's lips when he had been standing naked on the landing after throttling Alfie. The word had made her feel uncomfortable then, but it made her feel even more uncomfortable to know that it had not been a one-off.
"So, you'd say you didn't like him?" Julia pushed as she carefully put the book back on the shelf. "I suppose you only had a couple of days to get to know him?"
"Shane arrived when we did," Harold corrected her as he continued to type. "Just before Valentine's Day. Mikey wanted him here because he'd be leading the project, although look how that turned out."
Julia soaked up the information, but she did not say another word. She had wondered how long Candy and Shane's affair had been going on, but she would not be surprised if it had started during that week before the build began. Had Harold discovered what they were doing, or had he been oblivious to his cold wife's infidelity? Julia thought about how she had seen them in the alley, and how they had not been cautious about not being seen.
"Did Candy like him?" Julia asked, knowing that the question was one too far when she heard it leaving her lips.
Harold stopped typing for a moment, his eyes darting up at Julia. They lingered for a second, everything she needed to know in his weary gaze. He gulped hard before looking back down at the screen with tense brows.
"I really need to concentrate on this," Harold muttered, his typing twice as fast as before. "I can only afford to work on this for an hour."
Despite his earlier admission that he was ahead of schedule and that the work for Barker would be easy, Julia stayed quiet.
"Why don't I get you both some coffee?" Julia offered, her tone sweet. "And I'll see if there are some biscuits too."
Julia slipped out of the room with a smile. When she closed the door behind her, she leaned her head against the wood and let out a deep breath. Opening her eyes, she saw Hilary wiping the counter in the kitchen while shaking her head at Julia. Julia smiled back, but the elderly housekeeper tutted and hobbled off with her stick. Julia could almost hear Hilary saying 'that woman is always up to something' in her mind.
After making coffee and emptying half a packet of chocolate digestive biscuits onto a plate, Julia slipped back into the study. The men were hard at work, so she left them to it. She considered searching for her father or Katie, so she could spend time with her baby brother, but raised voices from the sitting room caught her attention.
Julia immediately recognised one of the voices as belonging to Candy. Keeping light on her feet, Julia crept as close to the archway leading into the sitting room as she dared. Standing next to a tall marble bust, she glanced inside. Candy and Mikey were sitting on opposite sofas, blueprints on the coffee table between them. Neither of them looked happy with the other one, and Mikey seemed on the verge of tears.
"You signed off on this months ago!" Mikey said, his high-pitched voice shallow and small. "I promise I haven't changed a thing since then."
"Then you've done something wrong!" Candy screeched, her voice piercing. "Because what I saw this morning was not the house I wanted. It's tiny! Did you use a toy ruler to measure things out?"
"It's the exact same!" Mikey cried, followed by the rustling of paper. "I promise you, Candy. This is what you wanted. It's going to look a little funny until the walls are installed. I put all of these windows in because you wanted the house to feel spacious. Look at this one right at the front. It's floor to ceiling over two floors. It's going to feel huge inside!"
"I don't want it to feel huge," she yelled back. "I want it to be huge. Sort this out, Mikey, or your reputation in this business will be ruined. Don't forget who I am or the power I have."
Julia heard the rip of paper, followed by clicking heels on floorboards. She pressed herself against the wall and ducked behind the bust as Candy burst out of the sitting room. She walked right past Julia, but she did not notice her. After grabbing a bundle of keys from the table next to the door, she headed outside. There was a crunch of gravel followed by the screeching of tyres as she sped down the lane in her giant car. Julia turned back to the sitting room as faint sobs echoed around the grand space. Without a second thought, Julia crept into view and approached Mikey as he picked up the two halves of his ruined blueprint.
"It's a good job I make copies," Mikey laughed through his tears as he quickly wiped them away when he saw Julia. "Nothing lost."
"Are you alright?" Julia asked softly, unsure if she should approach. "I just saw Candy storm out."
"That's just Candy," he said, laughing through his tears.
Julia thought that was all she was going to get, but Mikey fell back into the sofa, his eyes trained on her as he lifted the back of his hand up to his mouth. He shook his head before the tears started to silently fall down his face. Julia hurried forward and sat next to him to wrap her arm around his narrow shoulders. Mikey melted into her like a boy desperate for his mother. The sobbing grew and grew until it came to an abrupt stop.
"Look at me," Mikey muttered as he wiped tears from his streaked cheeks. "I'm so embarrassed. Look what she's reduced me to."
Mikey wiped his damp hands on his skin-tight jeans before running them over his platinum blond buzz cut. He inhaled deeply, before pushing forward a smile and turning to Julia.
"Please tell me this village has a bar," he asked. "I'm in desperate need of a drink."
"I know a place," Julia said as she nodded to the door. "C'mon. I could use one myself."
9
Mikey looked less than impressed when he had to climb into Julia's vintage aqua blue Ford Anglia, and even less impressed when they pulled up outside The Plough.
"It's not a bar, but it's the best Peridale has to offer," Julia said apologetically as she pulled her keys from the ignition. "And it's cheap."
"Well, Lord knows I need to save money right now," Mikey said as he grabbed the door handle. "I'm ruined if Candy fires me this far into the project."
Sundays were usually spent only a couple of ways in Peridale. There were the people who spent their mornings at St. Peter's Church, and then the people who spent their mornings at the pub. Julia fell into neither category, instead usually choosing to sleep in or run errands, but on this morning, she was glad to be at the pub with Mikey.
Despite the chilly weather, the tables in front of the pub were filled with the smoking residents of Peridale. Inside was just as packed, with the chairs and tables closest to the fireplace the most filled. After ordering their drinks, both of them opting for dry white wine, they found a table in the corner.
"You weren't wrong about it being cheap," Mikey said as he stared into the wine. "You get so used to city prices, you forget how little things cost in the sticks. No offence."
"None taken," Julia said as she took her seat. "It's not bad wine either."
Mikey sat across from Julia, his back to the rest of the pub. His unusual buzz cut, bright clothes, and feminine manner garnered a few raised eyebrows, but most did not look up from their pints. After taking his first sip of wine, Mikey seemed to cal
m down a little, although there was still a shake to his hands.
"What's your story?" Julia asked him, her finger circling her glass as she stared into the flickering flames of the fire. "How did you end up here?"
"In Peridale?" he asked, arching a perfectly defined brow that she was sure had been aided with a pencil. "I designed the house."
"I meant 'here' in the general sense," she corrected herself. "Here in life. Are you happy?"
"Is anyone?" he scoffed before taking a deep gulp of wine as though it were water. "I bounce from job to job designing houses for rich people, I get to keep a fraction of the cost, and then I scurry back to wherever I came from until the next job comes along."
Mikey looked as though he was going to cry again, but another sip of wine steadied him. Julia decided against diving into her drink just yet. She knew she had a chance to find out more about Candy from someone who might be in an excellent position to tell her things off the beaten track.
"Where is home?"
"Today, it's Peridale," he announced. "When this job is finished, I've got a month left on my flat in London, but between you and me, I can't afford it. I try to keep up with the lifestyle, but it barely keeps up with me. Maybe I'll go up north. I hear property costs nothing up there."
"But where is home?" Julia repeated. "Where are you really from?"
Mikey looked down at a silver band on his wedding finger that Julia had not noticed until now. He fiddled with it a little, but he did not let his attention linger.
"I haven't worn this for two years," he explained when he noticed her eyeing up the ring. "Let me see yours?" Julia held out her hand, and Mikey assessed the pearl. "It's beautiful. I hope he loves you."
"Thank you," she said, hearing the sadness in his voice. "It was my mother's engagement ring first. And he does love me, and I love him."
Julia's admission of being in love looked like it might push Mikey back to the verge of tears. He drank more of his wine, taking it past the halfway point. A little hiccough told her he was not used to drinking so fast.
"Hold on tight," Mikey said, looking down at his ring again with a sad smile. "I thought I'd found him. The one. Do you know how hard it is to date as a gay man? You crawl the bars and the apps, jumping from bed to bed, trying to find something that resembles happiness. You find it in fleeting moments, but they get bored and move onto the next thing. I met Kirk in a bar. I'd been stood up on a date, and he bumped into me. I threw my drink at someone else in anger thinking it was them. They kicked me out of the bar. Kirk came after me, laughing at the top of his lungs. He told me he'd bumped into me, by accident, of course. I wanted to hit him for getting me thrown out, but there was something in his smile. It was addictive. I started laughing too, and I knew I'd found the man I wanted to marry. And we did. Six months later, we tied the knot. Oh, I poured everything into it. My time, my money, my energy. Candy was there too. We'd just finished an apartment project together. She wanted to redesign her London pad to sell it. We made a tidy profit, but my cut went into the divorce six months later."
Mikey paused, his voice vanishing. He gulped hard, not looking like he could go on. Julia reached under the table and gave his knee a reassuring rub.
"Kirk came to me and told me he'd found someone else," Mikey continued, his voice strained. "Said he'd found 'the one'. I told him he was my 'the one', but he said I wasn't his. He said we'd rushed into it, and that it was silly. The sad thing is, I knew he was right. I had clung so hard to that glimmer of happiness that I tried to force it into reality. I wanted to believe I could be the one. I wanted to believe it was my turn for the fairy tale. I wanted all the guys in those bars to see that I got out, and I'd made it. Our divorce finalised two years ago, and it took every penny I had. I've been living job to job, trying to maintain this image I built for myself. The apartments, the clothes, the hair, the look, and all for what? To impress some guy for a night whose name I won't remember in the morning?"
Mikey reached out for his glass with shaky hands, the ring more evident than ever. He finished the rest of the wine like it was his tonic to survive.
"Why are you still wearing the ring, Mikey?" Julia asked, her voice soft and calm. "I'm divorced. I know how it feels."
"To maintain the pantomime, of course," he cried, his lips wet with the alcohol. "Candy was at the wedding, but she wasn't at the divorce. We're not friends, we're business partners, and I don't even think we'll be that soon. She's been lashing out more than normal, and I'm not sure how much I can put up with it. I slipped the ring back on because I wanted to pretend to her that my life was brilliant and that I wasn't at rock bottom. I started to believe it, but when this is all over, I'll be back to having no one. I'm living out of a suitcase at the awful B&B next door, and I can barely afford that. If it wasn't for the deposit Candy gave me, I wouldn't have a penny."
Julia's heart broke for Mikey. It was one of the saddest stories she had ever heard, but she knew what he was going through. She had put off signing her divorce papers for months because she had not wanted to face the reality that she had failed at something, even though it had ended for good reasons. Since signing those papers, her life had gone from strength to strength, and she had found happiness again, not just in Barker and Jessie, but within herself. As she stared at Mikey, who was eyeing up her wine, she wondered how she could convey that to him. She thought about when she had been at her lowest and knew no words would make things better, so she slid the wine across the table.
At that moment, the builders from the B&B walked in, their roaring presence immediately felt by all. Julia and Alfie noticed each other at the same time, and they shared a smile. When Julia turned her attention back to Mikey, he was already well on his way to drinking Julia's wine.
"What is Candy like to work for?" Julia asked, eager to know more about the actress. "I sense she's not all she appears to be."
"You mean the lovely actress adored by all?" he scoffed loudly, sloshing the wine as he did. "Last time I checked, her career wasn't going so hot. She's a fake! A fraud! She doesn't have a nice bone in her body. She sniffs out happiness in people and snuffs it out because she's a witch. I hated working with her last time, but I didn't have a choice but to agree to build her house. If I'd have said no, I would have been risking it for another job that might not have come. It was either this, or the job centre, and could you imagine me working in a normal job?"
Julia smiled awkwardly as she watched Mikey cross the line from vulnerable to bitter. His entire face changed, each muscle twisting at the mention of Candy's name.
"You'll find someone one day," Julia assured him, unsure of what else to say. "And even if you don't, you'll always have yourself."
"I found someone," Mikey muttered as he stared into the wine. "Someone after Kirk, but nothing lasts, does it? I - I think I'm going to be sick."
Without another word, the slender architect sprinted across the pub and into the men's bathroom. Julia looked down at the wine, wondering if the alcohol or the conversation had turned his stomach. Either way, she decided she had not helped Mikey feel better in any way, and she had not learned much that she did not already know about Candy. She had suspected her public persona was nothing more than a front since their first meeting.
"Is he okay?" a soft voice asked, disrupting Julia from her thoughts. "He didn't look too good."
Julia smiled up at Alfie, who was hovering over the table with a pint in his hand. His dark hair was tucked behind his ears, and he was wearing a tight black t-shirt, which brought out the definition in his chest and stomach muscles. Earth-toned bracelets cluttered his wrists, a stark contrast against his tattooed skin. He had swapped his usually black nose ring for a gold one, and he was wearing gold studs in each ear. The feeling of familiarity washed over Julia again, but instead of making her feel comfortable, it made her shift in her seat.
"Can I ask you something?" Julia asked, squinting at the builder. "Have we met somewhere before? You look so - so familiar."
&n
bsp; "A handful of times in the past week," he joked. "But before I came here? I don't think so. I get that a lot. I must have one of those faces. I think you'd remember if you'd seen a guy with all these tattoos."
Julia looked them up and down, the intricate designs all blending into one.
"You're right," she said with a nod, shaking her head. "It's just a feeling I can't seem to shake."
"Maybe in a past life?" he suggested with a knowing nod. "That is if you believe in those things. Evelyn has been educating me on 'the other side'. It's all quite fascinating, but I'm not sure I'm sold yet. She gave me a tarot reading over breakfast and almost flipped the table when she turned over the cards. According to her, I have life-changing and important news coming my way today."
Mikey hurried out of the bathroom, but instead of heading to Julia, he went straight to the door. She thought about chasing after him, but she knew he would want to be left alone.
"He's going through a hard time," Julia explained in a whisper. "I think it's all getting on top of him."
"I'm not surprised," Alfie replied, taking the seat across from Julia. "His heart must be shattered."
"You know about that?"
Alfie assessed Julia with suspicion, his eyes creasing at the side. He sipped his pint before leaning back in his chair, an unsure smile on his lips.
"Do you?" he asked.
"He just told me everything," Julia explained. "It's so sad. He thought he'd found true love."
"I'm surprised he was that open with you," Alfie confessed, leaning in. "What did you put in the wine? I couldn't believe it when I found out."
"I didn't realise you were that close."
"We're not," Alfie said with a shrug. "Not really. I worked on a job for Mikey a couple of years back the last time I was in the country. He's a good guy. I like him."
Julia was glad that Mikey had at least one compassionate person in his life, and she was pleased it was Alfie. Even if they had never met before, she enjoyed being in his company, and she found she wanted to listen to him talk all afternoon. She thought about pressing him for stories of his travels, but she stopped herself, thinking it might be too forward.
