The Rom-Com Collection: The Plus One, Something for the Weekend, A Marriage of Connivance

by Natasha West

  ‘Me too.’

  Chloe raised her glass this time. Jess clinked it.

  As they parted an hour later, Jess swore that this year, they’d keep in contact with each other regularly.

  ‘Maybe even a visit?’

  Chloe nodded with enthusiasm.

  ‘Absolutely. We have to do that.’

  And then they hugged each other, Jess squeezing Chloe way too hard, and off they went, in opposite directions.

  Year Seven

  August 2012 - The Gatehouse (Manchester)

  Chloe poked her head out of the cab to see that it was absolutely pissing it down.

  ‘What the hell kind of August is this?’ thought Chloe as she hopped out of the car. It made her feel grateful to be a southerner if this was a Manchester summer’s day. How did Jess live with here without getting a serious case of SAD?

  ‘Chloe?!’ a voice from behind her implored. Chloe turned quickly to see she’d left Freya struggling with the bags.

  ‘God, sorry. I don’t know where my head was.’

  ‘Just grab one, would you?’ Freya said, half throwing an overnight bag at her as she stepped out of the cab.

  They went into the hotel, which Freya surveyed with a cynical eye. Chloe could tell she was unimpressed. She hoped that if Freya was about to complain, she’d do it quietly.

  Luckily, Freya’s mind seemed taken up with other things.

  ‘What time are we meeting your friends, anyway?’ Freya asked as Chloe was handed the key at reception.

  ‘Friend, not friends’ plural. I’ve never met Claire. But Jess wanted us all to get together’ Chloe explained. They headed toward the lift.

  ‘You see, that’s the bit I don’t understand’ Freya said as Chloe pushed the call button. ‘I don’t know why people can’t just be friends with each other without dragging their girlfriends into it.’

  ‘Look, they got married a couple of months ago and I couldn’t go because it clashed with your show, so this seemed a good way to alleviate some of the guilt. I don’t want her to think I’m not interested in meeting her wife. Or for her to meet my partner, for that matter.’

  Freya shuddered as the lift doors slid open.

  ‘Please don’t use that word.’

  ‘What word?’ Chloe asked, stepping in and pushing the button for the fourth floor.

  ‘Partner. It sounds like we’re taking out a business loan together.’

  Chloe sighed.

  ‘What would you prefer to be called?’

  A few seconds of silence as the lift juddered up the floors.

  ‘How about Sex Puppet?’ Freya finally said with a cheeky grin.

  The doors pinged open and Chloe laughed. The tension that had been building up between them on the way up north seemed to dribble away.

  They walked down the hall, looking for room 417.

  ‘Look’ Chloe said with an indulgent smile ‘It’s just dinner. You get the rest of the weekend to yourself. You can go mad on Manchester High Street while I’m stuck at the conference.’

  Chloe slid the key into the lock and opened the door, standing aside for Freya to walk in.

  ‘You have yourself a deal, partner’ Freya said dryly as she waltzed past Chloe into the small beige double room.

  Ten minutes later, Chloe headed back down to reception to register for the conference. She spotted Jess chatting with a young guy with a middle-aged guy moustache.

  She crept towards them to wait politely for the conversation to conclude.

  ‘So what exactly do you plan to do about that?’ Bad Moustache asked.

  ‘Greg, the conference is starting in a minute. Can you come back later? I promise you can rake me over the coals completely.’

  Greg harrumphed and walked away. Jess watched him, shaking her head.

  ‘What was that about?’ Chloe said from behind Jess.

  Jess turned in surprise.

  ‘Price! Where did you appear from, you wizard!’

  She grabbed Chloe in a bear hug.

  ‘I know. I don’t usually get the chance to creep up on you’ Chloe said into Jess’s hair.

  Jess pulled back and gave Chloe a look of assessment.

  ‘Let’s have a look at you. Oh, you’re red again!’

  Chloe touched her hair self-consciously.

  ‘Yeah. I never really took to being a blonde.’

  ‘You completely rocked the blonde but it’s nice to see the old ginge back, I must say.’

  Chloe began to blush.

  ‘What about you, let’s see if anything’s different’ she said, wanting to push the focus off herself.

  ‘There’s obviously one difference’ Jess said, holding out her hand to show Chloe the new silver band on her finger. Chloe was immediately contrite.

  ‘I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it.’

  ‘That’s alright Price. Don’t sweat it.’

  ‘It’s not that I didn’t want to be there…’

  ‘Don’t start apologising again. There’s only so much I can take of that.’

  Chloe shrugged shyly.

  ‘OK, well, I’ll just say pineapple and we’ll leave it at that then.’

  Jess was filled with nostalgic pleasure.

  ‘Pineapple accepted. Plus, you sent that pan set.’

  ‘I’m glad you liked them.’

  ‘They were one of the last things to go off the list and one of the first things we picked out, Claire was worried we wouldn’t get them, so believe me, we were very pleased to get them.’

  ‘How was the day itself?’

  ‘Nice.’

  ‘Nice?’

  ‘If I’m honest, it was knackering. Everyone makes such a bloody big deal of it. My mum was permanently down my neck for the whole six weeks before. ‘Did you remember the flowers?’ ‘Yes mother, I remembered one of the most basic things that every wedding has.’ She was doing my head in. I was pleased to get married just so she’d stop ringing me and asking stupid questions. I get enough of that at work’ Jess said with a head shake.

  ‘Is that what that was before?’

  ‘Oh, that. No, not exactly. It’s a valid complaint he’s got. I just can’t help him as quickly as he wants. Anyway, I’ll leave it at that. But suffice to say, being a department head is a whole new set of headaches, especially when you combine it with me being the union rep.’

  ‘Tricky tightrope?’

  ‘Putting it lightly. Anyway, how’s it going at fancy pants school?’

  ‘Fancy pants school is good. We have problems, but I think they’re different from the problems you have.’

  ‘Like ‘Which jodhpurs should little Tarquin wear for his horse riding lesson?’

  ‘I wish. It’s more along the lines that when people pay for their kids’ education, they tend to have a lot of opinions about what I’m teaching their progeny.’

  ‘Please tell me that the opinions are hilariously stupid.’

  ‘Sometimes, yes.’

  Jess clapped her hands together in anticipatory delight.

  ‘Tell me the stupidest thing a parent has ever said to you. I could do with a laugh.’

  Chloe cycled through the year she’d had, but she didn’t have to travel far in her memory time machine.

  She affected a deeper, more manly voice and said ‘Do you really think you’ve got the life experience to be able to teach the kids about To Kill a Mockingbird?’

  ‘Brilliant. What was your reply?’

  ‘I told him maybe I didn’t but that I did use to live in a tree, so I had that going for me.’

  ‘You did not!’

  Chloe tutted and said ‘No, I didn’t. But I seriously thought about it.’

  Jess laughed with her head thrown back.

  Chloe felt a flush of pleasure at having made Jess laugh. Not that it was hard to do, but still, it always felt good.

  ‘So, where’s the missus? She here?’ Chloe said looking around.

  ‘No, she’s at work. But you guys are still coming tonight, a
ren’t you?’

  ‘Wouldn’t miss it. Freya can’t wait to meet you’ Chloe lied.

  ‘Where is your squeeze, come to think of it.’

  ‘She’s upstairs, having a lie down. It was a long journey.’

  ‘Car?’

  ‘Train. I couldn’t do that long a drive solo. And Freya doesn’t drive.’

  ‘Oh well, long as she’s easy on the eye, who cares?’

  ‘Ha! True.’

  People began to mill in the direction of a set of double doors at the end of the hall.

  ‘That’s our cue’ Jess said and they began to shuffle along with the crowd.

  Jess lifted the lid from the pan and sniffed the contents suspiciously.

  ‘I think we should have just gone out to eat.’

  Claire, a tall blonde lithe creature with a Scandinavian look about her, was sitting at the table, reading on her laptop. She didn’t seem to hear.

  Jess, who’d been hoping Claire would pour praise on what Jess thought of as her somewhat inconsistent cooking skills, tried again.

  ‘Claire? Don’t you think this chilli smells a bit like a full nappy?’

  Claire finally looked away from the screen.

  ‘What? Oh. Don’t be silly. It smells exactly like chilli’s supposed to smell.’

  It wasn’t the ringing endorsement that Jess had been hoping for. It was little more than a nod toward the basic adequacy of the food. But Jess didn’t want to push for more. If she had to fish for a compliment, what was the point of it?

  ‘Great’ she said simply.

  The flat’s buzzer rang sharply.

  ‘Would you let them in?’

  Claire looked up sharply.

  ‘I’ve never met them. I think you should probably do the whole meet and greet bit.’

  Jess rolled her eyes.

  ‘Fine. Can you keep an eye on the food then?’

  ‘Of course’ Claire said, making no move from the table.

  Jess walked out to the hall and picked up the phone on the intercom.

  ‘That you, Price?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  Jess hit the open door button.

  ‘Come on up.’

  She heard a click down the intercom and went to the flat’s front door, sticking it on the latch. She could hear Chloe and Freya coming up the three flights, but before they got all the way up, Jess smelled something burning.

  ‘The chilli!’

  She ran into the kitchen to see Claire guiltily trying to scrape burnt chilli out of the pan.

  ‘I think we can save most of it?’ she said with ‘please don’t be too mad at me’ grin.

  Jess was about to reply when she realised that Chloe was suddenly amongst them, with a person that had to be Freya. Her immediate and involuntary assessment of Freya was that she looked mean. Pretty-mean, but mean all the same.

  ‘Hi’ Chloe said nervously.

  Jess turned to them.

  ‘Hi! How does everyone feel about Chinese takeaway?’

  Forty slightly awkward minutes later, everyone was in the living-cum-dining room, sat around the table, passing around foil trays filled with food.

  ‘Honestly, this might be a blessing in disguise. I’m not exactly known for my culinary prowess.’

  ‘I’m sure it would have been lovely. But this works too’ Chloe said quickly.

  ‘So, Freya. You teach art, right?’ Jess asked of her so far pretty mute guest.

  Freya bit into a spring roll, chewed it for a full ten seconds, then and only then said ‘Yeah.’

  Jess thought there might be more so she paused. There was no more.

  Chloe, sensing Freya’s social lack, tried to fill it.

  ‘She’s just teaching until her own work takes off. She’s an amazing artist.’

  ‘Oh yeah?’ Jess asked Freya.

  Freya shrugged.

  ‘I don’t know. I just do what I do.’

  ‘She’s being modest’ Chloe added. She felt a slight look coming from Freya. She realised she was doing that thing again. Nervously trying to fill conversational gaps. Freya had asked her several times not to do it, to simply let Freya speak for herself.

  The problem with that was, Freya didn’t always want to speak for herself. So that left Chloe in a bind. Risk her wrath or sit in an embarrassing silence.

  But she’d just had a sharp look flung her way so Chloe decided to use every ounce of her will to let the next conversation attempt die if that’s what Freya wanted to happen.

  ‘What medium?’ Claire suddenly asked, surprising everyone. She hadn’t spoken in fifteen minutes or more.

  ‘Oil paint.’

  ‘What kind of stuff?’ Jess asked, trying to keep the flow, such as it was, going.

  ‘I’m mostly into abstract right now.’

  And with that, Freya seemed to be done.

  Jess felt she’d done her best. If this woman couldn’t put the effort in, she couldn’t be arsed trying to coax her. It was too much like teaching. Some sullen little teenager refusing to acknowledge you because you represent authority, the worst thing in the world. Freya had that vibe. Perhaps it was because she considered herself, as an artist, above the company of a couple of PE teachers.

  Well, if that’s how it is, Jess thought, sod you. She turned her attention to Chloe.

  ‘How do you think you’ll vote tomorrow on the strike thing?’

  ‘Well, it’s a tough one. I don’t know.’

  ‘You’re kidding. We have to do it.’

  ‘I don’t know if creating a big hoo-ha is-’

  ‘Hoo-ha is the whole point, Chloe.’ Jess broke in. ‘To remind the people at the top that they don’t hold all the cards, that we have power and that we’ll demonstrate it if they force us to.’

  Chloe considered letting it go. After all, there wasn’t much chance she’d turn Jess around to her way of thinking, that she’d end up agreeing that this wasn’t a simple issue with an easy solution. Most likely, they’d both come out of this debate with the exact same views they’d gone into it with. But she thought Jess was being a little narrow sighted, refusing to see the complexity of the situation.

  ‘But you’ve got to admit, it’s disruptive.’

  ‘What, for kids who get a day off? They’ll cope’ Jess said dryly.

  ‘What about pupils who’re in their GCSE year? Not to mention parents who rely on schools to look after their kids so they can go to work.’

  Jess knew all about that. She knew it better than Chloe did, with her rich school and its wealthy parents. Jess’s kids had parents who were genuinely broke. And the fact Chloe was trying to lecture her on this topic was hypocritical and patronising.

  Jess began to feel a heat creeping up her neck, never a good sign.

  ‘I’m well aware of the struggle some parents have. I see it every day. But that doesn’t mean I’m willing to kowtow to a government that doesn’t care about what teachers have to put up with to do a job that is frankly essential in keeping things running, to keeping society itself running’ Jess said, her voice beginning to rise. ‘And if people want to demonstrate for better help with childcare or a decent minimum wage or any other worker’s rights for that matter, I’ll be right there. We all have to hold each other up or we all lose!’

  Chloe could see that Jess was angry. She’d never seen her so het up. Or, strictly speaking, she had seen her this angry, but never at her. But she didn’t care. Because she was angry too. She was getting a sermon from someone who thought their views were more important because they were from a working class perspective.

  But Jess was missing a key piece of information. Chloe, despite working with privileged kids, had not come from money. Far from it.

  ‘Well, next time I see my mother, who raised me by herself with absolutely no money or help, I’ll be sure to mention that!’ Chloe barked.

  Jess heard the statement with surprise, but she was past the point of being able to hear it with any compassion. She was too far gone into her own anger. />