She had obviously been drinking heavily, her speech was so slurred that ‘unannounced and uninvited’ had proved quite a challenge to get her tongue around.
‘Has he found out about Alice?’ Rachel asked.
‘I don’t think so. I don’t think he has any idea, quite frankly.’
‘Then what did he want?’
‘It was weird,’ said Catherine. ‘He said he felt like we had unfinished business.’
‘That is weird. Did he explain himself?’
‘Not exactly,’ she said. ‘He told me he was upset way back then, but that he did come and look for me at school after a few weeks, but he couldn’t find me.’
‘That must have been after you’d left,’ said Rachel. ‘But why is he telling you all this now?’
‘That’s what I don’t get.’
‘And you’re sure he knows nothing about Alice?’
‘He doesn’t seem to,’ she said. ‘Unless he’s playing some kind of sick game.’
Rachel looked at her. ‘What are you going to do?’
Catherine sighed. ‘I don’t know.’
‘But you have to do something,’ said Rachel. ‘Don’t you?’
‘Do I?’
She nodded. ‘It’s all going to come out eventually. I don’t know why he’s making a move now, but you’re going to have to find out what he’s up to, or at least what he knows, and you’re going to have to prepare Alice.’
‘You’re probably right. I’m just not sure in what order.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, if I confront him and reveal all, and he starts making demands, then I’ll be forced to tell Alice, and what if she baulks at the idea of meeting her father? But if I tell her first, and he doesn’t want to know about her, then she gets rejected.’
Rachel thought about it. ‘Catherine, when you take custody cases to court, what’s the underlying philosophy, the bottom line for the judge in making their decision?’
‘The needs of the child, always.’
‘There’s your answer,’ said Rachel simply. ‘James can make all the demands he wants, but it’s ultimately up to Alice. You have to talk to her first.’
Catherine raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re getting smart in your old age,’ she remarked. ‘Where’s your Matthew by the way, wasn’t tonight all about meeting him?’
Rachel blinked, gathering her thoughts. ‘No, I haven’t even had the chance to tell Lexie about him, so I couldn’t just show up with him, and besides, he was busy, and anyway then Tom would be the odd one out –’
‘Okay, okay,’ said Catherine. ‘I suppose we’ll meet the phantom boyfriend eventually.’
Interesting choice of words.
They wandered back up the yard to join the others. Catherine raised her glass. ‘Martin, my glass is empty.’
‘That’s nice, dear,’ he replied without looking at her.
‘Miserable sod,’ she muttered.
‘Can I get you a drink, Catherine?’ Tom offered.
‘Well, aren’t you the gentleman?’ she returned. She went to pass him her glass, but changed her mind. ‘Oh never mind. I have to go to the bathroom anyway.’ She tottered off inside, a little unsteadily.
Rachel looked up at Tom. ‘Where’s Hannah tonight?’
‘Actually, a friend called her this afternoon and asked her over for the night, so seeing as Sophie and Alice weren’t going to be here, I let her go.’
‘Oh? Where are they?’
‘They’re both going to an under eighteens dance party. Catherine approved, so I figured it must be okay.’
Rachel nodded. ‘I’ve heard those under eighteen events are really well supervised. I’m sure she’ll be quite safe.’ She paused to sip her wine. ‘So you’re on your own tonight?’
‘Yeah . . .’ He dropped his voice. ‘Do you think anyone would notice if we disappeared next door for half an hour?’
‘That’s a good one, Tom,’ she laughed loudly.
‘What’s so funny?’ said Scott, looking over at them.
‘Just a joke I heard at work,’ said Tom. ‘It’s not really worth repeating.’ He placed an arm lightly around Rachel’s shoulders. ‘You know Rach, she’s easily amused.’
She elbowed him.
Lexie appeared at the back door. ‘Scott, now that Rachel’s here we really should get the barbecue going.’
‘I’ll just finish my beer,’ he said, raising it.
‘Do you need a hand with anything, Lexie?’ Tom asked.
‘No, Tom, thanks.’ She glared at her husband. ‘I think the kids should be put to bed before the adults eat, Scott.’
‘Do you want me to cook the barbecue or deal with the kids?’ he returned evenly.
‘Either one would do,’ she sniped.
‘Soon as I finish my beer, love,’ he repeated.
Tom and Rachel glanced awkwardly at each other.
Lexie sighed loudly. ‘Riley, Mia, inside now!’
It was at least another hour before they were all seated at the table inside. The food was delicious, the wine flowing, but the atmosphere was strained to say the least. Rachel was not sure how their plan was going; she had a feeling she and Tom could have slow danced naked on the table and it would have gone unnoticed tonight, so wrapped up was everybody else in their own dramas. Still, she was quite enjoying Tom’s attention, and the flirting was fun. She even felt a little smug, considering everyone else at the table seemed to be at each other’s throats. But she also couldn’t help a niggling doubt that once their private little bubble burst they wouldn’t be any different. She wanted to believe they would, but it had been a bit of a jolt to witness Lexie and Scott going hammer and tongs at each other tonight. It reminded her uncomfortably of her own childhood. No one ever seemed to stay happy. Tom and Annie were almost the only happy couple she knew, but who knows what might have happened to them? They were frozen in time now, like a legend – the last happy couple left in the eastern suburbs. How was Rachel ever going to compete with that?
‘Funny thing is,’ Lexie was saying, waving a wineglass as she spoke, ‘Scott seems to think the house cleans itself, and the clothes wash themselves. I don’t know what he thinks I’ve been doing with myself all this time.’
‘It’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, Lexie,’ said Catherine. ‘It’s not a valued job. No one takes it seriously. You might as well have a cleaner doing it, for all the thanks you get.’
‘Catherine’s an expert on hired help,’ Martin piped in. ‘She hasn’t lifted a finger around the house as long as I’ve known her.’
‘But see, Lexie does it all so much better than I ever could,’ said Scott. ‘And it turns out that now she can even run the café better than me. Apparently I’ve been doing it wrong all these years.’
Rachel felt Tom’s foot nudging hers, then sliding up her ankle; at least she hoped it was Tom’s foot. She looked across the table and he was gazing at her with a bemused grin. She moved her foot against his. They could be alone together at her place right now, but instead they were reduced to playing footsies under the table.
Lexie started to clear the plates, and Tom and Rachel both jumped up to help. ‘No, sit, you’re guests,’ she said, glaring at Scott. But he didn’t budge.
‘Yeah, really guys, let her do it all herself,’ said Scott. ‘She’s going for the title Superwoman of the Year, or is it Martyr? I keep forgetting.’
Lexie stomped over to the kitchen and started clattering the plates noisily into the dishwasher.
‘Tom, can you grab another bottle out of the fridge while you’re up, darling?’ said Catherine.
‘You’re opening another bottle?’ said Martin.
‘Yes. I’m sure I’ll have help drinking it. You’re having white, aren’t you, Rachel?’
‘Yes, but I still have half a bottle,’ she said. ‘Do you want some of mine?’
Catherine curled her lip. ‘Probably not. I’m sure we’ll get through another bottle.’
‘I’m
sure you will,’ Martin muttered.
‘Lay off, would you, Martin? It’s a Saturday night, it’s party night.’
‘So what was your excuse Friday night, and Thursday night, and Wednesday –’
‘Okay, we get it, you can recite the days of the week, backwards even,’ Catherine sneered. ‘Tom, you haven’t talked about work at all this evening,’ she said, placing a hand on his arm as he reached past her to fill her wineglass.
‘It’s Saturday night, Catherine, party night, like you said,’ Tom reminded her. ‘No one wants to hear about work.’
‘Oh, but I do,’ she gushed.
‘You never want to hear about my work,’ said Martin.
‘Because yours is boring.’
‘So is mine,’ Tom assured her, returning to his seat.
‘Is your firm affected by this economic downturn as well?’ Catherine asked. ‘That’s all Martin can talk about.’
Tom looked at him. ‘You guys are US-owned, aren’t you? Things must be a little precarious right now.’
Martin nodded, leaning forwards. ‘It looks like we may not have any choice but to close our Australia-Pacific operations altogether.’
‘What?’ said Catherine. ‘You never mentioned that.’
‘Because any time I bring it up you cut me off.’
‘But if they close, what happens to you?’
‘There’ll probably be a position for me somewhere. Not in the UK or the US, they’re shedding staff over there. But it’s probably worth keeping a presence in China, so we might open an office there.’
Catherine snorted. ‘I’m not going to China.’
‘What will you do, Martin?’ Rachel asked.
‘Probably join the office in China,’ he said squarely.
‘Dessert everyone,’ said Lexie as she planted an enormous platter in the centre of the table. It was some kind of layered cream confection, covered in berry fruits.
‘Wow, look at this,’ said Tom.
‘It’s fantastic, Lexie,’ Rachel added.
‘To my wife,’ said Scott, raising his beer bottle as he gave her backside a slap. ‘Is there anything she can’t do?’
Lexie’s face was turning red with barely suppressed rage; it looked like she just might blow. But before she could come out with anything the doorbell rang. She frowned. ‘Who could that be at this time of night? Scott, maybe you should go.’
He sighed loudly and got to his feet. ‘Excuse me everyone. Apparently I am useful for something after all.’
Tom and Rachel exchanged a glance across the table. Straight after dessert she was going to call it a night – she would apologise that she was tired, she’d been on her feet all day – then Tom would offer to give her a lift home. Hopefully that would give Catherine and Martin the hint and they would leave Lexie and Scott to what was surely going to be a mighty reckoning. Rachel didn’t think she could stand much more of this. Especially when she could have Tom all to herself, for the whole night. This ‘coming out’ thing was feeling vastly overrated right now.
Scott came back down the hall, an odd expression on his face. ‘Tom, Catherine,’ he said.
Tom rose from his seat. ‘What is it?’
Just then Alice and Sophie stepped forwards into the room, along with a woman Rachel didn’t know.
‘What’s going on?’ said Catherine, standing up.
‘Hello,’ said the woman, ‘I’m Olivia’s mother, Carolyn. I don’t think we’ve met.’
Tom came around the table. ‘Sophie, what’s wrong?’
Rachel noticed then that Sophie was quite pale, almost green actually, and she was squinting at the light. Tom held her by the shoulders. ‘Have you been drinking, Soph?’
Catherine strode over. ‘Alice, what have you done?’
‘Nothing!’ she protested.
‘Hello, Carolyn, I’m Catherine,’ she said, shaking the woman’s hand.
‘And I’m Tom, Sophie’s dad,’ he added. ‘Thanks for bringing them home. Do you know what happened?’
‘Can I sit down, please?’ Sophie said weakly.
Scott grabbed a chair from the table and turned it around for Sophie to sit on. ‘Would you like a seat?’ he asked Carolyn. ‘Can I get you anything?’
‘No, thank you,’ she said. ‘Olivia and her friend are out in the car. I can’t stay, I just felt I shouldn’t leave them on their own. We tried Alice’s house first, but there was no one home.’
‘You knew we were out, Alice,’ said Catherine. ‘Why did you make Olivia’s mother take you home when you knew there’d be no one there?’
‘I think that was probably the idea,’ said Carolyn. ‘We tried Sophie’s place next, then they finally admitted you were all here next door.’
‘You shouldn’t have had to run around like that, Carolyn,’ said Tom. ‘I would have come and got them.’
‘I was picking them up at the end of the night anyway,’ Carolyn explained. ‘Apparently Olivia and the others got separated from Alice and Sophie, then Alice messaged her that they were outside and couldn’t get back in. There are no pass-outs after nine pm at these events, they were going to have to wait around till it was over. Olivia was worried after a while and that’s when she called me. When I got there, we couldn’t find them at first, and they weren’t answering their phones. Eventually they came out from the toilets, Sophie had been sick, I’m afraid.’
Tom sighed, rubbing his forehead. ‘I can’t tell you how sorry I am you had to be involved in this, Carolyn.’
‘Look, it’s fine, it happens,’ she said. ‘I’m just glad security didn’t pick them up first. They’re very strict about alcohol consumption on the beach, not to mention they’re under-age. You might have had to collect them from the local police station.’
‘Hmm, and I might have been tempted to leave Alice there,’ Catherine grunted.
Tom shook his head. ‘Well, we’re very grateful to you, Carolyn.’
‘No problem,’ she said. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’
‘Thanks again,’ said Catherine.
‘I’ll see you out,’ Scott said, walking Carolyn up the hall.
‘Okay, miss.’ Catherine turned around to face Alice. ‘You’ve got some explaining to do. Where did you get the alcohol?’
‘Where do you think? The house is full of it.’
‘Don’t you get smart with me, young lady,’ Catherine snapped back. ‘I’m mortified, Tom. I should never have trusted her. I thought she’d learned a lesson from being grounded so long, but obviously not. You just couldn’t wait to get out and do the wrong thing again, could you, Alice?’
Tom crouched down in front of Sophie. ‘I don’t understand, Sophie. What’s going on? Why did you do this?’
Her head was bent, her eyes downcast. ‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ she muttered.
‘You don’t have a choice,’ he said firmly. ‘This is unacceptable, Sophie. You know better.’
‘Don’t be too hard on her, Tom,’ said Catherine. ‘I’m sure she would never have done something like this without Alice putting her up to it.’
‘Why do you always think the worst of me?’ Alice cried. ‘What have I ever done that’s so bad?’
‘That’s enough, Alice,’ said Catherine.
‘No, really, Mum,’ she persisted. ‘What have I done?’
‘Isn’t this enough?’ she snapped. ‘Tom entrusted Sophie into your care, and look at how you repay that trust. By stealing alcohol from the house, dragging Sophie away from the dance and making her sick.’
‘It was her idea,’ Alice blurted.
‘What?’ said Tom.
‘Don’t make Sophie take the blame,’ Catherine shrilled.
‘Sophie,’ said Tom. ‘Is it true what Alice is saying, this was your idea?’
She was slumped forwards, her hair hanging over her face.
‘Sophie, answer me!’
She looked up then. ‘I don’t have to answer to you.’
‘I beg your pardon?’
/> ‘You don’t tell us anything that’s going on. You keep stuff from us all the time.’
Rachel suddenly felt nervous.
‘What are you talking about?’ he asked.
No, don’t ask her. Not here. Take her home. Rachel had a bad feeling about this.
Sophie lifted her face to look her father in the eye. ‘I know about you and Rachel.’
Tom stared at her, dumbstruck.
‘You’ve been sneaking around, lying about where you’re going and what you’re doing, but I’m not stupid, Dad. You’re sleeping with one of Mum’s best friends,’ Sophie accused, her voice breaking. ‘It’s sick.’
Rachel froze. She couldn’t breathe, her eyes blurred, she couldn’t see anyone, but she could feel Lexie staring at her.
‘Rachel?’ she said in a small voice.
‘You slimy, cheating snake,’ said Catherine. What did it have to do with her?
‘Catherine, don’t,’ Tom said, straightening up and turning to face her.
Rachel blinked a couple of times, willing her eyes to focus again. Catherine was standing right in front of him. ‘You fucking player,’ she was saying.
‘Don’t do this, Catherine. Not here, not in front of the girls.’
‘Don’t do what? Out you for what you really are?’ she said. ‘What, were you going to try Lexie next?’
‘Stop it, Catherine.’
Rachel felt sick in the stomach.
‘What’s she talking about, Dad?’ Sophie asked nervously.
‘Let’s just say your father certainly gets around,’ said Catherine. ‘He and I –’
‘It was one night,’ Tom interrupted loudly. ‘Once only. We were very drunk. It was a mistake.’
Sophie got to her feet, glaring at her father, shaking her head. ‘When was this?’
Oh my God. The conference. Tom was the guy Catherine met at the conference. But that was before Annie . . .
‘Sophie . . .’ Tom put his hands on her shoulders.
She shook them off violently. ‘No!’ She pushed him away and fled up the hall. Tom followed straight after her and a moment later there was a loud slam of the door. An eerie quiet descended on the room.
‘So there was no Matthew, I take it, Rachel?’ Catherine said finally, her voice twisted with bitterness. ‘How long has this been going on with Tom?’
Three’s a Crowd Page 37
