Here Come the Boys (8 page)

‘The woman he eventually left my poor flat-chested mother for had knockers so big that she had to have a twenty-kilo weight down the back of her knickers just to help her to stand up straight. You can guess what my dad found most attractive in the fairer sex.’

Angie let loose a giggle then clapped her hand over her mouth realising she shouldn’t really be laughing at this.

‘They live in Canada. He rings on my birthday. Mum remarried too. She used to ring me on my birthday.’ Selina shrugged.

‘Don’t you ever see them?’

‘Haven’t seen Dad for seven years. Mum and I fell out because her husband is a creep. He tried it on with me and I told her about it. She chose to believe his version of events in which I came onto him. I don’t care though.’

Selina sounded like a young girl again.
Benji’s been sold. I don’t care though.

Silence fell whilst they ate their fries, then Selina asked, ‘So what’s he like, then? Your husband? Anyone I know?’

‘I doubt it,’ replied Angie, washing down the salty fries with a long drink of Coke. ‘He’s a Leeds boy.’

‘What does he do?’

‘We have a company selling school uniforms.’

Selina lifted up her eyebrows, as far as she could anyway. ‘What happened to the journalistic ambitions?’

‘Tried it, hated it. Ended up working in a school uniform shop as a filler job and it was so badly run, I thought I could do better myself.’

‘So how did you meet… what’s his name?’

‘Gil Silverton,’ said Angie. ‘He was on a filler job too – as a rep. We went out on a couple of dates and starting talking about school uniforms.’ Angie saw a mischievous sparkle in Selina’s eye. ‘Don’t be so dirty-minded.’

‘As if,’ grinned Selina. ‘Anyway, carry on.’

‘He wanted more out of his life, to be his own boss and generate his own income, and so did I. We set up business together, then we set up home together. It’s taken us a few years to get the company off the ground but we’re doing well now.’

‘And what does he look like, your Mr Silverton?’

‘He’s ginger—’

‘Ginger?’ shrieked Selina. ‘You always said that if the last man on earth happened to be ginger, you wouldn’t go there.’

‘Yes, well, we say and do a lot of daft things when we’re young,’ sniffed Angie. ‘He’s ginger, tall, long legs, kind, generous, funny, loving…’ She gulped. She felt as if she had been away from him for ages. He would have the biggest hug waiting for her.

‘He sounds lovely,’ said Selina, wiping her mouth on a serviette.

‘He is.’

‘Any kids?’

‘We’ve been working too hard to even think about them. You?’

‘Can’t have them.’

She said it so casually that it took a few moments for Angie to register any emotion.

‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ she replied eventually. And she was. There was one thing not having them out of choice, another not having them because you couldn’t.

‘Well, hey-ho,’ smiled Selina, but there was no humour in the stretch of her lips. ‘Some might say it was a punishment.’

‘I hope you don’t mean me,’ bristled Angie. ‘I wouldn’t be that bloody awful.’

‘You’re still angry with me twenty years on, though. So please don’t tell me you’re not a grudge-bearer.’ Selina’s blue eyes were showing no amusement.

‘Yes, I am still angry actually,’ Angie admitted and she stood up. ‘I’m going to the loo because I don’t want a row. I just want to get on the plane and back to my husband. The same as you do, no doubt.’

Angie strode off in the direction of the toilet. She and Selina had never argued when they were younger. They were glued at the hip, liked the same pop stars, shops, films, men… Even when Angie had found out through gossiping mutual friends that Zander and Selina had been spotted snogging, she had never confronted her friend about it – she’d just ignored her totally for the remaining week of the very last term waiting for Selina to offer her an explanation, beg for forgiveness, but she hadn’t. And Zander had never officially ended it with her and given her closure. He merely cut off all contact and didn’t ring her again. Angie had put a brave face on but she felt as if all her skin had been ripped off. She hurt and hurt and that pain had never quite gone away.

They poked around the chemist shop. Angie bought a comb out of sheer boredom for something to do. They found a discarded English newspaper and split it between them to read whilst drinking yet another coffee. Eventually the hands of the clock crawled around to check-in time. They joined a long queue of people, presented their documents, dropped off their joint canvas bag of luggage, passed through to security and found a seat.

‘What happened to that psychotic sister of yours?’ asked Selina.

‘She became a nun,’ replied Angie.

Selina burst out laughing. ‘No really. What happened to her?’

‘I’m not joking. Mandy became a nun. She teaches kids at the base of Everest.’

‘Get stuffed.’

‘I’m really not joking. If I had my phone, I’d have shown you some pics. She’s as happy as Larry.’

‘Lord above,’ gasped Selina. ‘I’d never have guessed that one.’

‘You and me both. Mum and Dad were a bit worried at first, but she’s really happy. They’ve been over to see her and she’s been back to visit us.’ No one had seen that coming. Angie was convinced her sister would end up as either as a hit man or a wrestler.

‘Mum and Dad okay?’ asked Selina, tinkering with the silver cross she wore at her neck again.

‘Yep, doing well,’ nodded Angie. ‘Dad had a bit of a heart scare last year, but it was something and nothing.’

Angie noticed that Selina was smiling and lost in a bubble of thought. She knew she was thinking about Angie’s parents. They had loved Selina. She had always been welcome in their house. They couldn’t believe what she’d done and even years later her mother was asking her if they’d made friends again and hoping they had.

The gate number for their flight flashed up. Soon they were on the plane and fastened in. As they began to taxi to the runway, Selina grabbed Angie’s hand.

‘I’m really nervous about flying,’ she said. ‘That’s why we cruise.’

By the time they were in the air, Angie’s hand was scarred with nail crescents.

‘Sorry,’ said Selina. ‘Haven’t flown for years. Actually take-off wasn’t as bad as I remember. I think I’ll have a gin and tonic when the trolley comes past though. Purely medicinal, of course.’

Selina bought them a double each with cash. Five minutes after downing them, they were both asleep, as most of the passengers on the plane seemed to be. It only felt like minutes later when Angie was awoken by a bing-bong and an announcement alerting travellers to buckle up for descent.

‘We’re nearly in Barcelona,’ Angie nudged Selina awake. ‘There are stacks of shops in the airport so at least we won’t be bored.’

There were loads and loads of fabulous stores in the airport, just as Angie said. And every one of them was shut. Only a couple of cafés were open. They picked the one with the comfiest seats and bought two croissants and coffees. They were both exhausted and it was a massive effort to keep their eyes open, even though caffeine was flooding their systems. Their flight into Dubrovnik left at six a.m and they had six hours to kill until then. Angie’s head fell forwards onto the table and she was asleep before the clunk. Selina curled into the corner of the sofa seat and closed her eyes. She dreamed of Benji and awoke at three a.m. with tears in her eyes. She didn’t get back to sleep again after that.

When Angie woke up, Selina was nowhere to be seen. Then Angie spotted her buying something in the café. Selina returned to the table with two coffees and two chocolate-coated croissants on a tray.

‘I was just about to surprise you with breakfast,’ smiled Selina.

‘I’m sick of the sight of coffee,’ said Angie, then realised immediately how ungrateful that sounded, so she added, ‘but I think we need them to give us some energy. Thank you.’

‘Yeah, no worries.’

‘We’ll check-in after this,’ replied Angie, glancing at her watch. ‘Have you had any more emails?’

Selina switched on her phone. She’d kept it turned off to save the battery.

‘Yep. There’s one from Marijuana…sorry, Marijana. She’s the port rep at Dubrovnik. We need to catch the three o’clock bus to Korčula then the rep there, Emerick, will meet us at the bus stop. She’s sent me her mobile number and his. I’ve hardly got any battery left at all so I better write them down.’ By the time she had fished a pen out of her bag, the phone screen had gone black.

‘Well, that’s that then,’ said Angie as they both looked transfixed at the dead mobile.

‘Trust in the system, that’s all we can do,’ said Selina. ‘Emerick is going to presume that we catch that bus so he
will
be there to meet us. Think positive.’

‘The ship calls in at Venice the day after Korčula. It would have been far easier to catch up with the ship there,’ Angie commented.

Selina turned to her. ‘Do you really want to stay in my company any longer than you have to?’

‘Fair point,’ said Angie, taking her yellow passport out of her bag.

‘And you wouldn’t want to miss Korčula, Ange. It’s beautiful. Romantic.’

Angie sniffed. She wasn’t to know that every time Selina had been there, she had ended up walking around it alone.

DAY SIX

Chapter 13

The plane zoomed smoothly upwards into a beautiful clear dark sky. The sun was peeping over the lip of the horizon and was preparing to blast Croatia with some serious rays. Selina found she didn’t need to grip onto Angie’s arm this time. She felt delighted to have rediscovered her flying mojo. Again they slept for most of the journey. Angie dreamed of having an ice-cold shower and using up a whole bottle of zingy lemon shower gel. She would have killed to be able to wash her lank, sun-wilted hair.

They landed at Dubrovnik just after eight a.m. There was an interminable time before the bus journey to Korčula and it was super-hot when they left the airport building.

‘I would love a shower,’ said Selina, raking her hair back from her face.

Angie gave her armpit a surreptitious sniff. The antiperspirant was working but it smelled awful. It was supposed to represent the scent of spring flowers, if the picture on the canister was anything to go by. It should have had an illustration of a tom cat spraying.

They hopped in a taxi to the city. The driver was young and drop-dead gorgeous. He drove with one hand dangling out of the window holding a cigarette.

Angie could not have imagined that Dubrovnik could be so beautiful. The city was surrounded by walls and there were hundreds of tiny back streets leading off the main central thoroughfare. The buildings were sandy-coloured with orange roofs and it all had a very ancient feel to it. The shops were pulling up their shutters to start trading. Selina opened up her mouth to speak but Angie butted in.

‘Please do not ask me if I want to go for a coffee.’

Selina closed her mouth again.

They wandered along the streets but within a short time they were forced to take refuge in a café from the heat. It was getting very busy too. Five cruise-ships-worth of visitors had been tipped into the city, or so someone on the next table was reporting to his companion. Soon the centre of Dubrovnik was full of fast-talking Italians, photo-snapping Japanese and ice-cream-eating Americans.

Selina started to salivate as a young child passed her with a three-scoop cornet. She picked up the menu on the table. ‘I’m going to have an ice cream for breakfast,’ she declared. ‘Want one?’

Angie looked at her as if she was mad. ‘Don’t be daft.’

Selina called over the waitress. ‘Could I have a banana, toffee and chocolate sundae, please.’

‘Make that two,’ added Angie.

‘What happened to “don’t be daft”?’ said Selina, leaning back in her chair.

‘I’m only having it to pass the time,’ she replied. ‘I have never been so fed up, sticky, sweaty and smelly in my life. Some holiday this is turning out to be.’

‘Well, we only have another four and a half hours to fill,’ replied Selina, looking at her watch. ‘Or eight coffees.’

‘Kill me now,’ said Angie burying her face in her hands.

‘Tomorrow all this will be a bad dream and we will be back on the ship.’

‘We have this bloke on our dinner table in the evening,’ said Angie. ‘He brings down sheets of jokes to tell us. He’s the most boring person on the planet but I’m even looking forward to seeing him again, that’s how bad things are.’

‘We’re on a table for two,’ said Selina. ‘Just Zander and I staring into each other’s eyes over our haddock en papillote.’

Angie picked up a tone in her voice that shouldn’t have been there. A cold brittle one.

‘He must be missing you,’ she said.

‘Madly,’ replied Selina. ‘But it won’t be long now until I see him on the shore of Korčula holding out his arms for me to run into.’

‘Quite.’ Angie tried to picture what Zander would look like now. A slight peppering of grey at his temples, a few George Clooney-type craggy lines around his eyes. He would suit ageing, she decided. A man like Zander Goldman would be in his prime approaching forty.

‘What does he do? For a job,’ she asked.

‘He’s the MD of an IT firm. Spends a lot of time in our flat in London.’

No surprise that they had a swanky pied-à-terre
, thought Angie. ‘And you?’

‘I teach adults how to read.’

Blimey, that was a shocker.

‘Go on, say it,’ said Selina with a resigned sigh. ‘How can someone as selfish as me do something which involves helping people?’

‘I wasn’t going to say anything of the sort.’ Angie huffed with indignation.

‘Liar. The irony isn’t lost on me that I hated teachers and now I is one.’

Angie chuckled, against her will. Selina always had a great wit at school. It was one of the huge things she missed when their friendship split – laughing together.

The ice creams arrived and were enormous.

‘Okay, I have to admit that I thought you’d do something like… own a business selling really posh furniture or… breed horses,’ said Angie.

Selina dipped her spoon in the fast-melting sundae. ‘Haven’t ridden for years. I couldn’t get over losing Benji. Do you remember that sweet little pony I had?’