Finishing Touches (29 page)

Cassie met Laura’s gaze. ‘Well! What
is
the story here?’ Laura asked softly. ‘Is Robbie the one?’

‘I think so,’ Cassie admitted, smiling.

‘Have you taken the big step?’ Aileen enquired discreetly.

Cassie laughed at her euphemism. ‘Yep.’

‘And you never told us!’ chorused the other two indignantly.

‘Well, I kept meaning to, I just never seemed to find the right time.’

Laura raised her glass. ‘Two down, one to go.’

‘Laura, you’re the last of the three vestal virgins unless you’ve been doing something we haven’t heard about in Nantucket.’

Laura shook her head. ‘Sorry to disappoint you, Aileen. You’ll be the first to know. And speaking of things we don’t know about, what’s the story about this Liam guy.
You’re playing him very close to your chest.’

‘You can say that again,’ Cassie agreed. Mind, she would never have had the neck to approach Aileen about Liam in such a direct manner as Laura had.

It was Aileen’s turn to blush in a most uncharacteristic manner.

‘Come on, spill the beans!’ demanded Laura, laughing.

Aileen took a gulp of her drink. ‘Well, he’s an architect . . . and . . . um . . . he’s older than me. He’s forty-five, although that’s not . . . that old,’
she added a little defensively, noting their surprise. ‘And, well . . . he’s married.’ It all came out in a stammering rush and she was so glad that at last she had told them. Now
she stared anxiously at her friends.

‘Oh. Ahh . . .’ Cassie was momentarily stuck for words. She and Laura had discussed the mysterious Liam and come up with a few scenarios but, surprisingly enough, the idea that he
might be married had never crossed their minds.

‘You’re not serious, Aileen!’ Laura exclaimed in disgust.

Aileen felt the blood drain from her face at the sight of Laura’s accusing face. Her heart sank. She might have expected Cassie to be a bit shocked, but she thought Laura would have taken
the news in her stride. Laura was so . . . well . . . hard wasn’t exactly the word, tough maybe. Of them all, she had seen much more of life, what with her travels and her studies. Aileen was
very taken aback by her reaction.

‘Oh I know, I’ll probably be consigned to hell’s fires,’ she said airily, her tone a little brittle to hide her hurt and dismay.

‘Oh for God’s sake, Aileen! That’s typical of you. Can’t you be serious about anything?’ Laura seemed to be keeping her temper with difficulty.

‘Look, forget I said anything,’ snapped Aileen, getting up from her chair. ‘It’s really none of your business anyway and I’m not in the humour for one of your bossy
lectures.’

‘Oh grow up, Aileen!’

Aileen spun on her heel and faced her friend.

‘No! You grow up, Laura. What the hell do you know about it? You’ve never had a relationship in your life. All you care about is getting a first-class honours—’

‘Oh come on, let’s not have an argument,’ interjected Cassie hastily as she saw tempers rising.

Aileen exploded. ‘She’s not going to stand in judgement on me, Cassie! The trouble with Miss high-and-mighty holier-than-thou virgin here is jealousy. We’ve done it and she
hasn’t, because she’s afraid of her life of getting involved with anyone. There’s a free space where sex is concerned on her precious timetable!’

Laura’s face reddened with fury. ‘You fuck off, Aileen O’Shaughnessy! At least I don’t have to resort to stealing another woman’s husband. That’s the lowest
of the low. And I don’t sleep with every Tom, Dick, and Harry just because I can’t control my hormones.’

‘You bitch!’ Aileen’s eyes widened. ‘I’m not stealing anyone’s husband,’ she fumed. ‘She doesn’t give a damn about her marriage. All she
wants to do is sit and vegetate in front of the TV. If the marriage were working Liam wouldn’t be looking for companionship elsewhere and—’

‘Huh!’ snorted Laura. ‘What a convenient answer. Is that how you justify it to yourself? Is that how he justifies it to you? What about all the years that woman supported him
when he was making it to the top? What about the sacrifices she’s had to make? And what’s he going to do now? Trade her in for a new model because the old one is a bit worn from having
performed her wifely duties? It makes me sick!’

‘Laura, calm down!’ ordered Cassie. This was getting out of hand.

The other girl turned on her, shaking with emotion. ‘Don’t you tell me what to do, either. I suppose we should be honoured that you were actually able to make the supreme sacrifice
and come on holidays with us. We’ve seen precious little of
you
lately, now that you have your precious Robbie! Except when you have your fights with him and then you come running
back to us.’

‘
Laura!
’ exclaimed Cassie in disbelief, hurt and stunned by what her friend had just said.

‘Oh, leave me alone!’ Grabbing her bag, Laura rushed across the room.

‘Where are you going?’ Cassie asked sharply, trying to keep the hurt out of her voice. She felt sick. One minute they had been laughing and teasing – and now this. In all their
years of friendship they had never had a scene like this. Oh yes, they’d had their tiffs and got over them. But this was different. There was a lot of resentment and bad feeling surfacing
here.

‘I’m going out. I want to be by myself!’ Laura snarled, slamming the door behind her.

Aileen burst into tears. ‘Bitch!’ she sobbed. ‘Who does she think she is? Do you think I’m a slut? I’ve only had two relationships. That’s not excessive for
someone of my age!’

‘Of course I don’t think you’re a slut,’ Cassie said wearily.

‘At least you don’t judge people,’ Aileen sniffed.

‘Who am I to judge anybody?’ Cassie gave a watery smile. ‘Do
you
think I’ve been . . . neglecting you and Laura because of Robbie?’

‘Well, you’ve been spending lot of time with him,’ Aileen conceded. ‘But that’s understandable,’ she amended, seeing Cassie’s stricken face.
‘Laura just doesn’t understand what it’s like to want to be with someone but she could try and make some effort to understand, instead of mouthing off like that.’

Cassie sighed. ‘She really lost the cool tonight.’

‘Yeah, and she’s lost a friend too,’ Aileen said grimly.

‘Don’t be hasty. She might come back and apologize,’ Cassie said, trying to understand what had caused Laura to fly off the handle.

‘She can go to hell!’ swore Aileen, pulling a sundress over her head. ‘Will we just go to the taverna? I don’t feel like going into Mandraki.’

‘Me neither,’ Cassie said unhappily, wishing she was at home with Robbie.

They sat chasing their food around their plates with their forks, not eating much, and saying very little.

‘If Liam’s marriage were working, I wouldn’t be involved with him. It was on the rocks long before he met me,’ Aileen said earnestly.

‘Look, Aileen, I wouldn’t dream of telling you how to run your life. You’re a big girl now, you know what you want. The only thing I’d say to you is, be careful you
don’t get hurt.’

Aileen gave a deep sigh. ‘I know you’re right, Cassie. I know I’m an idiot but I’m just crazy about him. He’s great company, we have such fun together, he’s
very romantic and kind and he’s . . . I’m . . . I love making love with him. You know yourself,’ she added miserably. ‘I just can’t believe that Laura said the things
she said, and to you as well.’

‘Well, you know Laura. She’s very black-and-white and that’s why she’s so good at her legal stuff. But she’d want to cop on to herself about the way she treats her
friends. There was no excuse for blowing up like that,’ Cassie observed crossly. She was really annoyed with Laura, now that the shock of the row had worn off. She might not approve of Aileen
having an affair with a married man but there was no need for Laura to talk to her the way she did. It just wasn’t on. A little bit of tact and the whole thing could have been avoided.
Despite Aileen’s bubbly zaniness, she could be quite sensitive. Laura had been her friend for too long not to realize that.

‘Do you want to go into Mandraki, or would you like to stay here and have a drink?’

‘If you don’t mind, Cassie, I think I’d just like to go to bed, I’ve got a splitting headache,’ Aileen confessed.

‘Well, I think I’ll go for a walk then,’ Cassie decided. ‘I’ll see you later.’ They set off in different directions, Aileen to cry herself to sleep, Cassie to
walk along the curving beach of Trianda Bay.

It was as usual a beautiful balmy night. The moon hung like a huge melon-slice just above the horizon, its reflection dappling the silvery waters of the Aegean. Across the bay Cassie could see
the lights of Turkey twinkling in the distance. They had wanted to take a day-trip to Turkey but because of hostilities between Turkey and Greece, this was now impossible. It made no difference
anyway now. It looked as though the holiday of a lifetime was going to end in disaster.

God, she couldn’t get over Laura, and the way she had turned on her as well as the unfortunate Aileen. A stab of guilt pricked her. Laura was right about her spending so much time with
Robbie lately and as a result she supposed she had neglected the girls. Although Aileen had Liam to keep her busy, Laura must have been feeling a bit out of things. Cassie had to admit she had been
thoughtless and she could see why Laura was annoyed. But still, she could have mentioned it in a calm and rational manner. There was no need to carry on like a raging lunatic. Depressed, she turned
around and began to walk back to the guest-house.

The room was in darkness and Aileen was asleep when she got in, so she took her book and poured herself a nice cool beer and sat outside under the little wall-light. She was going to wait up
until Laura came home and she was going to talk to her best friend calmly and coolly about their differences and Laura’s accusations.

She rehearsed a hundred times what she would say to Laura. ‘You were perfectly right, Laura. I have been neglecting our friendship and for that I am sorry, but you had no business yelling
at me the way you did and I think you went too far with Aileen. I’ve apologized to you, you should apologize to Aileen and we should forget the whole business and enjoy the rest of our
holiday.’

Laura didn’t arrive home that night.

‘I wonder if we should go to the police.’ It was the following morning and Aileen was frantic.

‘Calm down, will you. Getting excited isn’t going to help!’

‘Oh God, I said some pretty horrible things to her myself,’ Aileen muttered, taking a deep drag on her cigarette. ‘You don’t think she did anything foolish, do
you?’

Cassie was trying to remain calm. ‘For heaven’s sake, Aileen, will you stop that kind of talk. She probably booked into another guest-house for the night. She’ll be back when
she cools down.’

‘We were supposed to be going to Lindos today,’ Aileen reminded her.

‘I think you can forget that for the moment.’

They were lying sunbathing on the balcony when Laura finally waltzed through the door. Ignoring the girls, she gathered together some toiletries, a change of clothing and some beachwear. She
stuffed the lot into a large beach-bag. ‘I’m going to Faliraki for the day. Bye,’ she said shortly before marching through the door with her head held high. Aileen and Cassie
watched her go, mouths agape.

‘Creepers!’ Aileen exclaimed. ‘She’s something else! Going to Faliraki for the day indeed.’

‘She sure is,’ agreed Cassie grimly. Faliraki Beach was on the other side of the island and it was the most popular beach on Rhodes. So Madam Laura was going to Faliraki without a
word of apology or explanation as to where she was last night. Cool wasn’t the word for it! Cassie scowled. ‘Come on, let’s hire bicycles and cycle to Kremasti and Paradision.
I’m damned if we’re going to sit here moping all day.’

Laura didn’t come home that night. The other two girls were furious.

‘Well, fuck her!’ Aileen swore angrily over breakfast the following morning. ‘I never thought Laura would be so petty.’

‘I just can’t make it out,’ sighed Cassie, sinking her teeth into a juicy plum. ‘I’ve never seen her behave like this before and we’ve been friends since we
were children.’

‘It’s really ruined the holiday,’ Aileen said sadly.

‘Yeah!’ nodded Cassie. ‘She’ll probably move out when we get home.’

‘God. I should never have opened my big mouth about Liam!’ Aileen berated herself.

‘Listen, Aileen, nothing short of murder could justify her behaviour yesterday, and by golly, is Laura Quinn going to get an earful from me when I get a chance to talk to her again.’
Cassie had never felt as mad in her life.

‘It is a bit much all the—’

‘I’m sorry!’ A familiar voice interrupted their conversation and they looked up to find Laura standing behind them. They had been so engrossed in giving out about her that they
had not seen her get off a passing bus at the stop just opposite the taverna.

‘So you should be!’ Cassie said shortly.

Laura’s eyes brimmed with tears at her tone. ‘Cassie, Aileen, I’m really sorry and ashamed of myself. Please don’t freeze me.’

In the face of her tears, their anger evaporated. Laura never cried.

‘Oh come on, sit down. Have you had breakfast?’ Aileen asked solicitously, pulling out the chair beside her. Laura shook her head, unable to speak.

‘Have some with us then.’ Cassie put a comforting arm around her best friend’s shoulder and gave her a hug. ‘We’ve just ordered another pot of coffee and I’ll
tell Nichos to bring some more rolls and honey.’

Laura turned to Aileen. ‘Aileen, I’m so sorry. Those things I said to you, I really didn’t mean them. It’s just . . .’ She swallowed hard and looked at her two
friends. ‘Well, my father has been having an affair with Jennifer Casey for the past six years and I just thought of the pain it’s caused my mother and I guess I flipped,’ she
explained unhappily.

‘Jennifer Casey, Sergeant Casey’s wife?’ Cassie was stunned. This was all news to her. Jennifer Casey was a blowsy middle-aged woman who thought she was a
femme
fatale.

Laura nodded. ‘I actually caught them having sex one day while my mother was in hospital having a hysterectomy. It was awful. I suppose I’ve been holding it in until now. I’ve
never told anybody. Aileen, I’m sorry; that was no reason to take it out on you.’