Lola's House (Lola Series) (4 page)

‘I had the dream again last night.  I haven’t had it for at least six months.  I thought I was over it but I just relived it all over again.  What am I going to do
, Muriel?’

She
sits down on the box shelf behind the counter and motions for me to do the same.  ‘What did he say to you?’

I give her a blow by blow account of the events of last night, including the bit where I agreed to go for a drink with James against my better judgement.

‘Would you want to get back together with James?’ she says, her brows almost meeting.

‘Yes, no, I don’t know.  I’m not sure he was that good for me but we were together for a long time and
I don’t think I can start off fresh with someone else.’

‘Well you shouldn’t go out with him just because you share a history.  And you obviously are having doubts about it, which isn’t an auspicious start is it?  And to think you couldn’t start off fresh with someone new, I don’t know
where you’ve got such an idea,’ she says, holding my hand between hers and giving it a rub.

‘Oh I don’t know
, Muriel. I don’t know what to think, I don’t want to fall under his spell again.  I’ve worked hard to get myself back to this point and I’m focusing on the shop and the house, wouldn’t it be a backward step?’

‘As far as I can see, Lola, it’s just a drink together.  You don’t have to see him again after that, if you don’t want to.  Just meet him to show there are no hard feelings between you and don’t commit yourself to anything else until you’ve given yourself plenty of time to
consider the options.’ She pats my hand and goes back to sorting dresses onto alternate rails. 

‘You’re right as always
, Muriel,’ I say, standing up and giving her a big hug and kiss on the cheek.  ‘I’ll just go and see what he wants, after all not much has changed in my world, I’m still doing up the house and he didn’t want any part of it when I last saw him.  And he got himself another girlfriend pretty quickly - I wonder what happened to her?’

I stop
and think for a moment. There was no sign of her last night but that didn’t mean anything.  Maybe he just wants to be friends after all and I am reading too much into it.  I shake my head to get rid of his image in my mind. 

‘Okay, enough already.  Why exactly are we re-arranging the shop again?’ I sa
y, picking up a blouse from the pile Muriel has discarded. 

‘I told you
, to clear out the old stock.  Plus Katherine is bringing down her designs next week to show to you, remember my niece?  And you’re going to need some space to showcase them.’

‘Wha
t if I don’t like them?’ I ask, sipping my now lukewarm tea.

‘Oh you will, trust me you’ll love them.’

Chapter Four

It’s nearly six o’clock and we’ve been busy in the shop for most of the day.  Typically, as the shop was upside down with our sort out, we had a nonstop stream of customers coming in, but as they were spending money, I’m not going to complain too much about that.  But now I’m feeling worn out and I’m covered in dust yet again.  I’ve also promised to go to Nottingham to spend the weekend with my Mom for her birthday, so as I need to be there by seven-thirty, I really need to get a wriggle on.

I’m just locking the shop door when a man appears outside, hiding behind an enormous bouquet of flowers.  He raps hard on the glass, so I open the door and he shoves the bouquet into my arms. 

‘Delivery for Lola,’ he says, and I cringe as he sings the Kinks song Lola.  He looks very proud of himself, as if he’s the first one to ever do it.  Feeling slightly irritated, I take the bouquet off him and push him out of the door so I can get going.  I manhandle the enormous bouquet onto the counter and have a frisk around until I eventually find the card and read it.

I miss you. J.

I’ve been flower bombed by James.  My knees start to tremble, so I take a seat as I fear they will buckle beneath me at any second.  Now I’m totally confused.  He bumps into me by chance last night but now all of a sudden he misses me?  I’m not sure what is going on there, and I really haven’t got time to ponder on it, so I grab my bags and the monster bouquet, and then lock up the shop.

In the car park I see that someone has parked so close to the driver’s door of my little Peugeot there is no way I c
an squeeze through the gap to get in - not even after extensive liposuction on my thighs.  I had parked the passenger door close to the wall, so I’m a bit buggered as to what to do next.  I balance the flowers on the roof of the car and dump my bags next to them and then go and hammer on Sandip’s back door.

He opens the door and steps out.  ‘Hey
, Lola, I’m not blocking you in am I?’

‘Hi
, Sandip, no you’re not, but someone is.  Do you know who that car belongs to?  I can’t get in my own car and I have to be in Nottingham like really soon.’  I look at my watch for confirmation.

He glances at the gap between my car and the offending vehicle and scratches the bristles on his chin while he thinks about it.  ‘You would need to be really thin
, Lola to fit in that gap,’ he laughs, and points at the gap while eyeing my backside.  To be fair, even Kate Moss couldn’t squeeze through that gap, so I’m starting to feel a little hurt and a deep blush colours my face.

Then his face lights up as he has a bright idea.  ‘You can climb in through the hatchback, and then I’ll guide you out of the space.’  He puts his thumbs up and a big grin spreads across his face.

I roll my eyes and sigh at the thought of climbing into the car through the back door.  It’s not going to be my most elegant moment but what other choice do I have?  I unlock the car and shove my bags into the boot.  Then for some reason unknown to me and the rest of the universe, I decide to gently manoeuvre the flowers through, water bag first, onto the back seat thinking I can secure them later.  Taking a few deep breaths I climb in the back of the car so I’m kneeling in the boot.  I glance back at Sandip, who gives me another thumbs up signal, and I thank all the Gods I’m not wearing a skirt today.  I’m not sure which is the best way is to do this, so I lever up my right leg and try to push it over the back of the seat. Somehow though, my foot hooks up with the rear seat belt and I can’t move. 

‘I’m stuck
, Sandip, my foot is stuck,’ I say, my leg hovering in the air.

‘It’s okay, I’ll help you,’ h
e shouts back. I’m not sure why he is shouting at me as I’m only a foot away from him and the car hasn’t rendered me deaf.  I feel two big hands latch onto my buttocks and a mighty push as I sail through the gap.  I barrel over and land on the backseat on top of the bouquet.  My face is stuck in a jungle of flowers and I’ve got pollen all over me.  Then I feel a sudden swoosh of cold water on my hands and knees as the water bag bursts soaking me.

I pull myself into a kneeling position on the backseat, wipe my face with my wet hands and glance back at Sandip who gives me yet
another thumbs up.  Any trace of dignity I had previously has now completely disappeared, so I clamber over the driver’s seat.  My knee bashes off the gear stick and I land heavily on the steering wheel with my elbows, inadvertently honking the horn with the impact. 

By the time I am finally sitting in the driver’s seat I am totally flustered, covered in water and pollen, bruised in several places
, and I’m sure I’ll never look at Sandip in the same way again.  My buttocks are still glowing hot from his manhandling. Sandip slams down the boot door and motions for me to back out.  As I pull out level with him he flashes me a big grin and of course, gives me the now trademark thumbs up. 

Trying to recover myself, I dr
ive off towards the Waddling Duck.  As luck would have it I see Mike outside the pub watering the hanging baskets, so I do a drive by visit.  I let him know I may be interested in having a lodger after all and to get his nephew to give me a call.  Then I drive past my own house and feel a little peeved I haven’t got time to go in, as I carry on my way to Nottingham.

I get to mom’s house half an hour late.  She is waiting on guard in the veranda as I pull up.  She comes out, yanking the passenger door open none too gently.  ‘You’re late, Lola.  Where have you been, the dinner is going to be frazzled to death.’

‘Hi, Mom.’
  I try to keep it bright and breezy, but it already looks as if it is going to be one of those weekends, I’m in trouble already.

She glance
s into the back of the car at the flower Armageddon and her lips purse up like a cat’s backside. ‘Are they for me?’

Well I c
an’t say no now she has spotted them can I?  If I tell her they are from James she will think I have mangled them up on purpose in some sort of spiteful act.  And I really don’t want to get into the whole James situation with her, so I just nod my head, smile and say, ‘happy birthday, mom.’ 

‘Really
, Lola, when are you going to start trying a bit harder?’ she tuts to herself, and gathers up the flowers.  She pulls out the now empty water bag and examines it, her face wrinkling in disgust.  ‘I suppose I’ll have to see if I can rescue any of them, it looks as if you’ve been sitting on them.’

I
don’t bother explaining.  I can never win with her so I just follow her into the house, like a scolded puppy.  I’m in the doghouse already and I’ve hardly opened my mouth yet.  I drop my bag at the foot of the stairs, and go into the kitchen where I can smell my favourite lamb casserole cooking and feel my stomach rumble in response.  There are only two places set at the table for dinner. 

‘Where’s Malcolm?  And I thought Alexander was coming over too?’  Malcolm is my poor suffering step dad, usually my ally when my mom starts nagging at me, which is often.  Alexander is my younger brother who, according to mom, has the sun shining out of his backside.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my little brother, but he can’t put a foot wrong in my mom’s eyes and it gets a little bit wearing after
the twenty-six years or so he has been on this earth, and I have been in his shadow.

‘Malcolm will be a lit
tle late, and Alexander is so busy at work he couldn’t make it, poor thing, but he sent me these beautiful flowers today.’  She points to the flowers on the countertop, her face beaming with pride and I just smile.  It’s typical of Alex to find a way out of visiting and yet he still manages to be the perfect son.  Yet here I am, I’d nearly broken my neck to get here and I feel like the world’s worst daughter.

We s
it down to dinner and I shovel a few forkfuls of casserole into my mouth, I am so hungry I feel like I haven’t eaten in a month.  ‘So have you had a nice birthday, mom?’

‘Yes
, dear, I’ve been out today with your Aunt Sheila.  We went to a beauty salon and I had a facial and a manicure and pedicure.’  She holds out her long pink fingernails for me to inspect.  ‘How have you been, dear? I haven’t seen you in quite a while.’

‘It’s only been three weeks
, mom - you called in and saw me at the shop remember?’

‘Yes I do remember, I’m not senile yet, Lola.  I meant saw you properly, like we’re doing now, for the weekend.’

Damn, I had been hoping I could slope off tomorrow, but it looks as if she is going to guilt me into staying for the whole weekend.  I look at my watch - hopefully Malcolm will be back soon.

‘So how is the shop doing, it seemed a bit quiet when we came to visit?’ She carefully put
s her knife and fork down on the side of her plate between mouthfuls.

‘It’s doing great,’ I lie, ‘we’re about to introduce a new designer, so that should boost sales a bit.’

‘Well, if you need me to come over and help you in any way you only need to ask, dear.  I’m always willing to help out my children, you know that.’  She nods her head to confirm this.

Inside I recoil in horror while trying to keep an expression of serenity on my face
, which takes some doing.  I can’t think of anything worse than having my Margaret-Thatcher-a-like mother, prowling round my shop, moving things and bossing everyone around.  ‘Thanks, mom, but we are pretty well covered at the moment.’

‘Yes, well the offer is there.’  I sense
her bristling from the rejection and I try to ignore it and quickly change the subject.

‘The house is coming on well, mom.  Although I have to get all the electrics redone, Ned said they were worn out.’  Okay, I know they weren’t his exact words but I d
on’t want to give her a heart attack, do I?

‘That’s nice, although it sounds like a lot of work and a lot of money.  I don’t know why you don’t just sell it,
Lola, it’s far too big a house for one person.  It’s a family house,’ she says, forking a chunk of lamb carefully from her plate.

I pause
, chewing my food slowly. I can’t believe we are back to this again.  ‘I don’t want to sell the house.’ 

‘I was just saying to Alexander, last time I saw him that it was too big a job for you and he agreed with me.  He said he would come over and stay with you to discuss some options.’
She looks at me pointedly.  ‘It wouldn’t hurt you to give him some of the proceeds when you sell it, for all the trouble he goes to for you.  You know he needs the money for his business.  He’s working so hard trying to build it up.’ 

My mother th
inks Alexander should have inherited the house and the money when Gran died as he is the only male grandchild in the family.  And there was me thinking that it was just the house that was Victorian, and not that we are living in the Victorian era. 

‘I’m not selling the house, mom.’ I c
an feel myself start to get really irritated.  We’ve had this conversation many times before and it never ends well.  ‘I seem to remember Gran left Alex a substantial sum of money, what happened to that?’

‘Don’t be flippant, Lola, your brother is struggling at the moment what with the economy and quantitative easing and everything.  But he’s willing to take some time out of his business to come and help you.’

I frown at her and think yeah right.  ‘My business is struggling too, mom, the economy has affected everyone, not just Alex.  The only thing he wants to help me out of is my money.’

‘That’s enough, Lola.  Honestly, this is what your poor brother gets for offering to help you?’  She replace
s her knife and fork again, her facial features rigid.  ‘He said he would call you soon so try not to be so ungrateful.’

I sigh yet again.  I know it’s a losing battle so there’s really no point arguing with her.  ‘Look mom, can we just eat our meal and not talk about it please?’

She purses her lips together like a cat’s arse, and the rest of the meal is eaten in silence until Malcolm gets home and lightens the mood.  He gives me a massive hug and sits down to eat his meal.  Mom disappears into the kitchen to tidy up and leaves us alone.

‘I’m guessing by the atmosphere when I came in she has been giving you a hard time again.  What was it about this time?’  He gr
inds black pepper onto his casserole followed by an extraordinarily large amount of salt.

‘The house, she wants me to sell it and give some of the money to Alex.’

He blows out a big breath, shakes his head and reaches over to hold my hand.  ‘Don’t take it to heart, Lola, I don’t think she means any harm.’

‘But why does she always have to have a go at me, every time I see her for goodness sake.’  I lean my elbows on the dinner table in defeat
, but then remove them quickly in case mom spots me through the doorway.

‘She does care - she just has a funny way of showing it.’

‘Very funny if you ask me,’ I say, tucking into dessert which has now lost some of its allure.

‘I know you’re more than capable of doing the house up and making it into a beautiful home.  Try not to be too hard on her, she does love you.’  He g
ives my hand another squeeze and points towards the dessert with his other hand. ‘And we only ever get chocolate pudding when you visit because she knows it’s your favourite.’