The Desperate Bride’s Diet Club (8 page)

Anthony listened for a minute before speaking. ‘Is the printer switched on?’ Another pause. ‘Well, you have to let it warm up first.’ Finally, ‘You’re welcome.’

Anthony slammed down the headset, muttering, ‘They really are
useless. I’m too busy for these idiots.’

It seemed to be a general theme within the department as the morning went on. Everyone appeared to be overworked, each of them sighing whenever a call was passed on to them. Especially Julie.

After yet another growl and scowl in her direction, Violet fled in the direction of the coffee machines. She
had
just got a Mars bar out of the vending machine when
Wendy came into the kitchen.

‘Sorry if we’re all a bit tetchy,’ she said, smiling. ‘There’s always so much work to do. It’s crazy. They keep taking on more and more sales reps but don’t add any more staff to the department. I think Mark’s pulling his hair out.’

Violet took a sip of coffee.

‘And don’t worry about Julie,’ she carried on. ‘Felicity used to drive her mad. She’ll tar you with the
same brush but Ant and I think you’re a big step in the right direction. At least you can answer the phone!’

‘Thanks,’ muttered Violet.

But the compliment didn’t sit well. Did she mean a big step or just big?

Violet took a big bite of Mars bar and pushed the thought away. Hopefully she would be able to prove to Julie that she could do this job. And maybe she could prove it to herself at the
same time.

THIS WAS IT
. D-Day. It was Friday and the first day of Violet’s diet.

Write down everything you eat, said the New You! leaflet. Her list for today was going to read cereal bar, milkshake and some kind of healthy dinner that she hadn’t quite got round to thinking about yet.

As soon as the hotline phone was silent, she got the cereal bar out of her handbag and stared down at it. Apparently
it had zero fat. She took a bite. Zero taste too. The cereal bar fell apart as soon as she touched it and scattered crumbs all over the desk.

Violet sighed and crunched on the bar without enjoyment.

Mark had been talking to Anthony about some new laptops and glanced across at her over the partition.

‘Looks like that stuff you insulate your loft with,’ he told her with a frown on his face.

Violet swallowed hard. Tasted like it too.

Her boss shook his head and went away again.

Wendy peered around the corner. ‘Is that Dr Shaker’s Dream Bar?’

Violet shook her head. But Wendy was waiting expectantly so she had to carry on. ‘I’ve joined a New You! Club,’ she said, very quietly.

‘Ooh! You’ll have to tell me how you get on,’ said Wendy. ‘I’m desperate to lose my baby weight.’

Wendy
was tiny and didn’t really need to diet.

‘What’s for lunch?’ asked Wendy.

‘Some kind of shake.’

‘The strawberry ones normally taste better than the chocolate ones.’

Two hours later, Violet decided that Wendy was wrong. The lunchtime strawberry shake tasted bad. It looked bad. And the smell was pretty grim too.

The diet booklet had suggested making every meal an event so Violet had poured
it into a plastic cup. Poured might have been an exaggeration. It had sort of plopped out of the carton in one gooey mass. She contemplated slicing one bit off at a time but in the end decided to gulp it down. The goo lodged in her throat and Violet was close to gagging by the time she got to the end.

Feeling sick, she glanced up as Mark headed past the desks.

‘What is this? Weird things you
can eat at work day?’

Violet shook her head. ‘Lunch.’

‘Want me to garnish it with a Crunchie bar?’

She scowled at him. ‘No, thank you.’

Yes! screamed her body, as he carried on walking away. For the love of God, yes!

Time passed quickly on the hotline. Suddenly it was Friday afternoon and everyone was talking about their
plans
for the weekend. Violet kept quiet and listened in, as normal.
She wasn’t sure what Sebastian had planned for their weekend.

The phone rang but she had managed to quell her fear of the hotline. Each time, she picked up the phone, listened to the problem and passed on the call. It wasn’t exactly taxing on the brain. Plus the customers had no idea what Violet looked like so that was another big worry off her hands.

Violet picked up the receiver. ‘Good afternoon,
Hotline.’

‘For God’s sake!’ shouted the male voice down the phone. ‘This laptop you’ve given me is bloody useless! What kind of crap is this? It fails all the time. I want a brand-new one sent to me this afternoon.’

Violet looked up but Anthony was away from his desk.

She took a deep breath. ‘I’m sorry but the person you need to speak to isn’t here at the moment. Can I take your name and ask
him to call you back?’

‘For God’s sake!’ shouted the man. ‘What’s the point in ringing if there’s no one there to help. Christ! A five-year-old has got more brains than you …’

On and on he raged and Violet shrank lower and lower in her seat. The customer was very aggressive and getting nastier by the minute. She bit her lip, trying not to cry.

‘And another thing—’ shouted the man.

But he never
got to finish. The receiver was suddenly snatched out of her hand by Mark, whom she hadn’t realised had been standing nearby. He listened for a minute before putting the phone down, cutting the line.

Violet was shocked. The man would ring back even
madder
, surely? She stared up at Mark, who shook his head at her.

The hotline rang but Mark held up his hand and picked up the phone himself.

‘Yes?’
he snapped. He listened for a short while before speaking. ‘If you ever talk to my staff like that again, I’ll have you sacked and then I’ll hunt you down and cut your balls off with a rather blunt knife. Understand?’

Then he slammed the phone down and muttered what sounded like swear words in a foreign language.

Violet was still upset but had managed not to cry by biting down on her lip.

Mark perched on the edge of her desk and looked down at her.

‘Look, you’re going to get idiots like that from time to time,’ he said gently. ‘But you don’t have to listen to them. You don’t take that kind of crap from anyone, OK?’

He sat close to her until Violet had no choice but to raise her eyes to meet his. He looked at her for a moment, his sea-green eyes holding hers. Then he walked away,
leaving her to stew over his words.

On Saturday morning, Violet lay in bed and waved the third finger on her left hand. It was a week since she had become engaged to Sebastian and she was still getting used to wearing the ring.

‘You like it?’ said Sebastian, lying on his side and watching her. ‘Do you know what we should do to celebrate?’

Violet’s mind flitted briefly towards the chocolate
gateau in Marks & Spencer.

‘We should go and tell my parents.’

The chocolate cake exploded.

‘Really?’ Violet stammered.

‘Absolutely. After all, they’re going to be your family too, aren’t they?’

Violet hadn’t quite realised that was part of getting engaged. It wasn’t that Sebastian’s family were unpleasant. At least, not in an obvious way. They just made her feel uncomfortable. But perhaps
marrying their son would change all that.

So Violet gave Sebastian a fake smile and nodded enthusiastically.

They arrived at his parents’ house just before noon.

As Sebastian rang the doorbell, Violet wiped her sweaty hands on her trousers and fixed a smile on her face.

The door was thrown open with a cry of ‘Darling!’ Sebastian was then swept into a smothering hug by his mother. Miriam Parkes
was very slim and perfectly coiffed. She finally released her son and glanced over to give Violet a large smile. But it didn’t reach her eyes.

‘Hello, Violet,’ she said in her posh voice. ‘How are you? Do come in, both of you.’

Sebastian’s mother Miriam always sounded as if she had been born with a plum in her mouth but she and her husband only lived in a suburban semi. It was all cream carpets,
gold accessories and china tea cups.

Donald, Sebastian’s father, put down his Saturday
Telegraph
and glanced up.

‘Hello,’ he said, standing to greet them.

He shook his son’s hand awkwardly before doing his normal dither of whether to hug or kiss Violet. In
the
end, they did neither and just smiled at each other in embarrassment.

‘Do sit down, everyone,’ said Miriam. ‘Coffee?’

Sebastian and
his father tiptoed the conversation around the previous weekend’s football results whilst Miriam fussed around in the kitchen.

She eventually returned with a tray laden with cups and plates full of Victoria sponge.

Sebastian grabbed his drink and took a large glug of coffee. ‘Needed that,’ he said, leaning back against the sofa.

Miriam tutted and shook her head. ‘They work you too hard at that
office. You must rest properly, darling.’

Sebastian smiled. ‘I’m fine, Mum.’

Sebastian was always fussed over by his mother. He was the crown prince, the only child of a couple who had started their family late in life. Therefore, he was adored and smothered in equal measure.

‘You had that flu in December and the body needs time to recover. Especially a gentle constitution like yours. Did you
get that echinacea I sent you? Your immune system will still be fragile and you mustn’t catch another cold otherwise you’ll be suffering for months to come.’

Sebastian put down his cup and took Violet’s hand in his. She hoped he didn’t notice how sweaty it was from nerves.

‘Enough of the doom-and-gloom talk. I have some good news for you.’ He smiled at his parents.

Miriam’s face clicked up
in expectation.

‘Violet and I are engaged!’ said Sebastian with a flourish.

‘Darling!’ cried his mother, leaping up from his chair to hug her son. ‘How wonderful!’

‘Yes,’ barked Donald, staying put in his seat. ‘Congratulations, son.’

Miriam then gave Violet a very awkward hug before moving quickly back to her armchair.

‘When’s the big day?’ asked Miriam.

Sebastian and Violet looked at each
other. They hadn’t got round to planning the wedding day yet.

‘Not sure,’ said Sebastian. ‘We only got engaged a week ago.’

‘And you didn’t call before now?’ said Miriam with a pout.

‘We wanted to come and tell you face to face,’ said Sebastian, knowing how to placate his mother.

Miriam nodded. ‘Of course,’ she said, smiling once more.

‘Where were you thinking of having the reception?’ asked
Donald.

Violet had thought of a few ideas regarding the big day and turned to say as much to Miriam but Sebastian placed a hand on her knee. ‘I’ll answer that, darling.’

Violet nodded. Of course. This was his family. It was right that he should be the one discussing the details with them.

‘Actually we were wondering if you had any ideas,’ Sebastian said.

Violet was stunned. Why did they need
to ask Sebastian’s parents for ideas?

Miriam smiled at her son. ‘Well, you’ll get married at St Winifred’s, naturally.’

Sebastian nodded.

‘So the reception can be at the Hyde Country Club.’

‘Good choice,’ said Donald, nodding.

In fact, everyone was nodding with approval. Apart from Violet, who had never even heard of these places.

She looked up and found Miriam watching her.

‘Obviously,
I know the unfortunate story of your parents,’ said Miriam. ‘Have you any other family to help with the arrangements?’

Violet took a deep intake of breath. But Miriam was right. There was no one. She shook her head.

‘Oh dear,’ cooed Miriam. ‘Well, we’ll cope. And I suppose we could fill your half of the church with some of the more distant members of our family. Great-uncle Geoffrey, for example.’

‘Absolutely,’ said Sebastian.

Miriam turned to face Donald. ‘A lot of the aunts and uncles are getting on a bit so the heat of summer is really out of the question. Autumn is a busy time for me, what with the bazaar and flower festival.’

‘Indeed,’ murmured Donald.

Violet glanced across at Sebastian but he was staying silent. She couldn’t believe he was going to let his parents choose the venue
and now the date for their wedding.

‘I know!’ said Miriam. ‘New Year’s Eve. The Christmas rush at church will be over. It’ll be lovely with the tree and we won’t have to buy flowers for the church. Plus we won’t have to attend John’s dreadful New Year’s Eve party for the tenth year running.’

‘Hear hear!’ barked Donald.

‘Perfect,’ said Sebastian, turning to Violet with a beaming smile.

Violet
was so stunned she could do nothing but fix on a fake smile and stay silent.

Grateful of the excuse to escape, Violet got up to return her empty tea cup to the kitchen.

Unfortunately, Sebastian’s mother had followed her into the room and was standing guard at doorway.

‘A wedding,’ said Miriam. ‘How exciting. I can’t wait to tell everyone.’

Violet nodded her agreement.

‘Can I see the ring?’

Violet held out her left hand and watched Miriam peer forward for a closer look.

‘Lovely,’ declared Sebastian’s mother. ‘Emeralds are so classy, aren’t they? But then Sebastian did always have good taste.’

Violet carried on nodding and smiling in reply.

‘I suppose you’ll want to lose a bit of weight for the wedding,’ said Miriam, giving Violet a quick once-over.

Violet stopped nodding and
blushed bright red, mortified.

‘You could always try those slimming pills,’ Miriam carried on, not noticing or caring about Violet’s embarrassment. ‘One of the ladies at my lunch club has lost a couple of stone in a month. Your mother was a large woman, was she?

The mention of her mother brought tears to Violet’s eyes. She had been slim, a dark-haired beauty. Nothing like her fat daughter.

‘It’s a shame because you’ve got ever such a pretty face.’

Thankfully Sebastian chose that moment to appear. ‘Any more of that cake?’ he asked.