The Truth About You (13 page)

‘Yes, he’s fine,’ Nadia was saying as she set about pouring the tea. ‘Not about being stuck in New York till Tuesday, but hey, someone’s got to do it.’

‘What’s keeping him?’ Lainey enquired, carrying a bowl of water round to Sherman.

‘Not what, who. Arnie Colefax is a year late delivering his latest book, so Guy is trying to keep him sober long enough to complete a first draft.’

‘And he can do that by Tuesday?’

‘He has to, or the publishers are demanding their money back. Frankly, it’s all a bit of a mess, but he’s Guy’s client so I’m leaving him to sort it out.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘If tonight’s dinner is off there’s an old friend of mine not a million miles from here who I might drop in on, if he’s around.’

‘Is it anyone I know?’

Nadia’s grin was impish. ‘It is, but I’m not naming names. However, I will say that he was sitting to my left at the dinner you gave last Christmas.’

Lainey thought quickly, but they’d given so many dinners since then, and been to so many other functions that she simply couldn’t remember who’d been sitting where at any of them.

‘OK, he was on your right,’ Nadia told her. ‘And I think he was paying you rather a lot of attention with a Christmas cracker.’

At that, it took only a moment for Lainey’s eyes to widen. ‘You don’t mean . . .’

‘I do,’ Nadia smiled, cutting her off.

She was referring to the head of Tom’s publishing house, whose ostentatious wealth and apparently bottomless appetite for the good life had earned him the nickname Trimalchio. Whether the epithet had come from Scott Fitzgerald’s working title for
The Great Gatsby,
or directly from the
Satyricon,
Lainey didn’t know. What she did know, however, was that Don Rhys-Lewis’s rather dowdy wife of twenty-seven years had sent him a postcard from Sydney about a year ago telling him she’d run off with the builder and wasn’t coming back.

Hearing her father muttering lines from
The Ancient Mariner
, she took him some tea and scooped up her mobile on the way back as it bleeped with a text.

We need to talk. I’ll be home tomorrow afternoon. Try to arrange it so the children are out.

Dropping the phone back on the counter top, she was about to start drawing Nadia further on Trimalchio when the door burst open and Zav came in with tears streaking down his cheeks and something furry clutched in his hands.

‘Mum, it got hit by a car,’ he sobbed, ‘and it isn’t dead. It’s still breathing, so we have to take it to the vet.’

Clocking Alfie hovering at the door looking equally worried, Lainey said, ‘Zav, we can’t keep trying to rescue everything you find . . .’

‘Mum! You’ve got to,’ he shouted. ‘It’ll die otherwise and it’ll be
all your fault.’

Throwing an ironic glance at Nadia, Lainey went to inspect the wretched creature. A rabbit – and sure enough its eyes were open; it even blinked slowly as she put a hand on its side. ‘Where’s it injured?’ she asked. ‘Maybe it’s just stunned.’

‘No, there’s blood on the other side,’ Zav assured her, pulling free a hand to show her.

Sighing despondently, she said, ‘Darling, I can’t just leave Nadia here. She’s our guest. Why don’t you go and see if Max’ll take you?’

‘He’s gone out. Mum, please. I don’t want it to die. We have to try and save it. Please, please . . . Where’s Dad? He’ll take me, I know he will, because he cares about animals too, not like
you.
’

Stung by that, she said, ‘Dad’s not here.’ She wouldn’t bother to remind him that Tom had only ever taken him to the vet’s once with one of his potential roadkill, whereas she took him on a pretty regular basis.

‘Don’t mind me,’ Nadia told her, apparently amused by the scene. ‘Far be it from me to stand in the way of a rescue.’

‘Do you have to rush off?’ Lainey asked, picking up the phone to find out where the emergency vet was located today. ‘We should be back in under an hour, and now you’ve come all this way . . . Unless you’re keen to get to Trimalchio, of course.’

Nadia twinkled. ‘I’ll give him a call while you’re gone and let you know. Good luck with Basil,’ she said to Zav. ‘I hope you’ll be in time.’

‘Who’s Basil?’ he asked blankly.

Nadia nodded at the rabbit. ‘Basil Brush,’ she explained.

‘He was a fox,’ Lainey reminded her, ‘but I’m sure this little fellow will have a name by the time we get back, if he manages to make it that far,’ she added under her breath. ‘Help yourself to anything. You can try having a chat with Dad, if you like. He might not say anything, but he enjoys having company. Oh, here’s Tierney . . . What are you doing here? I thought you were staying at Maudie’s. Hi, Maudie, how are you?’

‘I’m good, thanks,’ Maudie replied in an airy, cool-girl way that didn’t quite suit her studious black-rimmed specs and limp, mousy hair.

‘Tierney, can you keep Nadia company while I take Zav and his new friend to the vet?’ Lainey said, reaching for her keys. ‘We shouldn’t be long.’

‘I only came back for my laptop,’ Tierney protested angrily. ‘I can’t stay . . .’

‘You can until I’m back, surely?’

‘No, I can’t. For God’s sake . . . Come on, Maudie,’ and pushing her friend into the hall as though the shocked and surprised looks she’d left behind were nothing to do with her, she ran up the stairs.

‘I’m really sorry about that,’ Lainey said to Nadia. ‘For the moment I’m afraid we’ll probably have to put it down to her age, but I’ll be having words with her . . .’

‘Don’t worry. I can remember what it was like to be sixteen,
just.
They’re in their own worlds. You go on, I’m sure she’ll be back down in a minute. I’ll have a chat with her then.’

‘What’s the matter?’ Maudie was demanding as Tierney shut the bedroom door behind them and swore repeatedly under her breath. ‘What are you being like that for?’

Tierney’s cheeks were burning, her eyes glittering wildly, but quickly jettisoning the last couple of minutes as though they hadn’t happened she flopped on to the bed, arms and legs akimbo. ‘Oh my God, Maudie, I am so in love,’ she breathed ecstatically. ‘You don’t know what it’s like. It’s totally, completely amazeballs.’ Suddenly she was back on her feet. ‘I’ve got to listen to that music again,’ and grabbing her laptop she opened up iTunes and started swooning as the first song began playing. She kind of preferred Adele’s version of ‘Make You Feel My Love’, but he’d said to download Bob Dylan’s and actually, with a bloke singing it she could more easily imagine it was
him
singing it to her.

Having heard all three songs enough times that afternoon, Maudie went back to the ‘forbidden book’, so caught up in it now that she couldn’t bear to go anywhere without it.

After daydreaming through ‘My Stunning Mystery Companion’ by Jackson Browne and ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’ by The Animals (definitely Dad and Max type music, but she kind of liked it too, now she’d really listened to it), Tierney rolled on to her front to prop her chin in her hands. ‘So come on, read out a bit more,’ she encouraged Maudie. ‘What are they up to now?’

Maudie’s cheeks flooded with colour. ‘No way am I saying any of this out loud,’ she protested. ‘It’s like totally . . . I can’t believe you’re going to do all this stuff with him. Is that what he’s expecting?’

Tierney shrugged. ‘I don’t know, but he definitely wants to know what I think of it.’

Maudie’s eyes bulged as she continued to read. ‘Oh my God, this is like totally . . .
weird
.’

‘Let me see,’ Tierney cried, grabbing the book.

Maudie pointed out the paragraph, and as Tierney read it she felt as though she was bursting inside.

She looked at Maudie.

Maudie looked back, and with squeals of hilarity they exploded into a gale of giggles.

‘Hannah Armstrong, in year ten, reckons she’s already done
everything
in this book with Aiden,’ Maudie told her.

‘No way!’ Tierney exclaimed. ‘She’s not even fifteen yet – or no, she must be by now.’ It was a bit galling to think that someone even younger than her was already so much more experienced. ‘Do you reckon we’re the only two virgins left at school?’ she asked Maudie dismally.

‘What are you looking so worried about?’ Maudie objected. ‘I’ll be on my own soon.’

Remembering that was true, Tierney immediately perked up. ‘Only seven days to go,’ she declared, a ripple of nerves catching on a wave of excitement. ‘Just think, this time next week I’ll be with him.’ Quickly rummaging for her iPhone as it rang, she saw it was Skye and clicked on. ‘Hey friend, how’s things?’ she cried cheerily.

‘Yeah, they’re cool,’ Skye replied. ‘Just getting ready to go for drinks at someone’s house with the rents, then I’m meeting a couple of mates at a party. What’s new with you? Have you heard any more since he sent the songs?’

‘No, but I expect we’ll IM or Skype later, or tomorrow or something.’ How confident she sounded – and felt. ‘When are you back?’

‘That’s why I’m calling. My mum wants to drive me down tomorrow, but I don’t want to go back to school that early so will it be OK to come and stay with you?’

‘Of course. No problem. My mum won’t mind. Just let us know what time to expect you.’

‘Sure. You get that I’ll probably sneak over and stay with my shag buddy though, don’t you?’

‘Duh, yeah.’ Should she tell her Max was out with Christie tonight? ‘Does he know you’re coming?’ she asked.

‘I’ll text him now. Are you still at Maudie’s?’

‘No, we just came back to mine so I could get my laptop.’

‘OK, I have to go now. I’ll text you tomorrow when we’re on our way. Say hi to Maudie for me,’ and Skye was gone.

After ringing off Tierney lay staring at the ceiling, going back over the conversation she’d had with him that morning and reliving how fantastic it felt just to watch him smile.

‘Oh Maudie, I think I’m going to erupt, or scream or do something insanely wild,’ she cried, stretching out her arms. ‘He is so cool and I love him so much.’ Grabbing her laptop, she checked to see if there were any new emails. There weren’t, so she called up his profile so she could gaze at his picture and pretend it was real. ‘He is so completely to die for, isn’t he?’ she murmured dreamily.

Maudie was engrossed in the book.

Putting on the music again, Tierney lay back down and closed her eyes. She wondered what he was doing now. It was the middle of the day in New York, so he might be at a meeting somewhere, but even if he was he might still be thinking about her. She hoped he was imagining all the things she was.

‘How do those books end, do you know?’ she asked Maudie.

‘I think they get married,’ Maudie replied without looking up. ‘That’s what Hannah Armstrong said, anyway, so I suppose she’s hoping the same’s going to happen for her and Aiden now. Like in her dreams.’

‘It might,’ Tierney said faintly. ‘Actually, I reckon it will.’

IT WAS MONDAY
morning now and Lainey still had no idea who Julia was, or indeed where exactly Tom might be. Though she’d done as he’d asked yesterday and made sure the children were elsewhere for the afternoon, he hadn’t come home. She’d waited and waited, paced the house, texted and rung him, but he simply hadn’t turned up. She could still hardly believe it was happening as she veered from confusion to fury, to fear and all the way back again. He’d never done anything like this before. Why the hell wasn’t he answering his phone? He surely had to know how worried she was. What if he’d had an accident? To her shame she realised an accident felt almost preferable to the thought of him being with another woman. At least that way their marriage might still be intact.

In the end, it was after five when he’d sent a brief message saying
Sorry, lousy reception here. Will call tomorrow.

Lousy reception here? What kind of lame excuse was that? Where the hell was he? Why didn’t he get to a place where he could make a connection?

‘He said he’ll call tomorrow,’ she told Stacy, when her friend came round to lend moral support. ‘Not that he’ll be home, so when exactly is he intending to come back?’

As much at a loss with that as Lainey, Stacy said, ‘Have you tried him again since?’

Lainey shook her head. ‘There doesn’t seem any point. The calls just go straight through to messages. Anyway, don’t let’s start going round in circles with it all, tell me how you got on with Martin’s mother last night.’

Stacy shuddered. ‘Frankly, I’d rather forget the whole experience. She’ll definitely be the reason he’s still single at thirty-eight, and as far as I’m concerned he’s going to stay that way.’

Lainey looked concerned. ‘Are you saying you’ve broken up with him?’

‘I have. I promise you, it had to be done.’

Since Stacy didn’t look particularly upset, Lainey didn’t challenge her. What she did though, stupidly, was encourage her to recall how she’d found out about Derek’s affair with Pauline. It did neither of them any good, only served to depress Stacy and scare her.

Now, as Lainey went through the motions of preparing the children’s breakfasts, her mind was barely on what she was doing as she poured orange juice over Zav’s cornflakes and had to start again.

‘Turn it over, turn it over,’ Tierney shouted, rushing into the kitchen with her school blouse barely buttoned, and her damp hair clinging to her face. ‘Trey Songz’s on and he is so cute. I am totally in love with him.
Turn it over
, Zav.’

‘No way, I’m watching this,’ he protested, grabbing the remote to protect his cartoon.

‘That’s just rubbish. Put on Massive R&B. Now!’

‘Get lost!’

‘Mum! Tell him. I have to watch Trey. Give me that remote,’ she growled, trying to snatch it.

‘No, you’re not having it. Mum, get her off me. Stop! You’re scaring Ronnie.’

Tierney did a double take. ‘What?’ she demanded in her right royal way. ‘Who the hell’s Ronnie?’

‘He’s my rabbit. He’s there in the box and you’re frightening him.’

Tierney stared at the box like it was a mistake Sherman had made. ‘Shouldn’t it be in a hutch, outside?’ she protested.

‘We’ll let him go back in the wild when he’s better,’ Zav told her. ‘Until then Mum said he can stay in here.’