Read Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend Online
Authors: Jenny Colgan
Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend (33 page)
ads
In the early days of scrubbing the floorboards, I had often fantasised about a time when Carena would have nothing and I’d have everything and the tables were turned and I’d be cool and dismissive. That was all bollocks, of course. She was horrible, and difficult, and all the rest of it, but she was still my friend. My oldest friend, and I cared about her.
‘It’ll be OK,’ I said, not sure whether it would. It had never really occured to me - if he could leave me that fast, it didn’t say much for his staying power.
‘Oh, forget it, it doesn’t matter. He’s done it before. He is completely indiscriminate. Honestly, we get through cleaners like you wouldn’t believe. He’ll quite happily snog any old boot. He’s like one of those dogs you have to get neutered.’
‘But you love him,’ I said.
‘I’m wearing the dress, aren’t I?’
She looked down at what I estimated to be sixty-thousand-pounds worth of glorious haute couture - Galliano, unmistakeably - now looking a little watermarked.
‘I mean, I told myself that it doesn’t matter. And it doesn’t. It doesn’t mean anything. This is everything I ever wanted. Gorgeous husband, huge wedding, plenty of money, beautiful house, all of that.’
‘And you look amazing,’ I added, helpfully.
‘I do,’ she nodded, entirely without vanity. ‘I look amazing. I’ve eaten nothing but oranges for three weeks.’
‘That sounds fun.’
‘What happened to your hair?’
‘I’m dating a golden retriever.’
A smile touched the ends of her mouth.
‘What are you going to do?’ I said. ‘Do you want me to get your mum? Do you want to go home?’
She threw back her head, laughed, then quaffed another load of champagne.
‘You are joking.’
‘Uh . . .’
Carena stood up and found a mirror. From a secret pocket somewhere she drew out her make-up bag and started assiduously re-applying her face.
‘It’ll be fine, darling. We’ll have a lovely life and be as happy as people can be. I may even take a lover myself one day. It’s all for the best.’
In almost no time at all she’d got rid of the effects of crying. Trust Carena to be a pretty crier.
‘No, it will all work out fine. You won’t mention this . . .’
‘Of course I won’t,’ I said. Carena came forward and gave me a hug.
‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘I just needed . . . a little time . . .’
‘Of course you did,’ I said, hugging her back. ‘You’ll be fine.’
‘I always am,’ she said. Then she took another huge swig, finishing the bottle. Burping in a most un-bridelike fashion, she threw the bottle aside and unlocked the door.
‘
Darlings!
’ I heard her say as she threw it open. ‘You must get your picture taken in our gorgeous grotto! Isn’t this
such
fun?’
Darlings!
’ I heard her say as she threw it open. ‘You must get your picture taken in our gorgeous grotto! Isn’t this
such
fun?’
Eventually, word got round, and people did come in and get their pictures taken and a lot of them did recognise me, but amazingly, lots of them were kind (apart from comments about my hair, which I took in good spirit, even whilst internally deciding to have it all shaved off that night à la Britney Spears), and to the rest, I think I gave off good funky photographer chick attitude. As soon as people see you really don’t care, they leave you alone. So it was a very successful day, in fact. I took some young farmers in a big group, all of them howling at me like a bunch of prepubescent owls; a couple of dashing young troubadours, and Rufus himself, who demanded he have his pic taken surrounded by ‘all the totty at the party’ which didn’t include his wife. He smiled happily at me, friendly again, and a bit too pissed and too stupid to care who I was or what I represented. I smiled back at him as best I could.
By 10 p.m. I was exhausted with smiling, corralling, snapping. Julius was delighted though. He could send all the pics round and sell them individually. Even the little waiter had smuggled me in a plate of utterly delicious food, which I guessed Carena had ordered for me. In fact, it was probably hers so she didn’t have to eat it.
The crowd had thinned to a trickle, and I was preparing to start packing away, when a bunch of people burst through the door.
‘Take our picture! Take our picture!’
I glanced up expecting another crowd of young London bucks. Which it was, I supposed. It was James, Eck, Cal and Wolverine, all completely pished and collapsing with laughter.
‘
What
did I tell you?’ I said. ‘I said,
No
. No, no, no, no, no!’
What
did I tell you?’ I said. ‘I said,
No
. No, no, no, no, no!’
‘You’re not our real dad,’ said Cal, giggling and clutching a half-full bottle of champagne. I had a feeling Carena’s parents may have slightly overcatered.
‘You’re going to get thrown out,’ I said, trying to stop Wolverine sniffing round the camera box.
‘We are not,’ said James proudly. ‘Carena recognised us and invited us in.’
I took a little breath. I couldn’t help it, I was touched by the gesture. Not that I was that pleased that this bunch of scruffs were turning up as
my
. . . I took a closer look.
my
. . . I took a closer look.
‘
What
are you guys wearing?’
What
are you guys wearing?’
‘We broke into drama club!’ said James. ‘They have a wardrobe and everything!’
‘I told them not to,’ said Eck, his eyes going in slightly different directions.
‘No, no,’ I said, starting to giggle. ‘You look great.’
Technically they all adhered to the black tie dress code: a red velvet smoking jacket on James, a frilled shirt on Cal (bit Adam Ant, but in a good way), and a pre-tied bow tie on Eck, who came lurching up to give me a big snog.
‘We even got a pair with a hole in the back for Wolverine’s tail,’ said Cal dryly.
‘But now
I
feel rubbish!’ I said, looking forlornly down at my jeans.
I
feel rubbish!’ I said, looking forlornly down at my jeans.
‘We thought of that too!’ said James, as Eck produced a dress from his messy rucksack. It was red velvet, a belted number, completely over the top but weirdly, rather nice.
‘Oh my,’ I said. Then, ‘No. This is my first professional engagement. I’m not going to ruin everything by misbehaving all over the place.’
‘Champagne?’ said Cal.
Curses! Felled by my terrible weakness. My hand stretched out of its own volition.
‘Go on, love,’ said Julius, who’d been putting camera parts away behind me. ‘You deserve a bit of a laugh tonight.’
Suddenly, I heard a sound I recognised, though I couldn’t believe it. It sounded like the opening chords of ‘Pray’ by Take That. My favourite band. But it didn’t sound like a record. It sounded . . . I flung open the door.
Sure enough, standing at one end of the dance floor, waving to everyone, were the four remaining members of Take That. Now
that’s
what I called a wedding band!
that’s
what I called a wedding band!
As I was watching, Carena turned round and caught my eye. She smiled at me and beckoned to me. That was enough. I certainly wasn’t going to get up close to Take That in my work duds.
‘Give me that dress and get out,’ I hissed at the boys.
‘Even me?’ said Eck.
‘And me?’ said Cal.
‘And me?’ said Julius. ‘I’ve seen ’em too.’
‘This is getting
so unfair
,’ howled James.
so unfair
,’ howled James.
‘Out! All of you!’
And I hopped into the red dress, which, amazingly, fitted pretty well. I added a bit of cheap lippy, tied my hideous hair back in an elastic band we used to keep film stock in, and ran out onto the dance floor.
I didn’t care that people stared at me, and talked behind their hands as the five of us waltzed up past the cleared-away tables. Take That were here! And they were great! And all we wanted to do was dance. I went up and stood next to Carena and squeezed her hand.
‘I know!’ she whispered back. ‘Best day of my life.’
Just as she did that, Gary got her up on stage to serenade her and all the girls in the room screamed, even the scrawny, perfectly groomed, posh birds who thought themselves so superior. We all screamed. And I realised: I was happy. I didn’t want what Carena had. I didn’t want to fit in with everyone else. I wanted what I had. No, put that a better way: I wanted what I’d earned.
I couldn’t dance with just one person, so I danced with everyone. Then gradually the whole floor filled up so it didn’t matter. Philly sidled over and tried to start dancing with Cal, but he managed to sidestep her gracefully, until she ended up dancing with Wolverine. Well, she was dancing, he was capering, but it seemed to be going all right. James showed off some pretty swanky moves for someone whose idea of a good time was crawling under a muddy net. Rufus spun in and out, leading a very foxy-looking waitress. Carena wouldn’t care; she was still on stage staring into Mark’s eyes. It was brilliant, and we danced through the whole set and the two encores and yelled for more, until finally, still carrying bottles of champagne, we swept out of the building.
Wolverine and Philly seemed to have disappeared, as had the bride and groom, of course, and the four of us left in a cloud of happiness and laughter as we strolled down Park Lane, ferreting about in the pockets of borrowed clothes to see if they had any small change we could use for a cab. ‘OK, OK, I’ll get it,’ said James finally. ‘Sheesh. Students. And you.’
‘I believe I made money today,’ I said, adding quickly, ‘but I haven’t seen any of it yet.’
A cab drew up almost immediately. Eck and I sat on one side, James and Cal on the small seats opposite. We were all giggly.
‘I never put you down for being such pop fans,’ I said. ‘What happened to that industrial grime stuff you like?’
‘I like it a lot,’ said Cal, stretching his long legs out. He turned to the cabbie. ‘Can you drop me in New Cross after, mate?’
‘Not coming home?’ I said. I’d been hoping we could all sit up and drink champagne all night and have a fun time.
‘You’re not the only one working today,’ he said, suddenly looking impatient. ‘It’s the degree show in a week. All systems go.’
Eck shifted uncomfortably. ‘It doesn’t matter to me,’ he said. ‘I’m moving on anyway. Going to get a real job. Live in the real world and everything. I’ve got a future to think of now.’
He took his hand in mine and I squeezed it hard.
‘I never pegged you for a swot,’ I said to Cal.
‘You never pegged me for a lot of things,’ he said darkly, and proceeded to stare out of the window all the way home.
It wasn’t quite so much fun after that, as we straggled into the house. Eck and I went straight to bed, but I couldn’t sleep and lay staring at the ceiling for a long time. It had been a big day. And, I decided, a good one. So why did I feel so weird?
Chapter Seventeen
I was chivvying and nursemaiding the twins. Sorry, I was running my own photo shoot with the twins.
‘I still can’t believe you didn’t invite us to that posh wedding, ’ Grace was grumbling.
‘I wasn’t
there
,’ I said, for the nineteenth time. ‘I was working. ’
there
,’ I said, for the nineteenth time. ‘I was working. ’
‘God, we could have pulled there,’ said Kelly, pulling disconsolately on a pair of rabbit ears. I hated the stupid rabbit ears. It was so demeaning, somehow. Like they might as well be donkey ears or a stoat’s tail, or anything that just completely negated any need for any brains whatsoever.
‘
Take That!
’ said Grace. ‘My mum loves them!’
Take That!
’ said Grace. ‘My mum loves them!’
‘Yeah, yeah, I know you’re wildly young,’ I said. ‘But they were fabulous actually.’
‘Julius, why don’t you take us to your weddings?’ said Kelly. Julius snorted loudly.
‘Because I’m
not
a wedding photographer.’
not
a wedding photographer.’
Actually, it was interesting looking at the contact sheets when they’d come back. My work really wasn’t half-bad. And, when we’d sent the sheets to a society mag, they’d chosen one of mine, not Julius’s! Julius was very sweet about it under the circumstances, and it meant a little extra cash for me. I was beginning to wonder if there was any way for me to move into that business.
ads
Other books
Center Stage (Bright Lights Billionaire #2) by Ali Parker
Sister Freaks by Rebecca St. James
The Story of a New Name (The Neapolitan Novels) by Ferrante, Elena
Minerva's Ghost by Danielle Elise Girard
Frostfire by Viehl, Lynn
The Black King (Book 7) by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Marked Clan #2 - Red by Maurice Lawless
The Heirs of Hammerfell by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Complete Me by J. Kenner
