Meet Me at the Cupcake Café (47 page)

Wait till you hear what else I’ve got up my sleeve, thought Graeme, pleased his tactics had worked. He returned her embrace gladly.

‘Can we … ? What about … ?’ attempted Issy.

Graeme stilled her mouth with a kiss. ‘I have to get to squash,’ he said. ‘Let’s talk through the details tomorrow,’ he added, smoothly, as if she was a prevaricating customer.

Pearl and Ben were laughing, Louis running ahead, as he picked her up from the bus stop. Pearl could see a tiny bit of Ben’s tightly coiled chest hair over the top of his shirt. Her mother had been haranguing her again, saying she’d move to her sister’s till Pearl had her man back, and that he couldn’t just drop in whenever he wanted … Was he going to be a man about it or not?

‘What would you think,’ she said, as casually as she was able, ‘about moving back in?’

Ben made a non-committal noise and immediately changed the subject, dropping her politely at her door with a peck on the cheek. It wasn’t quite what she’d been hoping for.

‘
Mummy sad, Caline
,’ announced Louis boldly at work.

‘Mummies do sometimes get sad, Louis,’ said Caroline, giving Pearl a sympathetic look that wasn’t terribly welcome, but better than nothing, Pearl supposed.

‘
Doan be sad, Mummee! Mummee sad!
’ Louis announced to Doti, who was coming in with the post.

‘Is she now?’ said Doti, crouching down so he was at Louis’s height. ‘Did you try giving her one of your special kisses?’

Louis nodded seriously then whispered, loudly, ‘
Gave Louis kisses. But still sad!
’

Doti shook his head. ‘Now that
is
a conundrum.’ He straightened up. ‘Maybe I could make Mummy happy and take her out for coffee some time.’

Pearl sniffed. ‘In case you haven’t noticed,’ she said, ‘I’m surrounded by coffee.’

‘I’ll go!’ said Caroline, then her hand flew to her mouth. ‘Uh, I mean, I’ll just be working quietly over here.’

They both ignored her.

‘Maybe a drink some time then?’

‘Maybe,’ said Pearl.

‘I knock off early.’

‘I don’t.’

‘Lunch?’ parried Doti. ‘Next Tuesday?’

Pearl affected to gaze out of the window. Issy, finally exasperated, popped her head up from down below.

‘She says yes!’ she hollered.

Issy went straight over to the flat after work. Helena was there, as was Ashok, whom Helena immediately dispatched to get coffee. Issy groaned. ‘No! No more coffee, please. Could you pick me up some Fanta? And some Hula Hoops?’

‘You
are
bad,’ said Helena, popping the kettle on. ‘So, how’s the new life with the old man? Fun?’

Issy threw her arms around her. ‘Thank you so much for the party,’ she said. ‘It was … it was
amazing
.’ I can’t thank you enough for doing it for me.’

‘You can actually,’ said Helena. ‘After the first four hundred times you thanked me on the night.’

‘OK, OK. But listen, guess what happened?’

Helena raised an extremely well-plucked eyebrow. She had been expecting something like this, and was worried Issy seemed so jittery. After all the trouble she’d gone to, to make sure Austin would be there, and then, of all things, Graeme turning up. She hoped Issy didn’t think she’d asked him. Although even a lunkhead like Graeme, Helena had to regretfully concede, was going to notice Issy’s good points sooner or later.

‘Go on then,’ she said.

‘Graeme’s asked me to move in with him!’

At this even Helena was surprised. Told her he loved her maybe; offered to let her meet his parents or be his official girlfriend. But living together was a big step; even when they’d been together a few months it had hardly seemed that serious, and Helena just didn’t see Graeme as the warm, naturally hospitable type. But then she’d thought Ashok was a shy, retiring sort rather than the most amazing man ever, so what did she know.

‘Well!’ she said, trying not to sound fake. ‘This is great!’

Helena also looked at her friend’s face. Her tone was upbeat but … was it real? Was she genuinely over the moon? Three months ago she would have been in paroxysms of joy, but now she seemed …

‘And you’re happy?’ said Helena, realizing with a wince that she sounded a little sharper than she’d intended to.

‘Um, shouldn’t I be?’ said Issy, fishing. ‘I mean, you know … it’s Graeme. Graeme. Who I’ve been mad about for ages and ages and ages and he’s asked me to move in with him.’

Helena paused to pour the tea. They both waited a long moment, fussing with cups and spoons, until Helena spoke up.

‘You know, you don’t have to. If you don’t feel like it. There’s plenty of time.’

‘But I do want to,’ said Issy, sounding agitated, as if she was trying to convince herself. ‘And there isn’t plenty of time, Lena, don’t pretend there is. I’m thirty-two. I’m not a child. I mean, everyone’s settling down, I must have looked at nine thousand baby photos the other night. And I want that, Lena. That’s what I want. A good man who loves me and wants to share my life and do all of that. I’m not a bad person to want that, am I?’

‘Of course not,’ said Helena. And it was true; that nice chap from the bank, well, he couldn’t be trusted to put his underpants on the right way round, never mind look after Issy, could he? And he already had a child to look after. Graeme was an earner, he was good-looking, he had no other baggage hanging over his head – by anyone’s standards he was a catch, of course he was.

And Issy was right, Helena had seen it happen a million times. Just because someone wasn’t absolutely perfect for you, you threw them over and expected someone better to come round the corner, but they didn’t always. Life just wasn’t like that. She knew too many friends and colleagues feeling marooned and terrified at forty, forty-one, and wishing with all their hearts they hadn’t thrown over Mr Nice but Not Quite Perfect when they were thirty-one. So he had taken a while to take Issy seriously – that didn’t make him a bad guy, did it?

‘It’s great,’ said Helena. ‘I’d propose a toast if I didn’t think you’d probably had enough booze this week.’

‘Stop nursing me.’

‘We had this woman in, younger than you, turned yellow, liver failure.’

‘Sharing a bottle of wine with Graeme is not liver failure.’

‘I’m just saying.’

But somehow it felt better to be back bickering. They finished their tea, though, in silence. Issy felt slightly embarrassed and a little crestfallen. She’d rather expected Helena to dive in with her usual alacrity, and say don’t be ridiculous, of course she couldn’t live with Graeme, she had to stay here and nothing would change and it would all be fine and there were a million fantastic guys and fantastic things waiting to happen, just around the corner. But Helena hadn’t said that. At all. Which meant that Issy was being a total idiot; of course this was the right thing to do. It was wonderful. And she was excited deep down, of course she was. It was natural to feel a little nervous, that was all.

Helena smiled at her, hopefully. ‘And, you know … well, just say no if this is all too sudden or anything like that, but, well …’

‘Spit it out,’ said Issy. It wasn’t like Helena to be nervous about anything.

‘Well,’ said Helena, ‘I might know someone who might like to rent your room.’

Issy raised her eyebrows.

‘Might he be a …
doctor
by any chance?’

Helena looked pink. ‘The doctors’ digs are horrendous, really awful. He was looking for a flat but your place is so nice and—’

Issy held up her hands. ‘You’ve been plotting this!!’

‘I haven’t, I swear.’ Helena was biting her lip to stop the grin from bubbling up.

‘And you think I would stand in the way of true love?’ said Issy.

‘Do you mean it?’ said Helena. ‘Oh my God! Oh my God! That’s brilliant! Oh my God! I’ll just phone him quickly! Ooh! Look at us!’ she announced. ‘The cohabitees! Oh my God!’

She kissed her erstwhile flatmate and rushed to the phone.

Issy couldn’t help contrasting how unbelievably thrilled Helena was with her own doubts. Almost imperceptibly, it felt like something was moving between them and their friendship; paper-thin, a crack that was opening up. She knew what this was like. When your friends had boyfriends, it was fine to discuss their plus points and shortcomings. But when the relationship became serious, then it was too late. Then you had to pretend they were totally perfect in every way in case they got married, and while it was nice to see your friends happy and everything, it did mean that the dynamic changed. And Issy was delighted to see Helena so happy, she was. But the dynamic had definitely changed. They were both moving on, that was all, she told herself.

They arranged to meet for drinks that night so Issy could pack up some of her stuff, and they went out and had a few glasses of hair of the dog and pretended it was just like the old days, but as one bottle turned into two, Helena put her cards down on the table.

‘Why?’ she said. ‘Why did you go back to him so fast?’

Issy looked up from where she’d been surreptitiously glancing at her phone – she’d texted to say she’d be a bit late, but hadn’t heard from him. She felt her face stiffen.

‘Well, because he’s great, and he’s available, and I really, really like him. You know that,’ she said.

‘But he picks you up and drops you whenever he feels like it. And coming back into your life like this … I mean, you don’t know what he’s up to.’

‘Why does he have to be up to anything?’ said Issy, feeling her face getting hot.

‘Well, you know, with my Ashok …’

‘Oh, yes, it’s fine with your Ashok, your perfect Ashok, oh, look at my gorgeous handsome doctor whom everybody loves and who adores me and I’m so in love, blah blah blah. But then when it’s Graeme you’re all snooty.’

‘I’m not
snooty
. I’m just saying, he’s put you through an awful lot of heartache and—’

‘And I’m not good enough to have someone love me the way Ashok loves you, is that what you’re saying? That it’s so unlikely that any man would want me that he has to have some sort of ulterior motive?’

Helena wasn’t used to seeing Issy so riled up.

‘I didn’t mean it like that …’

‘Really? That’s how it sounded. Or maybe you just think old Issy won’t answer back, is that it? That I’m completely spineless?’

‘No!’

‘Well, you got one thing right. I’m not completely spineless.’

And she got up and walked out of the bar.