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Authors: Lisa Jewell

Ralph's Party (39 page)

BOOK: Ralph's Party
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Nobody spoke as the cab trundled dejectedly across Battersea Bridge. The sky was jet black overhead and iluminated brightly by a fat, white ful moon. A party

boat lit with fairy lights and loud with chatter and music passed beneath the bridge as they crossed. A skinny girl in a tight Lycra dress waved a bottle of champagne at them from the deck. Smith waved back half-heartedly.

The cab puled up quietly outside number thirty-one and its passengers spilt heavily and gratefuly on to the pavement, al glad that the cab ride from hel was finaly over.

Cheri made her way briskly to the front door, keen as ever to avoid Karl, especialy given the disastrous outcome of her attempt to bring him and Siobhan back together by sending her that invite. He caught up with her on the front step and waited awkwardly behind her while she unlocked the door.

'Wel,' he began, unexpectedly, 'that was some night, wasn't it?'

Cheri spun around at the sound of his voice. 'Yeah,' she laughed nervously, 'unbelievable.'

'Um,' he scratched at the back of his neck, 1 don't know who, er, invited Siobhan tonight. I suspect it was you' - he put a quieting hand out as Cheri began to explain - 'it's fine, Cheri. It realy is. I'm glad, you ... someone ... invited her, and I'm glad I saw her tonight and I'm glad I hit Rick. So... just don't worry. OK? It's al al right and I'm sorry, as wel, about earlier, shouting at you like that. It was unfair. I was drunk. Sorry.' He smiled at her, a warm, sincere smile ful of hope for the future and death to the past. Then he slipped his key into his lock and disappeared quietly into his flat, leaving Cheri standing at the bottom of the stairs, her coat clutched, in her hands, a look of surprise, gratitude and pleasure slowly pinkening her face.

She turned and walked up the stairs, towards the top floor, smiling to herself, and wondered, yet again, at the joys of goodness...

Smith vanished quickly into the basement flat. He wanted to go to bed, more than anything in the whole world. His head ached, his throat was sore and his heart felt like it was slowly bleeding to death. He let the door slam behind him, not caring that Jem and Ralph were on their way, not wanting to look at them for one more single, solitary second. Everything was a mess now. Ralph was a bastard, Jem hated him, Cheri despised him. He had no friend, no girlfriend and no fantasies left. It was al over. Everything. But he was too tired to start trying to wonder about the future now, about his living arrangements, about Cheri, about everything. He'd deal with al that tomorrow. He'd buy flowers for Cheri tomorrow, to apologize, and he'd give Ralph and Jem their marching orders, kick them out. Tomorrow. Right now, he was going to bed ...

Jem and Ralph stood at the top of the basement steps and watched the ful moon for a while.

'It was a ful moon the night I first came to see the flat, you know?'

said Jem, her arm tucked firmly around Ralph's waist.

'Oh, yeah?' he murmured happily, dropping a kiss on to the top of Jem's bedraggled head. 'Weird stuff always happens on ful-moon nights, doesn't it? People behave strangely, act differently.'

'They certainly do!'

They fel quiet for a moment, contemplating the unbelievable sequence of events that had occurred that night.

'D'you remember,' asked Jem, suddenly, 'd'you remember when I first came to see the flat? You were on the phone, to Claudia, you didn't even look at me!'

'Ah, but what I bet you don't know is that seconds before you arrived, I'd been sitting on the sofa — there' - he indicated the sofa through the window - 'sitting there, waiting for this mysterious girl caled Jem to arrive and ...
smoking a cigarette.
So, you see, it was me al along. The man on the sofa, the man of your dreams!

Maybe you'd have realized sooner if fucking Claudia hadn't phoned at that precise moment...'

'And if you'd bought peonies! And hadn't worn those disgusting longjohns! And ...'

'OK!' laughed Ralph, squeezing Jem to him, 'you're right! Destiny moves in mysterious ways, doesn't it?'

'You know Smith wil probably make us move out, don't you?'

Yeah. Wel. Wel deal with that when it happens. I know a lovely little place on Cable Street!'

They started to walk down the steps and then Ralph stopped abruptly and turned to face Jem. 'Wait!' he exclaimed, beaming.

'Wait! I've had an idea. Just stand there and don't move until I tel you! OK?' He leapt down the steps two at a time and disappeared through the front door, letting it close behind him.

Jem stood on the steps, uncertainly, shivering a bit in the cold wind and wondering what the hel Ralph was playing at.

A moment later, she noticed a light shining from the living-room window and turned to look down.

A man was sitting on the sofa. A long plume of pink-tinged smoke hovered above his head. He had a slender neck and an oval skul covered in short black hair that

ended in a sweet triangle of stubble at the nape of his neck. Jem shuddered. It was her dream. Exactly! And then she smiled, a huge, bely-achey, involuntary smile. The man on the sofa turned slightly in his seat. He looked at Jem and shared her smile.

And then Jem lifted the hem of her rose-printed dress with one smal fist and ran down the steps, her heels echoing on the concrete, pushed open the front door, and the living-room door, grabbed hold of her destiny, threw him down on the sofa and kissed the living daylights out of him.

BOOK: Ralph's Party
2.12Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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