The Trials of Tiffany Trott (3 page)

“Loaded!” shrieked Frances and Emma in unison. Sally rolled her eyes.

“Oh come on, Sally!” persisted Emma. “Your luxury apartment in Chelsea Harbour, your colossal, six-figure salary, you can’t hide them from us, you know. A lot of men would find that totally emasculating.”

“I was going to say because I’m so
busy,
actually,” said Sally. “Options traders work
horrible
hours—that’s the price we pay. That’s the compromise I’ve made. I’m at my desk by
_p. 16
seven-thirty every morning, and I’m there for twelve hours. I can’t even have lunch—a sandwich is brought to my desk. And I’m never really off the hook because I have to watch the markets round the clock. And the older I get, the harder it is. So don’t envy me my cash—I think I’d rather have a life.”

As I lit the candles on my cake, I mentally gave thanks for my freelance status. I work hard, but at least I can choose my own hours and I don’t have to worry about exchange rates and closing prices at birthday parties—nor do I earn the kind of money which some men might find threatening.

Then, suddenly, I heard someone say, “Tiffany . . . Tiffany! Phone!” Oh good, I thought as I lit the last candle, it must be Alex. And it was.

“Happy birthday, Tiffany,” he said quietly.

“Thanks!” I replied. I could hear the pattering of heavy rain on the path, and, from the sitting room, the strains of “Happy Birthday.” “Alex, I’ve been so worried, where are you?”
Happy birthday to you . . .

“Well, actually, to be honest, I just couldn’t face it,” he said.
Happy birthday to you . . .
“In fact, Tiffany . . .”
Happy birthday, dear Tiffaneeeee. . .

“. . . there’s something I’ve really got to tell you.”

Happy birthday to you!!!

_p. 17
Isn’t it annoying being dumped? I mean, it’s really not enjoyable at all. Getting the Big E. Being handed your cards. Especially when you’re thirty-seven. Especially when you thought the bloke was about to propose. Especially when you thought that, within a matter of mere months, or possibly even weeks, you would be progressing triumphantly up the aisle to “The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba.” Oh no. Being chucked was definitely not quite what I had in mind on my thirty-seventh birthday. You see, I was convinced Alex was on the point of seeking my hand in marriage—he said he had something to tell me. Instead he simply looked me in the eye the following day and said, “I just can’t face it.”

“Face what?” I asked suspiciously as we sat at my kitchen table. There was a silence, during which he looked uncomfortable, but calm. His rather soft, girlish lips were pursed together, his cowlick of chestnut hair brushed forward onto his brow. I do wish he wouldn’t do it like that, I found myself thinking, it makes him look like Tony Blair. Then he spoke, and out it all came, in a guilty rush.

“Isimplycan’tfacethefactthatI’mstringingyoualongandwastingyourtime.”
Ah.
Oh. Oh dear. He looked rather stricken, then he took a deep breath, inhaling through his aquiline nose. “You see I feel under pressure to marry you, Tiffany, and I don’t want to get married, but I know that’s what you’d like.”

_p. 18
“Oh no, no, no, no, no. I’m not bothered about that at all,” I said, sipping my Nescafé. “Really. I honestly hadn’t given it a
thought.
I was perfectly happy to go on as we were. Marriage? Good Lord, no. It never entered my mind.”

His face expressed a mixture of puzzlement and relief. “Oh. Well, I suppose I was misled by the way you kept stopping and looking in the window at Cartier and going up to the bridal department at Peter Jones and flicking through wedding stationery in WH Smith. I thought you . . . I thought you wanted . . .
anyway,
the fact is that I really can’t stand the thought of marrying you, Tiffany. Nothing personal,” he added quickly. “But you see, I don’t want to get married to anyone. Ever.”

“Why not?” I inquired, hoping that my bright, but not too brittle demeanor would mask my grievous disappointment.

“Well, I’ve really been thinking about it, and it’s lots of things,” he said. “For a start I like my own space. I’ve never lived with a woman. And I hate the idea of a woman . . . you know, messing up my things. And then—and this is the
main
thing—” he gave a little shudder, “the thought of children.” He lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “
Babies.
To be honest the whole idea makes me feel sick. All that crying, and all that, you know,
effluent.
At both ends. I just don’t think I could handle that at all.”

“But you’re so good with children,” I pointed out accurately, while mentally congratulating myself for remaining calm. “Your nephew and niece adore you.”

“Yes, but I don’t see them every day. It’s different. And I didn’t really bother with them until they were both safely out of nappies.”

“But Alex,” I said slowly, “if you don’t ever want to get married, why did you bother to go out with me in the first place?”

“I liked you. I mean I
do
like you, Tiffany. And you share a lot of my interests—I mean you like going to art galleries with me, and the ballet—”

_p. 19
“—and the theater,” I interjected.

“Yes, and the theater.”

“And the opera.”

“Yes, and the opera.”

“And contemporary dance.”

“Yes, yes.”

“And lunchtime talks at the Royal Academy.”

“Yes, yes, I know.”

“And the London Film Festival.”

“Yes . . .”

“And video installations at the ICA.”

“Yes, yes, all that kind of thing . . .”

“And any number of jazz venues.”

“I know, I know,” he said, “but I’m afraid that’s as far as it goes. I’m not looking for anything else.”

“Oh. Oh, I see. You just wanted a companion. A female escort. For assorted cultural pursuits.”

“Well, no—I wanted friendship too. But somehow, well . . . I could just see the way things were shaping up, and I felt it was time to come clean. I’m sorry if I ruined your party,” he added. “But I just couldn’t face all your friends, knowing that.”

“It’s all right, Alex,” I said, fingering the Elizabeth Bradley antique roses tapestry kit he’d brought me as a birthday present. “I really don’t mind. Please don’t feel bad about anything.
And especially please don’t feel bad about the fact that you’ve just wasted eight months of my life
!” I hissed. Actually, I didn’t say that at all. I just said, “I’m afraid I’ll have to take you off my BT Friends and Family list.”

“Of course,” he said. “I understand.”

“Would you like some more coffee?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said, staring at his empty cup with a pained expression. “But you know, Tiffany . . .”

“Yes?”

He looked genuinely upset now. This was obviously very
_p. 20
tough for him. “You know I can’t
bear
instant,” he said. “It really offends my taste buds. I gave you some very good Algerian arabica the other day, can’t we have some of that?”

“Of course we can,” I agreed.

Later that day, as I sat stabbing away at the antique roses canvas with my tapestry needle, reflecting on my newly single status and on the fact that I myself could perhaps be described as an antique rose, Alex phoned. He sounded nervous and unhappy. For one mad, heady instant I thought he might have changed his mind.

“
Yes
?” I said.

“Tiffany, there’s something else I meant to say this morning,” he said. “Now, I know you’re probably feeling a bit cross with me . . .”

“No, not at all,” I lied.

“And I’m sorry to have let you down and everything, but I really hope you’ll do me one big favor.”

“Yes,” I said. “If I can.”

“Well, I know you’re probably feeling a bit cross with me and everything . . .”

“Look, I’m
not
cross,” I said crossly. “Just tell me what you want, will you, I’m trying to make a cushion cover here.”

“Well, I’d rather you didn’t sort of, bad-mouth me to everyone.”

“No,” I said wearily, “I won’t. Why should I? You’ve been perfectly nice to me.”

“And I’d especially be grateful if you didn’t tell everyone about that time . . .”

“What time?”

“That time you found me, you know . . .” His voice trailed away.

“Oh. You mean the time I discovered you in my bedroom dressed in my most expensive Janet Reger?” There was an awkward silence.

_p. 21
“Well, yes. That time.”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “Of course I won’t tell anyone. And I won’t tell them about the Laura Ashley either.”

“You should tell
everyone
about that,” said Lizzie when she got back from Botswana. “That’ll serve him right for dumping you. Bastard. And on your birthday. Bastard.”

“He’s not a bastard,” I pointed out accurately. “He’s nice.”

“He’s not nice,” she countered. “It’s not nice to say, ‘Tiffany, I really can’t stand the thought of marrying you.’ ”

“I’m sure he
meant
it nicely,” I said. “It’s just unfortunate for me that he took so long to realize he’s not the marrying kind.”

“Too right he’s not. He’s a complete wimp,” she said viciously. “I always thought so with his mimsy, fussy, girly pernicketiness and his suspiciously refined taste in soft furnishings. And from what you told me about”—she lowered her voice to a whisper—“
that
side of things, you’d have had more fun with a eunuch! I mean really, Tiffany, you’ve got more testosterone than he has.” This was probably true. “I’m
glad
you’re not marrying him,” she added. “Mind you, the girls are going to be disappointed—damn! I’d told them they were about to be bridesmaids.”

“Not yet,” I said. Not ever, in fact. Because since Alex, or rather Al-
ex
dumped me, a whole month has gone by. Well, three weeks and five days to be precise. And during that time I’ve been turning everything over in my mind. Reviewing the situation. Mentally rewinding and then fast-forwarding the video of my romantic life. Pressing the pause button here and there, and scrutinizing key frames. And I’ve made this momentous, life-changing decision. It wasn’t easy, but I’ve done it. I’ve given up the husband hunt. I’ve chewed it over, and I’m going to eschew chaps. Frances is right. It’s just not worth the pain and grief. Much better to face life alone. So I am now emphatically
hors de combat.
I have pulled up the drawbridge.
_p. 22
The sign says
DO NOT DISTURB
. And I have started to like my hard little shell. The prospect of yet another Saturday night on my own at home in front of the TV no longer fills me with dread. Who needs the romantic darkness of the cinema and dinner tête-à-tête when there’s a Marks and Spencer easicook-lasagne-for-one and the National Lottery Live? My newfound neutrality suits me—no gain, of course, but no pain.

Lizzie says it just won’t do. “You’ve
got
to get out there,” she said again this morning, bossily, waving her fifth Marlboro Light at me. “You’re not doing anything to help yourself. You’ve got to
forget
about Alex, write him off
completely,
and get back on that
horse
.” I often wonder why Lizzie talks in italics. Maybe it’s because she went to such a third-rate drama school. She paced up and down the kitchen and then flicked ash into the sink. “You know, Tiffany, you’re like . . .” I waited for some theatrical simile to encapsulate my predicament. What would I be today? A traveler thirsting in the Sahara? A mountaineer stuck at Base Camp? A promising Monopoly player resolutely refusing to pass “Go”? A brilliant artist without a brush? “You’re like someone falling asleep in the snow,” she announced. “If you don’t wake up, you’ll freeze to death.”

“I just haven’t the heart for it anymore,” I said. “It always leads to disaster. Anyway, I’m only thirty-seven.”

“
Only
thirty-seven? Don’t be ridiculous, Tiffany. There’s nothing only about being thirty-seven. To all intents and purposes you are now forty, and then very, very quickly, you’ll be fifty, and then you’ll really be
stuffed
.”

I sometimes suspect Lizzie’s only being cruel to be cruel. I don’t mind her nagging me. I nag her about her smoking. But I can’t quite see why my lack of a husband and progeny bothers her so much. Perhaps in her funny, crass way, she is trying to be of help. And of course she is thinking how delightful Alice and Amy would look in primrose-yellow bridesmaids’ dresses, or maybe ice-blue, or possibly pale-pink with apricot hair bands,
_p. 23
matching satin slippers and coordinating posies—she hasn’t quite decided yet. Anyway, I know, I
know
that she is right. It’s just that I simply can’t be worked half to death anymore. It’s all too much of an effort—because nice, interesting, decent men with diamond rings in their pockets don’t simply drop from the trees; you have to go out and pick one, or rather knock one down with a very large stick. There are plenty of windfalls of course, but they tend to be bruised and wasp-eaten and I’ve had my unfair share of bad apples over the past few years. But even if I really
was
pursuing men—the very idea!—I have to face the fact that, as Lizzie keeps telling me, it all gets harder with age. And that’s another thing. Whatever happened to that dewy look I used to have? And when exactly did that little line at the side of my mouth appear, not to mention the creeping crepiness in the texture of my eyelids and the tiny corrugations in my brow? NB: Get more expensive unguents PDQ.

“I’m losing my looks,” I said to Mum over the phone after Lizzie had gone. “I’m really going down the pan. In fact I’m quite ancient now. Basically, I’m almost fifty. I found my first gray hair this morning.”

“Did you, darling?” she replied.

“Yes. Yes I did,” I said. “Which is why I’m now firmly on the shelf. I’m going off. I’m the Concealer Queen. And this is why I’m being dumped all the time and why men never, ever,
ever
ask me out.”

“What about that nice Jewish accountant?” she said. “The one you met last year?”

“I didn’t fancy him,” I replied.

“And that television producer—you said he was quite keen.”

“Possibly, but his girlfriend wasn’t.”

“Oh. Oh I see. Well what about that one . . . you know . . . whatsisname, the one who does something clever in computers?”

“
Dead
boring.”

_p. 24
“And what about that solicitor you told me you’d met at the tennis club? I’m sure you said he’d called you.”

“Mummy—he’s got two heads.”

“Oh. Well at least you can’t say that no one asks you out.”

“Yes I can. Because those ones don’t count.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not interested in them. In fact I’m not interested in men full stop. In any case I really don’t need a husband.”

“Darling, don’t say that.”

“No. I’m absolutely fine on my own.”

“No you’re not. You’re miserable.”

“Only because I’ve had the wrong attitude. The thing to do is to embrace aloneness. Take spinsterhood seriously.”

“Darling, no one will take
you
seriously if you say things like that.”

“No, honestly, Mum, I’ll be brilliant at it. I’ll really apply myself. I’ll get a cat and knit blankets for the Red Cross. I’ll develop a passion for cricket and crosswords—”

“You don’t do crosswords, darling.”

“I’ll learn. And I’ll man cake stalls at bring-and-buys. And I’ll selflessly babysit for all my friends. I’ll be the most professional spinster there’s ever been—I’ll probably pick up an award for it. Spinster of the Year—Tiffany Trott, brackets Miss, close brackets.”

“Darling, I’m afraid this negative and unhelpful attitude won’t get you anywhere.”

“I’m just being realistic.”

“Nihilistic, darling.”

“But I’m unlikely to meet anyone new.”

“Don’t be silly, darling, of course you are.”