Part 22 (2/2)

'Well, that's totally spoilt the morning then,' said Stevie.

'Nothing says you can't buy the first dress you see,' said Catherine. 'Anyway, now we'll have more time to accessorize and scoff buns.'

'Well done, that woman,' said Stevie, and went off to pay lots of money. She had so much spare this month. Even with the big wodge of rent money out of her account, life was infinitely cheaper living without Matthew than with him.

Salvation came for Matthew in the form of a letter from Goldfish, which arrived on the same day as his formal invite to Pam and Will's barbecue. They had upped his Visa limit by two grand, so he immediately took out a cash advance and paid the mortgage arrears off before the interest crippled him any further. It was no big deal, he told himself. Some people lived all their lives robbing Peter to pay Paul, although he wasn't sure how much longer he could do that because Peter hadn't anything left to rob and Paul was going to send some big mates round with knuckledusters on soon. He called the bank and made an appointment to see his account manager, in the hope of getting a consolidating loan. Then he planned, once and for all, how he was going to tell Jo the truth: that he wasn't just in that house as a stopgap until his 'family' investments matured and allowed him to buy a nice pile in the country. That he couldn't afford a fancy dancing wedding and the meals out every night would have to stop because he was poor, poor, poor. She would not be happy, but the scene at the restaurant had brought things to a bit of a head. He hadn't expected Jo to react quite as badly as she did, and it made him aware that he needed to tell her everything, now, whilst things were the worst financially that they could possibly be. She loved him, she would understand. Of that, at least, he was totally convinced.

Jo still wasn't talking to him. They hadn't had s.e.x since the weekend and nothing he did, or tried to do, had warmed up the frosty air between them. He saw her enter the office after her lunch-break, waved over and smiled, but she sailed past him, carrying a posh-looking carrier bag, and his expression dropped to that of a kicked puppy. He sighed and got out his Visa, then made a call to 118 118 to find out the number of an Interflora, then rang 'Floral Fixation' and ordered an extravagant bouquet to be sent to a Ms J. MacLean in Design. He did not notice that Colin Seed was well in earshot behind him.

Meeting up deliberately early so they could have a quick natter at the school gates, Stevie filled Catherine in on all the details since their last meet. She had, of course, rung to tell her that Matthew had seen them together, but trying to have a long intense conversation with children on both sides continually interrupting meant only the gossip skeleton was delivered, in preparation for the flesh to be put on now.

'You look better than you did,' said Catherine, adding cheekily, 'In fact, you looked b.l.o.o.d.y terrible at Josh Parker's party. Adam must have rejuvenating lips.'

'Don't be obscene!'

'Anyway, I'm glad he sorted d.i.c.khead and his balloons out for you.'

'Yes, he did,' said Stevie, not realizing she was smiling. She had played that little scene over and over again to herself on a continuous loopAdam MacLean coming around the corner just at the very moment when she felt at her most helpless. She had used it in her book where Damme arrived, just as the evil Richard had Evie pinned in a corner. The difference being that Evie's heart had started fluttering, whilst her own had...er...started fluttering actually. Stop that. That is a ridiculous thought, and not a true recollection, she mentally slapped herself. That was the trouble with having the imagination of a romantic novelist: the story world and the real world blurred and crossed over in some cases. She had ended up on more than one occasion seeing things as she wanted to see them and not as they really were. Men being the prime example.

'So as we were saying,' prompted Catherine, waving her hand in front of Stevie's face to check she was still with them, '...about Adam. How did it feel to snog him?'

'I didn't snog him, Cath. I just kissed him very lightly once, and then we both went inside and started wiping our mouths.'

She had only been so playground puerile because she saw his hand come up to his mouth first and therefore she needed to prove that kissing him was every bit and more disgusting than he seemed to find it. Although it hadn't been disgusting at all, she was forced to admit. He had very soft lips not that she wanted to dwell on that particular detail.

'Steve, is all this worth it?' Catherine asked suddenly. 'Kissing men you can't stand, buying expensive frocks...'

'Yes, Cath, it is,' Stevie said, picking up her carrier bag with the lovely blue dress in it. She had lost Mick to Linda, there was no way she would let history repeat itself by losing Matthew to Jo.

Chapter 38.

There was a slight panic on the Friday as unforecasted rains came: great heavy flash floods and sparking lightning that Sat.u.r.day brides and barbecuers alike stared out at in dismay. Stevie and Danny, walking home from an after-school visit to the park, were caught in a spectacular shower that drenched them totally, and they ran home half-laughing, half-screaming like mad things, then peeled off their saturated clothes and climbed straight into a big bubbly bath together.

Luckily, the clouds were gone the next day, except for a few wispy mares' tails and the air was already very warm and s.h.i.+mmery above the garden. By mid-morning, brides everywhere reached for their lipsticks with relieved smiles. Stevie had worked in the sunny garden all week, and a splash of freckles had appeared all over her nose and cheeks as if flicked there by a paintbrush. The light tanning of her skin made her eyes seem as blue as that day's skies and they shone with antic.i.p.ation and excitement. She toasted a little further as she and Danny spent most of the day in the garden weeding out the potatoes that plagued the flowerbeds and digging out the dandelions, and the physical work took her mind nicely off the nervous antic.i.p.ations of the evening to come. Then Danny fell asleep under the umbrella whilst she was mowing the gra.s.s, and as it was probably going to be a late evening for him, she let him sleep on until it was time to get his bath and then his party s.h.i.+rt on. Catherine had arranged for Eddie to pick him up and take him to the Flanagans' house so he could go along with the rest of the children.

'That'll give you another two hours to make yourself beautiful,' she had said with a wink, and Stevie had retorted, 'I'll need more than that!'

'Not in that frock you won't,' said Catherine. 'All the work's done for you.'

And so, as soon as Danny ran joyfully down the lane in his red dragon party s.h.i.+rt to Uncle Eddie and Gareth awaiting in the car, Stevie jumped in a bath armed with exfoliators, hair treatments and her trusty razor bladea woman with a mission.

Apart from the fact that her hand was shaking when she put her eyeliner on and she had to redo one total socket, Stevie was quite pleased with her self-treatment, although she knew she couldn't compete with Jo's salon-perfection. Catherine was right, the dress was beautiful and fitted as if it had been made for her. She had dropped over a stone and a half in weight since all this business had started and the nipped-in waist only served to accentuate the curves below and above it. The dress pointed out the best bits even further, and teamed up with some strappy gold sandals that would probably cripple her in an hour, and a blue flower holding back her hair at one side, she looked fresh and rather lovely.

She had met Adam briefly at the gym the previous day. He was zipping about busily but found her at the weight bench to say that he would pick her and Danny up at seven-thirty. He was going to drive, because he didn't want to drink enough to put himself over the limit, and he wanted his head clear. When Stevie told him that Danny was going on ahead, she thought he had looked slightly disappointed. But then again, Adam MacLean, Family Man, would have shoved Matthew's nose a little further out of joint, she thought cynically. She hoped Danny wouldn't be upset by seeing Jo and Matthew together but, as Catherine had said, she couldn't hide it from him forever that life moved on.

At seven she heard a taxi beep and peeped through the upstairs window to see Matthew and Jo climbing into it. He was wearing a loud Hawaiian s.h.i.+rt that would have looked ridiculous on anyone else but on him, it looked fun and summery and his shoulders looked big and broad in it. She had on a white strappy sundress with incredibly high black sandals. The whole ensemble looked very simple, but stunning, and Stevie's nerve took a bit of a nosedive. Then again, she knew there was nothing she could have done to look better than she did with what she had available. Stevie felt right. Right shade of lipstick, right shoes, right hairstyle. This was it: s.h.i.+t or bust, as her Auntie Rita used to say, pre-posh husband.

She spent the last half an hour trying to keep her fingernails out of her mouth. She had French manicured them herself and they looked quite nice, although they weren't long talons like Jo's because she had to keep them short for typing. She was so nervous that when Adam was thirty seconds late she was all for ringing him to say she wasn't goingbut just as she was doing the five-billionth check that there was no lipstick on her teeth, she heard a car pull up outside. Her legs wouldn't move. She heard the car door shut, she heard his steps, she heard his heavy rap on the door. Maybe if she pretended she wasn't in...

Telling herself off for being so pathetic, Stevie got up, went out into the hall and opened the door. Adam was wearing the same colour s.h.i.+rt as her dress. He looked big and blue and a bit handsome, and she found that her breath got all snagged up in her throat and she gave a little involuntary gasp.

He, meanwhile, gave her a discreet look up and down, then said quietly and as if surprised, 'You look nice.'

'Oh...er...thanks,' coughed Stevie, who was quite thrown, seeing as she hadn't expected a compliment from him, not in a million years. She thought it only polite to give one back. 'So do you, actually.'

'Aye, well, enough of the Mutual Appreciation Society annual day oot, let's get tae the party,' he grumbled, suddenly impatient. Stevie, who found she was a lot more comfortable with Adam MacLean in hostile mode than being a pretend nice-person, took a deep breath and climbed into the pa.s.senger seat.

The journey to Will and Pam's house was too short. They had to park up at the end of the street as there were so many cars. Stevie's heart was boom-booming and she was trembling with tension. When Adam turned off the ignition, he didn't look too keen to get out of the car himself.

'You okay?' he asked.

'No,' said Stevie.

'You...we'll be fine.' Sounds of laughter and music filtered into the ensuing silence that hung between them. 'I'm a wee bit scared myself for the record,' he added eventually.

'Are you?'

'Aye.'

And scared as she was, it was Stevie who said, 'Well, come on, we know what we're doing. Let's get on with it,' and with that she opened the car door.

Contrary to what she thought might happen i.e. that the world would stop revolving and there would be a silence so profound that if a pin dropped it would deafen everyone within a forty-mile radius, what actually transpired was that Adam rang Pam's doorbell, Pam answered, kissed and hugged them both and shoved them out into the back garden. There, they fell straight into the welcoming company of Catherine and Eddie, who were halfway down their first lagers. Adam, with his advantage of height, did a quick sweep of the merrily drinking crowds, but there was no sign of the lovebirds. He shook his head and Stevie was a paradoxical mix of relieved and disappointed.

'They're just around the corner to the left,' said Catherine in a low whisper. Then she started doing an odd eye-blinking thing to Stevie, as if trying to deliver a message in Morse code. Bizarre as it was, Stevie understood it. But then they had been friends for four thousand years.

'Oh...er...Adam, I know you've seen Catherine but you haven't really said a proper h.e.l.lo yet so, anyway...erm...this is Catherine and Eddie, my best friends. Cath, Eddiethis is Adam.' Hands were shaken and smiles exchanged. He had quite a nice smile, Stevie noticed, as he flashed it at Catherine. Modest, warm and genuine.

'Can I get you a drink, mate?' said Eddie.

'Naw, thanks. I think we'll head awf and get one ourselves in a wee minute,' said Adam, taking another look around and waving at someone.

'You look b.l.o.o.d.y lovely,' whispered Catherine to Stevie.

'Do I? I could be sick with nerves!'

'You look like a proper couple. You're both glowing. Interesting, that.'

'Oh shut up. I just wish they'd see us and be done with it. Where's Danny?'

Catherine pointed over to the Bouncy Castle. He was with Catherine's brood and having the time of his life.

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