‘No arguments here,’ Keli agreed, feeling exactly the same way. They were only going to get one opportunity to confront him, and she needed it to be soon.
Laurie exhaled with purpose. ‘Okay, let’s make a plan. Are you free later? Because I’m thinking I could buzz him again in a couple of hours, and try to establish where he is. I’ll keep an eye on his Instagram too because he usually can’t resist posting posed shots on there. You know, he never posted a single picture of us together in three years. Said he wanted to guard our privacy and I went along with it because I wanted to be known formyself, not my boyfriend. I’m seeing his reasoning in a whole different way now.’
Keli was having the same thoughts. Not a single picture in three months. This made so much sense now. ‘Me too. Look, I’m just heading to my mum’s house for dinner, but I can definitely meet anywhere, any time, later. Just text me and I’ll be there. What are you going to do in the meantime, though?’
Laurie shrugged. ‘Well, I can’t go home, because I’m supposed to be away on a job all weekend and he doesn’t know yet that it was cancelled. Also, I don’t want to see him if he goes back to our flat to change. And I don’t feel like going to a friend’s house, because I really don’t want to have to explain all this yet. So I think my best move is to check in here…’ She had a mischievous smile as she gestured to their five-star surroundings. ‘And then tomorrow, or maybe the next day, when I check out, I’ll charge it all to his credit card.’
‘Oh, I definitely approve of that plan,’ Keli concurred.
They both slid off their bar stools and almost instinctively, Keli reached over to hug her new accomplice. It should feel absolutely wrong and weird, but strangely it didn’t at all. She’d heard the phrase, ‘Women supporting women’ many times. That was exactly what this felt like.
‘Text me. I can be anywhere in the city in half an hour. And, Laurie, I know I said this before, but I’m so sorry.’
Laurie returned the embrace. ‘Not your fault. Let’s just make sure that we put it right. For both of us.’
They crossed the foyer, then hugged again before Laurie headed to reception, and Keli went blinking out into the early evening darkness.
In the car, she fired off a quick text to Yvie.
Safe. On way to Mum’s. So much to tell you so will call when you get off shift. Thanks for being a pal today. xx
She tossed the phone onto the passenger seat and switched on the engine.
Half an hour later, Keli realised that the whole journey to her mum’s house in Weirbridge had passed in a blur.
When she opened the door, the delicious smell of her mum’s home cooking set off another wave of nausea, on top of the stress, on top of the anxiety, on top of the absolute fricking terror of what might be about to happen to her life.
Enough of putting this off. She needed to do the test so that she knew one way or another. And she needed support from one of the people in the world who would stand by her and have her back no matter what.
‘Hello, lovely,’ her mother greeted her, as always, with the warmest of smiles and with open arms.
‘Mum, before you say another word, I’ve got a few things I need to tell you. And there’s something I need to do.’
6 P.M. – 8 P.M.
21
ODETTE
Odette hadn’t had butterflies like this since the time she did a skit for the Royal Variety show in front of the Queen. In it, she had played a Cruella de Vil-type character that was rounding up the nation’s corgis and keeping them all on her private island, where she called herself Queen Agnes. She’d been assured that the real Queen Elizabeth had found it hilarious, but she still thought it might be one of the reasons that she’d never received so much as an OBE for services to acting. Dame Maggie Smith. Dame Judi Dench. And here she was, just plain Odette Devine. Or, to be factually correct, Olive bloody Docherty.
They’d managed to turn the car around and now they were heading in a completely different direction, out to the west of the city, then to Weirbridge, in the suburbs. Even under normal circumstances, it would take half an hour, maybe forty minutes, but God knows how long it would take in traffic. The motorway was still gridlocked, so they were moving like a funeral car on the way to a crematorium. It felt like time was passing even slower because Calvin was still moaning beside her.
‘We’d better not be late for dinner, Odette Devine, because our relationship of a million years deserves to be celebrated andI will not have you bailing on me. God, I need a weekend at the spa after this. I deserve a medal – A BLOODY MEDAL – for working with you all these years.’
She put her hand over his. ‘I’ll leave you my jewellery collection in my will,’ she said, teasing him, but already aware of the reaction it would elicit.
He immediately pivoted, purring, ‘Okay, you’re forgiven. And those diamonds had better be real.’
It was an exchange that they’d replicated a thousand times over the years, but it never failed to make them laugh. She’d miss this. Who would she talk to, who would she joke with, who would give her the time of day after midnight tonight, when Odette Devine became the Cinderella that was too old for the ball? And what would Calvin think when he discovered that the diamonds were big fat fakes, because she’d sold the real stones after husband number four had run up debts of over £200K at casinos?
Odette pushed the thought away. She’d be dead by then. Too late to do anything about it. But not too late to fix the situation that was destroying her karma now.
Her mind returned to the recollection that had been unfolding before Calvin had interrupted her to tell her that he’d located Nancy. Another flip of the stomach at the thought of her name, and the memory that came with it.
On that audition day four decades ago, they’d stood in that queue for hours, and it was almost 4p.m. by the time they were in the group that was finally ushered through the door by a very serious girl with a clipboard. The venue was a nightclub, but it was in the middle of the day, so it wasn’t open to the public yet. ‘Oooh, this place stinks,’ Nancy said, wrinkling her nose.
‘I was in here last weekend and dancing in my bare feet,’ Fiona wailed. ‘I don’t even want to think about the kind of diseases I could have picked up.’
