I took another sip of my tea, considering that. Was I ready to welcome Cee-Cee back? I ached for some support, but could I accept it from her, or would moral support soon morph into her controlling and undermining me? With everything else going on, I didn’t think I had the energy to fight her. But looking at Cee-Cee, she wouldn’t be putting up much of a fight, either. And I was not the same woman I had been a few months ago. I took a deep breath, drew a mental boundary that would not be crossed, and nodded.
‘Have you got any plans for Christmas Day?’
Cee-Cee took a careful sip of tea, avoiding my eyes. ‘Not as yet.’
‘Will you join us for dinner?’
‘Yes. Thank you.’ Her chin tipped up then, and I saw something of my old friend glinting in her eyes. ‘I’ll come early and help you prep. You can tell me what needs doing.’
So that was that – Cee-Cee was back. I hoped I was ready. I hoped I wasn’t to blame for her shabby appearance and hollowed-out cheeks. I hoped that we could start again, on an equal footing, and build a genuine friendship this time. I hoped that one day the shard of icy guilt now sawing through my guts would stop and let me enjoy one of Gwen’s mince pies, which turned out to be a miraculous combination of fluffiness, buttery crumbliness and warm, spicy Christmas all in one.
Bored of campaign prep, by noon everyone was in the living room surrounded by empty cups and pastry crumbs, chatting about who would be doing each section of the triathlon. Nobody seemed in a hurry to leave, or to have considered the possibility that I might actually have plans other than entertaining a houseful of unexpected guests for the day, and when Selena and Audrey turned up, I started to wonder how I was going to rustle up lunch for eight women, two children and the bottomless teenager currently stripping my fridge bare like a locust.
Perching on an old beanbag in her pencil skirt and towering heels, thanks to everyone ignoring her hints to give up their seat, Selena proudly showed us her plans for the social media part of the campaign. ‘Facebook for the oldies, Instagram for the rest of us. Hashtag PoolPalforPiper. We’ll link to the JustGiving page, have updates of how much money we’ve made, how the triathlon training’s going and include some sweaty shots of Nathan for sex appeal. Who’s liaising with the council? We want to make sure they reference PoolPalforPiper every time they mention the leisure centre, especially when promoting the grand opening.’
‘Amy’s on council liaison,’ Mel said, before breaking into a grin. ‘Eh, this is like being onThe Apprentice, in’t it? Reckon I might get one of them tight skirts, Selena. I’ve seen one in Primark.’
‘No you haven’t,’ Selena replied. ‘And are we sure Amy is the right person for that role? I can’t help wondering if it needs someone with more… presence. No offence, Amy, but it’s going to take brains, panache and twenty-six years’ experience in the marketing industry to get us anything past a token gesture. They’re going to chew you up and spit you out before you can say hashtag PoolPalforPiper.’
‘For mercies’ sake, Selena, we get the hashtag. Congratulations. We’re very impressed. You don’t need to mention it every two minutes,’ Dani said.
‘We should all be mentioning it every two minutes! That’s how a campaign goes viral and Tate gets his hydrotherapy! Now, are we all agreed I’ll step in and handle the council?’
‘I’ve already secured their full backing,’ I said, examining my fingernails in a deliberately nonchalant manner.
‘Eh?’
I reeled off the generous agreement I’d made with Antonio Galanos, including poolside café profits and masses of publicity, never mind his personal donation of one thousand pounds.
Selena narrowed her eyes. ‘Are you screwing him or something?’
‘This may come as a surprise to you, but not everything is about sex,’ Dani scolded. ‘How dare you imply that Amy doesn’t have the brains and the panache to get the council on board without prostituting herself! And,no offence,but I’m not sure five decades of playing at marketing in your daddy’s firm will be of that much use when it comes to actual marketing.’
‘Five decades!’ Selena squeaked, as if that was the most insulting comment in that statement.
‘Speaking of Nathan’s sweaty sex appeal—’ Bronwyn interrupted.
‘Bronwyn, that was ages ago, keep up,’ Mel said.
‘Yes, but at the time I couldn’t get a word in, and then Dani said sex and that reminded me. Plus, this is good, so let me finish. Speaking of Nathan, and sweaty sex.’
My heart plummeted, while somehow still pumping copious amounts of blood to my cheeks. I knew from the wicked twinkle in Bronwyn’s eye where this was headed. Would it be bad manners to ask everyone to leave immediately?
‘Amy hasn’t told us about herpersonal, out-of-hours, late-night, sweatytraining sesh the other night. With Nathan.’ She pointed, triumphant, as everyone else’s heads whipped round to face me.
‘Why would you want to know about my training session?’ I asked, as if I didn’t know. ‘Nathan coaches lots of people, I don’t see why mine would be any different.’
‘Well, if it’s all so innocent and fitness-related, you can tell us everything, can’t you?’ Dani asked. ‘Maybe we’ll pick up some tips for the triathlon.’
‘Maybe if the triathlon events were flirting, snogging and seduction,’ Bronwyn smirked.
Every woman craned her neck closer. Even Audrey, plonked on a cushion next to the fire, seemed to be listening.
Ah, what the heck,I decided. Every moment we’d spent together, from leaving training to Nathan dropping me off at my front door one-hundred and seven minutes later, had been replaying in the back of my mind like a loop for the thirty-eight hours since. Maybe if I told the Larks, saw them sag with disappointment at the obvious nothing-to-be-excited-about it might help me to stop boring myself with it. And for goodness’ sake, it was a huge deal for me to be finally growing myself the tiny shoots of a life. And not only did I have a life, I had people to talk about it with. How could anyone resist blabbing under these circumstances?
‘There was none of that,’ I laughed. ‘And I don’t think wine, cheese and dancing are in the triathlon either.’
‘How can you even begin to class that as a training session?’ Selena asked. ‘Even one of those three would constitute a date.’
