‘I know,’ he told her. ‘You think the whole house is full of wankers and I don’t blame you; but not all my mates are like Clive.’
Since Clive left the house that day he had been keeping a low profile. He never came to the office any more and mainly coordinated the project with Nick via email. Nick, Ed and Bertie had just presumed that he was keeping his distance after the split with Tilly, and, given the way Clive had been treating his sister, Nick seemed to be relieved.
Nick stepped forward and closed the distance between them, shocking her by grabbing her hand. She shook him off but he just grabbed it again.
‘You want to lose your arm?’ she asked through her teeth as he tugged her forward.
‘Now, I thought the idea was to get me inside safe spaces as quickly as possible,’ he said, still smiling as he tugged her up the steps to the front door of the large Edwardian house, ‘so I’m guessing that fighting with me out in the open over petty stuff like a spot of hand-holding is a bit of a no-no.’ When they reached the top step he grinned at her and dropped her hand, only to wrap his arm around her shoulders after ringing the doorbell.
‘What are you –?’
‘Darlings!’ Goodie stopped short as the door was flung open and a small blonde woman flew at them. She kissed Nick on the cheek, practically strangling him in the process, then she threw herself at Goodie, giving her the same treatment. ‘We’re all so excited that Flopsy brought his new girlfriend.’ The blonde was now bouncing up and down on her alarmingly high heels. She was wearing a strange combination of ripped tights, netting skirt and multiple T-shirts, with even more scarves around her neck. To top it off she had a furry headband sitting across her forehead and her blonde hair was piled in a haphazard fashion on top of her head. In Goodie’s opinion she looked mentally ill.
‘Flopsy!’ a large man shouted from behind the blonde, coming forward to slap Nick on the back repeatedly. ‘Good to see you, old man.’ Goodie recognized this man’s standard ‘posh bloke’ uniform: red trousers, shirt with collar turned up, sheepish grin and messy hair. ‘Hi there,’ he boomed at Goodie, giving her a slightly gentler back slap. ‘I’m Giles, a.k.a. Cottontail. Good to meet you finally. Flopsy’s been banging on about you for long enough. Got a glimpse of you at that charity ball last month but you were on the job; sticking to the shadows and all that business.’
‘I am on job now,’ Goodie told him, and he frowned.
‘Not tonight, beautiful,’ he said smoothly. ‘Tonight’s a party.’
Salem barked once and Goodie glanced behind her. ‘Can we move inside?’ she said.
‘Oh of course!’ said the blonde, bouncing out of their way and waving them to follow her in. ‘I’m such a terrible dunderhead. Please, come in. Iloveyour dog.’
‘What is a dunderhead?’ Goodie asked Nick under her breath as he followed her inside. ‘Sounds painful.’
As the door closed behind them Nick started chuckling and pulled Goodie into his side, kissing her temple and giving her shoulders a firm squeeze. Goodie felt the familiar hollowing out in her stomach and tightening in her chest at Nick’s laughter. She smiled up at him, and then froze. Turning her head slowly, she took in her surroundings. Usually the first thing she did on entering any space was scan it for its occupants, exits, possible threats; she was allowing Nick to scramble her mind. There were about fifteen people crowding the large hallway, all smiling and all looking ridiculously curious. In amongst them she could see Bertie, Tilly, and Ed. Most of the men were wearing either red or mustard-yellow trousers, Tilly looked like she still had her jodhpurs on, and Ed of course was in his standard garb of ripped jeans and a T-shirt (this one with two test tubes on the front, one telling the other it was ‘overreacting’).
‘What ho!’ Bertie boomed, striding forward through the small crowd to do his share of back-slapping for Nick and a brief hug for Goodie. Tilly was next with a far more exuberant-slash-bone-crushing hug for Goodie. As she watched all the beaming, curious faces, Goodie felt a strange sense of hopelessness. She had a feeling that her plan to stick to the outskirts and remain very much in employee mode for the evening was unlikely to happen.
* * *
‘Doyou know if Nick did any sort of Big Brother routine with Clive?’ Tilly asked.
They had just finished the meal. The whole evening had been totally bizarre to Goodie. It was obvious that these people were Nick’s best friends; apart from the fact they all called him ‘Flopsy’ (Cottontail, Mopsy and Peter were also in attendance), there was also the easy, casual affection and teasing that came with years, if not decades, of friendship.
You would have thought, considering how long they’d all known each other, that it would have been tricky to include obvious outsiders like Ed and Goodie, but it proved to be quite the opposite. It was as if they all found both Ed and Goodie the most fascinating human beings to walk the earth. They even listened to Ed’s cold fusion explanation with rapt attention, and the scant information they were able to extract from Goodie seemed to hold them all completely spellbound.
She fiddled with the stem of her wineglass, then grabbed her water and took a large swallow. Nick might want to deny it but shewasactually on the job.
‘I don’t know,’ she told Tilly. ‘Would it be so bad if he had?’
Tilly grimaced. ‘You noticed as well, did you? He turned out to be a nasty piece of work in the end; didn’t take my ending things very well at all – to be honest I thought he was going to make a bit of a nuisance of himself. Nick denies warning him off, but even if he did, I guess it was for the best. He, um …’ Tilly’s hand went up to her cheek automatically before she realized what she was doing and tucked it back in her lap, ‘… he wasn’t very nice actually. I suppose I could have given him another chance but Arabella … she …’
Goodie turned more towards her and caught her eyes.
‘People do not change,’ she told Tilly firmly. Tilly nodded slowly, and then managed a weak smile.
‘I wish I hadn’t been so frightfully stupid though,’ she whispered. ‘It’s just that … well, I’ve bumbled along since the divorce, no real job, no real direction, kid in tow. I’m not exactly the catch of the century.’
‘Don’t ever let someone who does not know your value dictate your worth,’ Goodie told her. ‘You and your daughter are worth ten of him.’
‘Oh my goodness,’ Tilly said, her voice a little choked. ‘I think that’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me.’
‘I did not say it to be nice,’ Goodie told her. ‘I am not nice: I only speak the truth.’
‘Thank you,’ Tilly whispered, and to Goodie’s horror her eyes filled with tears.
‘Hey, you.’ Ed had reached across the table to Tilly, laying his hand over her arm. ‘Alright?’
