Mini Shopaholic (41 page)

What’s going on? I thought they hated each other.

‘Hi!’ I touch Jess’s shoulder. ‘How’s it going? Doesn’t Jess look
amazing?’
I add to Janice.

‘Absolutely super!’ agrees Janice. ‘What a wonderful outfit!’

‘It’s a nice dress,’ says Jess, tugging awkwardly at it so the neckline goes crooked. ‘Nice and plain. And the fabric’s sustainable.’

She’s always the same. The minute I compliment her appearance she gets uncomfortable and starts trying to sabotage it.

‘Jess borrowed this from Danny,’ I tell Janice as I patiently adjust the neckline back again. ‘It’s a prototype from his new eco-couture collection. You know it’s probably the most expensive dress in this room?’ I add airily. Which is true, even if Suze did pay a squillion. ‘It’s more expensive than mine,’ I add for good measure.

‘What?’ Jess blanches. ‘What are you
talking
about?’

I want to burst into laughter at her expression. I’ve kind of been saving this titbit up.

‘Oh yes. Because it’s made of hand-spun, free-range silk,’ I explain. ‘They have to wait for the cocoons to fall naturally from the trees, and they don’t use any machines, and all the artisans are paid really generously. Only about three of these will ever be made. In Browns, it would cost …’

I lean forward and whisper the price in Jess’s ear. She looks as if she wants to expire on the spot.

‘Plus, no one in the world has worn any of the pieces from this new collection yet,’ I inform her. ‘You realize you’re an exclusive fashion story?’

Anyone else in the world would be thrilled to be an exclusive fashion story. Jess still looks completely freaked out.

‘Enjoy
it! You look
fab.’
I put an arm round her shoulders and squeeze tight until she reluctantly laughs.

‘So are you having a good time? Have you danced yet?’ I can’t help smiling at Janice’s beatific face. She looks as though she’s had a good few cocktails.

‘Oh Becky!’ Janice bubbles over. ‘Guess what, love, guess what? Jess is having a baby!’

What?
I look, staggered, from Jess to Janice, to Jess’s stomach, to her cocktail, and back to her face. She can’t be—

Oh my God, did Janice’s fertility drug
work?
And why is Jess looking so happy about it?

‘It’s only a possibility,’ corrects Jess, rolling her eyes. ‘And he’s not a baby. He’s three.’

‘He’s the dearest little angel!’ Janice acts as though Jess hasn’t even spoken. ‘Can we show Becky the picture?’

I watch in bewilderment as Jess reaches into her evening bag. She pulls out a photograph and turns it around to show a grinning little boy with dark floppy hair and olive skin and a few freckles scattered over his nose.

Instantly my heart melts. He looks so goofy and endearing, I almost want to laugh, except it might hurt Jess.

‘Is that …’

‘Maybe.’ Jess is glowing. ‘It’s early days.’

‘You should really think of adoption, you know, Becky.’ Janice is puffed up proudly like a pigeon. ‘As I said to your mother, it’s the
only
responsible way to have a child these days. Angelina showed us the way, of course.’

Angelina showed us the way?
Is this the woman who was having hysterics about five minutes ago because her son might not carry on his genes? I roll my eyes at Jess, but she just laughs and shrugs.

‘Well, good luck!’ I say. ‘When do you … you know. Get him?’

‘Like I say, it’s early days.’ Jess immediately looks cautious. ‘We may not be approved, we may still fail on all sorts of counts … I shouldn’t have shown you the picture, really.’

Yeah, right. Like Jess is going to fail at anything.

I’ll be an aunt! Minnie will have a cousin!

‘Well, I’m really happy for you.’ I squeeze Jess’s arm. ‘And I’m glad you’re having a good time, Janice.’

‘Oh, love, it’s amazing! I know it was a huge effort for you.’ Janice sweeps a tipsy arm around. ‘But it was all worthwhile.’

‘Yes,’ says Jess, before I can reply. ‘It was worthwhile.’ She meets my eyes and gives a little smile.

Jess and Janice head off to find Tom, and I order myself a drink, and as I’m standing there, almost lost in a happy dream, I spot Luke in the mirror behind the bar. He’s standing at the roulette table, with Minnie next to him, peeping over the top. He looks totally, utterly, 100 per cent happy. Everyone’s focused on one massive pile of chips, and when the wheel comes to a standstill there’s an almighty roar. Everyone starts laughing and clapping each other on the back, and Minnie is crowing in delight.

As the croupier starts her patter and players start placing new bets, Luke suddenly notices me watching him. He jerks his head at a quiet sofa nestling in the corner and peels away from the crowd, Minnie’s hand clutched in his.

‘Sweeties!’ Minnie says triumphantly as they reach us, and brandishes a handful of red and green gambling chips at me.

‘They’re not sweeties, darling.’ I want to laugh. ‘They’re chips!’ Now she looks totally confused. ‘Not eating chips,
special
chips. You make money with them at the magic table! Or … lose,’ I add hastily as I see Luke’s raised eyebrows. ‘Often you lose. So you shouldn’t ever gamble, Minnie. Gambling is very
bad.’

There. A quick zap of responsible parenting.

Luke sinks down into the sofa and I follow suit. My ears are ringing from dancing next to the band, and my feet are starting to ache … but the rest of me is almost trancey with exhilaration. The party’s been so utterly perfect. It’s been better than I could ever have hoped. And it hasn’t even ended yet. We’ve still got some of the best bits to go!

‘Were you surprised?’ I say for the millionth time, just to hear him say it.

‘Becky …’ Luke shakes his head incredulously. ‘I wasn’t just
surprised
. I was absolutely blown away.’

‘Good,’ I say in satisfaction. I take a sip of my cocktail (a Brandon) and nestle back on the old plushy sofa, Minnie on my lap and Luke’s arm around both of us. For a few moments we’re both quiet, just taking in the scene around us.

‘That Christmas wish,’ Luke says suddenly. ‘You made a wish about me. In the shopping mall. Remember?’

Oh God, I
knew
he heard. And he’s kept quiet about it all this time.

‘Was your wish about this party?’ he’s saying. ‘Is that why you rushed to shut the elf up?’

My mind flashes back to the words I scrawled on the Christmassy paper. It seems a million years ago now.

‘Yes,’ I say after a pause. ‘That’s right. I wished that I could plan you a surprise party and you really
would
be surprised. And you were!’

‘You got your wish.’ He smiles.

‘I did.’ I survey his face, then reach up and run a hand gently down his cheek. ‘I really did.’

‘So, tell me.’ His eyes suddenly glint with amusement. ‘Exactly which bits of your recent strange behaviour can I ascribe to party-planning?’

‘I haven’t been
strange.’
I hit him.

‘My love, you’ve been bordering on lunacy. Conceiving a boy, so we have to have sex very, very quickly?’

‘Party.’ I grin.

‘Ovulating?’

‘Party.’

‘The Botox? The so-called “boob job”?’

I can’t help giggling at his expression. ‘Party. I’d been meeting Bonnie for the first time. Oh, and don’t bollock her about mentioning your shower gel any more!’ I add sternly. ‘It was
me
who told her to mention it. And the gym. And anything else that sounded a bit strange.’

‘You?’
He stares at me. ‘Oh, for fuck’s …’ He shakes his head as it obviously all starts falling into place. ‘Why the hell didn’t I
realize?
I should have known she wouldn’t become that erratic overnight. What about the sixteen coats?’ he adds suddenly. ‘Was that a party thing too?’

‘Er … no,’ I admit. ‘That really was Minnie. Naughty girl, Minnie,’ I add reprovingly.

‘But what I really don’t understand is … how did you
achieve
all this?’ He sweeps the air with a hand. ‘I mean, Becky, this is beyond spectacular. This is …’ He trails off.

I know what’s underlying his words. He doesn’t want to say it, but he’s worried I took out some massive loan for all this and I won’t tell him till tomorrow when I’ll reveal we’re broke.

Honestly, he could have
more faith
.

But there’s no point pretending this evening didn’t cost shed-loads of money. Any moron can see that it did.

‘I had … help,’ I say. ‘Major,
major
help. With everything. Bonnie was amazing,’ I add quickly, before he presses me more on exactly who helped with the finances. ‘She coordinated everything, she arranged the guest list, she sent out the invitations …’

‘And of course that’s why she was looking so shifty the other day.’ Luke exhales, looking rueful. ‘OK. I get it. I’ve really fucked up. I owe her a big bunch of flowers.’

‘Not
lilies,’ I put in. ‘You always get them and she can’t stand them, but she’s too polite to say anything. Get sweet peas and ranunculus. Or I could tell you all her favourite Jo Malone products.’

Luke shoots me an astonished look. ‘Anything else?’

‘Loads, if you’re interested,’ I say blithely. ‘Bonnie and I are best friends now. We tell each other everything.’

‘Oh, you do, do you?’ Luke looks as though he’s not sure what he thinks about this.

‘We really bonded over this whole thing. It’s been such a saga.’ I take a swig of cocktail and kick off my shoes. Talking everything over with Luke, it feels as if some wound-up part of me is finally starting to relax. ‘You can’t imagine. Trying not to let you see the internet, and breaking your BlackBerry …’

‘I still can’t believe you did that.’ He raises a half-grin –although I’m not sure he
totally
has a sense of humour about his BlackBerry.

‘And the worst thing was that bloody meeting in Paris! Oh my God, I nearly
killed
you!’ I can’t help starting to laugh. ‘We were all, like, “What do we do? How do we move it?” And you were so bloody
pleased
with yourself …’

‘Shit.’ I can see the realization hitting Luke. ‘Of course. The meeting was supposed to be today—’ He breaks off. ‘Wait a minute, though. You’re not saying …’ I can sense the cogs whirring in his brain. ‘You couldn’t have been behind
that
, surely. You’re not telling me that you personally somehow arranged for Sir Bernard Cross to decide he wanted to give me a meeting?’ He gives an astonished laugh. ‘I mean, I’ll believe many things of you, Becky, but
that …’

I keep smiling, but inside I’m kicking myself. I’ve said too much. Let’s move on, quick.

‘Not me, exactly. Oh God, and the
marquee
…’ I hastily launch into a full account of bartering for the marquee, and Luke laughs at all the right places, but I can tell he’s preoccupied. When I’ve finished, we lapse into silence and he sips his drink pensively, and I know exactly where his mind is roaming.

‘I always knew someone influential was behind that meeting,’ he says at last, staring into his drink. ‘I said so at the time. I could sense some powerful person behind the scenes, helping me out. And now I think I know who it was.’ He looks up, straight at me. ‘It’s obvious. And it’s obvious why you don’t want to tell me.’

My heart has stopped. My hand has frozen round the stem of my glass. Luke’s so sharp. His mind’s so quick. I should never have let anything slip out.

Is he angry?

I lick my lips nervously. ‘Luke, I really can’t say anything.’

‘I understand.’ He takes a deep slug of his drink and for a while neither of us speaks.

As we sit there, the party thrumming around us, I keep darting cautious looks at him. He hasn’t exploded. He hasn’t stormed out saying that the whole evening’s spoiled for him now. Is he not as bitter as I thought?

I keep thinking of Elinor, hidden away in her tiny, musty hole. If I’d just persuaded her to stay … could I somehow have worked things out between them?

‘But Becky, you realize this isn’t just some tiny little favour.’ Luke breaks into my thoughts. ‘This is immense. I mean, all this.’ He gestures around the room and lowers his voice. ‘This … person. They were behind that too, weren’t they?’

Slowly I nod. If he knows, there’s no point pretending.

Luke exhales sharply, cradling his drink. ‘You know I’m going to have to say thank you, Becky. Somehow. Even if they don’t want to be thanked.’

‘I … I think that would be nice, Luke.’ I swallow. ‘Really nice.’

I can feel a pressing of tears behind my eyes. Just like that, things have been mended. We’ll meet up and yes, it’ll be stilted and awkward, but they’ll talk. And Luke will see his mother with Minnie. And he’ll realize there’s a different side to her.

‘No time like the present.’ Luke gets to his feet with sudden energy. ‘You know, I didn’t say anything – but all along I half-suspected Tarquin. How do he and Sir Bernard know each other? Go shooting together, do they?’

It takes a moment for me to catch up with what he’s saying. He thinks all this was
Tarquin?

‘And of course he’s been desperately trying to repay me for that help I gave him earlier this year,’ Luke is saying. ‘But really, such extraordinary generosity was uncalled for.’ He looks around the room as though with fresh disbelief. ‘I don’t know
how
I can ever thank him properly. And Suze, too. I assume they were in it together?’

Noooo! Wrong! You’ve got it all wrong!

I want to say something; dislodge him off this track. But what can I do? I can’t betray Elinor’s confidence, not after everything she said.

‘Wait a minute!’ I scramble to my feet, depositing Minnie on the sofa. ‘Luke, you mustn’t say anything!’

‘Don’t worry, Becky.’ He smiles. ‘I’m not going to give the game away. If they want to stay incognito, so be it. But if somebody goes to all the trouble of doing something as exceptional and special as this …’ His face is shining. ‘They deserve a public thank-you. Don’t you agree?’

My heart is tying itself into knots. He should know what his mother did for him. He should know, he should know.