Practically Perfect (36 page)

Max poured the tea, leaving Mrs Gordon free to turn to Anna and begin her interrogation. She didn’t need to interrogate Julian: his family tree and job history were well known to her.

‘What is it you do again?’ Mrs Gordon asked her. ‘You seem faintly familiar. I wonder if I’ve seen you in a shop, or something.’ It was quite clear that Mrs Gordon would have expected to find Anna behind the counter of any shop they might have shared space in.

‘I’m an interior designer,’ said Anna politely.

Mrs Gordon made an irritated flapping gesture, as if Anna had declared she did something arcane and possibly heathen, like training butterflies for a circus. ‘Which is?’

Anna swallowed, wishing Max would hurry up with her tea, and tried to think of a way of describing what she did that wasn’t just ‘designing interiors’. ‘Well, currently, I’m doing up a house for sale, but my work involves rearranging interiors for maximum use of space
and
light, things like that. It involves a bit of architecture. Max was one of my tutors at college.’

‘A guest lecturer, darling,’ he corrected her, handing her a cup of tea at the same time. ‘One couldn’t afford to have been one full time.’

‘Oh,’ said Mrs Gordon, light dawning. ‘So if you’d been a man you’d have been an architect?’

Anna had never thought what career she might have chosen had she been a man. ‘Um, maybe. Possibly. But lots of men are interior designers and of course lots of women are architects.’

‘Really?’ Mrs Gordon seemed horrified at both these notions. She frowned at Anna again. ‘If that’s really what you do it can’t possibly be how I know you, then.’

‘Perhaps you’ve seen me at the market? I see you’ve bought a cake from the WI stall.’

Major faux pas! Mrs Gordon looked the personification of affront. ‘All the cakes here are home-made!’ she announced.

‘Yes, but …’ Anna stopped, flummoxed by someone prepared to lie about a thing like that. The cake was so recognisable, she couldn’t have made a mistake. ‘It couldn’t have been there, then,’ she mumbled.

‘It’s a small enough village,’ said Max smoothly. ‘You could have seen each other anywhere.’ He handed Julian his tea. ‘Did you go to a sort of cut-down Ideal Home exhibition at Horsecombe House, Ma? Perhaps you saw each other there? That’s right up Anna’s street.’

Anna went the colour of the roses on the cups. ‘Oh no, I didn’t go to that,’ she said hurriedly. Lying must be contagious, she thought. The wretched woman’s got me doing it now.

‘Well, I’m sure it doesn’t matter,’ said Mrs Gordon, who obviously felt it did. She accepted a cup of tea from Max
and
sipped it contemplatively. ‘Max usually goes out with models, you know.’

‘Oh?’ Anna fiddled with a cardigan button: this tea was proving more of an ordeal than even she had imagined.

‘Mother, really, I don’t think—’

She glanced at her son and forced a smile. ‘It’s nice that he’s chosen an ordinary girl for once.’ She made it clear that Max had only briefly dipped his toe into the soup of ordinariness, and that he’d be back to models any minute now.

Anna looked at Max, hoping for a sentence or two of support, but got none, only a frown. Why has he introduced me to his mother if he knew she was going to hate me? she wondered. She caught Julian’s eye and saw that he was smiling sympathetically. She smiled back with relief and decided she felt totally out of place, in this room and in Max’s life. And what’s more, she didn’t want Max in her life any more, either.

This certain knowledge came like a bullet and she didn’t immediately realise she’d been shot. It took her another cup of tea and a couple of cucumber sandwiches to reconcile this with her psyche: she’d loved Max from afar for so long. How could she stop loving him in a moment? And yet she had. But why? Was it because she’d discovered that an easy, laughing friendship was just as important as the hectic fever of passion?

She was suddenly aware of Mrs Gordon offering her a piece of cake. She took it, to cover up her mental absence, but she resolved that as soon as she’d eaten it, she would leave.

Putting her plate down on the occasional table at her side, she got to her feet. ‘Well, Mrs Gordon, it’s been lovely to meet you, but I really must go now.’

Mrs Gordon put down her cup and saucer in surprise.
Anna
should have waited until she’d been dismissed. ‘Really?’

‘Yes, I’m afraid I have another, rather urgent appointment.’

Max had risen when she had but she shook her head. ‘I don’t want to spoil the party, Max. I’ll see myself out.’ And she walked, with utmost dignity, to the door. It was a shame that she left one of Laura’s shoes behind on the Persian rug and had to go back for it.

Max hurried after her. ‘Anna! Where are you off to? This is so rude! My mother will never forgive you for this.’

Anna turned to face him in the hall. ‘Quite frankly Max,’ she hissed, ‘I don’t really care. We’re over! I loved you so much for so long but I realise now I was in love with a person I didn’t really know.’

He looked at her in bewilderment.

She put her hand on his arm, to soften what she was quite sure was not actually much of a blow. ‘It’s been such fun and you’ve taught me a lot, but goodbye!’

Then she took off both shoes and, in spite of the stony ground, ran for home. Somehow she didn’t expect she’d hear from him again.

She burst through Chloe’s door with a groan and prostrated herself on the floor, mostly so Caroline could greet her without covering her with paw marks, but partly to add drama to the situation.

‘Anna, love! What on earth happened?’ demanded Chloe, satisfyingly impressed.

‘It was awful,’ said Anna, trying to avoid Caroline’s enthusiastic licks. ‘Like being in one of those ghastly plays where people just serve tea all the time. I kept thinking my hand was going to jerk, spilling the Earl Grey and breaking the Royal Worcester at the same time.’ Anna closed her eyes.

‘Oh, so she didn’t fling boiling water from the silver urn all over you, then?’ Chloe said in amusement.

‘No.’ Anna sat up. ‘It was ghastly, but not dramatic.’ She clambered to her feet. ‘Do you mind if I wash my face? I’m covered with Caroline.’

‘Help yourself. And don’t worry about getting my best cardigan all covered in bits,’ said Chloe as Anna headed for the stairs. ‘I was going to wash it anyway.’

Anna grinned. ‘Sorry!’

When she came back from the bathroom she said, ‘You’ll be glad to hear that you were right about Max! He’s so wrong for me!’

‘I never said a word!’ Chloe pulled the cork out of a bottle of white wine and poured some into two glasses.

‘No, but your thoughts were deafeningly loud.’

‘I’m sorry, but he just is wrong for you!’

‘Yes, but I’d loved him for so long! This was a little miracle for me, actually having him as a boyfriend, even if we didn’t see much of each other.’

‘You loved a mirage. Now, take this, purely medicinal, of course.’ And she handed one of the glasses to Anna.

Anna sighed and took a deep slug of wine. ‘I know. A pompous mirage.’

Chloe sipped her own wine and patted the sofa. ‘The boys are upstairs in our bed, watching a video and eating crisps. I’ll have to change the sheets to get the crumbs out, but it’s worth it for a bit of peace. Sit down and tell me all about it.’

‘There’s not much to tell, really,’ said Anna, settling herself next to Chloe and taking another very welcome slug of wine. ‘You’ve met her,’ she went on. ‘Can you imagine, her drawing room is full of parrots! And other stuff. I’d take out the other ornaments and quite a lot of the furniture and keep it as a parrot theme. The wallpaper was to die for.’

Chloe sipped her wine, satisfied that her friend was not suffering from a broken heart.

‘You should have seen the sandwiches! Tiny wasn’t in it. I reckon she only used about four bits of bread. I wonder if she made them herself? Oh! And she definitely lied about the cake.’

‘It seems a strange thing—’

‘When she was trying to place me – thank God she didn’t,’ Anna gabbled on, ‘the greenhouse thing was bad enough, but supposing she’d remembered the jacuzzi? Anyway, because it was at least respectable, I suggested she’d seen me at the market, and commented on her buying the cake from the WI stall. She was furious! Said it was home-made.’

‘But the cakes on that stall are wonderful, and they are home-made!’

‘I know, but she made out she’d made it. A woman who’d lie about something like that …’

‘Well …’ Chloe had turned a little pink.

‘Don’t tell me! You’ve told your mother-in-law you’ve made those cakes yourself?’

Chloe nodded. ‘She is a special case. But tell me, what made you finally see the light about Max?’

‘I realised he didn’t have much of a sense of humour, really. He didn’t think it was amusing at all that I’d cleaned his mother’s greenhouse and couldn’t mention it. I don’t blame him for having an old bag for a mother, but he might have appreciated it was a funny situation.’

‘I’m so relieved,’ said Chloe, her eyes closed. ‘I can’t tell you.’

‘Yes, so am I, but there is one thing that’s worrying me.’

‘What?’ Chloe opened one eye.

‘Julian. He was awfully nice, and I don’t suppose he’d have bought the house anyway because it is titchy, but
supposing
he’s put off buying it because I was so rude?’

‘Oh, surely not.’

‘Well, you can’t tell, can you?’

‘I don’t think it would make any difference. You weren’t really rude, you just cut it all a bit short.’

‘I’m glad it’s over, anyway.’ Anna sighed and put her now empty wine glass down. ‘Now, I must take Caroline home and phone Laura. It would be so wonderful if Julian buys the house. If he does, I’m definitely going to organise a party, a thank you to everyone who’s helped me.’

‘Oh fab, I love parties,’ said Chloe, giving Anna a hug. ‘And you will tell me if you’ve anyone else in mind as a love object, won’t you?’

Anna chuckled at Chloe’s blatant digging but refused to submit. She’d made such a terrible mistake over Max, she didn’t want to get it wrong again. Her heart, she decided, was a very unreliable organ, and not to be trusted. But this sensible decision didn’t stop her mind wandering in Rob’s direction with tiresome regularity.

Chapter Twenty-Two

‘IT’S NOT THAT
I expected to sell it to the first person I showed it to,’ Anna said to her sister the following day, having failed to reach her the previous evening, ‘it’s just having made the leap from homeowner to home-seller – which took some doing, I can assure you – I feel all confused. There’s stuff I can get on with, but I’ve lost heart somehow.’

‘Well, we’ll definitely be down for the party if he does buy it, but if he doesn’t, perhaps you should put it on the market at a slightly lower price?’ Laura suggested.

This, Anna could tell, was a subtle way of Laura saying they needed their money back. Her sister would never use any pressure, but Anna could read the signs. ‘Of course!’ she said. ‘That figure was a try-on, really. You couldn’t expect anyone to pay that amount for such a tiny house.’

The conversation moved on and, soon afterwards, Anna took Caroline out for the last time and then went to bed. She wished she could have talked to Rob about it all but it was late, and although she did want to ask him about the buildings inspector coming round to check all her alterations were legal and hygienic, she didn’t think she could do that at this time of night.

‘It’s just as well I didn’t have much in the way of fingernails anyway,’ she said to Caroline, ‘or I’d have eaten them all by now.’ She inspected her nails, remembering how just a day earlier, she had scrubbed them so she could
shake
hands with Julian without shame. Already they were grubby again. Had it all been a horrible waste of time?

When Julian rang the following morning, she was so shocked, she could barely take in what he was saying. ‘You want to buy it? Really?’

He laughed. ‘Yes, really. I did some measuring and then decided that it wasn’t worth letting such a gem slip through my fingers for the sake of a couple of bits of furniture.’

‘Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it. Thank you so much!’ she stammered.

‘There is just one thing, I need to be able to complete in a fortnight, or as near as possible. Do you think you can do that? I have a solicitor I could recommend, although I’m sure it’s very unethical, but we need someone who can move really fast.’

‘Brilliant! That means we can have the party!’ said Chloe jubilantly when Anna hurried round with the news. ‘I know the perfect place we can have it. We’ll make it a bring-and-share picnic, then all you have to do is provide the wine. Oh, and I definitely think you should have a new dress. You are going to invite Rob, aren’t you?’ she looked at Anna, a mischievous glint in her eye.

Anna laughed fondly. ‘Yes, I am going to invite Rob. He’s been such a help.’ Her heart gave a little skip of excitement at the thought but, luckily for her, Chloe didn’t see it, and so didn’t comment.

The morning of the picnic, the following Saturday, was wreathed in mist like a bride, as Anna observed to Chloe as they got ready, this time in her house, now it was fit to wash, change and live in.