‘Oh Gabe, that’s terrible.’
‘Quite significantly, in fact.’
‘You poor thing!’
‘He also said getting rid of that putrid smell had to be a priority’
‘Oh dear.’
‘So this friend of yours, this sister-of-Doug,’ said Gabe. ‘I’m assuming she’s there with you now’
Lola looked over at Sally. ‘Might be.’
‘And she wants my flat.’
‘Definitely. More than anything.’
‘What caused the smell?’
‘Four big saucepans of boiled cabbage.’
‘Here, give me the phone.’ Reaching over, Sally grabbed it and said, ‘Gabe? Hi, please let me be your new tenant! I’m super-housetrained, I promise. I’d really look after your flat and I’m completely trustworthy, I’ll pay the full rent by direct debit and leave the deposit with Lola now, you won’t regret it .. . what? Oh, OK.’
‘What did he say?’ demanded Lola when Sally put down the phone.
‘That I was giving him earache.’
‘And?’
‘That moving to Australia was beginning to seem like the best decision he’d ever made.’
‘And?’
‘That you and I deserve each other and he feels sorry for our baby.’
Since Sally was currently sitting on the sofa with one elbow digging into the abandoned velvet cushion, Lola felt quite sorry for it too. ‘So that means ... ?’
Sally beamed and clinked her glass against Lola’s. ‘I can move in as soon as I like.’
Chapter 12.
’Oh, I’m going to miss you s000 much.’ Lola blinked and hiccuped; she hadn’t expected to feel this emotional but actually saying goodbye to Gabe was hard.
‘Hang on, you’re strangling me.’ He prised her off him. ‘It’s like being hugged by a giant koala.’
‘That’s to get you into practice. Oh bugger, what do I look like?’
‘A panda in a pink dress.’ Gabe watched her mopping up mascara. ‘I can’t believe you’re crying.
I’m only going for a year.’
‘I know, I know I’m being stupid.’ Lola blew her nose like a trumpeting elephant. ‘But what if you change your mind? You might decide to stay there for good and I’ll never see you again.
You’re my best male friend in the world and you’re about to fly off to the other side of it. What if you and Jaydena get married and buy a house and settle down and have loads of Aussie kids?’
She expected Gabe to burst out laughing at such a ridiculous idea, but he didn’t.
‘If that happens, you can always come out and visit us.’ Oh God, he really meant it! He was that besotted with Jaydena. Had he never even watched Kath and Kim?
Apart from anything else, Lola knew they had particularly evil spiders in Australia, the kind that hid under toilet seats and bit your bum. So she definitely couldn’t go.
‘You could come back and visit me,’ she offered.
‘What, with all those kids?’ Gabe grinned. ‘Are you crazy? We couldn’t afford it.’
He was in love. Lola did her best to feel happy for him. She looked at her watch. ‘I’m going to be late to work.’
‘And my cab’s due in ten minutes.’ Gabe gave her a kiss on the cheek and pushed her towards the door. ‘Go on, get yourself out of here. You’ve got your new friend Sally moving in tonight –
you won’t even notice I’m gone.’
’You were right,’ said the man who wasn’t a private detective.
‘Oh, hi.’ Recognising him, Lola dumped the pile of hardbacks she’d brought out from the stockroom and said cheerfully, ‘Right about what?’
‘Last night. I couldn’t put that book down. I was awake till four this morning finishing it.’ He shook his head in baffled disbelief. ‘I didn’t know reading could be like that, I had no idea. I’ve just never been a booky person. All these years I’ve been missing out.’
‘Ah, but now you’ve seen the light.’ Lola loved it when this happened; witnessing a conversion never failed to give her a thrill. ‘You’ve become one of us. Welcome to our world; you’re going to love it here.’
‘I need another thriller and I don’t know where to start.’ The man was wearing a navy suit today, with a burnt-orange shirt and a turquoise silk tie. ‘There are so many to choose from. Can you recommend an author?’
Could she recommend an author? Ha, it was only the favourite bit of her job!
‘You’d like this one.’ Lola picked up a book with a gunmetal grey cover. ‘Or this.’ Eagerly she reached across the table for another. ‘Now he’s a gripping writer.’
The man looked more closely at Lola. ‘Are you OK?’ Bugger, she’d redone her make-up on the tube on the way into work. Clearly not thoroughly enough.
