As Doug walks up Kate’s path, there’s an earth tremor. No, that’s just me trying to walk in Carol’s four inch Gucci heels without tearing Jess’s pink Voyage dress. I’m a living, almost breathing, almost walking, hand-me-down.
We go to Henry’s, one of my favourite Richmond restaurants, and sit at a table on the balcony overlooking the Thames. Over dinner, my mind wanders back to that last morning, all those years ago, with Doug. I can’t believe he’s sitting here with me now. I look up at the sky. If this were a Danielle Steel novel, it would say that the stars were shining down on me.
I snap back to reality. Sod Danielle Steel. If I remember correctly, she helped me get into that mess in the first place.
I tell Doug about Carol and Jess and about meeting Sarah again. I warn him that I’m unemployed, in debt and homeless. He laughs and shakes his head at that bit. He might at least have the decency to look surprised. But before I have time to put my offended face on, he leans over and kisses me.
‘Carly, who cares? This is more important than any of that.’
And he’s right. Suddenly everything has been worth it. Maybe this was all meant to happen. We were supposed to break up, so that we could find each other again and this time we’d have no worries that we were too young or settling down too soon.
We go back to his house. After a few hours in bed, I’m desperate to ask him where he got his new techniques and stamina from, but I figure that’s a boat I don’t want to rock.
I wake in his arms the following morning.
‘You’re still here,’ he nuzzles into my neck.
‘Thought I’d wait around to see what you’re like in the mornings.’
He pulls my hand under the covers and wraps it around his hard-on. ‘Answer your question?’
‘Definitely.’
Here we go again. At this rate, I’ll have the toned body of an athlete before the week’s out. Either that or chronic exhaustion.
It’s girls’ night at Paco’s. We’ve changed it to the first Thursday of the month to accommodate Kate’s antenatal classes. Paco loves us to pieces after the publicity generated by the Basil and George show. The restaurant has been fully booked ever since.
I can’t believe it’s July already. It’s been over three months since I left my job and eight whole weeks since I rediscovered Doug.
‘Cooper, will you stop grinning like that, it’s nauseating and you’re putting me off my nachos.’ Jess is in a foul mood. There must be trouble in the world of politics again.
‘I’m sorry. I forgot to practice my “miserable cow” face before I came out tonight. So anyway, what were you saying?’
Kate kicks me under the table for not paying attention.
Jess, it seems, has finally given the Right Honourable Basil Asquith MP an ultimatum – he either leaves his wife and moves in with her or it’s over. The upstanding Mr Asquith buckled and begged her for more time, pleading that he had his children to think of and he must prepare them for such trauma. Given that his kids are thirty-two and thirty-four, I can understand why she’s cynical.
‘And this time I mean it. I’m not capitulating. No. Definitely not. I’m getting way too old for this mistress nonsense. No, I mean it. Absolutely. This is it.’
It’s a reaffirmation thing Jess does when she’s facing a challenge. You know, like the self-help books preach that you should look in the mirror every morning and say, ‘You’re beautiful, you’re fulfilled, and all is right in your world.’ I would try it, only I fear that my mirror would answer back and contradict me.
We move on to Kate’s condition. She now looks like she’s hiding a basketball up her shirt.
‘Well, I think Bruce is a great name,’ Carol is trying to convince her.
‘I’m not bloody calling him after his father. You know what happens. He’ll end up being known as “Wee Bruce”. That’s bordering on child abuse.’
‘What about Douglas?’ It’s out of my mouth before I realise that I’ve said it.
Four heads spin round to face me.
‘Cooper, you’re obsessed. First sign of a decent shag and you lose control of your senses.’
‘I know, isn’t it great?’ I agree.
‘You’re a nightmare.’ Kate tries to introduce logic into the conversation, ‘You’ve only been seeing him again for a few weeks and the whole sex thing has got you completely entranced.’
‘It’s not just the sex, Kate. Would I be that shallow?’
Even the people at the next table nod.
‘It’s not, honestly. He’s, well, he’s…’ I struggle to find the words. ‘He’s everything. I am totally, completely falling in love with him again.’
Four groans. It sounds like the diners at this table have a bad case of indigestion.
‘So the great manhunt is over?’ Carol asks.
‘Definitely. And at the cost of £1934.56, it was a bargain.’ I’d finally opened my credit card statements that morning. Now I just have to take more money out of them to pay the bills. I need a job quickly.
‘Jesus, Cooper, what did you buy in Scotland, a small island?’
‘Don’t even ask, but it was worth it.’ Every time I talk to Sarah on the phone, she sounds like she’s still smiling.
‘Have you told him yet?’ Kate asks.
‘Who? What?’
‘Focus, Carly, focus. Have you told Doug that he’s the lucky winner in the potential husband competition?’
‘Not yet. I’m just taking it slow and letting things take their natural course.’
More cynical looks in my direction. I ignore them.
Jess isn’t letting it go. ‘Natural course? Didn’t you say that you weren’t supposed to see him tonight but you’re going over anyway?’
I ignore her, mostly because she has a fair point. He plays football on a Thursday night, so it was one of our nights apart. But after three glasses of Prosecco, I’d decided I was missing him and that
