Cathy Hopkins - [Mates, Dates 05] (10 page)

Izzie’s always
thinking about the problems of the world.

‘Who are you going to
beat up?’ she asked, stopping for a moment to catch her breath.

I looked at the
cushions. ‘Someone closer to home.’ I grinned and picked a brown velvet one.
The exact colour of Tony’s eyes.

At first, everyone was
a bit shy, then Moira started getting into it. Then Cycling Shorts joined in.
Then Eric and Tabula and then
my dad
! After ten minutes, the place
sounded like a madhouse. Everyone got stuck in. I quickly glanced round to see
what Daniel was doing as I didn’t want to look an idiot in front of him, but he
was going for it like the rest of them. If you can’t beat them, join them, I
thought, and got down on my knees and pummelled my cushion. I felt stupid to
start with, then I began to get into it. That’s for dumping me, I thought, as I
whacked the cushion. And that’s for turning up at that party with another
girl…Whack! Thwump!

At the end of the
session, I felt brilliant. Like a dam had burst. Everyone looked exhilarated,
even Prudence, whose hair had escaped her bun and was sticking out all over the
place. We should have done this session before the massage, I thought. It
wouldn’t have been so painful for me if she’d done this first. Chris was right.
I hadn’t known all those feelings were stuck inside. I felt much better about
Tony. I knew that I’d be able to handle it if I saw him at Nesta’s. We could,
as he always wanted, be friends.

‘I’m so fed up,’ said
Izzie as we filed out of the room when it was over. ‘I’ve got to go back to the
hotel for the evening and I’ll miss the lecture. It’s about Bach Flower
Remedies and I’m really into those.’

‘Til tell you all
about it,’ I said as Daniel caught up with us.

‘Maybe we could go for
a walk before the lecture,’ he said, and Izzie gave me the thumbs-up behind his
back.

‘Maybe after,’ I said.
‘But first I’m going to walk Iz back to her hotel.’

My feelings about
Daniel might have done a complete turnaround, but that didn’t mean I’d
forgotten everything that Nesta had taught me. Don’t be too available. Don’t be
too easy.

I got back from the
village an hour later and after putting on a little make-up, went into the
dining room. There was no sign of Daniel.

All through the
lecture afterwards, I kept looking at the door, expecting him to come in. But
he didn’t. Now what? I thought as I tried to concentrate on the talk. Was he
peeved because I’d gone down to the hotel with Iz? Maybe he wasn’t as nice as
I’d thought he was. All my newfound inner peace evaporated like thin air as I
watched the door.

‘The Bach Flower
Remedies are good for correcting any emotional imbalance,’ said Chris. ‘A lot
of disease is literally that -
dis-ease
! Then she began reading a list
of the remedies out and what they were good for. ’Agrimony for mental torture
behind a carefree mask, chesnut for failure to learn from mistakes, impatiens
for frustration, mustard for gloom, scleranthus for mood swings, white chestnut
for mental arguments, wild oat for uncertainty.‘

That’s me, and that’s
me, I was thinking as she went down the list.

‘You’ll only need one
or two of them,’ she said when she’d finished. ‘And they’re on sale in the
dining room.’

After the talk, Chris
was surrounded by people asking about the remedies, so I didn’t get a chance to
ask her where Daniel was. I went and found Dad instead.

‘Can I have next
month’s pocket money as I want to buy some remedies?’ I asked.

‘Sure,’ he said.
‘Which ones do you want?’

‘
All
of
them,’ I said.

Home
Sweet Home

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Dad wanted to leave at
the crack of dawn the next day so that he’d be back in time to open the shop at
nine-thirty. He dropped me off at home first and it felt wonderful to be back
in the cosy clutter of our kitchen with only Steve and Lai at the breakfast
table instead of a bunch of strangers. Mum had already left for work and Steve
and Lai soon went off to play tennis, so apart from the dogs, I had the whole
house to myself. It felt great to take a long, hot, foamy bath without a queue
of people banging on the door. To make a decent cup of tea and toast and
strawberry jam. As I wandered round the house, I felt that I was seeing
everything in a new light. The telly in the living room I could sit in front of
and watch whatever I liked. My lovely bedroom that I didn’t have to share. My
CD player. And there’d be no more getting up at six a.m. to contort myself into
unnatural positions.

My bed was calling me,
so I turned off my mobile, switched on the answering machine and climbed under
the duvet for a few hours of divine uninterrupted sleep.

‘How was the course?’
asked Mum when she popped in at lunchtime.

‘Interesting,’ I said.
‘Some of it was a bit boring, but some of it was brilliant.’

‘What were the people
like?’

‘Mad. But actually by
the end of it, they’d sort of grown on me. Even a grumpy old one called
Prudence.’ Prudence had given me a huge hug when I left, as though I was her
dearest friend. ‘It’s fantastic to be home, though. It feels so quiet and
comfortable and roomy and there’s loads I can do here.’

Mum smiled. ‘Did I
ever tell you the story about the farmer who felt his house was overcrowded and
went to see a wise man?’

I shook my head.

‘I use it at work
sometimes when I’m talking to people who are unhappy with their lot in life.
Want to hear it?’

I nodded.

‘A farmer was very
unhappy with his home,’ she started.

‘He had a wife and two
daughters and only one room. He went to a wise man and asked what he could do
to improve the situation. The wise man told him to move in three dogs. So he
did what he was told. The next day, the wise man told him to bring in the cow
from the field and let it sleep with them. The farmer thought it was a bit
strange, but again, did as he was told. The next day, the wise man told him to
bring in the chickens. The next day, a few goats. By the end of the week, there
was a whole farmyard living in the house and it was unbearable. The farmer went
back to the wise man and asked him what to do next. First take out the dogs
then the cow, said the wiseman. Then the next day, the goats, then the hens.
The farmer did what he was told until he was back to the original situation.
His wife and his two daughters and himself. He was over the moon. It felt so
quiet and spacious and the farmer never felt unhappy again.’

‘Exactly,’ I said.

‘Well, let’s see how
long the feeling lasts,’ Mum laughed. ‘And your dad called me from the shop. He
said that Chris’s son was at the course?’

‘Yeah, Daniel. Creep.’

‘Why?’

‘We were getting on
brilliantly but then he just left, no message, nothing. Honestly, boys - you
never know where you are with them.’

Mum smiled. ‘Oh, I
think you may hear from him sooner than you think. He phoned the shop today to
ask for our number here.’

‘Really?’ I felt my
spirits lift in an instant and dashed to check the answering machine. There
were two messages flashing.

‘Hi, it’s Nesta, call
me when you get back,’ said the first.

‘Hey Lucy, it’s
Daniel,’ said the second. ‘Sorry I had to leave last night, I hope Mum gave you
the message and told you what happened…Anyway, I’ll call again later.’

Luckily I didn’t have
to wait long as the phone went soon after Mum had returned to work.

‘Hey,’ he said.

‘What happened?’ I
asked. ‘I never got any message from your mum, but then we did leave first
thing this morning so I didn’t see her.’

‘Flood,’ said Daniel.
‘Our neighbour phoned to say that a pipe had burst in his flat and was pouring water
into ours. We’re on the ground floor. Anyway, Eric was coming up to London at
supper time so I cadged a lift. All sorted now, but I think I got here just in
time. You must have been mad at me disappearing like that.’

‘No, not at all,’ I
fibbed. ‘I had a fabulous evening. To tell you the truth, I didn’t realise that
you’d gone until after the lecture.’

‘Oh,’ he said,
sounding a bit disappointed. ‘I was hoping you’d missed me. I missed you. I
felt like we really connected down there and I’d like to see you again, if
that’s OK with you.’

I grinned to myself. I
loved the way he came straight out with it. No games, no pretending to be cool.
We’d connected, and he wanted to see me again. I decided to be just as honest
back.

‘I’d like to see you
again too. I really liked meeting you.’

‘I’ve got a few things
to do this afternoon. How about this evening?’

‘Fab,’ I said.

Life couldn’t get
better, I thought, after I’d put down the phone. I felt like I was floating on
air. I was home. I had a date with Daniel. And there were weeks of the holidays
left.

Truly,
Madly, Deeply

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The following Friday, I
met Izzie and Nesta in Ruby in the Dust.

‘At last,’ said Izzie
when I walked into the cafe. ‘We were going to put out a missing person’s
alert.’

I grinned back at her.
‘Not missing, just been out a lot.’ I felt chuffed to be the one who’d been too
busy to catch up, for a change.

‘So, how’s it going
with dreamboy?’ she asked as we took our favourite sofas in the window.

‘Fantastic,’ I said.
‘I’m in
lurve
…
Truly, madly, deeply.’

‘What is this thing
called love?’ said Izzie.

‘What? Is this thing
called
love
? I replied, joining in one of our games - seeing how many
different ways you can say the same sentence.

‘What is this thing
called, luv?’ said Nesta.

‘What is this
thing
called love?’ I said.

‘But it’s great,’ said
Nesta, spooning the froth from her hot chocolate into her mouth. ‘You deserve a
decent boyfriend after my horrible brother.’

I’d had an amazing
week with Daniel. We’d seen each other every day and decided to be like
tourists in London. We went to the IMAX cinema in Waterloo, up on the London
Eye, to the Victoria and Albert museum in Kensington to look at the costumes,
to a photography exhibition at the Portrait Gallery and we spent ages cruising
all the boutiques in Bond Street and Knightsbridge. He knew so much about
fashion and its history, and I felt I was learning loads from him as well as
having a good time. The best thing, though, was that I felt safe with Daniel.
Secure. He phoned when he said he would, he was never late and he didn’t play
games about where I stood with him.

‘He’s as different to
Tony as anyone ever could be,’ I said. ‘He’s
so
romantic. And when I’m
not with him, he sends me lovely text messages. Every day, sometimes five a
day. Then on Wednesday when we were in Covent Garden, he bought me a rose and a
little fluffy teddy bear. He said it reminded him of me.’

‘Aw, sweet,’ said
Izzie. ‘I wish Ben would do stuff like that. Knowing him, he’d probably say
that kind of thing is all a commercial rip-off and the only people that benefit
are the companies that make them for nothing.’

‘That’s what Steve
says about Valentine’s Day,’ I said. ‘But I think it’s mainly because he never
gets anything. I bet he’ll feel differently next year if TJ sends him
something.’

Nesta looked sad.
‘Simon used to be all romantic with me when we first met, but lately, I don’t
know, it’s like he’s cooling off or something.’

‘No, he adores you,’
said Izzie.

Nesta shook her head.
‘Nah, I know the signs. Like I phoned him yesterday and he hasn’t called back yet.
In the beginning, he always called me straight back.’

‘I don’t need to call
Daniel,’ I said. ‘He always calls exactly when he says he will and sometimes
even before. It’s so fantastic not having to worry or wonder. You know, does he
like me? Does he feel the same? I know he does.’

I was about to launch
into telling them about what a great kisser he was, but Nesta looked downcast
and I thought that maybe I was being a bit insensitive.

‘You’re probably
imagining it,’ I said. ‘No one in their right mind would go off you.’

‘Well, I only saw him
once last week,’ said Nesta, then pouted. ‘It’s been awful and every time I
called to talk to you, you were out with Daniel. And even
you
didn’t
return my calls.’