Cathy Hopkins - [Mates, Dates 05] (12 page)

‘Love to,’ he said.
‘I’ll count the hours as I’m missing you already.’

Things were going to
be fine.

‘Bit of a dump, this,’
he said, looking round as I bagged the best sofa in the window at Ruby’s. The
girls and I think it’s a good spot because it feels private yet you can sit and
watch the world go by outside.

‘No it’s not,’ I said.
‘It’s got a lived-in feel. That’s why we like it here.’

‘We?’

‘Well, actually it’s
Nesta’s favourite.’

‘And yours?’

‘Um, mine? Er, I like
loads of places, but we come here most.’

He shook his head.
‘Sounds to me like you go along with your friends a lot.’

‘No, not really…“ I
began to object.

Til take you somewhere
with
real
style,‘ said Daniel, then looked at me softly and pulled me
towards him. ’My little bear.‘

I snuggled into his
shoulder, but I wished he’d call me something else. The nickname was beginning
to jar. Little bear, it sounded so yucky.

Then my mobile rang.
I’d decided that I’d keep my phone on as even though Nesta had put a dampener
on Daniel, she was still a mate and going through a bad time. I got up and went
to the ladies to take the call.

‘Who was that?’ he
asked when I came back to sit down.

‘Nesta,’ I said.

‘What did she want?’

‘We’re all meeting up
tomorrow,’ I said. Nesta had decided that she needed a consultation with Mystic
Iz for a tarot card reading about Simon. Of course I wasn’t going to miss that,
plus I was interested to know what the cards said about Daniel and me. I didn’t
tell Daniel that, as some boys are a bit sniffy about fortune-telling.

‘But I wanted to take
you to see a movie,’ said Daniel.

‘I am sorry. But,
well, Nesta’s having a bit of… er, boyfriend trouble, so…’ I didn’t want to go
into detail, as I thought it might be a bit disloyal to Nesta.

‘You mustn’t let your
friends dump on you,’ Daniel interrupted. ‘The others will be there. Don’t let
her use you at her convenience. Like you’re a dustbin for all her problems.’

‘It’s not like that,’
I said, thinking he was being a bit unfair. I was beginning to get angry. He’d
only met Nesta once. How could he possibly think she used me at her
convenience? She was my mate and I felt that I ought to be there for her. Maybe
his ex-girlfriend had been right. He had objected to her seeing her friends and
now he was trying to stop me seeing mine. I was about to tell him how important
my friends were when suddenly it occurred to me that he never talked about his
friends. Maybe he didn’t have any, with his attitude.

Then the phone went
again. This time it was Izzie, phoning to check that I was going tomorrow.

‘Can’t you switch that
off?’ asked Daniel when I’d finished. ‘You’re with me now and you don’t need
friends calling you every minute.’

I decided not to be a
doormat and stand my ground. ‘These are my best friends, Daniel. I want to be
there for them and I’d expect the same from them.’

I could see that he
didn’t like it and it didn’t help that the phone went again five minutes later.
This time it was TJ checking in. Even though I took the call, I felt
uncomfortable about it, as Daniel was starting to look bored. Maybe it
would
be easier to turn the phone off and pick up my messages when I got home.

‘There, I’ve turned it
off,’ I said.

‘Good girl,’ said
Daniel, putting his arm back around me. ‘Now, where were we?’

After that, we chatted
about our plans for the rest of the holidays and he seemed quite happy to do
things that I wanted as well as things he wanted. So Nesta was wrong. He wasn’t
a total control freak, and I guess it
can
be a bit annoying when
someone’s mobile is going off every other minute.

As we sat sipping our
drinks and gazing out the window, a stunning-looking boy with shoulder-length
curly hair walked past. He was wearing a cool pair of sunglasses and looked
Spanish.

‘Now, he’s got style,’
I said.

‘Why? Do you fancy
him?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘I was
only saying I thought he looked good.’ Last week, Daniel had commented on loads
of girls and what they were wearing. It didn’t mean anything.

Daniel snuggled up to
me and nuzzled my neck. ‘I don’t want you looking at
anyone
except
me,’ he whispered.

Gerroff, said a voice
in my head. I ignored it and took Daniel’s hand. We were running out of holiday
and I was determined to not let my inner arguments spoil our time together.
Izzie says I have them because I’m a Gemini, the sign of the twins; hence the
split personality. She’s so right. Some days the twins get along just fine, but
other times one of them is pre-menstrual and gets a bit stroppy.

But when I invited him
to my house later that day, more cracks began to appear in my dreamboy. On
opening the door, Ben and Jerry did their usual ‘Oh my long lost friend’
routine, leaping up with their tails wagging and trying to lick Daniel’s face.
I could see he didn’t like it, so I had to take them away and shut them in the
kitchen. They sloped under the table with their tails between their legs. As I
closed the door, I glanced back at them and I swear Ben gave me the Nesta/Izzie
disapproval ‘look’. Like,‘Get rid of the killjoy, Lucy.’ It didn’t bode well.

I took him upstairs
where I’d laid out my designs on the bed to be ready for him to look at. I’d
even dressed the dummy that Mum had found for me in a secondhand shop. I
thought it made my work look really professional.

‘So, what do you
think?’ I asked as he picked up the outfits and studied them. I was really
proud of some of them, particularly a couple of the tops I’d made from velvet
trimmed with lace.

‘Yeah, nice,’ he said.
‘Very nice. But… well, I can’t see your voice coming through. You know, like a
singer or a writer has a voice. It’s the same with designers. Their clothes
should make a statement and be instantly recognisable when you see them. Like
me — as you know, I only do designs in black or white. And I only wear black.
Yours are too varied not focused enough.’

‘Oh,’ I said, feeling
gutted. I knew what he meant about designs having a voice or a signature, but I
honestly thought that mine did. I always mixed old and new fabrics and my style
was romantic but modern.

‘You’ll get there,’ he
said. ‘These are very good for a beginner. Do you mind me being so honest? I
feel that it’s important in a relationship and I really want it to work with
us. So no lies, no false praise.’

‘No, no, I’m into
honesty. I think it’s very important,’ I said, thinking, that it
was
one of the things that I’d written on my wish list, after all. But then I’d
also written ‘likes animals’ and Daniel had made it very clear downstairs that
he didn’t. Or maybe it was because he didn’t want the dogs’ muddy paws ruining
his clothes.

Daniel stood back and
looked at me. ‘OK then, since we’re being honest, 1 think you should grow your
hair longer. That urchin style is, well, a bit passe now.’

I felt hurt. I liked
my hair short. So did everyone. Nesta said it suited my shape of face and made
my cheekbones stand out. And no one’s ever said anything negative about my
designs. But I knew that part of learning is being able to take criticism, so I
decided to be open-minded and listen to what he had to say. He had been doing
it longer than me, after all.

He moved the clothes
off the bed and slung them across the back of a chair. Then he-chose a CD from
my desk, put it in the player and sat back on my bed to flick through my latest
copy of
Vogue
. I sat on the end of the bed and turned to look at him.
I’m not sure if I like you anymore, I thought suddenly. Then another voice
said, You’re just sulking because he doesn’t like your clothes. Then the other
voice said, Well, I don’t like his. Only black or white. How boring.
Arghh
,
I thought. Here we go again with the arguing twins.

‘What sign are you,
Daniel?’

‘Cancer.’

‘That’s the sign of
the crab, isn’t it?’ I said, as a voice in my head said, Yes. Crab, crab,
crabby.

Tarot
Reading

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‘And so gather the
Witches of East Finchley,’ I said as we all sat on the floor in Izzie’s bedroom
ready to do the tarot cards.

She did Nesta’s
reading first and it didn’t look good, even to me, who doesn’t know what they
all mean.

‘It says there’s a bit
of a stormy time in love coming up for you,’ said Izzie, consulting the book,
then pointing at a card with a picture of a pierced heart on it.

‘Tell me about it,’
groaned Nesta.

‘I am doing,’ teased
Izzie. ‘It doesn’t necessarily mean bad, though. Just a difficult time. And the
last card is the World, and that’s always a good one. It means a goal is
attained. Success.’

‘Great,’ said Nesta.
‘Either way, I’ve decided to be positive. I mean, Simon’s the longest I’ve ever
been out with anyone and he is going to university in a couple of weeks. Maybe
we do need to cool off a bit so that I can go out with loads of other boys and
not feel like I’m cheating.’

My mum says that in
life there are two types of people. Those who see a glass as half full and
those who see a glass as half empty. Nesta’s definitely a half-full type of
girl.

TJ’s cards were
brilliant. Mostly cups, which the book said meant emotional happiness, then the
Empress, which Izzie said meant a happy relationship.

‘Excellent,’ said TJ.

Izzie’s reading was
more complicated. ‘I think it means that I’m unsure which way to turn,’ she
said as she looked at the layout, then studied her book.

‘What did you ask
about when you shuffled the cards?’ I asked.

‘Ben,’ she said. ‘It’s
time to call it a day, but you know, I don’t want to hurt his feelings.’

‘Why do you want to
finish with him?’ asked TJ.

Izzie shrugged.
‘Dunno, really. I still really like him, but hey, you know, we’re far too young
to be tied down.’

‘You sound like your
mum,’ I said.

‘Heaven forbid I ever
turn into my mother,’ said Izzie. ‘Please, God, no. It’s just, all we ever do
is band stuff or write lyrics. I do like doing that but not
all
the
time. I want to have a bit of fun as well.’

I was dying to tell
them about my last meeting with Daniel and ask them what they thought, but I
already had a pretty good idea what Izzie and Nesta would say. Izzie would be
all protective of me and want to phone him up and give him an earful for
criticising me and Nesta would simply say, ‘Dump him, life’s too short.’

When they went
downstairs to get snacks, I told TJ in private about the day before.

‘You’re right,’ she
said. ‘You do have to accept criticism but only if it’s constructive. Your
designs are fabulous and you have a great eye for colour. There’s room for
everyone. I bet some of the most famous designers hate each other’s designs, so
it doesn’t mean anything that he didn’t like yours. Like, oh, I don’t know
their names but, say, that one who does bright colours?’

‘Versace.’

‘Yeah, him. I bet he
doesn’t like the subtle ones who do, you know, like simple classical stuff.
What’s his name? The one that does the aftershave?’

‘Armani, and Versace
is a she now. Gianni was shot outside his home a few years ago and so his
sister took over the business.’

‘See?’ said TJ. ‘You
know loads about the fashion world. I bet he doesn’t know that.’

‘Everyone knows that,
TJ.’

‘Do they? Oh, sorry.
I’m not the one to talk to about fashion, am I?’

‘Goddesses, yes;
fashion, maybe no.’

‘But I do know that
you have your own style and it suits you, Lucy. Remember when Nesta gave me
that makeover and made me look like a Barbie doll. It wasn’t me at all. It made
me realise that you have to trust your own judgement about what suits you and
not let others impose their ideas on you.’

I laughed. She was
right. TJ, maybe you don’t know the names, but I think that you know more than
you realise.‘

TJ looked at me with
concern. ‘I hope you don’t mind me asking, Lucy, but… well, it’s just, you do
seem different since you met Daniel and I wondered if… are you having a good
time?’

‘Yeah. I mean, I know
we had a bit of a glitch when I showed him my designs, but apart from that,
we’ve done loads of things together. I feel like I’ve discovered London. We’ve
been everywhere.’