OK .?.?. this was news.
‘I’ll be honest with you, Cassie, because it’s something I recognised very early in my marriage. We made a huge mistake. I should’ve been with a guy like Roger, who’s decisive and together, and Finn would’ve been happy with someone like you, who wouldn’t have tried to boss him around. Honestly, I was only trying to organise him, but that’s for another day. The point I’m trying to make is that, in spite of himself, he’s vulnerable to women who dominate him, and that includes my older daughter.’
‘But he needs to face her himself.’
‘Of course he does. But he won’t, he’s got this mortal fear of abandonment. Sure, even the dog’s picked it up from him.’
‘Marisha, I really appreciate you telling me all this, but I’m not sure what good it’ll do.’
‘Leave it with me.’
With that, she picked up her beige Ugg cardigan. ‘Best of luck, Cassie, you deserve it,’ she said and swept out the door towards where Roger Newcombe was loitering around his maroon Volvo. How was it that Marisha could be so awful in some ways and inexplicably generous in others? People really were the weirdest set of contradictions.
* * *
‘You have got to look at this catalogue. It’s sick,’ Ramona bellowed, barely in the door on Saturday morning, before tearing open her case and pulling out brochures and fabric samples until the floor looked like a landfill site. ‘I bought you perfume from the duty free!’ she projected.
‘Got you perfume too. Only, don’t bring it near me.’
Ramona eyeballed her for a second, but then got distracted and produced a stunning top constructed from leather and metal from the bottom of her case.
Cassie felt guilty for holding back her secret, but she just wasn’t ready to share the news with anyone else. Equally, Ramona was so tied up with her own excitement that they spent the rest of the morning going through her new collection, which seemed to have been assembled at breakneck speed and to exactly reflect her vision. Ramona, she had to admit, could really get shit done.
‘Go to China if you want something done fast and right. This isn’t a sweatshop deal, by the way. This is high-end. The launch is gonna be June next year. Hey, I totally forgot, how’d the audition go?’
‘Great, thanks, it actually went great.’
‘Any news yet?’
That was the least of her worries at the moment, but as the days had turned into a week, euphoria was starting to give way to disappointment. She shook her head.
‘Fuck it, come and work for me.’
‘You know what, I just might.’
Chapter 36
Mam and Eric’s wedding was a week away. The weather was shocking and Maxine was due home in four days.
‘I can’t believe it,’ said Mam. ‘God hates me.’
The plan was for a marquee on the garden lawn, which was currently accommodating a flock of seagulls who were sailing around contentedly.
‘The weather forecast says it’s due to dry up on Tuesday,’ said Eric, as the three of them gazed out through the French doors at the sheets of rain.
The caterers were confirmed, as well as the makeup and hairdressing lady. On paper, it should’ve all been fine but Mam was beside herself.
Cassie was sipping weak tea, which was averting suspicion, but anyway Mam had her wedding filters on and seemed incapable of noticing anything else.
‘Don’t worry, Iris, we’ve both done this before, it’ll all work out in the end,’ soothed Eric unwisely.
‘For feck’s sake, what use is that when it’s now, today, and we should be going out and buying sixty pairs of wellington boots for the guests, by the looks of things. Don’t be annoying me about years ago.’
Cassie met Eric’s eyes behind her back as he made an ‘oh, blimey’ face. Well, if the relationship survived the week of the wedding, they were set for life.
* * *
‘You’re so skinny, I hate you’ were Maxine’s first words as she picked them up from the airport. Just you wait, thought Cassie. Behind her was Miri, who she hadn’t seen since she was a toddler, but here she was, seventeen years old. Five-foot-eight, long dark hair, baggy jeans and looking remarkably like Cassie remembered Maxine at that age. To her mortification, she found her chin wobbling. ‘Hormones!’ she heard Josie’s voice in her head.
