She holds her hands up. “You were all playing stupid Nintendo for hours and hours, and I was bored and hungry!”
“Oh, god, is that when you ateallthe frosting off the top, and you threw up for about a straight hour afterwards…” I gag jokingly.
“What was I supposed to do? The frosting wasthis thickand soooooo good,” she whispers to Em, her thumb and forefinger a good two inches apart, “so I ate every last bit.”
“Of course, it was one of Aunt Wendy’s.”
“And now I’m going to go find her and ask her to make me one for my next birthday,” she says, grabbing a glass of wine from a passing waiter and wandering away. Tippi’s a wanderer right through to her marrow, always leaving doors open behind her, always dancing along her own path that only she can see. I hope I get to spend some proper time with her before she leaves, though I donotwant to hear a single thing about her sex blog. I don’t care how many awards it has won: there are some things I don’t need to know about my baby sis.
“OK, what’s up?” Em asks, and I pull them into a corner away from everyone.
I get butterflies. After all these years, the moment has finally arrived. “So, I thought I’d give you your wedding present now, because I have a feeling it might make your day even better.” I reach for the envelope in my pocket and hand it to her, shove my hands in my pockets, and wait, almost jumping up and down.
She frowns curiously, and Eli watches as she opens it. He has no idea what’s in there, either, and I can’t wait to see the look on his face.
Em’s is one hell of a picture as she half gasps, half squawks when she reads the figure on the cheque.
“I have a confession to make,” I say, my grin huge. “I’m your landlord.”
Eli’s jaw drops as he reads the figure over his wife’s shoulder, where the cheque reads one hundred and twenty five thousand pounds. Well, the amount in the savings account was actually one hundred and twenty four thousand eight hundred, but I prefer round numbers.
“Leo, what the fuck?” Eli breathes, staring at me like I’m growing wings out of my back.
I give in. “So, when Dad died, he left us in a pretty good position financially, and I inherited…a decent amount,” I hedge, “when I hit twenty one.” And I did. Dad was a financial advisor, and died in a plane crash coming home from a business trip when I was fourteen. It was horrendous, and I’d give back everything in my trust, and all the interest it’s accrued across almost twenty five years, to have him here with us now. But since that can’t happen, I made the best of things and used the money to follow my dreams. To make my dad proud. “So I was able to start up Wishbone off the back of it, and there was enough left over for some smart investments my finance guy recommended, and…well, it wasn’t long before I was able to buy some investment properties. Including the flats that you and Dean live in.”
Eli and his wife are wearing identical expressions of bewilderment. I burst out laughing because this is just the way I pictured it in my head. I didn’t want to give him the cheque back when he married Charmaine, partly because I didn’t like her and doubted the lasting power of that particular marriage,but mostly because it hadn’t quite reached theholy wowfigure it is now.
“Leo, what…I mean, where did…” Em’s hands are damn near shaking, making the cheque flutter.
“Oh,” I reply, “that’s all the rent that Eli’s been paying his landlord since he arrived in the UK.”
Her hand covers her mouth. Eli just keeps shaking his head, scratching his temple and muttering, “No way, noway.”
“I always planned to give it to you one day, fam, and today seemed like the best possible choice. I’ve done the same for Dean, and I’m gonna give him his cheque after the wedding, cos…I mean, now you have yours, it seems only fair to you both.”
“Leo,frere…” Eli seems genuinely emotional. “It’s too much…”
“Oh, shut up,” I say, giving them both a bear hug, one under each arm. “Spend it on something badass, piss it all away on coke and hookers, or save it for a rainy day, whatever you want. It’s yours.”
I don’t think either of them have ever hugged me as hard as they’re doing right now. I mentally punch the air. This was exactly what I wanted to happen.
“So this entire time, when I called the letting agent…”
“They’d call me,” I confirm. “Seemed weird that I’d pay you at the parlour, and then you’d give me that money back in rent, but here we are.”
“Goddamn,” Eli laughs in disbelief. “How thefuckdid you keep that quiet?”
“It wasn’t easy,” I admit, “but this moment just made it all worthwhile. Oh, and don’t bother paying me any rent anymore. The account is closed. That place is yours for as long as you need it, free of charge.”
“Leo…thank you.” Em’s voice damn near aches. I remember when she first arrived, and how she was trying to eke out herrunning away fund to start a new life in Foxton. I always pay my staff the top end of the going rate, but I made doubly sure to give her the going rate plus an extra five thousand a year after seeing her threadbare clothes. I originally saved this up for Eli, thinking I’d probably end up making it his fortieth birthday present, but I’m pleased that Em’s getting it, too. It’s none of my business what they do with it now I’ve handed the money over, but I hope they use it for something that makes them really happy together, like a deposit on a house they can build the rest of their life in.
“Don’t mention it, toots,” I say, giving her a kiss on top of her head.And now for the cherry on the cake.“Right, now that that’s out of the way…” I catch Sadie’s eye across the room and give her a wink and a nod. Nodding back, she heads over to the DJ’s deck to give him the signal. “Em, we have one more surprise, but this one’s just for you.”
Eli whips out his phone. This one hedidknow about in advance, and when we pitched it to him, he said then and there that he was filming it. This was Sadie’s idea, and it’s a damn good one.
Em smiles nervously, her eyes darting around the room, as I take her hand and pull her towards the dance floor just asWord of Mouthby Mike and the Mechanics starts playing. Her eyes become huge, almost childlike, as they fill with tears. She told us once that one of the only memories she has of her parents, who died when she was six, was driving to Devon for a family holiday with this playing in the car, and all three of them singing along to it. “I know your parents couldn’t be here in body today,” I say, squeezing both her hands, my own voice cracking as her face crumples, “but I bet everything I own that they’re here with you in spirit. And we’re your family now, so we’re standing in for your father-daughter dance.” She buries her head in my shirt, choking with tears as I start to move us side to side in a gentle, easy sway. My left hand at the small of herback, my right holding hers. She became essential to the running of my business within days of becoming our receptionist, but more than that, she became like a sister to me. Thank Christ she walked into the parlour that day. I don’t know what we’d do without her. “We love you, Embo,” I whisper, “and I know your parents would be so proud of you today.”
I can’t deny there’s another lump in my throat when Dean cuts in as we planned after a few lines to carry on the dance. It genuinely sucks that Em’s parents aren’t here celebrating the day, and we’re not a replacement for them, but hopefully she takes this in the spirit it’s intended, and this moment, this song, can still be special for her.
