‘Mum called. Her and Dad are going to come over early, so they get a seat, apparently.’ Remy rolled her eyes.
‘What do they think? That it’s like musical chairs, last one here has to stand?’ She laughed, kind of loving their eccentricity and their funny little ways.
‘God only knows what they think, but I do know Mum has been fretting over her hair and which handbag to bring. She’s spent an age pressing Dad’s good shirt and has bombarded me with messages, askingexactlywhat time they will be eating the buffet, as Dad likes to know!’
Buffet ...The word reminded her of her wedding, a long time ago now and a most stressful couple of days at Mulverton as she had run around trying to get everything ready. This, of course, made her think of Guy, her lovely friend, who she still missed and whose awkward confession she had never told to a soul.
If the hurt she had felt at Archie’s betrayal was a splinter, then the same from Guy, in her weakened state, had been a whole log that flattened her. After she had confronted him about the partnership, he had gone quiet. This man who had been her great mate, her confidant, her rock, had simply gone quiet, the coward.
He too had, quite obviously, chosen Archie. Her hurt, even after all this time, still had the power to bring her to tears.
After Guy’s silence, letters began to arrive from solicitors, all communiqués signed with a friendly flourish,very best wishes ...butnot even the pleasant sentiment or the handwritten signature could disguise the proposals of a gut-wrenching nature, all suggesting how they might proceed.
The options were numerous. A few stuck in her mind still:
To redefine the partnership, three ways, with Ashleigh as a minor partner ...
To rename the company Gallow and Gallow, cutting out the Fitch bit altogether ...
To close the company down, both walk away, start over, and Guy would take over the rental agreement and retain the premises ...
To buy Guy out, with money that she didn’t have ...
To let Guy buy her out with money that he did have ...
The latter had felt like the least unpalatable option. Ashleigh had reluctantly agreed, upon the completion of which Guy had installed Ada, who no doubt sat at Ashleigh’s desk and maybe made her jam from there, with Ben and Ben running around her ankles as Clara poured coffee for their wealthy clients. It was as hard for her to imagine as it was gut-wrenching.
The people she would have discussed such options with were Archie and Guy. And with her phone in her hand, sitting in her car, unable to go home, unable to go to the office, unable to phone either of these men, she knew she had never felt so desperately alone. Remy, true to her word, had been on the end of the phone, but knowing how full her sister’s life was, Ashleigh never wanted to overburden her. It was some weeks before she found the courage, dried her tears, and called Gigi, telling him to buy her out and that he could shove their friendship up his arse.
He had, without hesitation, done both.
Many nights had been spent analysing when the cracks had appeared in their friendship. Cracks she hadn’t seen opening up beneath her, unaware she should have been clinging on for dear life or finding safer ground. At first she put the blame squarelyon Ada’s shoulders. Jealous Ada, who had requested his oldest friends did not call her husband Gigi. Jealous Ada, who despite her smiling mouth and Mother Earth vibe, apparently wanted to be a partner in their business! Jealous Ada, who had hooked Guy with home-made suppers, cosy interiors and enough preserves to sink a bloody ship. But deep down, Ashleigh knew it wasn’t Ada. Having painfully peeled back the layers of their friendship, she could see that, actually, things had shifted after his admission in the library:
‘You do love me, don’t you?’
‘Since the moment I met you.’
She might have smothered the exchange with arm punches, bluster and the belief that never mentioning it made it go away, but it had not. He had looked at her a little differently, and there was, on reflection, an increased formality in his manner, only by the smallest degree, something undetectable to anyone who didn’t know him as well as she did, who didn’t share their closeness, but it was, she realised, there. Not that this insight helped or changed a thing. It was all too late for that.
As her luck would have it, with debt hanging over the business and a rather insipid sales pipeline, he had not had to pay her very much at all.
She hadn’t spoken to Guy since, learning only a year or so later that Archie had invested in the business and had become a silent partner, ensuring the name Fitch stayed firmly above the door, as the business and the brand grew and grew.
‘Promise me you’ll wear them!’ Remy thrust the revolting sunglasses towards her.
‘Do I have to?’
‘Yes!’ Remy bounced like a child who’d been on the sugar.
‘Ren? Ash?’ Midge called from the bottom of the stairs.
They both responded:
‘What?’
‘Yes?’
‘Can you come down here a sec?’
