‘Alright, enough,’ I grimace, eyes clamped shut. ‘I don’t need a free sex show, thanks very much.’
Violet drops herself back down and rearranges her skirt.
‘It’s really nice to see you,’ she says.
‘Yeah, you too,’ I reply, and I mean it. ‘When I saw Dave’s name down on the studio list this morning I thought I’d pop by when I got the chance. I really hadn’t expected to see you as well.’
‘He’s taking a few blog shots while we wait for my new photographer to start,’ she says. ‘And you’re not bad, are you poppet?’
Poppet? Dave snarls a bit and Violet barks back. I only realise that I’m physically backing out of the room when Violet pulls me back towards her.
‘How’s work?’ she asks.
‘It’s amazing. I’m doing a magazine shoot here today and the next few weeks are booked solid already. It’s bloody scary, not having a regular income to rely on, but I think it’s made me work even harder.’
‘I’m so pleased for you,’ Violet says, looking me in the eyes. ‘And I miss you.’
‘Doyou?’ I sound more incredulous than I mean to.
‘Absolutely! Dave and I don’t get much done because he can’t keep his hands off me, and my new recruit isn’t nearly as talented as you. I’m thrilled that you’ve found your own path, though. And I don’t think I ever got the chance to properly say thank you for all that you’ve done for me over the years. Things were left a bit up in the air when we decided to part ways, weren’t they?’ We definitely didn’t decide to part ways. I smile at this piece of Classic Violet, always glossing over the truth to give things a peachier spin. If I remember correctly, I called her a monster and quit in a storm, but in a way it’s nice to see that some things don’t change. ‘Anyway, it’s great to see you doing so well and I just wanted to thank you for being such a huge part of my success. I’m really grateful.’
‘Wow, that really means a lot. Thanks, Vi.’
She shrugs it off and turns to Dave. ‘Babes, did you remember to add condoms to our online food shop?’
Dave is seized with a look of panic. He pulls out his phone while Violet huffs at his incompetence. I smile at the pair of them, one hundred per cent smitten and one hundred per cent bonkers.
Ben’s tongue is literally hanging out of his mouth and Mila does that classic mum move of tapping him under his chin to make him shut his gob. It falls straight open again as soon as she moves her hand away.
‘You’ve got it bad,’ I say.
‘So bad,’ he agrees, eyes still fixed on the door to the ladies’ loos.
‘Can you stop staring at the bogs though? It’s creepy,’ Mila adds.
‘Ican’t help it. I just want to stare at her all the time. Right now I’m actually missing her.’
‘She got up to go to the loo one minute ago?’ I point out.
‘One minute!’ Ben cries out like he’s in pain.
‘So when did Ben become such a melt?’ Holly asks.
Mila and I laugh. Ben says, ‘I can’t even argue with that.’
‘I know we’ve got a lot of years to catch up on but back at school you were always so. . . take it or leave it. Wasn’t he?’ asks Holly. ‘Even the girls in the year above who fancied you didn’t get your heart racing, whereas we’d be writing our married names on notebooks if there were boys we liked.’
‘Ha, ha, HAAAAA! Do you remember when you had a thing for the French exchange, Jas?’ Mila snorts. Holly’s giggling too.
‘Pierre,’ I say the name slowly.
‘Pieeerrrrrrreeee,’ Holly and Mila mimic at the same time.
‘He was cute.’
‘Babes, you tried to switch A levels so you could study French and you took to eating baguettes at lunch,’ Mila replies.
‘That’s right! And you started wearing a beret,’ Holly chimes in.
