CLAUDIA
After much searching, I found the thick woollen hat that had been given to me in good faith by the stolid Tante Helga ‘für za English vinter’. It had been languishing unused in the bottom of a blanket box. Far too lumpy and practical for me, scoring a zero on my style scale. As I was rummaging I wondered if I’d actually been brave enough to throw it out but no, there it was. I tucked my hair up inside the hat and then wound a scarf around my neck. Right. Mirror time. I was amazed. I really did look like someone else, plain and tired. I wrestled with myself as I eyed my make-up for the briefest moments, then opened my compact and dabbed a little foundation on. That was a bit better. Still plain but at least I didn’t look completely knackered too. I just couldn’t bring myself to go out without any make-up on at all.
I dug out an old black coat from the cupboard and pulled it on over the top of my jeans and checked again. Not bad. I looked tidy but nondescript. Most importantly not like my usual self. Exactly what I was aiming for. Stuffing keys and wallet into my pockets, and putting on dark glasses, I pulled the door to the flat closed.
I couldn’t contain my excitement. I felt it welling up as I trotted along the road towards the Tube, like it did when I was a child and was being taken out. I checked my phone again. John would be in position now, in a café diagonally across the road from the restaurant where Rebecca was meeting her date for lunch. He would call me as soon as he saw her arrive, at which point I would make sure I was at the window. I had done an extensive recce the day before and discovered a clothes shop opposite the café that was perfect. It not only had the right sort of clothes for a nondescript sort of woman to idle endlessly looking at but upstairs there was a window overlooking the street and the restaurant! Brilliant. With any luck they might even dine in the window – even better. At the very least I would see her enter with her lover or at least leave with him.
I arrived at the clothes shop ten minutes early, passing John, who winked at me exaggeratedly, on the way. I started looking on the ground floor, slowly sliding one garment at a time along the racks. At the time Rebecca was due to arrive, I went upstairs, directly to the rack closest to the window, nervously waiting for my phone to start vibrating in my pocket. And there it was! I stepped quickly to the window, whipping out the phone to check – yes, it was John. I didn’t answer – that wasn’t the plan. Sure enough, there she was, stepping along in a perfectly straight line but, dammit, alone. I watched her go into the restaurant with absolutely no hesitation whatsoever. She didn’t even check the name, I mused. She’d obviously been there before. I hovered for a couple of minutes, waiting to see if Rebecca would take a table in the window. When she didn’t, I went downstairs, having a half-hearted look at the sales table – even in disguise I didn’t want to be seen as rude or dodgy – and joined John at the café next door.
‘Well, the bird has landed,’ I said breathlessly as I sat down.
‘Indeed, but without her mate. So what’s next? Do we wait around for her to finish?’
I looked around me and pulled a face. ‘They could be all afternoon, and I’ve got other ideas for our Saturday.’ I leant forward and kissed him lightly.
John’s eyes lit up.
‘So . . .’ I sat in silence for a while, looking out the window, aware of John’s eyes roving all over me, but still wanting to complete this mission. I just had to know if it was Ed Rebecca was having lunch with. Surely all this silly flirting between them hadn’t come to anything? Both of them had been playing games. Ed had only spent time with Rebecca to try to make Sam jealous and Rebecca had done something approximating the same thing, although for goodness only knew what reason. That woman. But even if it never happened between Ed and Sam, it would be awful if he ended up with Rebecca. A complete disaster.
Then I had it! I whipped away from the window.
‘I’ll go in and ask to use the loo.’
‘They’ll send you down the street to the Tube station.’
‘I’ll pretend that I’m preggers!’
John grinned. ‘Oh yes? You and your enormous stomach?’
‘I could be in my first tri-whatsit. When you don’t show but need the loo a lot anyway.’
John raised his eyebrows.
‘Lots of my friends have moaned about it to me over the years,’ I added hastily.
John’s eyebrows remained uplifted.
‘Don’t look at me like that.’
He released his brows.
‘Thank you.’
‘You know, the night you told me about the unmentionable STI, I thought you were going to tell me you were pregnant.’
‘Really?’ I squeaked. I thought back to that painful night and, with a start, I remembered his expectant face. ‘I’d forgotten all about that. You looked so happy before I told you . . . the news.’
‘Exactly!’
I blushed.
‘And I was upset,’ John continued, ‘not because of the STI per se but because you weren’t pregnant . . . which meant there wasn’t a really good reason for you to be with me. It meant you were, once again, slipping out of my reach.’
I squeaked again and stood up. ‘My God, you make a girl go all queer with all of your lovey-dovey talk.’ I chucked on my coat.
‘What – are you going now?’
‘No time like the present.’ I couldn’t sit much longer in the café. I was burning to find out who this damn date was and after all those intense looks from John’s sparkling peepers I had to get the hell out of this café and get my man home.
‘But what if Ed isn’t there yet?’
‘It might not be him.’
‘Isn’t that why we’re here?’
‘Yes, but I’m still holding out hope it won’t be him.’
‘With all you’ve told me about him, he really doesn’t sound like Rebecca’s type.’
‘Exactly, which is why it’s really important his best mates are on to him so we can try to put him off, if he is actually seeing her.’
John shook his head at me. He thought I was mad with all this meddling. But he was smiling.
‘It’s only been ten minutes.’
I went round to his side of the table and kissed his forehead.
‘If it is Ed, he’ll be there. He’s a Minkley so he’s always on time. And I am a woman of action and I can’t sit still a minute longer. I will take the plunge!’ I extended my arm out straight, fist clenched, in the direction of the door and left, following my closed fist outside. The staff looked on at me bemused.
Inside I could see right away that Rebecca was alone, sitting at a small table, looking expectantly at the door. The fact she was on her own was excellent news but her obvious door watching immediately put paid to the plan to use their toilet. I didn’t want to risk her recognising my voice. So, thankful for the dark glasses that I’d kept on as I entered, I took my phone out as if taking a call and went straight out the door again. I almost collided with a very smooth-looking toff coming in but I was so intent on getting away, worried that I might have been recognised, that I only managed a muttered sorry. I scurried back to John, hissing at him to move away from the window.
‘I don’t think she recognised me – I hope not – but she was looking at the door when I came in.’
‘Don’t tell me, because she was alone?’
‘Yes, dammit. Why didn’t I listen to you?’
‘I have no idea, Crunchy. But I saw someone interesting.’
‘Oh?’
‘The guy who bumped into you on the way out . . .’
I shut my eyes in concentration. For a moment I couldn’t remember; the adrenalin from my mission was making it hard to think straight.
‘Oh, the toff, very handsome, floppy hair.’
‘Not too handsome, I hope, but yes, that’s the one. I’ve met him before. He dated a friend’s sister, I think. I’ll remember his name in a minute.’
‘Is that all?’
‘Well, I thought it was quite an interesting coincidence.’
‘But we don’t know if he’s got anything to do with her, do we? He could have been going in there to meet anyone.’
‘True. I just thought you’d be interested, my sleuth. You were all fired up to know everything a minute ago.’
‘I’m over it now. As long as it isn’t Ed she’s meeting, then great. Anyway, don’t we have some other plans for the day?’
John paid up and we headed towards my flat as fast as we could. If Ed was safe from the uptight one then I was safe to enjoy the rest of the weekend without worrying about it.