If I Never Met You(70)

‘Uhm, yeah?’ said Jamie, turning to the short woman who looked like a Tory peer, in the huge pearl choker necklace.

‘You must be the new girlfriend.’

‘Laurie,’ Laurie affirmed.

‘You can’t keep your hands off her, can you?’ she said to Jamie, nudging him, and both Laurie and Jamie laughed awkwardly, and could no longer meet each other’s eyes at all.





28


As the party entered its last gasp, Hattie was a port in a storm for Laurie, and possibly vice versa. As Jamie did farewells that involved working the room for an hour, Hattie had pulled chairs together and fetched Laurie a nightcap of a very sticky plum-flavoured vodka.

She’d known Jamie since childhood when their parents lived next door to each other. She worked at the university, putting its magazine together. Her husband Padraig was home with their two-year-old, Roger.

‘I know, Roger,’ she said, though Laurie had hoped her reaction was neutral-positive. ‘I was on the gas and air when Padraig got me to agree to it, it was his favourite uncle’s name, he died eating poisonous mushrooms. I’ve warmed to it. Poor little bastard, hope he’s OK at school. And never goes mushroom foraging.’

She was disarming, unpretentious and humorous and Laurie really took to her.

‘You’re nothing like I expected,’ Hattie said, and Hattie wasn’t like anyone Laurie would have pegged as a Jamie Carter BFF, either, expecting someone flashier, more conspicuous. Not someone who’d stayed in their childhood town, content with her lot.

She’d not believed Jamie about not adversely judging other choices to his own, and yet Laurie was forced to admit here was a powerful corroboration.

And it was obvious they were honest to goodness, best mates, from the sibling-like shorthand between them, and Hattie’s casually worn and yet contemporaneous knowledge of the inner workings of Salter’s.

‘Oh, why’s that?’ Laurie said, thinking: 1. Black 2. Too old 3. Not glamorous enough.

Hattie slopped her drink from side to side. ‘Don’t be offended, as I’m clearly saying you’re not like this, but I expected a trophy girl who’d spend the night studying her gel manicure and messaging her friends about how basic we all were. The sort who posts those Boomerangs of clinking flutes with her Mean Girls.’

Hattie mimed a repetitive backwards and forwards motion with her glass and a strained Miss World full teeth smile, and Laurie hooted.

‘Haha! I’m not a trophy, agreed,’ Laurie grinned.

‘No, you are. But one with real value. I thought Mrs Jamie would be a princessy madam, that’s all.’

‘Is that because you think Jamie is a princessy madam?’ Laurie said, but with a conspiratorial smile to make it clear she wasn’t laying traps.

‘Hah! Nooo, well, he has that side to him, for sure,’ Hattie said, and Laurie could see by how slow her blinking was, and the slight fuzz of the edges of her speech, that she was considerably drunker than Laurie. She would probably cringe at having said this in the morning. ‘He’s always had this other, much better side to him. More serious, more reserved. Almost fiercely moral, actually. You fit with that.’

‘Has he not brought girlfriends home before?’

Hattie looked gobsmacked. ‘He’s not told you this? No, never. To the point where Eric and Mary were told he must be a comfort to his mother, lifelong bachelor, if you know what I mean. No. That’s why I couldn’t believe my eyes when he was posting photos with you. I mean, that is like posting wedding banns, for Jamie.’

‘Wow!’ Laurie said, fraudulently, thinking Hattie must have heard his views on settling down, but was tactfully skirting round them with his new love.

‘He was terrified of commitment,’ Hattie said. ‘But clearly he’s got over it.’

‘Ah well. I’m not … you know. Putting too much pressure on it.’

‘But you’re in love with him, right?’

‘Uhm … yes.’

‘He’s madly in love with you. I can see it in the way he looks at you, the way he’s so affectionate with you. I’ve never seen him like this before. He’s transformed.’

Laurie grit-smiled, frowned and necked the rest of her vodka in one.

‘I fell in love with him when we were twelve, you know,’ Hattie said. ‘Then right through our teenage years.’

Laurie thought, hoo boy. She’s wrecked. She might not even remember saying this. ‘Really?!’

‘Yeah. Nothing ever happened, I should say,’ Hattie waved a hand emphatically, ‘Or we’d not be such good mates now. But yeah, I was in love, and he let me down gently. He could’ve so easily exploited it, and he didn’t. That is the side of himself he keeps under wraps. When you’re his friend, he will go to the ends of the earth for you, and he won’t tolerate anyone being damaging towards you. Whatsoever.’

‘Right.’

‘Maybe that’s why he doesn’t make many friends, looking after people that much is a burden.’

Laurie nodded. So, she’d been right, earlier, when she saw worry flit across Jamie’s face. He didn’t want there to be any obligations, after this was finished. This was strictly business, not pleasure, however intimate it might feel at times.