Impossible to Forget(21)

On the other hand, what was the point of life if you didn’t get yourself into the occasional lather?

Maggie changed her top, freshening her deodorant as she did so, pulled a comb through her hair and added a flick of dark mascara to her eyelashes. Casual insouciance, that was what she was shooting for and, she thought as she looked at herself in the cracked mirror, she had hit her target.

In the sitting room, Angie and Tiger were sprawled on the sofas, taking up one apiece. Leon was in the tiny kitchen chopping veg for his chilli and joining in with their conversation, asking questions where appropriate. Maggie was suddenly sorry that she had spent so long in her room. If she had known that Leon was here as well, she would have emerged sooner. Despite her confused feelings about Tiger, she was genuinely interested in what he had been up to since they had last seen him.

But it appeared she had missed all that. The three of them were now talking about who was the prettiest of Charlie’s Angels. The boys seemed to be plumping for Farrah Fawcett’s character, Jill, which was so disappointingly predictable. Boys always seemed to fall for that blonde hair/blue eyes thing.

‘Kelly was definitely the best-looking,’ Angie said. ‘With those cheekbones, and all that shiny dark hair. In fact,’ she said, turning to look at Maggie, ‘you have a look of her, Mags.’

They all turned to look at her as if to confirm or deny Angie’s statement.

Maggie pushed her hair away from her face self-consciously. ‘Oh, I don’t know about that,’ she said modestly.

‘Actually, you do look quite like her,’ said Leon. ‘From what I can remember, anyway. It’s been a while.’

‘Imprinted on a teenage boy’s memory forever, that show,’ said Tiger, his eyes shining mischievously. ‘That and The Six Million Dollar Man. When I wasn’t having impure thoughts about Farrah, I was trying to run really fast and see round corners.’

They all laughed, and Tiger took his legs down from the sofa so that Maggie had somewhere to sit. She lowered herself on to the cushions carefully, making sure that no part of her touched him, but then as soon as she was seated, he swung his legs back up and flopped them down in her lap. She tensed and then relaxed into their new proximity. No one else seemed to have noticed.

They chatted easily, the four of them. The housemates did get on all right when they were just three, but the addition of Tiger to their number seemed to release something that was generally lacking between them, a kind of ease with one another that wasn’t usually there.

When the chilli was ready, Angie cracked open a bottle of cheap red wine and they sat with plates on their knees to enjoy it.

‘How’s it going with the sax?’ Tiger asked Leon as he wiped his plate clean with a slice of white bread.

‘Oh God, Tiger,’ interrupted Angie. ‘You have to tell him. He barely touches the thing outside the house. All that talent and it’s just going to waste. He has to go to America and make his fortune. You have to go, Lee,’ she added, turning to Leon.

Leon shrugged. ‘Yeah, maybe one day. But I’ve got this degree to do first.’

This was an old argument and Angie seemed to realise that he was stuck on this course of action. ‘Yes. But after that . . .’ she tried.

‘She’s right,’ said Tiger. ‘You should do it.’

Leon looked down at his plate. ‘It’s all right for you two,’ he said. ‘You do as you please and make it look so easy. But I’m . . . Well, I’m not really like that. I want to get a job, a mortgage, you know, all that boring stuff our parents did.’

‘Not so much my parents,’ said Angie wryly.

Angie never talked about her home life and Maggie wondered if now, with Tiger here and the second bottle of wine open, might be the moment. It seemed it was just a passing comment, though, and Angie continued along the path she had been on.

‘But why, Leon?’ she asked, as if he had suggested that he wanted to spend his life standing in a bucket of cold water. ‘There’s time for all that. In the future.’ She waved a hand at some mythical time to come. ‘What about NOW? You need to grab life with both hands and hold on to it tight.’

Leon was looking increasingly uncomfortable and Maggie felt the need to leap in to defend him.

‘Actually, I know what Leon means,’ she said. ‘I’m the same. I just want to get through this and then get on with my career. I’m dying to start work as a solicitor.’

‘But that means you don’t get the most out of this part of your life,’ said Angie. ‘You’re so busy looking forward to what is to come that you’re missing what you have in the here and now.’

Maggie thought about her words and then dismissed them. It was something that she had considered and rejected before. For her, university was a means to an end. If she managed to have a good time on top then so much the better, but it really wasn’t the main reason for being there.

‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘I’m perfectly happy in the here and now. I just have my eyes on the prize, that’s all.’ She turned to look at Angie. This apparent honesty between them all was new, and she didn’t want it to slip between her fingers. ‘And what about you, Ange?’ she asked. ‘What does the future look like for you?’

Angie considered for a moment, picking up her glass but then putting it down again without taking a drink. ‘Bright,’ she said. ‘My future looks bright.’