The Other Woman(50)

She bristled in her chair, and the others turned their attention to the next player, but she mumbled something under her breath and I was sure she said, ‘James.’





23

‘What a fun night,’ said Mum, as we stood in front of the bathroom mirror, taking our make-up off. We were both swaying. Well, I was anyway. Maybe me swaying made it look like she was swaying too.

‘I haven’t laughed like that in years,’ she said, as she lifted one leg up to unbuckle her shoe.

I smiled. ‘I think that waiter had the hots for you.’

‘Oh, stop it!’ She laughed, before leaning precariously towards me, one leg still in the air. ‘Ooh, Em, help!’

I caught her as she leant into me. ‘What are you trying to do?’ I giggled.

‘Well, if I could just . . .’ she said, before dissolving into hysterics. I caught hold of both her elbows before she fell to the floor. I’d never seen her like this before.

‘And how good is it to see Charlotte again?’ she said. ‘I really am pleased that you sorted things out with her. No friendship is ever worth losing over a boy, especially not one like yours and Charlotte’s. I said the very same thing to Pammie.’

Just hearing her name sobered me up. ‘What did you say to her?’ I said, careful to keep my tone light.

‘Just that,’ she said unhelpfully, still sitting on the bathroom floor. ‘When I told her what had gone on, I said how sad it was because you were so close, you and her, weren’t you?’

There was a heat bubbling away under my skin. I sat down on the floor beside her. ‘Why were you talking about it, Mum?’

‘Pammie asked if there might be anybody that we’d left off the invite list. She was just double-checking that everybody that was supposed to be coming to the wedding was coming. I told her that I thought we had it covered, but when she started asking about friends from your younger years, it got me thinking.’

‘Ah, that makes sense,’ I said, although inside I was screaming, what the hell’s it got to do with her? We were paying for our own wedding, and Mum and Dad had paid for our honeymoon. Pammie had no right to ask questions.

‘So, I said that the only person that wasn’t invited, who under any other circumstance would have been, was Charlotte.’

I nodded my head, feigning patience and trying desperately to sober up.

‘And then you told her everything that had happened?’

‘Well, to some extent, yes. I didn’t think it appropriate to go into how you found out. I just said that Tom and Charlotte were seeing each other behind your back.’

There was a vice-like grip squeezing my chest.

‘Right, let’s get you up,’ I said, holding her under her arms.

She giggled all the way into bed, and I quietly left the room and closed the door.

I went across the landing and down the corridor to the bedroom at the back of the house, my stride getting faster and heavier with each step.

I flung the door open without knocking.

‘Who the hell do you think you are?’ I hissed.

Pammie didn’t even look up from the book she was reading. ‘I wondered how long it would take you,’ she said.

‘How dare you?’ I spat. ‘How dare you invite yourself to my hen weekend and bring her with you?’

‘I thought you’d be pleased,’ she said. ‘I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to bring you back together again.’

She put the book down on the bed beside her and took her glasses off, rubbing at the bridge of her nose.

‘It’s such a shame,’ she went on, ‘to have a good friend and lose contact with them. Was it over anything in particular?’

So, she wanted to play? Okay, let’s play.

‘No, not really,’ I said matter-of-factly. ‘We just grew apart.’

‘Well, when I heard that you’d met at school and used to be so close, I couldn’t stand the thought of someone so special not being there on your big day,’ she said, a glint in her eye. ‘I ran a search on that computer thing, what do they call it? Book Face, or something?’

God, she was good. But she seemed to have forgotten that Adam wasn’t here now. He couldn’t hear the piteous tone in her voice or see the simpering look on her face. No doubt he’d glow with pride at her ingenious detective work. ‘Ah, bless her,’ he would have cooed. ‘How thoughtful is that? Isn’t she incredible?’

I smiled. ‘Facebook, Pamela. It’s called Facebook.’

She flinched and pulled up sharply, the childlike act gone in an instant. ‘I don’t have to be civil to you,’ she hissed. ‘But, for better or worse, you’re going to be my daughter-in-law.’

I grinned. ‘Indeed I am, and I, for one, can’t wait.’

‘You’d do well to lose the sarcasm,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t become you.’

‘And you’d do well to stop being such a bitch.’

Her eyes flashed dark as she drew in her thin lips, revealing the gum line above her two front teeth, like a snarling dog. ‘Have you really no manners? Do you honestly think my son is going to stay with someone like you for the rest of his life?’

I sensed there was more to come, so I stood with my arms folded in front of me, waiting for the onslaught to continue.