Page 17 of Good Sisters

‘Don’t worry. I’ve just signed a knock-out – Angelika, who will easily fill Robyn’s shoes. She’s from Lithuania, actually appreciates working and is happy to drink water, no matter what the temperature.’

Quentin grinned. ‘Robyn was a royal pain the arse. What a drama queen. Show me the new girl.’ He came into my office, where I had Angelika’s photos laid out on the table. He oohed and aahed. ‘Well done, Sophie. She’ll make herself and us a fortune.’

‘And no more dealing with Robyn and her dramas.’

‘Praise Jesus.’ Quentin laughed. He put down Angelika’s photos and pushed his designer tortoiseshell glasses up his nose. ‘How are things with you? Is Louise still ordering you all about? Has Daddy popped his cherry with delicious Dolores?’

I swatted his arm. ‘Stop it! Dad is heartbroken. I found him looking at his wedding album last night when I called in. He’s lost without Mum. She always organized everything and made plans and invited friends over, but now she’s gone and he doesn’t seem to know what to do with himself. Julie thinksDolores is a nice bit of company for him, but I think she’s a predator. As for Louise, she’s calmed down a bit. She’s working on some big project in work and she has some young intern who’s driving her nuts, so thankfully she’s distracted with that, which is a relief to us all.’

‘And dare I mention Pippa?’

My stomach clenched at the sound of her name. Pippa was a big fat thorn in my side. Quentin knew all about her. I could trust him with my life. Quentin had saved me when Jack lost everything by hiring me as a model booker. He’d seen me in all stages of my life – as one of his agency’s top models, as a rich housewife and then as a penniless basket case. This job had paid the bills and kept us afloat while Jack had struggled to rebuild his life. Not only was Quentin my fairy godfather, but he also disliked Pippa every bit as much as I did.

I sighed. ‘It’s the usual Pippa story. She was supposed to have Robert this weekend butsomething came upso we now have him … yet again.’

‘Jack is lucky that you’re so fond of his son. Other women would really not be so tolerant. You’ve been amazing and I hope Jack is busy thinking up ways to thank you.’

I loved that Quentin always had my back. Jack was lucky: I was very patient about having Robert so much. He was a sweet kid but, at the end of the day, he wasn’t mine. I had one daughter, whom I was finding difficult to manage; an ex who was now not an ex, who I loved, but we had our issues; and a very busy job. I didn’t want to be a full-time stand-in mother for Robert. I was sorry that he had a selfish, feckless mother, but I was beginning to resent all the time he spent with us because Jack and I never got time alone any more. Robert was very clingy to his dad because of his unreliable mother and wouldn’t let Jack out of his sight. I was worriedabout the future: would Robert be damaged because Pippa preferred partying to being with him? Would he act out and cause chaos when he was a teenager? He was already taking a lot of Jack’s attention away from Jess and me. I worried about helping to raise a boy. I didn’t know boys. Julie’s boys were a handful. Was I up to the task?

‘You know,’ Quentin said leaning closer, ‘rumour has it that Pippa is sleeping around and has grown very fond of the white powder.’

‘I knew it,’ I said. ‘I actually thought Pippa was high the last time I saw her because her eyes were glassy. I was right! I said so to Jack at the time, but he said I was being ridiculous, that Pippa would never do drugs, that she was too into her health. What is she thinking, though?’

‘She’s probably feeling pretty low,’ Quentin said. ‘I mean, her career is on a downward slide. She has that one little make-over slot on the morning show, but it’s a five-minute piece of fluff. All of her UK work has dried up, given to younger, prettier girls. She has to be feeling the pressure. It’s daunting for women like her – they forget they’re ten-a-penny until it’s too late. And I don’t think she has many other talents to offer the world.’

I knew I should feel sorry for a fellow woman with a declining career at such a young age, but she had been so mean to Jess that I wasn’t capable of feeling sympathy for her. Poor Jess had adored Pippa – to the point of driving me crazy and making me pathetically jealous – but she had been chucked aside the minute Robert was born. Since then, Pippa had barely given Jess the time of day and, thankfully, after licking her wounds, Jess had seen Pippa for the bitch she was.

‘Who’s Pippa sleeping with?’ I loved that Quentin always had the latest gossip.

‘Jackson Flinch, and I also heard she’s been shagging Paul Howarth – you know, the millionaire tech guy?’

‘No surprise she’s sleeping with rich men. I hope she moves in with one and starts looking after her son.’

Quentin pursed his lips. ‘Unlikely, I’m afraid. None of the men are sticking around. She’s got a bit of a reputation about town. She’s not as young or gorgeous as she once was and apparently she gets messy when she’s out.’

‘Oh, God, I really want her to be in a stable relationship so she can be a better mother. It’s not fair on Robert, Jack or me. Why did Jack have to bloody well have a child with her? It would be so much easier if there was no Robert, because Pippa would be out of our lives. Instead she’s plonked in the middle of them … for ever.’

‘It’ll get easier as Robert gets older and needs less minding. And there’s always boarding school.’ Quentin grinned at me.

I laughed. ‘Not a bad idea, but Jack would never send his precious son to boarding school. And I don’t think boys get easier to parent, or any teenagers for that matter. I’d send Jess to a boarding school in the morning. She’s driving me insane.’

‘I won’t have a bad word said about my beautiful Jess.’

‘I love that you love Jess, but she is being a very bolshie teenager right now.’

‘Yes, but she’s dealing with raging hormones and she’s missing her grandmother,’ he reminded me. ‘Go easy on her.’

‘I’ll try, but I’m struggling too. I miss Mum so much. It’d be nice if Jess wasn’t so rude to me. I’d like a bit of comfort and kindness too.’

Quentin put his short, chubby arms around me and kissed my cheek. ‘I know you’re heartbroken and I’m here for you. Now, come on, wait until I tell you the model gossip I heardearlier. It’ssogood it’ll make you forget all your woes, I promise.’

When I got home, Jess was in her bedroom as usual, screeching on the phone to her friends. Had I been that loud and shrill when I was fifteen? I didn’t think so. At Jess’s age I had already started modelling part-time and making my own money. I had a boyfriend called Henry I’d met on a shoot. He was very handsome and hot and, truth be told, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but then again, neither was I. Louise called him ‘Henry the Halfwit’. He was terrified of her, as were the rest of us. We only lasted about six months, but he was nice to me and I’d liked him.

Even Mum was a bit intimidated by Louise because she was impossible to argue with, even when she was a kid. From the age of about ten, Louise’s vocabulary was off the charts because she ate books. She read all day and almost all night too. She would debate and question everything. I mean every single thing. If Mum asked her to hang up the washing, Louise would go off on a tangent, using all these long words, as to why she shouldn’t and wouldn’t do it. Eventually Mum would shove her out of the kitchen and do it herself, muttering, ‘Bloody know-it-all.’ Teenage Louise didn’t have conversations with you, she gave lectures. Julie was the only one she talked to like an actual person. With Julie, Louise had always been nicer and less dismissive. Gavin and I had got the you’re-young-stupid-and-irrelevant Louise. Mum always tried to excuse her to us by saying, ‘It’s just that Louise’s brain works so fast she gets frustrated,’ but it had hurt at the time. No one wants to be told they’re thick. Thankfully, she was mellowing as she got older.

Although it was still a huge surprise when Mum and Louise had got so close after Clara was diagnosed. It wasnice to see a softer side to Louise, and Mum had been brilliant. Louise had let Mum into her life and leaned on her – for the first time, really. It was lovely to see. Mum adored Clara and would have taken a bullet for her. She felt the same about Jess too. God, I missed her.

I shook my head, as if I could dislodge the memories. Some days it was so hard to keep my brain on track – I kept wandering off into the past, remembering moments with Mum, us lot as kids and teenagers, how she took care of us and parented us. Ever since she’d died, it was like I was living half in the past. Julie said she felt the exact same. It was weird to me how grief worked and how the flashbacks kept coming. In a way the memories were a comfort because it meant I wasn’t forgetting Mum. I was actually remembering more about her than I ever had before. But right now I had to pull myself out of my memories and deal with my own tricky teen. I genuinely don’t know how Mum had survived this with four of us.

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