Page 18 of When We Were Friends
As she drifted off to sleep that night, more relaxed than she had been in a long time, the oath whispered in Morgan’s ear, emphasising the four gifts. The women had chuckled together after they’d chanted it – yes, actually shared a joke – about how they used to call Paige’s gift a sixth sense. Paige agreed it sounded supernatural, wishful thinking on the part of those teenagers. A better label for Paige’s strength, they all decided, would have beenstrong intuition.
Was Emily right? Had their gifts disappeared? Not Morgan’s. She’d always loved the logic of maths, always been called practical, and as a member of the society, used to be able to detach herself emotionally and work out a problem. None of that had changed – unless it came to Olly. As for Emily, the kindness was harder to spot now, what with the sarcastic comments and no filter. Yet she’d agreed to help Morgan and seemed genuinely concerned for her son. Back in the day, her sweet nature inspired a sense of trust that lent itself to extracting information from people to solve a conundrum. As for Tiff, a prerequisite of acting was empathy, to be able to put yourself into the shoes of characters. Morgan couldn’t afford streamed television so hadn’t caught the shows her old friend had been in, but Tiff had certainly put herself in Olly’s position, considering what it meant to him to be missing one parent. There was no doubt, too, about Paige’s intuition. She’d guessed there might be another reason for Morgan wanting to find Hugo. But Morgan wouldn’t think about that now and hoped Paige didn’t mention it again. Instead, she allowed the oath to lull her to sleep.
11
PAIGE, EMILY, TIFF
Paige buried her face in the pillow, coming up for air after suffocating in memories of dancing at the prom, exchanging furtive, flirty glances with Hugo when she thought no one was looking. He’d even brushed her fingers with his as he passed – minutes before his nasty, revelatory speech. Yet she’d seen such a different side to him during their private trysts. He’d made her a bookmark with a daisy chain drawn on it. The chats turned to secret trips into Manchester. The first time they’d kissed, Paige took the lead, running her hand through his hair, down his chest, further down still the next time they got close. He’d buy her favourite cigarettes, a mate’s dad ran a corner shop and Hugo could get his hands on them cheap. They’d smoke them in the park. Read books together. Through her, he discovered the classics. Everyone used to say how mature Paige was, but with Hugo, for the first time, she could let down her hair. They went on a day trip to Blackpool. She’d never been on a rollercoaster before. He even gave her a charm bracelet. Said he loved her. With the direct eye contact, the dilating pupils, he’d seemed so honest.
Paige dragged herself into the sitting position. She never usually minded Monday mornings and would get up early and make coffee, often drinking it on the balcony, even in the winter with a rug on her lap, watching Manchester surface after a weekend of hangovers. But after another restless night, she was late today. Eight o’clock and she’d not even got showered or dressed. All night she’d tossed and turned due to her secret…
The bedroom door opened and Felix walked in, bringing her back to the present. He carried a tray and a small vase with a rose in it.
She shuffled up and leant back against the pillows. ‘What have I done to deserve this?’
He set the tray down on the bedside table, already dressed in his jogger bottoms and muscle-fit T-shirt. He ran a hand over his buzz cut, a nervous habit. ‘I’m worried about you, Paige. You’ve hardly slept the last couple of weeks and didn’t say much when you came in yesterday. You just let me go on and on about my trip next weekend. Honestly, it’s as if I’m going to somewhere amazing like Dubai for a week… oh. Wait.’
Paige did her best to smile. Felix hadn’t been sleeping well either and snapped occasionally; a lot was riding on his work in the Middle East. He worked for Prestige Fitness, a global gym business, helping them set up gyms around the world. He played an integral part in training staff, from the trainers up to management. Last summer, he’d gone to Sydney for three weeks, and in the January, Switzerland. She’d taken a week’s holiday and joined him. They’d fitted in skiing.
‘I looked online, it’s thirty degrees in Dubai at the moment,’ she said. ‘I’ll sneak some extra sun cream in your suitcase.’ She’d also hide one of her gloves in his case – a romantic joke to do with the way they met.
‘Sure you won’t come? Jiggle your appointments?’
‘I’d rather us book off a week together when neither of us are working. Let’s have a day out somewhere nice when you get back, though. It’ll be the Easter weekend so we’ll both have that Monday off. You know sun’s not my style – one reason I love living in Manchester.’
He passed her a plate – eggs, sunny side up. ‘What’s going on, Paige?Whowas it you met yesterday?’
His voice was gentle, the gaze caring. Another man might have suspected Paige was cheating, but Felix and Paige shared a deep trust of each other. After the teen years, honesty had been the priority in all of her relationships. And yet… she bit into the toast. She didn’t want to dump everything on him, not now, not when he was getting ready for Dubai. Just one word and it might all come spilling out, the dams of the painful past open with nothing to plug them. Prestige Fitness had suffered huge losses since 2020 and were struggling in a way they never had before. Felix didn’t talk about it much, a sign he was really worried. His real passion also lay not in the glitzy gyms, but the charity projects the company ran on the side, in which he was heavily involved, setting up community hubs where disadvantaged kids could develop an interest in fitness and good health, a place they were safe and could make friends. Dubai was a last-ditch project to see if Prestige Fitness could get back on track and his bosses had made it clear it was down to Felix to make Dubai work and lay the foundations to expand into other areas of the United Arab Emirates. An intense seven days, they could only afford to send him for one week. If Dubai wasn’t a success, the community hubs back in the UK would be the first arm of the company to suffer. Paige couldn’t offload her turmoil since meeting up with Morgan, Emily and Tiff. It would act as a distraction that might jeopardise everything Felix had worked so hard for.
‘Just friends.’ Were they now? ‘As for the lack of sleep, I’ve been brainstorming. A company I want to impress.’ One little lie, the first of their marriage. ‘They’ll pay well. The fee could go into our detached house fund.’
‘How about I cook tonight?’ he said. ‘Pasta, red wine, we can get a little silly…’ He winked.
‘Whatever do you mean, Felix Barron?’ The anxiety inside her stomach unfurled into something much more pleasant.
Felix went to leave and hesitated at the bedroom door. ‘No amount of money is worth you taking up smoking again, Paige.’ He gave a sheepish smile. ‘I smelt it on your clothes the other day. It’s up to you, but I reckon you don’t need cigarettes. You’re one of the strongest people I know.’
Paige loved Felix to the max. He knew her so well. She reached for the handbag by her side and ran a finger over the packet of cigarettes. But she wasn’t as strong as he thought.
* * *
Afternoon already. Emily’s phone bleeped and she reached for it. The four women had set up a WhatsApp group and there was a notification. She let the phone fall back down onto her bedside table, glad to be in bed, not at work. Monday was the busiest time in A&E due to a lack of services over the weekend; health problems spilled over. Some patients didn’t even bother trying their overstretched GP these days.
She used to put other people first, genuinely care about their wellbeing, but losing Mum had started the rot, magnified by 2020 and the strain on the NHS. Angry and frustrated patients. The government blaming nurses. Pay that hardly covered weekly bills and food. Emily pulled the duvet over her face as tears flowed. They didn’t count if the world couldn’t see them. She missed Lewis curled up next to her, gently snoring, tickling her behind the neck when it was time to get up, threatening to kiss her with his morning breath. They’d had such happy years at work before everything fell apart, exchanging stories each evening, united in a particular interest of looking after social outcasts, the people no one else loved. Each understood the stress of the job and after her difficult teenage years, Lewis renewed her faith in her vocation to look after others – for a while, at least.
Four paws landed on the bed. Emily pulled down the duvet. A wet nose batted hers. Emily ran a hand down Smudge’s back and the ensuing purring gave her a small, much-needed sense of achievement. Mouth dry from last night’s glasses of wine, not the full bottle for a change, Emily sat up as she recalled agreeing yesterday to find Hugo Black, telling Smudge about it as she sat up in bed. Despite the pain that memories of those school days brought back, she could face tracking down that lowlife because nothing could be as bad as what her career had demanded in recent times, like ringing relatives to tell them their loved one was dying, but no, they couldn’t visit, or holding doctors in her arms as, masked up and gloved, in protective clothing, they suffered from physical and mental exhaustion.
Emily shoved her phone into the pocket of her hooded blanket and padded into the kitchen. She filled the kettle, blocking out the prospect of her counselling session later. She pulled an iced bun wrapper off her bare foot and dropped it into an overflowing bin. A strong cup of tea accompanied her into the living room and she sat looking onto her back garden. A flock of ducks passed overhead and took her back to the small park behind her childhood home. One Saturday afternoon, she’d escaped to it. Dad had got back from another trip and she badly needed a break from waiting on Mum hand and foot. There was a pond and to her surprise, Hugo was there, holding slices of bread, so unexpected. Young Emily had found it sweet that he fed ducks and he’d offered her a slice – the start of his plan to woo her. She visited again the following weekend, curious as to whether he’d be there. Hugo had brought a small picnic. Their first kiss, under a weeping willow where no one could see was gentle, chaste, Emily panicking about where his hands might go, if she’d come across as stupid and naïve, Hugo taking it slow, seeming to sense this. The softness of his lips that had released unfriendly words over the years, words that became cruel after he lost the football captaincy, took her breath away. Deep in her pelvis, a tickling sensation grew that she’d never experienced before. She didn’t want it to stop. Emily blurted out that she loved him. Taken aback, he’d held her tightly.
A blue tit flew over to Emily’s feeder. She’d have to fill it up. Emily pulled out her phone and tapped into the WhatsApp group. Her eyes widened. As requested, Morgan had sent over a photo of Olly.
* * *
Holy shit. Olly really was the spit of Hugo. Tiff studied her phone screen, sitting in the lounge with Mum and Dad, who were re-watching a TV series where she’d played a minor part. As the screen flickered, so did memories of her relationship with Hugo. The smiles he started to give her, leaving her wary. The day he’d snapped his chocolate bar in half and offered her some. She’d ignored him at first, waiting for the insult that didn’t come. No boy had ever paid her any attention before, what with her lack of fashionable cheekbones or thigh gap, or at least that’s what she put it down to, especially a boy with such charisma, and how she’d longed for that validation. Finally, she had romance in her life with someone who bought her milkshakes without judging. She was sixteen, in love, and rapidly stopped asking the hows and whys. Up until then, only in her dreams had a boy run his hands over her curvy stomach and hips. The first time, she’d flinched, self-conscious, afraid, until he’d whispered in her ear that she felt sexy.
Shame had trickled over her during the years since, quashed by the fact her friends had behaved equally badly.
‘Popcorn, love? It’s low fat,’ said her mum and shook the bowl in her direction.
