Page 12 of Christmas at the Movies
She wished she could live there, in a pretty pastel house. But instead, she and Pari had been sharing a flat in Acton for the past year. It had damp walls, draughty windows and a barking dog next door, but they’d filled it with houseplants, books and colourful tapestries. Sarah loved her bedroom, which had a futon and a desk she’d found in a charity shop. When she was sitting at it, working on her screenplay, she had a beautiful view of Acton Park. The flat was perfectly situated halfway between Sarah’s job at Television Centre and James’s dad’s flat in Ealing. James was still living at home to save up for a deposit on a place of his own.
Sarah liked James’s father, Sean. He was a quiet, gentle soul. But he smoked like a chimney, and James’s childhoodbedroom was only big enough for a single bed, so James usually slept over at her place a few nights a week. As fun as it was to live with Pari, Sarah hoped that James would ask her to move in with him when he eventually bought a flat. They’d been going out together for three and a half years – since her first year of uni – and Sarah was more than ready to take the next step of living together. She loved the thought of making a home with James. Sometimes, when she went shopping, she lingered over the soft furnishings and fantasised about picking out cushions and china together. Not that she would ever admit her daydreams of domestic bliss to Pari, who would probably tease her about betraying her feminist principles.
Sarah and Pari went inside the restaurant, which had a stark white interior decorated to look like a chemist’s shop. Acid jazz played softly in the background. They ordered Cosmopolitans, making them feel like characters inSex and the City, which they watched together every Wednesday night over a takeaway.
‘Here’s to not having to make the tea any more!’ said Sarah, clinking glasses with her friend. They had both made more than their fair share of hot drinks over the past two years.
‘How are you going to spend your massive pay rise?’ asked Pari, sipping her cocktail.
Sarah laughed. Her salary increase had been negligible, but she was proud of the title she’d worked so hard to get. She didn’t mind putting in long hours because she absolutely loved her job. She loved crafting stories, helping writers make their work even better. Sarah had a knack for spotting what wasn’t working in a script and finding creative solutions to problems. In a weird way, it was similar to what James did – except he looked for bugs in software and found ways to fix them.
‘I was thinking of maybe getting a DVD player for the flat,’ said Sarah.
‘Do you really need one?’ asked Pari. ‘You and James are always going to the cinema.’
Their dinners arrived, looking like works of art. Pari’s spaghetti was moulded in the shape of a haystack, perched on a delicate puddle of tomato sauce. Sarah’s pork medallion was surrounded by baby vegetables and colourful dots of sauces arranged artfully on a square white plate. There was a tower of perfectly rectangular chips stacked on the side.
‘It’s almost too pretty to eat,’ said Sarah.
‘Then I’ll eat it for you,’ said Pari, cheekily pulling out a chip from the bottom of the tower and bringing the whole stack tumbling down.
‘Hey!’ protested Sarah in mock indignation.
‘How’sThe Ghost Writercoming along?’ asked Pari.
‘It’s nearly finished,’ replied Sarah. ‘I’m going to do some work on it this weekend.’ In her free time, she was writing a screenplay. The story was about a romance author with writer’s block, who fell intensely in love with the ghost of a nineteenth-century duke haunting the house where she was staying. The ghost told her the story of his life, which the author used as inspiration for her novel. But as soon as the book was written, the ghost vanished. She’d shown one of her colleagues – a writer named Jack – some scenes and he’d praised them, saying she had ‘a great ear for dialogue’.
‘I’d love to read it when it’s done,’ said Pari.
A buzzing noise came from her handbag. Pari took out her Nokia mobile phone, which James had helped her set up. He wanted Sarah to get a mobile, too, but she really couldn’t see the point. What phone call couldn’t wait until you got home?
Pari grinned as she put her phone back in her bag. ‘That was the Chuckle Hut. Their usual compère has the flu, so I’m going to fill in tonight.’ She was trying out new material for a one-woman show about her Punjabi upbringing, which she was planning to take to the Edinburgh Festival. Sarah was in awe of how her friend put hecklers in their place and kept going without missing a beat even when people called out the most awful abuse. It was even harder to be a woman on the comedy circuit than it was at the BBC.
‘Do you have time for dessert?’ asked Sarah.
‘Always.’
They shared a decadent chocolate pudding with a molten middle.
‘Want me to comp you a ticket for the show tonight?’ asked Pari.
‘I can’t – I’m meeting James in town,’ said Sarah. ‘We’re going to seeAn Affair to Remember. Can you believe he’s never seen it before?’
‘Um, yeah – because I’ve never seen it either,’ remarked Pari.
Sarah gasped in mock horror. ‘It’s about a couple who fall in love on a cruise liner,’ she explained. ‘They’re both in relationships, so they agree to meet at the top of the Empire State Building in six months’ time.’
‘So what happens? Do they get together or not?’
‘On the way to meet him, she gets hit by a car and ends up disabled. Not wanting to burden him, she never gets in touch. But he comes to her apartment on Christmas Eve anyway and figures out what happened.’ Sarah sighed deeply. ‘Not even tragedy can get in the way of their being together because they’re soulmates.’
Pari spooned up the last of the chocolate sauce. ‘I’m not sure I believe in soulmates.’
‘You just haven’t met yours yet,’ countered Sarah. ‘Maybe tonight will be the night.’
‘I don’t think I’m going to find him at the Chuckle Hut,’ said Pari drily. The men Pari met at comedy clubs tended to have questionable personal hygiene and, after a few dates, became threatened by the fact that she was much funnier than they were.
‘I didn’t expect to find my soulmate at the cinema,’ said Sarah. ‘So you never know.’
