Pushing him out of my mind, I follow my nose to the kitchen and discover the Formica table has been shifted into the nook, laid with a cloth embroidered around the edges with flowers, and set with plates and cutlery. There’s an unopened bottle of red wine in the centre and three glasses.
Rach is busily taking a pie with a golden crust out of the oven with red-and-white checked oven mitts. Is this all for me? Itseems a little excessive, but that pie smells amazingly good. ‘Hi, Rach. Omigosh, you didn’t have to go to all this trouble,’ I say.
She peers under a saucepan lid and turns to face me with a querying look. ‘Trouble? It’s just dinner as per usual. But I didn’t have time to make the pastry for the pie from scratch, so I picked up a block from the supermarket on the way home and rolled it out.’ Seeing my blank look at being told all this, she glances at the table. ‘Oh, you mean thewine. Yes, I got a bottle of red to celebrate your first day.’
‘Ah, yeah ... And we don’t normally have wine with dinner,’ I say, taking a wild guess to cover my blunder.
She laughs, ‘No, goodness! Imagine!’
Phew, I got away with that. But wow, this girl actually cooks dinner every night for her flatmates. That is truly blowing my mind. Hopefully, she takes the weekend off.
Kiki appears, her bangles rattling and earrings swinging. She squeals when she sees me. ‘Jadey lady! How wasPopTrax? Can’t wait to hear about it. Smells good, Rach. What’s on the menu?’
‘Meat pie, spuds, and peas. And stewed plums and custard for afters.’
‘Yum!’ Kiki sits up at the table and tucks a napkin in her dungarees, and I follow suit. I’d be ordering something greasy and seriously lacking in vitamins from Deliveroo right about now in my own timeline. So to have a plate of steaming home-cooked food set in front of me is a real treat. Hmm, this is definitely a side bonus of living here.
And it seems dinner table conversation is the norm too. After taking a bite of food, Kiki turns expectant kohl-lined eyes to me. ‘Sooo what was it like? What did you do? Were there any cute guys?’
I laugh. ‘Whoa, slow down.’
Rach is eating quietly but is smiling, and her brown eyes are bright with interest too.
‘It was ... great actually,’ I say, deciding to give them the positives. ‘I got to interview a band. Cherry Threat. Apparently, they’re doing well in the UK charts.’
Kiki smacks her hand on the table. ‘Wicked!’ I jump a little. ‘Sorry, got a bit excited there. But that’s brilliant to hear. So fun!’ She taps her feet on the floor, as if she’s dancing in place, and grins at me. I smile back; her enthusiasm is kind of funny. She returns to eating her dinner, and I shovel in a mouthful too as I don’t want it to get cold; plus I’m starving.
‘So the guys?’ Rach prompts, pouring us a glass of wine each. ‘Any cute ones?’
‘Not really,’ I lie, taking a sip of wine. ‘Anyway, I was too busy learning the ropes to worry about looking at guys.’ Both girls’ faces fall, and I get the impression they were pinning their hopes on me introducing them to some hot single men. After all, online dating hasn’t been invented yet. If that’s the case, perhaps I should mention Ash ... Hmm, he’s cute, but the office sleaze. And I don’t want him breaking their hearts. Plus Sebastian was really anti-Ash, and I should probably keep my work and home life separate.
‘Yeah, pity about the guys. However, I’ll let you know if I’m given any spare concert tickets.’ I scoop up a forkful of mashed potato. ‘It would be fun to go and see a gig together. Who knows, we might even get Madonna!’
‘Omigod, squeee!’ Kiki leaps up from the table and sings the chorus to ‘Like a Virgin’ while doing hula hoop movements with her hips. Rach and I crack up. It feels good to laugh, to get out of my own head for once.
‘All those Jazzercise classes are coming in handy,’ says Rach, smiling at Kiki as she plops back down at the table.
‘Ooof, I don’t know. Jane Fonda’s flexy.’
When we’ve finished eating, I’m stuffed and ready for bed even though it’s barely past 7 p.m. It’s been a long day. Not all of itgood. However, seeing Sebastian twice was unexpected. And I’ve had a good time with my flatmates.
Kiki takes off to the lounge, while Rach starts scraping the plates, and I feel a twinge of guilt. ‘Hey, leave those. I’ll do the washing-up,’ I say.
‘Thanks, Jadey. I should go and get ready. I told Mum I’d see her tonight. Visiting hours finish at 8 p.m. But the nurses usually let me stay a little longer.’
I nod. But of course, I have no idea what she’s talking about. Her mum’s in hospital, it seems, but I can’t ask what she’s in there for. ‘Yes, yes, off you go. And, er, give her my best.’
‘I will. She loved the flowers you gave her. They’ve brightened up her room no end.’
‘Oh, good. Um, do you want me to go with you?’ I ask, not sure what ’80s Jade would do. She’s obviously quite close with Rach and her mum.
‘No, but thanks. I’ll pop over in a taxi and come straight back again. I feel I should see her, just in case...’
She chews on her bottom lip, and a worried look fleetingly crosses her face. Oh no, my intuition is telling me that Rach’s mum is not doing great, but I obviously already know about it. Damn Sebastian, why didn’t he provide me with a dossier about my flatmates?
15
JADE