Pain Quotidien. Imagine making all those loaves every day? The responsibility must be terrifying.
‘And what’s happening with your mum?’
‘Mum?’ I realise with a start that I haven’t heard from her in ages. I’ve always been a bit out of sight, out of mind, for Mum, particularly when she’s busy. I think maybe it’s rubbed off on me a bit. I really ought to call her.
‘Haven’t seen her for about a week,’ Nanna Beth tells me. ‘She was telling me all about this job she’s found selling something online. She’s caught up with some project or other. You know what she’s like.’
I sigh. I do. She’s forever finding money-making schemes that are going to solve all our problems – or just hers, nowadays. The trouble is that every one of them so far has involved her ploughing a load of money in ‘as an investment’ and none of it ever seems to come back.
‘Remember the lifestyle coaching or whatever it was?’ Nanna chuckles.
‘And the meditation teacher training?’ I laugh, thinking about how many times my mother’s been utterly convinced about something that was going to make her fortune. Six months sitting in a dusty church hall three nights a week soon put an end to that one, and she was on to the next thing. I bite my thumbnail.
‘Oh, I forgot,’ says Nanna Beth. ‘She said she was going for a cabaret job on one of the cruise ships when I spoke to her last.’
‘Did she?’ I say, sitting up sharply. How the hell is she going to look out for Nanna if she’s halfway round the world on the Disney Princess or whatever it is?
‘Anyway, enough about that. I want to hear all about your exciting new job. How’s it going? Any nice men on the scene?’
I suppress a sigh. Nanna Beth doesn’t miss a trick.
‘What’s happening with that nice-sounding lad? The one who’s been taking you out?’
I drop my voice slightly. ‘Alex? There’s nothing going on there. We’re just friends.’
‘Pfft,’ she says.
‘We are. Honestly. He’s got something going on with one of the other girls in the house.’
‘Hmm,’ she sounds mildly disapproving. ‘Sounds like a bit of a ladies’ man.’
I choke back a giggle. Alex is the most unlikely ladies’ man I’ve ever met. I think it’s that – coupled with the fact that I met him once and basically fabricated an entire romance in my head because I’ve spent too long watching romantic movies – that makes the whole thing with him and Emma bearable. Plus from what he’s said – not much, admittedly – I get the feeling that the break-up he had with his ex was pretty brutal.
‘He’s definitely not that.’
‘Well you mind yourself, my love. After all that business with Neil, I don’t want you rushing into something else too quickly.’
‘There is no chance of that,’ I say.
‘Right then. I’m going to get off, because it’s almost time for Coronation Street and I’m dying to know what happens to Steve.’
‘I’ll see you soon, Nanna.’
‘That would be lovely. Lots of love to you.’ She blows kisses down the phone and hangs up.
Afterwards, I curl up in bed and watch La La Land on my iPad. I’ve bought some noise-cancelling headphones just in case of any incidents next door. I’ve literally no idea how much of a thing the whole thing is, but I’m not taking any chances.
Later that night, I’m tiptoeing downstairs to make a cup of hot chocolate because I can’t sleep when I bump into Emma coming upstairs. She’s wearing a dressing gown and holding a bottle of white wine and two glasses. She gives me a look I can’t quite decipher – I’m not sure if she’s feeling weird about me noticing the two glasses, or hoping I won’t tell Becky there’s something going on. I give a sort of sympathetic smile (I have no idea why).
When I make the hot chocolate, I add a large slug from the bottle of leftover spiced Christmas rum that’s been sitting by the sink for weeks and head upstairs to climb into bed, putting my headphones firmly over my ears.
CHAPTER NINE
Jess
10th February
I’ve been living in Notting Hill for a month now, and Alex has been as good as his word. He’s showing me his London, piece by piece, like a jigsaw, and I’m falling even more in love. With London, I should add, not with him. Definitely not with him. Not even a tiny little bit. Not even one atom of my romance-loving, musical-addicted, happy-ever-after body