The Girl Next Door (2 page)

The doorbell rang. Ed was obviously in better shape, as usual. It took more than three drinks to fell her husband. He answered the door with a cheery ‘Good morning!’, and admitted their breakfast, brought in by a waiter so discreet that he laid a table, arranged an orchid in a vase, and silver domes on porcelain plates, then left again without ever acknowledging the groaning woman‐shaped lump under the duvet.

‘Come on, lightweight. Breakfast.’ Ed, who was, she now noticed, already showered and dressed, flipped up the bottom corner of the counterpane, exposing a foot. He squeezed her big toe.

‘Ugggh.’

‘Tea?’

‘Mmm.’

‘Wasn’t sure what you wanted, and wasn’t about to risk waking you up, so I ordered pancakes, bacon, fruit salad, egg white omelette…’

‘Who would ever want to eat an egg white anything? The yolk’s the only fun part of an egg.’

‘And the only part that will kill you…’

Eve sat up grumpily and accepted the cup of tea he proffered. ‘And so it begins…’

‘So what begins?’

‘You’re turning American. Joining the cholesterol police.’

Ed laughed. ‘So I guess you want the pancakes and bacon?’

‘Kill or cure.’ Eve came to the table and peered under the silver dome on her side of the table.

‘I’m hoping for cure. Busy day in prospect…’ Ed raised his glass of orange juice in a toast, and clinked it against Eve’s cup. ‘Here’s to the new house!’

Except that it wasn’t a house. Eve and Ed
used
to live in a house with a name, on a street with a name. In a house with a garden and a driveway and a garage for a car. Their car. Ed had a shed in the garden. Eve had a job. Eve used to live twenty‐five minutes from her sister and her nieces and nephews.

That was then. This was now. She took her tea to the window and looked out, at the tall grey buildings, and the blue, blue sky. Steam rose from manhole covers, just like in films. She couldn’t kick that feeling – like she was herself in a film. But this was real. This was it! They were here…

Two pancakes, three rashers of very crispy bacon, four mugs of tea and a fifteen‐minute power shower later, Eve felt human. Ish. When she emerged from the bathroom that was bigger than her bedroom at home, Ed was on the phone and it was obviously work. She frowned at him. Today was their day.

He raised a conciliatory hand, and shrugged apologetically. But he said, ‘Yep. Right. Yep. I’ll be there in,’ checking his watch, ‘half an hour. Forty‐five minutes tops. Great.’ When he’d hung up he came and sat next to her on the bed, and put his arm around her shoulders.

She glared at him reproachfully. ‘You promised.’

‘I know. I won’t be there all day, I promise. Just a couple of hours.’

Neither of them believed him.

‘You’d better be there when we pick up the keys.’ That was 3 p.m.

‘Definitely.’ Ed was pulling on his jacket. ‘I’ll meet you there.’

‘Okay.’

Ed took her face in his hands and kissed her deeply. ‘I’m going to make love to you in every room tonight.’

She crinkled her nose up and sniggered. ‘Cheeseball. Good job it’s a classic four, not a classic six.’

‘Get you, with your New York realtor talk.’

‘Oh, I know all the lingo.’

He smacked her bum. ‘And, fyi, I reckon I could manage a classic six, or, indeed, a duplex.’

Eve laughed. He probably could, actually. When they’d moved into the cottage, he’d managed every room, the patio table, and the shower, although, truthfully, things had gotten a little half‐hearted by the time they’d got to the old larder with the freezing cold marble countertop. She’d made him promise they’d christen every house they ever had that way, even the assisted living facility she was confident they’d end up being Darby and Joan in. He remembered.

One more quick kiss, a groan of regret, and he was gone.

Back to bed then, just for a while.

She couldn’t believe she was here. Everything had happened so fast. Four months ago there had been no hint of any of this. Four months ago she’d been looking out of the window at her garden, at the deep beds she’d dug the year before, thinking about springtime. She’d loved that garden. And the house. Their first house. A three bedroom cottage in a village four miles from the centre of town. Top of their budget when they’d bought it, it still needed lots of work – the old couple they’d bought it from hadn’t done a thing to it in twenty years – so she’d become a rabid weekend DIY’er. She’d learnt to strip wallpaper, and tile and grout, and over the course of a year or two she’d eradicated all the Eighties décor and created a place she truly loved – all white walls and deep sofas. The garden had been the best part and the biggest revelation. She’d never taken the slightest bit of notice of the seasons before. She’d lived in her parents’ house, where the garden was somewhere to play and lounge around, in university halls and in flats, where, on hot, sunny days, Clapham Common was the only garden you needed, and you ignored it for the other 360 days of the year. Now, she drank the first cup of tea of the morning on the little patio off the kitchen, almost every day, drinking in the sights and sounds and smells of the garden all year round.

She’d been on the patio when Ed had come home, that day. Wearing his Barbour and a rainbow‐striped woolly hat that she’d had forever and that Ed called ‘the teacosy’. Drinking a mug of Earl Grey, and inspecting her beds, daydreaming of bulbs. She was always home an hour or so before Ed. He worked in London, and was at the mercy of the capricious trains. Much as she loved him, that was often her favourite hour of the day. All her own. A good day’s work done (mostly). Time to indulge her new‐found domesticity. Marinate something. Prune something.

He was later than usual, that day. She smelt beer on his breath as he kissed her. ‘Evie.’ She loved that he called her Evie. He had, since the first day she’d met him, and he was the only person in the world who did, since her mum.

‘You’ve been drinking!’

‘Sorry, Mum. Just one.’

‘Who with?’ She put her hands on her hips in a Lucille Ball sort of way, but she was smiling.

‘The boys from work.’

‘The Boys’ were an amorphous lump of masculinity so far as Eve was concerned. She’d met them, possibly, at the Christmas party, at the Summer Family Fun Day (and the award for most misnamed day goes to…), but they were an indistinct lot – Ben and Dan and Tom and Dave and Tim and… the rest. ‘Good day, then?’

‘
Great
day.’

Now her curiosity was aroused. ‘How so?’

‘Come inside, babe. It’s freezing out here. I want to talk to you.’ Ed pulled her by both hands, walking backwards towards the door. She let him. Inside their kitchen, he went to the fridge, and pulled out a bottle of wine. ‘We’re celebrating.’ He grabbed two glasses from the washing‐up rack and poured.

‘What?’

‘I’ve got a new job. I’ve been promoted.’

‘Ed! That’s fantastic! I didn’t even know you were up for something…’

‘Nor did I. Well, not exactly.’

Eve picked up the two glasses, proffering one towards him. ‘You star. Cheers.’

‘Cheers, Evie.’ They both drank.

Eve pulled out a chair and sat down, still watching him. He looked so happy. ‘Tell me all.’

‘I haven’t told you the best bit…’

‘A raise?’ A raise would be great. They could really do with reducing the mortgage… all the spare cash they’d had in the last couple of years had gone to B&Q…

‘Yes, yes, a raise. A pretty massive one. But that’s not it.’ He widened his eyes, smirking at her.

She smacked his chest playfully. ‘Stop teasing me, you bugger. Wha‐a‐at?’

‘The job is in…
NEW YORK!
’ Ed did jazz hands. He looked strangely comical doing jazz hands. The moment was surreal.

‘What?’

‘New York. The job’s in the New York office. Manhattan. Two years, maybe more if we want. New frigging York, Evie! Can you believe it?’

Eve felt like all the air in her lungs had been sucked out. Her cold, garden cheeks were suddenly hot.

Ed stood in front of her, jazz hands frozen. ‘So talk to me. You look like a fish.’ He blew out his cheeks, and made ‘ohs’ with his mouth. ‘Say something…’

‘Wow.’

He shook her gently by the shoulders. ‘Say something else.’

‘New York.’

‘A whole sentence would be good…’

‘You took this job?’

Ed’s face fell just a little. ‘Well… I told them I’d need to talk to you first, obviously, but…’

‘But?’

‘But I said I was sure you’d jump at it. You will, won’t you? Jump at it? I mean, it’s not like we haven’t talked about something like this…’

‘We talked about it once, years ago.’

‘But you were up for it then, weren’t you?’

‘Well, yes…’

‘And nothing’s changed, has it?’

‘There’s the house…’

Was that a flicker of irritation crossing his face? ‘And we can keep the house, Evie. Of course we can.’

‘I love the house.’ She sounded wistful, even to herself.

‘I know you do. I love the house, too. We’ll keep the house, Evie. They’ll rent us a place, sort all of that out. It’s a really sweet deal. We’ll be much better off. We’ll rent it out, of course. Tenants will pay the mortgage. And we’ll come back.’

‘Will we?’

Ed knelt down by her chair, and put both arms around her hips. ‘You don’t sound happy like I thought you would, Evie.’

She laid her head on top of his, in her lap. ‘I’m just… it’s a bit sudden… it’s a bit of a shock, that’s all.’

‘Not a shock. A surprise. A wonderful, fortuitous, bloody marvellous surprise.’ He rubbed her hair. ‘Hey, Evie. We can talk about this as much as you like. We can say no.’

She looked at his face, trying to figure out whether or not he meant that. His lovely face. She knew she wouldn’t make him say no.

Eve wasn’t quite sure when it was decided that Ed had the career and she had the job. Or who decided. But she knew that that’s how it was. And so she knew that they would go to New York.

And now she just needed to figure out how to be happy about it.

And so, four months later, here she was, (almost) completely happy about it. She was even (almost) a little ashamed of her initial reaction. It wasn’t very intrepid of her. This was a huge adventure, wasn’t it? A fantastic opportunity. The most exciting city in the world. She wanted to be the sort of woman who grabbed life. Who’d ride a bike downhill without the brakes on, and who’d sit in the front seat on the roller coaster, and who’d stand at the karaoke mike. She’d always wanted to be that sort of woman. And now she could be. This was the perfect place to be
that
woman. And today was a good day to start…

Perhaps she’d start by calling her sister. Cath had always been
that
woman. In some ways it made no sense that she was here and Cath was there, married to Geoff. Slightly wet Geoff. Who ever knew what alchemy was at work when two people fell in love? It made no sense, sometimes.

Cath answered on the third ring. She sounded out of breath.

‘It’s me. Eve.’

‘Eve! How are you? How’s it all going?’

‘Oh, you know, it’s hell at the Four Seasons. What to eat? What treatment to get at the spa. Just ordering from the pillow menu is exhausting…’

‘Shut up. I just cleaned poo out from under my fingernails.’

‘That’s disgusting. How are the poo machines?’

‘Smelly. Noisy. Adorable.’

‘I can hear one now.’

‘That’s George. He wants Cheerios in the car. I’ve only got a minute, actually, sis. School run, you know.’

‘I forgot.’

‘No worries. Sometimes I forget, and that’s much more serious. I’ve got a sec. How is it, really?’

‘Really? A bit weird. Ed’s gone to the office, even though he’s supposed to be off all day helping me, and I realize I don’t know a soul. I’m totally Dougie No Mates until he meets me later.’

‘Go shopping. No one can feel lonely in Blooming‐dales. Visa can be your best friend.’

Eve laughed. ‘You’re probably right.’

‘So when do you move in?’

‘We get the keys this afternoon. The new furniture should be coming tomorrow – the stuff from England is meant to have cleared customs last week, but I’ve got to check. So, today, I suppose, officially, although we’ll sleep at the hotel for another couple of nights.’

‘No room service in the flat, I suppose.’

‘In the
apartment
? No!’

‘Listen, hon. I’d really better go. Call me later – tell me again how fabulous it is?’

‘Sure. I will. Love to everyone.’

‘And back. We all miss you like crazy, Eve.’

Eve missed her sister, too. She could picture everything about Cath at that moment. George, with his plastic beaker of Cheerios and his untameable blonde cowlick; the chaotic kitchen, full of unread newspapers and sticky jars; Cath, tall and willowy and totally yummy mummy.

Suddenly a little tearful, she sniffed and reached for the remote control. Nurse Hathaway and Dr Doug Ross were arguing again. She lost herself in the County General ER, and eventually slipped back into sleep, not waking until the credits were rolling.

Apartment 6A

Avery Kramer was barking orders as usual. She looked like an angel but right now she was about as far from angelic as a curly blonde, blue‐eyed toddler could get. The blue was icy, the lash‐fringed lids narrowed in cold rage. She sat in the ungainly wooden high chair, legs splayed as though to trip you on purpose, and demanded yet another breakfast option. Behind her, the kitchen sink was already piled high with dishes from rejected offerings. She’d wanted French toast, but hadn’t eaten it, had demanded a boiled egg, but discarded it after the first dip of a bread finger. Now, it seemed, Cheerios, no milk, was what was required. Her mother Kimberley was reaching for the cereal box, talking to Avery, all the time, in the sing‐song storytime voice Jason had grown to hate. He straightened his tie, taking in the domestic tableau, and wondered how it had all gone so wrong. His first meeting wasn’t until 10 a.m., but he was ready to leave already. Kissing the top of his daughter’s head, he gave Kim a jaunty wave, almost a salute, but moved no closer to her.