Some Girls Do (42 page)

There was a chorus of ‘Mark!’ as they entered, and he waved at them all in greeting.

‘Everyone, this is Claire,’ Olivia said, ‘Mark’s friend.’

Claire nodded shyly as they all said hello.

‘Sit down, you two,’ Olivia said, waving them to a couple of chairs beside each other. ‘Claire, this is Diane, Patrick, Emma and Jamie.’

‘Emma works with me,’ Mark whispered to Claire, as she sat down beside Jamie. She wondered why he was whispering and he raised his eyebrows meaningfully – at which she realised this was @Locksie.

‘Oh!’ she breathed. She wouldn’t have known her from her Twitter avatar, but now that she knew it was her, she recognised the face. It felt strange not to be able to acknowledge that they knew each other – sort of.

‘Andy’s still to come,’ Olivia was saying, ‘but we’re getting sloshed while we’re waiting. Red or white?’

They both asked for red, and when she had filled their glasses, she sat down opposite Claire.

‘I haven’t seen Andy in ages,’ Mark said to Olivia.

‘None of us has,’ she said.

‘Is he bringing anyone?’

‘I’m not sure. He was a bit vague. He broke up with Sam a couple of months ago, and I don’t think he’s seeing anyone else.’

‘So, you’re from Dublin, Claire?’ Emma asked her.

‘Yes. I’m just over for the weekend.’

‘You’re staying with Mark?’ she asked, smiling knowingly at him.

‘Um … yes.’

‘Well, you’re a dark horse, Mark,’ Jamie said. ‘You never told us you were having an international fling. All those business trips are starting to make sense now.’

‘They
were
business trips,’ Mark said. ‘Claire and I have only just started seeing each other. And it’s not a fling, by the way.’

‘Ooh!’ Jamie and Patrick chorused childishly.

Claire suddenly felt self-conscious, as if she was on trial with his friends and they were all sizing her up. She got the feeling these people were very important to him, and she wanted them to like her.

‘Don’t mind them,’ Mark said to her. ‘They’re such children.’

‘Sorry,’ Emma said to Claire. ‘We’re being silly – too much wine and no food. Where’s bloody Andy?’ she shouted to the table at large.

Right on cue, the doorbell rang. ‘That’ll be him now,’ Olivia said, getting up and leaving the room.

‘Thank God for that,’ Patrick said. ‘At last we can eat.’

‘What are we having anyway?’ Diane asked. ‘Does anyone know?’

‘Knowing Olivia, it’ll probably be some vile invention of hers.’

They were all chatting and giggling about Olivia’s cooking when she came striding back into the room. Claire was surprised that she was rather stony-faced – and was she imagining it or had she glanced warily at Mark?

‘Andy’s here,’ she said tightly, ‘and he’s brought someone.’ She was followed into the room by a tall, dark-haired man and a ravishingly pretty girl with thick waves of strawberry blonde hair tumbling down her back.

Everyone fell silent, and all eyes flew to Mark.

‘Hi, you guys,’ the blonde said, smiling. Either she was
oblivious to the atmosphere in the room or she was choosing to ignore it. Patrick and Diane were obviously stunned, Jamie looked cross, and Emma appeared downright hostile as they greeted her in turn. They all kept darting furtive glances at Mark, as if they were expecting him to explode.

‘Sophie.’ Mark finally nodded in acknowledgement.

‘And who’s this?’ Sophie asked, her eyes settling on Claire.

‘This is Claire,’ Mark introduced her. ‘Claire – Sophie and Andy.’

Sophie extended a heavily braceleted hand. ‘Nice to meet you, Claire.’ She smiled, blatantly sizing her up. Then her eyes slid questioningly to Mark. ‘Well, you haven’t wasted any time,’ she said, as she took the seat on Mark’s other side, her dazzling smile never slipping. ‘I go into rehab for five minutes and find I’ve been replaced.’

Her mischievous smile belied the bitterness of her words, but they hit Claire like a slap. She didn’t know where to look. Was this why everyone had been acting so shiftily when Sophie arrived? Because he’d cheated on Sophie while she was in rehab?

Irritation crossed Mark’s features. ‘Sophie, you know we’d—

‘So, what’s for supper, Ol?’ Sophie interrupted, pouring herself a huge glass of wine. ‘I’m starving!’

‘Should you be doing that?’ Olivia asked, frowning, as Sophie raised the glass to her lips.

‘Oh, Christ, you’re right!’ Sophie stopped herself as she was about to take a sip. She lowered the glass. ‘God, I’m such a dunce! I’ll never graduate from rehab like this. Here, you have it,’ she said, sliding the glass across to Andy.

Olivia smiled reluctantly. ‘I’ll go and get the first course.’

‘What do you think it’s going to be?’ Sophie hissed, when Olivia was out of the room. ‘Not one of her “creations”, I hope.’

‘So how was rehab?’ Jamie asked cheerfully.

‘Boring! Though I did have a little fling with a crackhead from Scotland – that was fun.’

‘You’re not supposed to get off with people in rehab,’ Jamie said. ‘Isn’t that against the rules?’

Sophie shrugged. ‘You have to do something to pass the time. So, Claire, where are you from?’

‘Dublin.’

‘Ah, lovely! I was in Dublin once. At least I think it was Dublin,’ she frowned, ‘but I was off my head, so who knows? I had a pint of Guinness, though, so it probably was Dublin.’

‘You can get Guinness anywhere,’ Patrick pointed out.

‘True, but you wouldn’t get me drinking it. I must have been doing the tourist thing.’

‘Are you and Andy …’ Mark trailed off.

‘What? Banging each other?’ She glanced at Andy. ‘God, no! I love Andy to bits, but we don’t fancy each other at all, do we, babe?’ she said to Andy, who shook his head.

‘Nope, not a bit,’ he said.

‘Andy was very sweet,’ Sophie said, ‘driving down to pick me up when I was sprung from rehab, when a certain other person seems to have forgotten my existence.’ Her eyes returned pointedly to Mark. ‘At least some people still love me.’

‘You know we all love you,’ Mark said blandly.

Ouch, Claire thought. That had to sting. It was such a brutally noncommittal reply to Sophie’s obvious fishing.

There was an awkward silence, broken by Olivia returning with the starters.

‘What’s it meant to be, Ol?’ Sophie asked, prodding the food suspiciously with her fork.

‘It’s tilapia in a chilli sauce.’

‘Tilapia is a white fish, isn’t it?’ Sophie frowned. ‘Why is this black?’

‘It has a dusting of cocoa powder,’ Olivia told her cheerfully, as she finished handing plates around.

Everyone looked at her in alarm and began poking tentatively at their food.

‘Well,
bon appétit
, everyone!’ Olivia said, sitting down and attacking her starter enthusiastically.

Claire cut off a tiny piece of fish and put it gingerly into her mouth. It was absolutely disgusting, but she forced herself to swallow it.

Sophie had no such compunction. ‘Ugh! It’s chocolate fish.’ She grimaced, pushing her plate away after one bite. ‘That’s vile, Ol!’

‘Claire seems to like it, don’t you, Claire?’ Olivia said.

‘It’s, um … interesting.’ Claire had managed to dig out some fish from beneath the cocoa topping and was valiantly chewing it. The rest she was trying to hack up and move around so that it would look like she’d eaten more.

‘No, she doesn’t,’ Sophie said flatly. ‘She’s just being polite.’

‘You don’t have to eat any more of it,’ Mark said to Claire. ‘It’s terrible.’

Thankfully, the next course of pork in vanilla sauce was marginally more successful.

‘Pork and custard!’ Sophie pronounced, and that was exactly what it tasted like. But at least the sauce could be avoided, and Olivia hadn’t added any ‘gourmet’ touches to the vegetables.

‘So, what’s the news?’ Sophie asked, as they ate. ‘What did I miss while I was in rehab?’

‘Mark’s publishing that blog, ‘Scenes of a Sexual Nature’,’ Emma told her.

‘Oh, my God, really?’ Sophie chuckled. ‘Have you met her, then? Your precious NiceGirl?’

‘Yes, I have.’

‘What’s she like?’

‘He’s not telling us anything about her,’ Olivia said.

‘She wants to remain anonymous.’

‘I love that blog,’ Sophie said. ‘Do you know it, Claire?’

‘Yes, I read it all the time.’

‘Mark’s a bit obsessed with her, aren’t you, Mark? He flirts his arse off with her online. You want to watch him with that one, Claire.’

‘Claire has nothing to fear from her,’ Mark said, smiling secretively at Claire.

‘And you really won’t tell us anything about her?’

‘Nope.’

‘You’re no fun. I bet she’s a hag. That’s why you won’t tell us.’

‘I’ll tell you this much – she is definitely not a hag.’

Claire felt unnerved. She wasn’t sure what was going on. Sophie certainly wasn’t behaving like a woman who’d just caught her boyfriend cheating on her. And Mark wasn’t acting guilty. Maybe what Sophie had said was just banter – a bit of harmless teasing between friends. But if that was so, why all the strange looks when she’d turned up?

‘Is anyone up for a picnic on the Heath tomorrow?’ Olivia asked later. She had produced cheese and crackers to end the meal, and everyone had fallen on them hungrily, making up for dinner. ‘It’s meant to be another lovely day.’

‘What do you think?’ Mark asked Claire.

‘It’s up to you …’

‘We’ll give you a ring in the morning and let you know,’ Mark said to Olivia.

‘And Andy’s having a barbecue tomorrow night,’ Sophie said.

‘Yes, you’re all invited,’ Andy said.

‘Claire’s going home tomorrow, so we won’t be around for that,’ Mark said.

‘Oh, that’s a shame. What time is your flight?’ Olivia asked Claire, as she started clearing the table.

‘Eight twenty.’

‘Well,
you
can still come, Mark,’ Sophie said.

‘I’m taking her to the airport.’

‘Oh, bum!’ Sophie pouted prettily.

‘If you want to go, I can easily make my own way to the airport,’ Claire said quietly to Mark.

‘No, I want to take you.’

‘Course he does,’ Sophie said gaily, leaping up to help Olivia. ‘Mark is the model boyfriend at all times. I can vouch for that.
If you ever need a reference, Mark, I’ll be happy to provide a glowing one.’

‘Thanks a lot, Sophie,’ Mark said drily, as Sophie followed Olivia from the room.

Soon after that, the party started breaking up.

‘Well, I guess we should be off,’ Mark said to Claire. ‘I’ll just find Olivia to tell her and then I’ll call a taxi.’

‘Okay. I’m going to the loo.’

When Claire got to the top of the stairs, she heard muffled voices coming from a door opposite. She recognised Sophie’s and it sounded like she was crying.

‘I mean, I’ve gone to all this bloody trouble to clean up my act and sort myself out, and he doesn’t even
care
. He’s fucking moved on!’

‘But you didn’t just do it for him, did you?’ Olivia said softly.

‘Of course I did it for him!’ Sophie said, on a sob. ‘He’s all there is. Oh, God, Ol, what am I going to do? If I can’t get him back …’ She sniffed.

Claire froze. She knew she shouldn’t eavesdrop, but she needed to know what was going on between Sophie and Mark.

‘You needed to sort yourself out anyway,’ Olivia said sensibly. ‘For your own sake.’

‘I know. But what’s the point? If I can’t have him, I’d rather be back on drugs.’

‘You’re such a drama queen,’ Olivia mocked, earning a half-laugh from Sophie. ‘I wish you’d at least given me some warning you were going to turn up tonight.’

‘I was afraid you’d tell me not to come.’

‘I might have done,’ Olivia said.

‘Honestly, Ol, I didn’t care about doing it for myself. The whole time I was in rehab, I just thought about
him
– how pleased he’d be. I wanted him to be proud of me.’

‘He is proud of you, babe. We all are. But you may not get him back. You have to accept that.’

‘I can’t!’ Sophie wailed.

‘Sorry, Soph, but Claire seems really nice. She could be good for him.’

‘Not like me, you mean. God, I’ve never wanted to get wasted so much!’

‘I didn’t mean that, but you hurt Mark a lot.’

‘I know, I know,’ Sophie sobbed. ‘I’ve been a total flake and a fuck-up and I messed him around too many times. I’ve let everyone down so often. But if he’d just give me
one
more chance …’

Claire turned and raced downstairs, as if she was being chased. Mark was waiting for her in the hall.

‘Okay?’ he asked, looking at her with concern.

‘Fine,’ she said faintly.

‘The taxi’s outside.’

She felt too shaken to say anything in the cab on the way home. When Mark glanced over at her and asked if she was all right a couple of times, she just smiled and said she was fine, but the conversation she had overheard had really rattled her. Mark obviously knew that something was up – and he probably had a good idea about what it was. But it would have to wait until they got home. She needed time to gather her thoughts and calm down.

‘Well, that was an interesting evening,’ Mark said wryly, when they got back to his flat. ‘Sorry about the food.’

‘It’s not your fault. It was … different.’

‘So, would you like a drink? Or do you just want to go to bed?’

At the mention of bed, Claire knew she had to say something. She suddenly felt like an impostor. Everything had changed, and she couldn’t go to bed with Mark now, knowing she might be sleeping with someone else’s boyfriend.

‘I’d like a drink,’ she said, even though she’d already had more than enough. ‘Some wine would be nice.’

‘Coming right up,’ Mark said, glancing at her warily. It was like there was a bomb in the room, and they had to be careful not to trigger it.

When they were settled on the sofa with their drinks, she took a deep breath and began, ‘So – you and Sophie …’

Mark let out a long sigh of resignation or relief – perhaps both. ‘What she said about me moving on while she was in rehab – it’s not true,’ he said. ‘We’d broken up long before then.’

‘So why did she say that?’