Wags To Riches (23 page)

“Oh I’ve been fine” he replies.  “Tim and Tony came round and we watched an international match on Sky”.

“Oh that’s nice,” I say, smiling at him.  “It will be funny not going to work anymore” I remark.  “Not seeing everybody every day”.

“Not regretting leaving are you?” Adam asks as we head home.

“Not on your life!” I say, “I don’t like them that much!” and Adam laughs.  “Well – apart from Alex of course” I say, hastily correcting myself.

When we get home, Adam comes round to open the door for me.  “Shan’t be a minute” I say as I get out and struggle to get my shoes back on, “I just can’t seem to thread this stupid strap back through the buckle”.  What’s wrong with these shoes?  They aren’t normally aren’t this hard to fasten.

Adam waits for a moment and then looks at me.  “Oh for goodness sake!” he says and without further ado, picks me up and throws me over his shoulder!

“Adam!” I squeal, pounding my fists on his back as he picks up my shoes and handbag and walks towards the house.  “Put me down!  Put me down now!”

“Well, we’d have been there all bloody night waiting for you!” he says grinning as he steps into the house and gently lowers himself down so I can get off his shoulder.

“I wasn’t that slow!” I protest and Adam raises his eyebrows.  “It was my shoes – I don’t normally have a problem fastening them!”

Adam laughs.  “I’m just going to put the car away and then I’m going to have a drink.  Would you like one or do you think you’ve had enough?” he asks.

“I’m fine” I say with a delicate hiccup, “I’m in the mood to celebrate tonight!”

While Adam puts the car away, I go into the kitchen and pad across the floor in my bare feet to the fridge to get a bottle of champagne, taking out two champagne flutes from the cupboard on the way.  When Adam comes in, I pass him the bottle to open.

“No – not one of those Gail,” he says, “I think today warrants something extra special – seeing as today was your last day at work.”  He puts the bottle back in the champagne fridge and walks over to the main fridge instead.  “I fetched this today,” he says and lifts out a bottle, “This is a rare vintage champagne”.

“Great!  Let’s get it open!” I say grinning and Adam laughs.  “Start as we mean to go on!” 

Adam opens the bottle and pours out two glasses.  “I’m so glad you are going to be here with me” he says.

“Thank you!” I reply.  “You are lovely!”

“No regrets about moving in and leaving your job then?” he asks.

“None whatsoever.  I mean I’ll miss Alex…”

“Of course”.

“But apart from that - I’m really looking forward to it” I say and try to climb onto one of the breakfast bar stools.  “I think my dress is too tight to get on to this” I mumble as I slide off the seat.

“I think your dress is just fine” Adam says in a low voice walking over to me, “In fact I think you should buy more dresses like that” he adds and hands me a glass of champagne and I grin at him.

“To us” he says, raising his glass in a toast.

“To us” I repeat and take a sip.  “Oh that’s lovely!” I exclaim.

“’It is isn’t it?” Adam says, smacking his lips appreciatively.  “Should be really for £250 a bottle!”

Oh my God!  “Oh is that all?” I say laughing and take another drink. “Was it on offer?”

I’m woken the next morning by a beeping noise outside.  What the hell is that?  Whatever it is, I wish it would go away.
  I listen to the noise for a moment trying to work out what the hell it is.  It sounds like a car horn.  I sit up in bed.  God my head hurts. I wish I hadn’t drunk so much last night.  As I gingerly massage my temples, I look over at Adam’s side of the bed.  It’s empty.  Where’s he gone?  I can’t hear the shower going.  I get out of bed and holding my head with one hand, knock on the door of the ensuite bathroom with the other.  “Adam?” I call, but there’s no answer.  He can’t have left for training already – it’s too early.  And that bloody car horn is still going!  Who the bloody hell is that? I think angrily and yank on my dressing gown before stomping over to the window.  I look out and see Adam standing with the car door open, looking back up at me, so I push the window open and lean out, yawning and rubbing my eyes.

“Morning gorgeous - now there’s a sight to behold!” Adam shouts up grinning.

“What are you doing?”  I ask blearily.  “Aren’t you going to training?”

“Yes, but I’ve got time to give you a quick driving lesson before I go.  Time is a bit of an issue, so get dressed and let’s get going!” Adam says, still grinning up at me.

“Must I?” I ask grumpily.  “I don’t feel like this.  I’m too hungover.  I feel like crap Adam!”

“Now come on Gailey – that’s not the attitude we are looking for!” Adam shouts, “Get your arse down here!”

Oh for God’s sake.  I can hear him laughing as I close the window.  Git.  This is worse than being in the bloody army!  I hope Adam isn’t going to turn into some kind of Sergeant Major type and try and get me outside doing star jumps at six am in the morning.  “Well he won’t get very far” I say aloud as I hastily get dressed and pull my hairbrush through my hair.  Ow.  That hurts.  I cast around for a bobble to tie it back and pull my hair back into a ponytail.  Still feeling half asleep, I go into the bathroom to quickly brush my teeth before going downstairs.  I can’t BELIEVE I am doing this.  My brain feels like it is rubbing on the inside of my bloody skull and I am
so
thirsty.

I manage to gulp down a large glass of water and open the front door just as Adam is starting a fanfare on the car horn.  He stops and beams at me.  “Right, come on Gail – get in the driving seat,” he says and hurries round to the passenger seat.  I get in the car and glare at him as I fasten my seatbelt.  “I’ve not even had a cup of bloody tea yet this morning,” I mutter.  “I feel like crap Adam – I really do!”

“Well, I just thought we’d grab an hour before training – then I promise you can go back to bed if you want,” Adam says and kisses my forehead.  I rub my eyes and yawn.

  “You’ve had some lessons before haven’t you?” he asks and I nod.  “Okay - we’ll just have a drive round the lanes and then we’ll do a little bit of reversing as well”.

“Adam – I’m not sure,” I say fearfully.  “What about your car?  What if I scratch it or dent it?”  Or write it off completely.

“Gail – its fine,” Adam replies reassuringly “It’s all covered on the insurance and yes, I have checked before you ask so don’t worry about it.  Come on - let’s get going.  Don’t forget to check your mirrors,” he adds as we move off slowly.  “Now – just drive round the fountain for a bit” Adam says, “whilst you get used to the car”.  God – this isn’t nerve wracking at all.  I carefully turn the wheel and then change into second gear as I drive slowly round and round the circular lawn in front of the house.  “You are doing really well Gail” Adam says, “Now we’ll drive down the lane and back”.

“Okay” I say and take a deep breath.  I turn into the lane and drive slowly down it.  Despite the headache from hell, I’m feeling quite delighted.  “I’m driving!  I’m actually driving!” I say and smile widely.

“Yeah you are!  See – nothing to it!” Adam says smiling.  “Now – just stop here on the left hand side” he says and I carefully press the brake.  “Okay, let’s do a turn in the road” he says confidently “and then we’ll drive back.  “I’ll help you - you’ll be fine”.  With Adam’s help I manage to turn the car around successfully and as I turn back into the drive, I can’t help but feel proud of myself.

“You’ve done really well Gail” Adam says as I stop the car in front of the house, “To say you’ve not driven for ages and you’ve never driven this car before, you have done really well”.  He glances at his watch.  “Well, I’d better go.  We’ll have another go soon and if you book some lessons as well, we’ll have you passing your test in no time!”

I smile.  “If you say so” I say.

“We will - have a little faith in yourself will you?” Adam says, smiling back at me.  We both get out of the car and Adam walks round to the driver’s side to get back in.

“See you later” I call and wave to him as he drives off.  I walk back into the house, feeling quite euphoric.  I’ve driven Adam’s car!  And I didn’t crash i
nto a hedge!  Even better!  Right – after all that excitement, I’m going back to sleep for an hour.

I feel slightly better after some more sleep, breakfast and then having a hot shower.  This is my first official day of being a lady of leisure and I’m not quite sure what to do.  I walk round the house and pause to look out of the lounge window.  Think I’ll try out my CD’s on Adam’s state of the art stereo – I haven’t done that yet and I bet they sound
fantastic. 
I go over to the stereo and look at it for a moment, trying to work out how to switch it on.  It’s made of curved glass and brushed metal and the buttons are hidden discreetly round one side so as not to spoil the look of the stereo.  Where the hell is the one that opens the little CD drawer?  I press several of the buttons to no avail.  Perhaps this doesn’t play CDs – it looks that advanced it probably isn’t even an MP3 player, it probably has all your favourite songs stored on a chip inside and the stereo reads your thoughts about which song you want to listen to and puts it on.  I then see the button that opens the drawer.  I press it but nothing happens.  Why won’t it open?  Oh - it might help if I switched the CD player on first.  Duh.

I press the power button and there’s a hum that sounds like a generator starting up.  I browse through my CD’s, trying to decide what to play first.  I select
a Kings of Leon CD, put it in the machine, press ‘play’ and am almost blasted across the room with the resulting noise.  Bloody hell!  I hurriedly turn the stereo down a bit and stand and listen to the music for a moment.  That sounds
great.
  It isn’t long before I’m dancing round the living room, jumping off the sofa while playing air guitar and just as I’m thanking everybody at Glastonbury I suddenly see a man and woman peering in the living room window, staring at me in amazement!  Oh my God!  Who are they? I think to myself as I hastily turn off the music before going to the front door.

“Can I help you?” I ask as I open the door.

The man speaks first.  “Hello – are you Gail?  I’m Phil, Adam’s Dad”.  Oh God – it would have to be Adam’s parents wouldn’t it?  I’m so embarrassed, I just want to crawl away and
die
right now.  “This is” Phil continues, gesturing towards the woman who is surveying me with an appraising eye, “My wife Lisa - Adam’s Mum”.

“Hello!” I say, brightly smiling far too
widely.  “Yes I’m Gail - it’s very nice to meet you”.

“Nice dancing!” Phil says, smiling at me.

“Thanks – just exercising you know,” I trill in my mad budgie voice, a fixed smile on my face.  This is definitely
not
the way I would have planned to meet Adam’s parents.  I should have been wearing a nice dress with pearls and be making cupcakes, not jumping off the sofa to the sounds of The Kings of Leon wearing jeans and a crumpled Flight of the Conchords T-shirt.  Oh God.

“What a lovely suit that is,” I say, looking at the beige trouser suit Lisa is wearing.

“Thank you Gail’” she replies graciously.  “I must say,” she continues, “You’re not quite what I expected”.

My heart sinks.  Oh no – I’ve blown it.  “Am I not?” I ask.

“No.  Adam’s previous girlfriends - well the ones I’ve met anyway, they all seemed to be very – what’s the word?” she asks, looking at Phil who shrugs his shoulders – “over made up.  At least you look like an ordinary girl”.  She laughs a little and I smile uneasily.  You mean I look a bit chavvy, I think to myself.  Oh well – need to try and make amends. 

“Won’t you come in and have a cup of tea?” I ask them both, opening the door wide.  “Adam shouldn’t be too long”.

“Well, that would be very nice love – I’m parched,” says Phil, beaming at me.  “We only popped up just to have another look at the garden, didn’t we Lisa?” he continues and Lisa nods.  “We’ve been trying to give Adam some ideas for redesigning the front of the house as we weren’t too sure about the fountain when he bought the house”.

“Really?” I say surprised as I close the door behind them and we walk over to the living room.  “I think it’s lovely”.

“Yes it is nice,” concedes Lisa, perching on the edge of the sofa, “but we thought Adam might need extra space for parking.”

“Oh right, I see,” I say but I don’t really.  In my opinion, there’s tons of room to park already without getting rid of the fountain.  Still, now is not the time to argue.  “I’ll go and make some tea,” I say and head into the kitchen.  I put the kettle on and get some mugs out of the cupboard.  Oh blast - I forgot to ask what they want.  I walk back towards the lounge and as I do so, catch the tail end of Phil and Lisa’s conversation.

“…Seems a nice enough girl”.

“Yes she does Phil – I’m not disputing that.  All I’m saying is - I know the other girls were too much the other way and a bit obsessed with their looks, but it wouldn’t hurt if she had her nails done that’s all”.

I stop and hold out my hands.  What’s wrong with my nails?  They look fine to me.  They might be a bit short, but it’s hard to type on a keyboard with six-inch talons.  I walk into the lounge and they both look slightly guilty.