Jane Green - Bookends

This is the last strudel I will eat, I tell myself, saliva already beginning to build at the very thought of Lucy’s delicate filo pastry and spiced apple filling. From tomorrow morning I’m turning over a new leaf.

‘So why is the handsome young James visiting our humble abode?’ Lucy says slyly, when he’s safely out of view.

I shrug.

‘Might it perhaps be that he has a little bit of a soft spot for the lovely Cath?’

‘You know what?’ I turn round and give Lucy my innocent wide-eyed look. ‘I think you’re absolutely right. Because what man wouldn’t adore me with canary-yellow paint all over my face?’ I give my head an expert Jerry Hall-style toss, thus causing the afro to vibrate very slightly. ‘Not to mention my gorgeous flowing locks.’

Lucy starts to laugh, stopping only when she notices the package on the table.

‘What’s this?’ she asks, picking it up to examine it more closely.

‘James brought it. It’s for the shop.’

‘For the shop? But this looks like a present. What on earth can it be?’ As she shakes the parcel James walks back in and Lucy drops it guiltily.

‘Caught me red-handed,’ she blushes. ‘I’m so sorry, James.’

‘Don’t be,’ he smiles. ‘It’s for you.’ He looks at Lucy and then at me as he says this and Lucy gives me a surreptitious wink. ‘Actually,’ James continues, ‘it’s really for the shop. But if you don’t like it then you must tell me.’

‘Go on, Cath,’ Lucy says, suddenly making herself very busy with a tin of paint. ‘You open it.’

I wipe the residue of wet paint from my hands on to my overalls and gently open the package to reveal a tiny painting in a simple wooden frame. It’s an incredibly delicate abstract watercolour, deep royal blues fading into turquoise, strips of colour criss-crossing one another, the layers built up until they shimmer richly from the paper.

‘This is beautiful,’ I say, because it truly is.

‘Are you sure?’ James cannot hide the look of relief on his face. ‘I just wanted to bring you something for the shop, a sort of good luck token if you like, and I thought the colours were very sunny, it reminds me of summer, so I thought you might like to put it up somewhere.’

Lucy puts down the paint pot and comes over, gasping when she sees the picture.

‘Goodness, how extraordinarily beautiful. What a stunning painting. But James, where on earth did you get it? You didn’t… It’s not yours …?’

But of course it is. And I have to say, I’m shocked. Shocked because I didn’t expect he’d be quite this talented? Well, yes, possibly. And shocked because this is such an incredibly kind thing to do. To bring a painting to people he hardly knows. To treat us as something other than just another business deal.

‘You really like it?’ James is now beaming.

‘We love it,’ Lucy says, and gives him a kiss, which means that I have to give him a kiss too, which is fine, except I’m not all that big on touching people I barely know. I’m not all that big on touching people I know very well, except for Si, Josh and Lucy, and that’s only because they’re so tactile themselves you can’t help it.

But I cast my inhibitions aside and give James a kiss on his left cheek, pulling away sharply afterwards because I do find these situations so awkward, but then Lucy thankfully breaks the ice by loudly ripping open the cover on the strudel and cutting each of us a huge slab.

‘It looks fantastic in here,’ James says, admiring our counter, our shelves, our etched glass windows. ‘Seriously. Even old Harry Roberts would be impressed.’

‘Now that is a compliment,’ Lucy laughs. ‘So James, given that you’re not just any old artist, but in fact a deeply talented and wonderful one, how would you feel if we had some paintings for the shop? We could give you a sort of mini-exhibition. What do you think?’

James looks thrilled as Lucy continues. ‘Look. We can’t promise anything, because it may not even be a viable idea, we really have to look at it from every angle, but even if we don’t display them in the shop I’d love to buy some for home.’

‘I’m astounded,’ James says. ‘And embarrassed. You must think I came here to try and wangle an exhibition, or somehow to make you feel obliged to buy my work I…’

Lucy cuts him off mid-sentence. ‘James,’ she says gently. ‘I am not a people pleaser. I am not a person who says things because she thinks it will make the other person happy, nor am I a person who offers things she cannot deliver because I want the other person to like me.’

James nods. ‘Okay.’

‘What I think is this,’ she says, while I’m slightly dumbfounded, because isn’t this the sort of decision that should be taken with a partner? Even though James’s work is, admittedly, beautiful, shouldn’t Lucy have waited until she and I had discussed it in private?

And what on earth is she thinking of when she says, ‘I think that Cath and I should come over this evening when we’ve finished and have a look at your work. How does that sound?’

James gulps. ‘This evening? Okay. Why not? Fine.’

‘Oh bugger!’ Lucy says immediately. ‘I can’t make it this evening. I have to go for dinner with some boring colleague of Josh’s. Oh damn. I completely forgot. Oh well, never mind, Cath, you don’t mind going by yourself do you?’

‘Mind? Why should I mind?’ I say. ‘I’ll just cancel the dinner party I was having.’

James looks completely stricken while Lucy lets out a snort. ‘She’s joking,’ she says. ‘She’ll see you at… seven?’

James nods, and I try to catch Lucy’s eye to let her know she’s about to get a severe bollocking, but she refuses to look at me, just chats animatedly to James about the plans for the shop until he gets up to leave.

‘What on earth were you doing?’ I’m completely bemused, and more than a little furious, because this is supposed to be a joint business venture, and what the hell is Lucy thinking of, offering him a show without discussing it with me first? Not to mention press-ganging me into going over there later, which I’m not happy about in the slightest.

‘What do you mean?’ she feigns innocence.

‘I mean, Lucy, and put that bloody roller down and look at me, I mean first of all you made a work decision without discussing it with me first, which I find hugely insulting, given that we’re supposed to be partners, and secondly,’ I stop to breathe, ‘secondly you then dumped me in it by saying that I could go and check out his work when I don’t want that responsibility all by myself, plus I felt that you were arranging my evening for me like I’m your errant daughter. You had absolutely no right to do that, plus, how do you know I don’t have plans?’

‘Do you?’

‘No, but that’s hardly the point.’

‘Darling Cath.’ Lucy comes over to me looking sad. ‘I’m sorry that I upset you, and I’m sorry that I didn’t discuss it with you but it was all spur of the moment.

‘I did tell the lovely James that it wasn’t written in stone, and that we may not go through with it, so I have provided a get-out clause, but I’m so sorry that I hurt you. It really wasn’t my intention to do so.’ She pauses and looks at the floor, scuffing the boards with her trainers like a naughty little girl. ‘But I can’t apologize for making you go there this evening,’ she says slowly, still looking at the floor.

I’m speechless. ‘What?’

‘Face it, Cath.’ She looks at me again and this time she’s grinning. ‘Not only is he gorgeous, but I’m sure he’s got a wee crush on you. I know you’d never give him the slightest hint of encouragement, and this was the only way I could think of to get the two of you together this evening. And I’ve heard he’s definitely not with anyone at the moment – apparently he was in a nine-year relationship that ended about a year ago.’