Evie quickly wiped her hands on a paper napkin and put a protective figure between her clearly upset friend and the rest of the room.
“Why?” she asked with concern.
“I don't know. I just, I don't feel comfortable.” Jules wrung her hands. “I, I just can't bear it.”
“What? Jules, you're not making sense. Are you feeling okay, you look kind of peaky?”
Jules swallowed as she tried to frame her thoughts whilst losing the battle with her emotions.
“I can't bear knowing that my life is a sham,” she said finally. “I look around and all I can think is that the last time I was here I had my whole life ahead of me. I had all those blank years to fill and what did I do? I spent the past twenty-two years is cooking and cleaning for a man who can barely hide his contempt of me.”
“I'm impressed.” And she was. It seemed to Evie to be the first time ever that Jules had admitted the truth about her life. “You've finally said it. Now, what are you going to do about it?”
It was clear to Evie that Jules had no idea what to do about it. It was also obvious that if Evie didn’t steer her in the right direction that the moment would be lost and Jules would continue her narrow, unhappy path through the rest of her life.
“Well, why don't you start by going over and saying hello to Ed?”
Jules stole a look over at Ed who seemed to be making his goodbyes to Liam and Shorty. As he left the pair he gave a long and lingering look before he disappeared through the door.
“Guess he doesn't want to stay either.” Jules felt her heart sink.
“Yeah, what a surprise. Here, hang onto this for a mo.” Evie handed over her glass to Jules and followed Ed.
At the same moment, Shorty was commandeered by Susan Philips, which left Liam alone.
Suddenly bereft of his pals, he cut a vulnerable figure trying to look cool as he surveyed the scene. For a few short moments, he stood there before turning to the buffet in an act of displacement. He noticed Jules but busied himself by picking over the remains of the buffet, and all the while maintaining a casual air as if this was in his plan all along.
“Jules, right?”
Jules smiled tightly and wished him gone.
“It's Liam. Liam Mollencamp. Remember me?”
He held out his hand and she gingerly took it.
“Good turnout, don't you think?” he said breezily and with a note of cocky confidence Jules instantly recalled from school. “Course, wasn't sure I'd make it, been busy with the new place. I'm a property developer. Health Spas, you know that sort of thing.”
Jules nodded and hoped that it had appeared as if she were the least bit interested in his life.
He looked at her. “Sorry, what did you say you did?”
“I didn't.”
They stood in that awkward and embarrassed way people who have been thrown together at parties do when they have nothing in common and nothing to say.
“Fancy another drink?”
“No, I'm fine. I'm, I'm off soon.”
“Yeah, me too.” He nodded emphatically as if to press home his next point. “Got a whole pile of business plans to go through before Monday. Confidentially, between me and you, a hot new business proposition came my way yesterday and I'm seriously thinking about going with it.”
Jules’ response of ‘that’s nice’ sounded strained and slightly high pitched.
“Well, it's been nice seeing you again. I've got some phone calls to make. No rest for the wicked, eh?”
And he was gone. Jules sighed with relief and checked around to see where Evie had got to.
***
Liam stepped outside the school hall and savoured the cooling night air. He lit a cigarette and then, after a fortifying drag, he pressed an icon on his phone and waited for the call to connect.
“Hey, Becs sweetheart, it's me.”
“Hi dad. What's up?”
Liam sat down on the wall and took another drag, his gaze on the lookout for any strays from the hall.
“Nothing just thought I'd see if you're okay.”
“Aren't you supposed to be, like, at some crusties reunion?”
Liam smiled; Becs just melted his heart. Now all grown up and at university, he didn’t see as much of her as he’d like. She was packing in life to the full. “Less of the crusty. Yeah, I'm here.”
“Having a good time?”
“It's okay. Listen, I was just wondering if you were up for some lunch and shopping tomorrow, my treat.”
His heart sank when she responded: “Sorry, no can do. Mum and I are going to the cinema.”
“Okay, um, next weekend?”
“Na-ha, Fred and I are off to York for the weekend. Pretty much booked out my summer vay-kay”
There was a pause.
“Are you okay dad? You sound really fed up.”
“Just...tired...work's been a bitch, you know.”
“You should lighten up, get yourself a girlfriend. You're not that bad, for an old guy”.
“Less of the old.”
Becs chuckled. “Seriously. There must be a blast from the past in the hall. Weren't you like, Mr Popular at school?”
Liam rubbed his hand down his face and dragged on the cigarette.
“And give up the fags. Nobody'll snog you behind the bike shed if you smell like an ashtray.”
Liam smiled at his daughter’s matronly tone. “Yeah. Well, I'll give you a call in the week; see if we can't find a date that suits.” He paused. “I love you.”
“You too, dad. Talk to you later.”
And she was gone. Liam sighed and hunched over, taking the last desperate gasps from the cigarette before grinding the stub with the sole of his shoe.
Becs had grown into a beautiful, strong, and very independent woman and he was beyond proud of her but sometimes, at times like this when life was thrown into an introspective light, he felt left behind. She didn’t need him anymore. The little girl who had begged for piggy back rides or curled up on his lap for a story before bedtime was a dim memory. He no longer knew where he fitted in in her world.
He pushed the phone back into his jacket pocket and his fingers touched his wallet. For split second a thought passed through his head which he dismissed with equal alacrity but then, he stopped and considered and pulled the wallet out, flipped it open and retrieved the business card.
***
Evie had just got back to Jules when her phone rang.
“Damn!” she fished in her clutch bag for the offending device. “I thought I'd turned that off. Don't leave. I've got so much to tell you.”
“Oh God, Evie...” Jules was torn between wanting to know what on earth Evie had said to Ed and the desire to leave and never think about this place again.
Evie was gone, sliding through the party goers who were, by now, loosened up enough to be doing the Birdie Song without the slightest bit of bashfulness.
She stepped outside and connected the call.
“Hello?”
Liam heard the ringing of a phone and looked up to see Evie just at the moment that she connected the call and said:
“Hello? Anyone there?”
Evie caught sight of Liam holding up his phone to her and saw him, very deliberately, press the end call button. She heard the call on her phone disconnect.
“Vonnie?”
The game was up. There was no point denying it.
“You're Vonnie?”
“I'm Vonnie. Ta-da.” She walked slowly over to the wall, her clutch bag dangling at her side. Right now, she had to limit any potential damage. She took out a packet of cigarettes and tipped it towards him. She sat down on the wall and put a cigarette to her lips. Liam took out his lighter and offered her light before lighting his own.
“So,” she said as she tossed the packet back into her bag. “How'd you get my number? I'm usually pretty discreet.”
“You know a bloke called Tony?”
“A few.” She was being cagey, her mind a whirl o
f trying to work out if what he was going to do with the information he now had.
“American, you know him?”
“Yeah, I know him. How d’you know him?”
“Thinking of going into business with him.” Liam sounded like the big man.
“With Tony?” Evie was impressed. “No shit? Is he branching out from porn to spas or are you going from spas to porn?”
“Porn?” Liam tried hard to conceal his horror but it seeped out. “I thought he just owned a few lap-dancing clubs.”
Evie knew she was in a better position now. Liam wasn’t the big man. He was a little man trying to play with the big boys and they didn’t come bigger or tougher than Tony. He was out of his depth.
“Yeah well, that's the more 'respectable' end of the business empire,” Evie said with a casual air as if it were all so very ordinary, so very mundane. “He's got a load of seedy clubs in SoHo, peep shows, that kind of thing. Then there's the internet stuff...”
“Internet?” Liam almost leapt out of his skin. This was not something he wanted his name associated with. Whatever else he was he was a straight up guy, maybe even a little prudish. He’d felt uncomfortable in the club but he needed the cash injection Tony was offering him.
“Oh, don't worry, it's all, you know, adult stuff, he's not into kids or anything like that. Just sad punters with credit cards paying some poor bitch from eastern Europe to get raunchy on a bed whilst he gives directions via a web cam.”
“Have you…?”
Liam was trying to turn the tables and she wasn’t having any of it.
“Nope. I run my own diary and I don’t pay some dirty pimp. I only deal with the best. My time, my terms.”
And it was. No off the street customers. Her clients were vetted heavily before she put them on the list so she was surprised and more than a little cross that Tony had given out her card so casually. She thought he knew better than that.
“He's offered to take half of my new place, if I let him turn it into one of his clubs” Liam didn’t sound so convinced anymore.
“Take it, that's what I say. The bloke's a money magnet.”
There was a moments silence. Liam gave her a sidelong glance.
“I thought you'd got a big agency or something up in London?”
“Yeah, well, that’s what I tell the public.” And she knocked him gently with her elbow in a ‘nudge and wink’ kind of way. If she was going to walk away from this with her reputation intact, then she had to play hard ball with Liam. “Tony's my main client and he pays well. I turn tricks, he hands me a grand and everyone's happy.”
“Jesus!” hissed Liam.
Evie wasn’t offended “Get used to it. It’s the pool Tony swims in.” She stood up and smoothed down her dress. “Word to the wise, I'd take the offer; Tony never does things because he likes someone. There’s something in it for him and if there’s something in it for him, there’s something in it for you. I guarantee you, this time next year you won’t regret it.”
She walked a few steps before turning back to Liam.
“But be warned. Tony’s got a real soft spot for me; you step out of line and he’ll hear about it.”
She swung back around, and walked with a confident swagger back into the hall.
***
The place had stopped. Everyone was staring, transfixed by what was showing on the screen.
Evie crept quietly into the crowd and made her way to Jules’ side. She felt Jules’ hand groping for her and Evie took it and squeezed it hard even though she didn’t know what was wrong. She looked at her friend for a moment and then realised that Ed was standing right behind them. Evie looked up at the screen. There was no sound, just a video.
It seemed innocuous, boring even. Olivia, going about her everyday business but then Evie realised that someone had to have been filming her coming out of the bank, getting into her car, filling up on petrol. Ordinary, everyday, life.
Evie glanced around the faces to find Olivia but was distracted by a gasp and the tightening of Jules’ hand. She looked up to see an image of Olivia and an unseen man, engaged in heavy sex in a hotel room.
“Turn it off!” called out Damian, looking up at the crow’s nest in the hall. “Alan, for crying out loud! Turn it off!”
“Leave it on!” yelled out a voice in the hall and some of those around sniggered harshly.
Evie looked over at Damian just in time to see Olivia fleeing the room. Andy voice came over the air.
“My wife is having an affair,” he said with a bluntly. “I wanted you to see this because for years and years I've had to put up with her shit, her disapproval; her bitter disappointment. She looks down on you lot like you're shit on her shoes. But this is who she is. Look at her”
Olivia was, by now, in the middle of a violent orgasm. As she moved it was revealed to the stunned, murmuring crowd exactly who she was having sex with.
“Oh, my God!” Evie breathed and reached her other hand out to steady Jules.
Ed shot a look at Evie. He could see her struggling to keep Jules’ upright. Her legs were giving way and she was in danger of falling. He instinctively took hold of her shoulders and leant in to her.
“I’m here,” he whispered and felt her lean back into him. A steady rock against the world.
“Get me out of here,” Jules mumbled.
Calmly, Evie took hold of Jules and lead her out of the hall. Ed followed at a discrete distance. The screen had now gone black following Damian’s successful attempt to alert Alan to the problem.
The crowd broke out in frenzied chatter as the news of the identity of man spread like wildfire around the room.
***
Evie managed, just, to get Jules to the wall before her legs finally buckled under her. Ed stood at a distance, his face etched with concern but not sure, after all these years, whether he should interfere.
Evie sat down next to her friend and took her hands.
“You're shaking.”
Ed wiped off his jacket and gently put it around Jules’ shoulders. She was blank, her mind and body desperately trying to process the information. Oh, it wasn’t that Craig was having an affair or even that it was with Olivia. She pretty much knew that he’d never been faithful to her but she brushed it aside, kept her head down. Like a trade-off; his infidelity for her home as if bricks and mortar were worth more than her self-respect. Self-loathing was beginning to rear its ugly head within her.
“What am I going to do,” said Jules quietly. “What do I tell the boys?”
Evie tried to soothe her but didn't know what to say.
“I feel such an idiot,” the self-reproach was starting. “Me, Julie Abercrombie, the girl from the council house.”
She sniffed back the tears that were forcing their way out.
“What did Olivia used to say? I'd never seen a built-in kitchen until the council put one in.”
“Who cares what that fucking bitch said?” Evie was angry not only with Andy for being so bloody selfish as to air his dirty linen in public and take her friend down with him but with everybody in that hall for standing by and watching, sniggering, judging. “Honestly, I could fucking swing for her. And him. Bastard.”
“But she's right,” cried Jules, not caring now that the tears were pulling the mascara down her face. “That was me, the girl Liam Mollencamp said was sick looking when he found out I had a crush on him in the third year. The girl who never had the money to go shopping on a Saturday afternoon but can show up for a stupid reunion in a four-hundred-pound dress. I was so proud that I'd finally made something of myself but I hadn't. I just married well.”
“You married a control freak knob head.”
“But it was bearable, the trade-off was manageable. He left me alone most of the time.”
Evie’s mind was racing, working through all the scenarios.
“We can get a copy of the disc,” she said, the whole scheme panning out in her head. “I know this shit-hot divorce lawyer. You c
an take him to the cleaners.”
Evie felt Jules sag in her arms.
“He'll have the whole thing wrapped up so tight that I'll spend more divorcing him than I'll get.”
“Does that matter? At least you can hold your head up”
Jules was sobbing by now. She knew that it would never be as easy as Evie thought it would. Craig would have had the assets bound up somehow. She’d end up on the street, penniless, living in some God-awful bedsit. The boys would be okay and for that she was grateful, but she would have nothing. Huge tears fell down her face, soaking a spot on her dress with a mixture of salt and mascara.
“But it's my home. Mine. It might've been his money but I made it.”
“Look,” said Evie. “I know this guy right. Let me talk to him. He’ll help, I promise. If there’s one thing I know about its men. Trust me. Craig will give you whatever you want by the time I’ve finished with him.”
Jules’ sobbing slowed down, her breathing became easier.
Evie whipped a tissue out of her bag and gently cleaned up her friend’s face. She applied a dab of powder to soften the redness and swelling and fixed her makeup.
“I can’t go home,” said Jules softly.
“No,” agreed Evie. “You can stay at mine.”
Evie kissed Jules on the cheek. She knew that her friend was stronger than she ever thought possible and that the coming weeks and months would test that inner resolve but something new was happening. Someone had returned. Evie glanced at Ed who waited out of earshot. She knew Jules would never behave in the same way as Craig had but that didn’t matter because she knew that Ed was prepared to wait; after all, he’d waited all these years.
“I think,” Evie whispered to her friend. “There is someone waiting to speak to you.”
Jules looked at Evie who smiled and nodded. She kissed Jules on the cheek and got up and walked over to Ed.
“Is she going to be okay?” he asked.
Evie touched his hand and smiled at him: “She will be. Give it time.”
Ed waited until Evie had gone back inside the hall. For Jules, it felt like the longest time imaginable.
She heard his soft footfall coming towards her and she involuntarily ran her hand over her cheek; she wished that he hadn’t seen her like this.
Little did she know that he didn’t care. That he’d waited all this long time and that whatever she looked like, whatever the circumstances, she would never be more beautiful to him than she was right now.