‘Good, thank you,’ Henry replies.
‘Henry left the lid off the crickets, Aunty Cassie, and they all escaped.’
I see Cassie start then she turns to me for an explanation.
‘Henry’s bearded dragon.’ I gesture at the hallway with my fork. ‘Up in his room.’
Cassie presses a hand over her chest, which is bursting out of a black vest top with a pretty sunflower print. She’s coupled it with black capri pants and yellow wedge heels. She looks gorgeous and I realise that I’m still in my pyjamas and that I must look a sight, as I haven’t even brushed my hair.
‘It eats live insects?’ she asks as she dabs at her pink lips with a tissue.
‘Yes, Aunty Cassie!’ Henry says, rolling his eyes. ‘It doesn’t like dead ones.’
‘Because dead bugs would be so much worse?’ Cassie grimaces and I suppress a smile, thinking about how she’d react if she went up to Henry’s room and saw the cricket corpses ground into the carpet. I’ll have to scrub that later and I shiver at the thought of the crushed little bodies embedded in the thick pile.
I clear the table and Henry and Anabelle hurry upstairs to wash their hands and check on the dragon. Henry hasn’t decided on a name yet, so I’ve told him to try to think of one. It should keep him busy for a while and I have a feeling that Cassie wants to speak to me.
‘Coffee?’ I offer as I fill the kettle.
‘Please, Annie, but use the good stuff won’t you?’
I fetch the packet from the fridge – luckily there’s still some in there, although I did find out that Henry used it to age his homework because he left a pencil in the packet – and fill the cafetiere. The ground coffee smells divine and I breathe deeply of its rich aroma. I’m more of a tea drinker, Earl Grey in particular, but I do enjoy coffee and this one that Cassie bought me from Harrods is certainly delicious.
I take two large mugs to the table, then the coffee pot and a plastic carton of semi-skimmed milk. When I sit down, I can see that Cassie is bursting with news.
‘So?’ I say as I pour the coffee.
‘Whatever do you mean?’ she asks, fluttering her fake eyelashes.
‘Something’s up and I know you want to tell me.’
‘I do.’ She takes a sip of coffee. ‘Mmmm. That’s so good.’
‘Oh come on, Cassie, out with it!’
‘Tonight… I have a date!’ She claps her hands.
‘That’s great news. Who’s the lucky guy?’
‘He’s a friend of Vlad.’ She stares at me waiting for my reaction.
‘Okay.’ I sip my coffee. I’m not sure where she’s going with this and to be honest, I’m surprised it isn’t Vlad himself. I mean, I saw how he was looking at her.
‘It’s a blind date.’
‘What? So you don’t even know what he looks like?’
She shakes her head.
‘Then how are you going on a date? Isn’t it a bit risky?’
‘Well, see, I was speaking to Vlad after our training session the other day and he said that he had this friend who is quite shy. He’s a bodybuilder apparently and he has his own gym.’
‘Doesn’t he get to meet many women at his gym then?’ I ask, images of tight bodied gym bunnies clad in colourful Lycra filling my head. I don’t know why but they always have eighties hairstyles. It’s as if my ideas about gyms always have to throw back to the days of my childhood when movies were filled with aerobics and backcombed perms. ‘You’d think that he’d have his pick of women.’
Cassie shakes her head. ‘I just told you. Vlad said he’s shy.’
‘Is he Russian too?’
‘No. He’s Irish.’
‘Irish?’
She nods.
‘A Russian and an Irishman…’
She holds up her hand. ‘Just don’t do that, Annie. This is serious.’
‘It is.’
‘I’m actually quite nervous.’
‘I would be too if I was going on a date with a mysterious Irish bodybuilder who I’d never even met or spoken to.’
‘The thing is…’ She toys with her bottom lip and I get a sinking feeling in my gut. ‘Vlad kind of wanted to know if you’d like to come too.’
‘Me? What… why… he does?’ I am suddenly conscious that I am pulling a face so I try to relax my mouth and cheeks, to bring my eyebrows down to their normal position. Why would that hunk of muscle want me to go out on a date?
‘I think he likes you, Annie.’
I look down at my hands and my empty ring finger makes me start as it always does, as if I’ve misplaced my ring without realising.
‘Annie? Will you come?’
I feel like I’m fourteen and my friend is telling me that the gorgeous boy in the year above wants to take me to the school disco. I’m a woman fast approaching forty, I’m a mother to three children and I’m twice divorced, yet it’s as if all that suddenly drops away and I’m terrified. My stomach clenches and my mouth goes dry. What if he wants to kiss me or hold me or something else? I’m out of shape, my hair needs dyeing and I haven’t shaved my legs for weeks. I can’t go on a date! Besides, Vlad likes Cassie. I wonder if there’s been a mistake and if she’s misunderstood him. Did Vlad want to date Cassie but bring a friend along for moral support? This could end messily if I’m right.
‘I can’t, Cassie.’
‘Please?’ She steeples her fingers together and moves closer to me. ‘Don’t make me beg. I need you to help me with this one. I can’t go alone because if Connor really is that shy then we might not have a proper conversation. At least if you’re there then I can relax a bit. Pretty please? I need my wingman.’
‘Or wing woman,’ I say with a shrug. Perhaps if I go I can steer Cassie to see that Vlad is interested in her. If I don’t go, then she can hardly go out with the two of them and she might never find out that Vlad likes her. Henry and Anabelle are meant to be going to Dex’s later so I could allow myself a night out. Janis will have plans or she’ll be studying and I should support my friend.
Cassie slowly slides off the chair and onto her knees then she crawls towards me like a dramatic thirties movie star. It makes me grin. She’s such a good friend and I think the world of her. I owe it to her to help her out, don’t I? Suddenly, I hear a scratching of claws on wood and before Cassie can get to her feet, Dragon has skidded across the kitchen floor and mounted her from behind. She struggles to remove his front paws from around her waist but he’s so strong and when he decides to hump someone, it’s difficult to get him off. ‘Please, Annie?’ Cassie’s eyes are wide as she begs for my support. It could be that she wants my help removing Dragon but it could also be that she’s just as set on her course as my bulldog is on his.
‘Oh I don’t know, Cassie,’ I say as I take hold of Dragon from behind and try to extricate him from my neighbour. His movements are so powerful that the three of us are soon bouncing back and fore and I start to laugh at how ridiculous the situation is. We must look like we’re taking part in some weird human-dog conga.
‘Please?’ Cassie gasps as Dragon loses traction and his back feet slip on the kitchen floor. He grunts and scrabbles to regain the advantage. ‘For me?’
I