Page 62 of The Trouble With Love

‘He adores you utterly. You can do no wrong. Even when you shout at him, he won’t leave your side. To him you are God.’

‘I wanted a man.’ But her fingers curled around the knobbled top of the dog’s head and ruffled his ears. He beamed.

‘And I was kind of inclining more towards winning the lottery. I think, maybe, we should have been more specific.’

‘Next time,’ Megan began, but I stopped walking and put my fingers in my ears.

‘No, no, no, lalalalala, I can’t hear you. No next time. Never, ever again am I doing anything as stupid as a wishing spell.’

‘Not even if the others want to? Okay, maybe you’re right, maybe Rufus is my wish come true.’ He looked up at the mention of his name and his dark eyes were ablaze with love. ‘But nothing seems to be happening for the others. They might want a rerun.’

‘Count me out.’

‘Isn’t that a bit selfish?’

I turned to her. Her brown eyes were wide and childlike, she was cute and innocent and guileless. ‘Pissfuckingwank,’ I said, and strode off towards my car, not caring whether she joined me or not.

After a further brief tussle with Rufus to get him to go into the flat alone, she came and sat in the passenger seat. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t mean it. I know you’re the least selfish person there is.’

‘Huh. We’d better hope that there’s some breaking news on the wishing front then, because selfish or not, I am never again going anywhere near anything more magical than the Harry Potter films. And even then I’m going to watch from inside some kind of protective circle.’

Vivienne opened the front door to us, and as usual we were the last of the group to arrive. ‘Holly and Megan!’ She sounded as though she were announcing the Queen and Prince Philip. ‘How wonderful that you’re here.’

‘Well, you did ask us to come.’ Megan draped her coat over the sofa next to Eve. Eve herself looked a little smarter today. She’d had her hair cut and coloured so that it curled softly around her face. I thought her clothes looked new too, but didn’t like to mention it.

‘Oh yes, things are definitely starting to happen.’ Vivienne clasped her hands to her lack of bosom, twisting them around one another like someone trying to squeeze the last toothpaste out of the tube. She looked perkier too. She’d lost the grey roots under a new scarlet tint, her skin was less pallid and her make-up seemed to have been done with a surer hand.

I wondered if the local hairdresser had a two-for-one offer on.

‘He’s lost everything!’ Vivienne announced proudly. ‘The business, the company car, all those little perks associated with the job. Isn’t it wonderful? We’ll see how Miss Busty from Accounts likes him now, when there’s no sporty little Audi for her to show her breasts off in!’

Eve made a face. ‘But what about your lovely cottage?’ She waved a hand around. ‘All your beautiful things?’

‘Maybe the cats will get repossessed,’ Isobel whispered in my ear. She hadn’t sneezed once since we’d come in, so perhaps they already had been.

‘Oh, they can’t touch anything here, it’s all in my name,’ Vivienne airily shook her head. ‘But Richard is losing everything, which was the point of the spell. Soon he’ll be forced . . . I mean, he’ll see no other way out. Once the tax people start looking into his affairs, asking all those wretched questions . . .’ She tailed off, a rather sinister little smile shuffling its way across her mouth. ‘I think we’ll have biscuits today. I have a packet of Belgian Chocolate cookies put away for just such an occasion.’

‘She keeps biscuits for the day her husband is driven into penury?’ I sat next to Eve. Isobel and Megan went to help in the kitchen. At least, Isobel went to help, Megan would go anywhere if there was a Belgian Chocolate cookie at the end of it.

‘Ah well. She’s taking it as a sign that the spell is starting to work for her.’ Eve moved her well-upholstered bottom further along to make more room for me. ‘And I have a little news in that direction myself.’

‘Eve, you dark horse!’ I stared at her in amazement. ‘The man of your dreams?’

She nodded, then looked down shyly at her swollen feet. ‘Oh, but it’s such early days yet, I hardly want to say anything in case it all goes wrong.’

‘I thought you had a bit of sparkle to you,’ I said admiringly. ‘Well, good on you, Eve. What’s he like? What does he do? Or is he a retired millionaire who can keep you in luxury?’ I surprised myself by hoping that this was the case.

‘My lips are sealed.’ Eve did the statutory mime.

‘Well, I hope we get to meet him.’

‘Oh, I hope so too. Maybe, in a while.’

‘What’s his name?’

But Eve shook her head and did the ‘lip-zip’ mime again. But her eyes shone with humour and anticipation, so whoever he was, he was doing her good.

That only left Isobel. ‘I hope Aiden wasn’t horrible to you the other day,’ I said as she came in laden with a tea tray. ‘Thanks for letting him out.’

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