Page 5 of Best Mistake Ever
‘I’ve… been trying… so hard,’ I say to her, in a broken voice, between sobs, ‘but no matter what I do, it’s never enough. I’m not like you, Bea. Something always bloody trips me up!’
‘I know, I know,’ she soothes. She’s an amazing sister, even if she does drive me crazy with her perfection some days. In fact, I’d probably hate her if she wasn’t such a lovely human being.
‘Okay,’ she says, giving me a reassuring smile. ‘I’ll go to the hotel for you today and make sure everything goes smoothly, but you’ll need to give me a full run-down of what to expect and be available on the phone if I have any questions. Okay?’
Pulling her back, hard against me, I wrap my arms tightly around her, relief flooding through me. I try not to feel bad about the tense way she’s holding herself now.
‘Thank you! Thank you!’ I whisper, leaning back to look her in the eye. ‘I’ll make it up to you somehow, I swear.’
My sister smiles at me, but I can tell from her expression that she can’t think of any way in which she’ll ever need my help. Her life is too organised for that. She’d never be put on a warning for anything.
Untangling herself from me, she slaps her hands onto her knees. ‘Right. I’m going to drive you to the hospital so you can get your ankle checked. You can tell me what needs to happen today on the way there. Then I’ll nip back to your flat and borrow some of your clothes so no-one will turn a hair when I walk in as you.’
Something occurs to me when I hear the word ‘hair’. ‘Uh, Bea. What are you going to do about your hair?’ I gesture to my chin length bob, then to her long swathe of locks.
Her eyes widen and her face seems to pale a little at this complication. ‘Ah. Yeah. I’d not thought about that. I’ll have to pretend I’m wearing a wig, or tuck it in or something.’
The scepticism I feel must show on my face though because her cheeks flush and the expression in her eyes turns a little wild.
‘Don’t worry about that now,’ she says. ‘I’ll figure something out.’
I push away the surge of guilt I feel about putting her out like this. I know she’ll find the perfect way to deal with everything though. It’s her God-given gift.
‘Thanks, Bea. You’re a superstar. I love you. You know that, right?’
She just nods once, then puts her hand out for my car key, which I pass to her. ‘I know. I love you too.’
This time, the reassuring hug she pulls me in for is full of the warmth I crave.
I breathe in the familiar, sweet scent of her. My lovely sister. My rock. She smells like home and comfort. Sanctuary.
What would I do without her?
Pulling away, she looks me right in the eye, the practical Bea fully back in evidence. ‘Don’t worry. It’s going to be fine,’ she says.
I swallow hard.
Bea’s very rarely wrong about anything and I silently pray that this time isn’t going to prove to be the exception to the rule.
3
BEATRICE
Even though I feel a strong sisterly duty to help Dee with her latest disaster, my heart sinks at the thought of having to explain this to Jem and ask if he minds if I have a day – or maybe a few days, depending on the extent of Dee’s injury – away from running the business.
We’d made a commitment to each other to be entirely focused on getting it off the ground and had agreed not to have any time off until we were going strong.
I can’t believe I’m having to renege on that promise already.
But Dee’s family.
And she’s always had the toughest time out of both of us, being the more emotionally sensitive one. Plus, the way our dad has always seemed to favour me hasn’t helped, especially as our mum has been a pretty absent parent for the most part. She’s far too self-involved. You can’t ever rely on her to show up for you when you need her.
Even though Dee’s pretended, for the most part, that she doesn’t care about this inequality, I’ve always felt it as an invisible barrier between us.
When we were younger, I was always so grateful not to be in the firing line of our dad’s wrath, I let her take the brunt of it.
And the guilt’s weighed heavily on me over the years.
