Page 4 of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe
Mugwort was her cat. He was seventeen years old and onlyhad three legs, since he’d lost one during an altercation with a Deliveroo bike two years ago. Mugwort had decided, rather wisely, that he would become a house cat after that.
Andrew crossed the room and laid his hand on Nory’s arm. “Nory,” he said. “We’ll have Mugwort, he’s no bother and he knows his way around our place. Go and have some fun! Your shop and your feline will be fine.”
“Andrew, that’s really very sweet of you, but you’ve got enough going on, you really don’t need an elderly, disabled cat moving in.”
“We’ve got Seb’s mother coming to stay for the whole of December. What’s one more cantankerous cat into the mix?”
Ameerah stretched out her long legs and her boots creaked.
“There we are,” she said. “All your stupid protestations have been quashed. You’re coming!” As a barrister, Ameerah was not used to losing cases.
“And what about Guy?” Nory asked.
“What about him?”
“You know what.”
Ameerah puffed out exasperatedly and looked at her perfectly manicured nails. “Well, obviously he’ll be there. Like it or not, he’s one of us. I’ll be on hand as your human shield, but honestly, Nory, he’s not going to be making sleazy jokes about it with his wife there.”
“How can I face Camille? I’ll just burn up with shame every time I see her.”
“You didn’t know he was married, so the shame isn’t yours. If anyone should be burning, it’s Guy. And anyway, that was five years ago!” said Ameerah.
“I don’t see how that’s relevant, Ameerah, it doesn’t become less adulterous the longer ago it happened.”
“All I’m saying is, it’s water under the bridge, done and dusted. It’s not like anyone’s going to remember. And even if they do, they’re hardly going to mention it with his wife there.”
Nory knew full well that her old friends remembered just as well as she did.
It had happened after Tristan’s funeral. The old gang had booked a farmhouse for a long weekend after the wake. They had spent the time drinking and reminiscing and swearing their allegiances to one another. There had been tears and reflections but there had been laughter too. In the early hours of Sunday morning, after far too much wine and hearts heavy with old memories, Guy and Nory had stumbled into her bedroom and the inevitable had happened, multiple times. It wasn’t until they’d come down for breakfast, looking sheepish and beaming in the afterglow of having been shagging for the last six hours, that Charles had informed Nory that Guy was in fact married with two children under five. They’d had another child since.
“I still can’t believe no one stopped me.” Nory was filled with fresh mortification every time she thought about it.
“Nobody knew you two were going to embark on a marathon fuck-fest. Anyway, I didn’t know he was married either. And by the time Pippa filled me in, the sounds of the headboard smacking against the wall suggested that Guy was already very much fillingyouin!”
Andrew spluttered a laugh, which made Matilda jump.
Nory buried her head in her hands. “You are so crude,” she mumbled.
Ameerah continued. “I could hardly knock on your door while you were mid-coitus to let you know, could I? I planned to take you to one side the next day and tell you, but Charles got in first. He always was the biggest gossip.”
Nory and Guy weren’t the only friends to pair off that weekend. Jenna and Charles had also reconnected with each other and now they were about to be married. It was strange to think that their happiness was born out of such a tragedy. Would they have found their way back to each other if it weren’t for Tristan’s death? It made Nory sad to think about it, and she knew Jenna struggled with it too. Jenna said she felt guilty sometimes that her life had been transformed because of Tristan’s death. Before that weekend, she’d been boomeranging hopelessly among men, trying to blot out their failings and make one of them stick. And then she’d seen Charles again and suddenly it all seemed to fall into place, as though she’d been trying to force her previous boyfriends to fit into a Charles-shaped hole.
Nory would be lying if she said she hadn’t entertained similar thoughts about Guy during their brief encounter; she had fantasized between orgasms that the Fates had thrown them back into each other’s paths for a reason. But of course, the Fates had had nothing to do with it, although Nory suspected Guy may have been channeling Priapus, the Greek god with the permanent erection.
“Oh, say you’ll come, Nory, please! I can ask Dev to bring along another man-Barbie to play with you.” Ameerah waggled her eyebrows and winked.
“No thank you. I am sworn off meaningless sex with mindless men.”
“Good! That leaves more for me. Now stop playing hard to get and tell Jenna you’ll come to the house party.”
“You know she won’t give up,” said Andrew. “And besides, you haven’t had a proper break this year, and really, why are you letting this hack Guy stop you from spending a week living in the lap of luxury with your oldest friends? Why are you making his life easier?”
“Yes!” said Ameerah, clapping her hands together. “Andrew is spot-on. This is about fighting against the patriarchy. Women have spent too long making apologies for men’s bad behavior. If you don’t come to this house party, you are allowing the cycle of systemic misogyny to continue. Don’t be part of the problem, Elinor Noel, be part of the solution. Break down the walls of patriarchal mind control!”
Nory gave in. She was no match for Ameerah’s courtroom arguments. And why should she be relegated to hide in the shadows because Guy couldn’t keep his penis in his pants? She hadn’t cheated on anyone! With Ameerah looking over her shoulder, she messaged Jenna, apologizing for “dragging her heels” and confirming that she would be coming on Sunday for the whole week.
Nory felt indignantly roused by Ameerah’s speech for a full hour before she came down off the high and remembered she was a compulsive worrier and had just agreed to spend a week in a castle avoiding Guy’s wife.
