A Change for the Better? (7 page)

“Is it alright if I come in? I’m not going to get in the way of anything am I?” he asked cautiously.

“No, no” Katie replied “I’ve finished my ‘cooking’ now; it’s quite safe to enter.”

“Wow, you’ve got quite an appetite then.” Ben surveyed the table stacked with food. Katie pulled a face at him.

“Actually, if you must know we are having a house get-together tonight.”

“A house what?” Ben queried

“Get-together - just an informal party, keep everyone on good terms and, according to Mo to make sure they’re all eating properly.”

Ben laughed “That sounds like Mo - always forcing food on people. Ow!” Katie slapped his hand as he tried to pinch a cheese and onion roll.

“Well, I’m not Mo, so you can leave that alone. Here have a biscuit if you’re hungry” Ben took the offered packet and ate a couple of biscuits out of it.

“It does look very nice though,” he said through a mouthful of crumbs “I’m sure you wouldn’t miss one.” he raised pleading eyes to Katie, who remained completely immune.

“Yes actually I would, but look everyone will be here in the next hour. If you want to stay you’re welcome, you can keep the conversation flowing. I recall you were quite good at talking rubbish for indefinite periods.” Katie teased.

“Well, after such a gracious invitation how could I refuse?” Ben answered, with mock
affront, “But
I would like it to be known I’m staying to sample the food on offer and in no way to help you out of any awkward social situation. OK?” Ben popped another biscuit in his mouth and smiled at Katie.

“Yeah, yeah,
whatever,
go and finish the door otherwise you’ll be acting as security guard out there.” Katie shooed him towards the door ignoring the cheese and onion roll he sneaked off the plate as he left.

Half an hour later Ben had completed the door replacement and after several test openings and closings by Katie it had passed its
examination.

“Although I will miss my daily fall into the hall,” Katie mused sarcastically, “Thanks Ben, how much do I owe you?”

“Don’t worry about that now” Ben replied “I’ll get the office to drop you a bill round next week. Can I use your bathroom to clean up a bit before everyone else arrives? I don’t want to show you up.”

Katie showed Ben to the bathroom and fetched him a clean towel from the airing cupboard. Then she returned to the kitchen and poured herself a large glass of white wine. She was actually pleased to have a friendly face on hand for tonight, and despite his habit of winding her up, Ben felt like an old friend. He was easy to be around and Katie was a bit nervous about the evening, although she had met them all apart from the Dixons, she was nervous of making a poor impression. Katie hadn’t had much need to be around friends socially over the last couple of years. She had always been with Marcus or at a works do where she was playing the part of perfect PA. She’d never really had to be herself and she wasn’t quite sure who she really was at the moment. Taking a large slurp of wine Katie checked the table once more and fiddled with glasses, putting them in strictly parallel lines. Ben returned to the
kitchen just as she was checking the table again.

“Don’t worry, it all looks fine” Ben said seriously, picking up on Katie’s tension “Now is there a cold bottle of beer in the fridge.”

Katie passed him a bottle and an opener and flashed him a grateful smile, “I don’t know why I’m nervous,” she laughed “it’s not like I’m entertaining the Queen.”

Just then there was a ring at the doorbell, Katie jumped up and looked at her watch, quarter to seven,

“Oh God, it’s probably Jehovah’s Witnesses or something - just what I need.” Katie left the flat to open the now freely opening front door. As she pulled it open, dreading it being someone she couldn’t get rid of, and at the same time, strangely hoping it might be too. She heard the familiar tones as Cliona announced her arrival.

“Hi Katie love, Dec and I came a bit early. I thought you might need a hand or a bit of moral support at the very least, it’s quite strange having your house full of strangers.” Katie relaxed immediately. Cliona was such a perceptive friend yet she never seemed intrusive. Katie
began to wonder how she had done without such a friend before; perhaps things would have worked out differently if she’d had some wise and caring counsel. Katie made a resolution immediately that as soon as she was back in London she would put plenty of effort into finding at least one friend she could rely on half as much as she could on Cliona even in this short space of time.

Katie waved Cliona and Declan into the flat. Declan, Cliona’s partner was a big bear of a man, over six foot four and nearly as wide Katie thought, but he was as gentle as he was big and although he was a man of few words, being with Cliona meant he didn’t get many opportunities to talk anyway. When he did speak it was usually to the point and well observed, served up in a deep and husky voice that had retained a faint Irish burr despite leaving Ireland when he was only eight.

On reaching the kitchen Katie started the introductions,

“Um Ben, this is my friend Cliona and her partner ...”

“Dec” Ben interrupted shaking Declan’s hand warmly and giving Cliona a peck on the cheek. Katie looked at Ben for an explanation and Ben
obliged

“I’ve known Dec a good few years now; we did a renovation job on his restaurant about four years ago.”

“That he did, but even so we managed to stay friends” Declan teased and Ben grinned clearly pleased to have a real friend to talk to.

“So I know how we know Ben” Cliona remarked “but how do you know Ben” she asked Katie.

“Well actually it turns out we used to go to school together but I called his firm to come and fix the uncooperative front door and in an extraordinary display of bad timing he turned up this afternoon.” Katie swept her hair back as she spoke to give the impression she had been put out.

“You forgot to mention knocking me off my bike and driving off without a backward glance” Ben remonstrated and, as Katie tried to but in, added “and waved to me as I headed into the hedge” Cliona and Declan were laughing out loud now and Katie could feel the
colour
rising from the tips of her toes to the top of her forehead as she recalled her less than gracious
behaviour
.

“Katie, you never told me about that” Cliona chided her friend “tell me now exactly what happened, as I know Ben has a tendency to exaggerate on occasions.”

Just as Katie was thinking how she could get out of this gaping hole Ben had dropped her in there was a loud rat-tatting on the door and shortly after Poppy came bowling through the kitchen looking as excited as a five year old going to their first party. Without waiting for any introductions she headed straight for the table rubbing her hands with glee and stuffing a whole cheese scone in her mouth at once. It was only then she turned round to see there were people other than Katie in the room.

“Oops sorry” she exclaimed through a mouthful of crumbs “I didn’t see any of you here, but to be fair my attention was focused elsewhere.” Poppy admitted with complete honesty “but I know for sure” she continued “that none of you live here so why are you here?” Poppy’s bluntness although sometimes a bit of a surprise could never be offensive as it was always delivered with such childish naivety everyone just knew she wasn’t been rude. Somehow she had never lost that childlike way of asking whatever was in her head the minute she
thought of it.

Katie made the necessary introductions and left them all chatting as simultaneous knocks at the front and back doors left Katie trying to go in two directions at once. Seeing her dilemma, Ben jumped up to see to the back door which could only be the Clacketts, leaving Katie to go and meet the only house guests she hadn’t met so far.

On opening the hall door Katie was met by two beaming faces who introduced each other, rather like news-readers on a breakfast TV show and they were every bit as polished too!

“Hi, this is Bradley” beamed the girl clearly extremely proud of Bradley and certain that everyone else would be

“And this is Tamsin” Bradley returned indulgently “and you must be Katie, it’s so nice to finally meet, we’ve heard so much about you, haven’t we Tams?” Bradley looked to Tamsin to take up the narrative which she was clearly used to doing.

“Oh absolutely, all good, mind.
Mo loved telling us all about you and Poppy’s taken over that duty since Mo’s been in hospital. She thinks
you’re ‘pretty cool’ which believe me is a ringing endorsement.”

“Well, that’s lovely” Katie replied, a little overwhelmed by the double assault, “Do come in, it’s lovely to meet you both.”

“Oh thanks” they replied in unison, and stepped through the door presenting her with a bottle of wine for everyone and another present ‘only for you’ as Tamsin put it. It was a
handmade
carving in the shape of a love knot and polished so it was smooth and a pleasure to touch.

“It was made by an ancient tribe in Africa, it brings good fortune to those who touch it - is that right Brad?” Tamsin referred to her husband

“Well, yes - actually it’s a blessing it gives, but that’s supposed to bring good fortune I suppose.”

“It’s absolutely beautiful and extremely kind of you” Katie answered, she was quite touched by the gesture from this bouncy couple who she had only just met. As she followed them back into the now fairly crowded kitchen she took her opportunity to have a proper look at the Dixons. She had formed an idea in her head from Mo’s notes about vegetarians and good causes that they would be very earnest people in hand knitted sweaters and beards (well Bradley anyway!) but they were
very smartly dressed, Next more than Armani and clean shaven (Bradley again) and although they were obviously committed to their causes almost as much as to each other they didn’t appear to be at all preachy.
Although Tamsin did tell her later ’just tell me to shut up when I start banging on about something, I tend to get on my soapbox and don’t get off until someone shoves me!’

It turned out that Cliona knew Tamsin quite well they had sat on some fair trade craft committees in recent years. Tamsin was an administration manager for a fair trade charity in Rawlinston and Bradley was a lawyer for a national children’s charity’s regional office. Katie was impressed and bemused at the same time that he had decided to earn a significantly smaller income working for a charity than he could have in business and before she could stop herself a question popped out,

“But Bradley surely if you worked in a law firm you could work for yourself and your charity and have more money to donate?” There was a small gap in the conversations around the kitchen. “I’m sorry” Katie
realised
she might have over stepped the mark, “I didn’t mean to be rude, I was just wondering what motivates you.”

Bradley didn’t seem to have taken any offence, perhaps it was a
question he was used to being asked a lot. “It’s easy really, I trained to be a lawyer so I could make a difference, and I tried working in a practice with the intention of doing work for charities who needed it on the side, but it was always a conflict and the paying customer won. It became so frustrating that when the opportunity arose to work full time for a charity I believed in, it was an easy decision to make. Plus, I knew it was right as the second day in the job I met Tamsin.” he gave his wife a playful hug and the conversation fell back to more everyday topics.

Katie found it difficult to shake Bradley’s reply out of her head. She had known so many lawyers and barristers in London, they would all happily cough up for tickets to charity balls that it was necessary to be seen at or bid for memorabilia in auction in aid of a good cause, but she couldn’t think of one, not even Marcus, who would have given up their potential earnings to help one. Just as she was pondering this conundrum Poppy appeared back in the kitchen with Guy Chambers at her side.

“I just went up to get him - I knew he’d forget otherwise!” Poppy
emphasised
the word ’forget’ as if to imply he had chosen to forget rather than actually forgotten. By the uncomfortable look on his face it
was likely she was right.