The Sisters (36 page)

‘Good,’ Lucinda replied as they walked back towards London Bridge Station. ‘Well, it was really nice meeting you, Lily. I really enjoyed myself.’

‘Oh, honestly, it was my pleasure. I always wanted to meet you, in fact all of you. If my friends Alex and Chloe had had their way they’d have been here too.’

‘I hope I didn’t disappoint you.’

‘No, you didn’t and I promise you that the readers won’t be disappointed either. I’ll be in touch.’ Lucinda watched Lily disappear into the crowds of commuters making their way into the station. She couldn’t bear the thought of joining the chaos that always seemed to be around the station and decided to walk across London Bridge to Bank station. She stopped halfway across the bridge to look across at the river and the afternoon sun bouncing on the famous blue and white of Tower Bridge. London was a part of her. It had never really left her. Even though she had made New York her home and it was the place where her children were born it had always felt temporary and she’d never felt as though she truly belonged. London was where her heart was and it was the city that defined her and showed her for the woman she truly was.

‘Excuse me.’ Lucinda turned around as she realised that someone was trying to get her attention. As soon as she took a look into the blue eyes of the man standing in front of her, she knew exactly what he wanted. She recognised that look, even though it had been years since she’d seen it. ‘Hello, I’m really sorry but my friend here, Darren-’

‘Hi, that’s me,’ said the tall, light skinned black man with incredibly sexy eyes. He raised his right hand and smiled.

‘And I’m Brandon,’ said the third male who was standing next to the blonde man whose name transpired to be Henry.

‘Well, we’re sorry to bother you,’ continued Henry whose eyes were sparkling as though it was Christmas day. ‘But we could swear that…’ Brandon who quite clearly couldn’t take anymore interrupted Henry. ‘Are you her? I mean, are you from Euterpe? Are you Lucinda?’

‘Bloody hell mate. Show some restraint,’ said Henry.

Lucinda didn’t know what to think. She couldn’t remember the last time that she’d been accosted on the streets by fans. She was just grateful that it wasn’t a Friday night and they weren’t drunk. ‘Yes I am,’ she replied.

‘Oh my god,’ Henry said. ‘We walked past you and Darren said it was you and I thought no way, it can’t be.’

‘Well, Darren was right.’

‘Bloody hell. Who’d have thought? The first time we saw you was at our Fresher’s Ball.’ Lucinda threw her head back and laughed as she had a flashback of her, Jessica and Beatrice driving around all over England and performing at various universities before they had their first number one. ‘Well there were a lot of fresher’s ball. I’m surprised that you even recognised me.’

‘Who could ever forget you and your sisters? I told myself that I was going to marry Jessica,’ Darren said. ‘I stood at the front of the stage hoping that she’d take a look in my direction.’

‘I always liked Beatrice,’ Brandon said. ‘Sorry,’ he added.

Lucinda laughed again. ‘It’s fine.’

‘So are you performing again? Because quite frankly I don’t know why you split up in the first place. You were excellent,’ Henry said as he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

‘Well things change. People change. You try different things,’ Lucinda replied. ‘But in case you’re interested I’m going to be performing at the end of the month. I’m having a show at Dougie Mills in Soho. So, if you gentlemen want to come along then I could put your names on the guest list.’

Lucinda thought Brandon’s eyes were going to pop out of his head. ‘Seriously?’ he asked.

‘Yes, seriously. You don’t seem like a bunch of stalkers.’

‘That would be fantastic.’

‘I’ve got a website. Why don’t you email me and I’ll make sure you’re on the list?’

‘That’s amazing. Thank you. Would you mind awfully if we took a picture? I’ll understand if you said no. You’re probably sick of people asking.’

‘Funny enough, it doesn’t happen as often as you think.’

Lucinda spent another 15 minutes contentedly taking pictures with her mini troop of fans and then even allowed them to escort her to the station. When she finally stepped onto the tube, for the first time since she arrived, she didn’t feel fearful about what was to come.

‘DOES YOUR sister know you have this?’ Wendy asked as she inserted the memory stick into her laptop and opened the document, ‘
Lucinda’s Kitchen
. It’s not really imaginative is it? We’ll definitely have to change that. We could always call it
the book I stole from my sister.’

‘Stop being facetious and just tell me what you think?’ Emma said as she perched herself on Wendy’s desk.

‘What makes you think that she even wants to publish this?’

‘Why else would you start writing a book if you didn’t want the public to see it? Anyway, at least she’s written it herself, which is a lot more than I can say for most of your clients. Half of them are only interested in talking about orcs, wizards and dragons, and the other half have never written their own name, let alone an entire book.’

‘This coming from the woman whose latest client’s claim to fame is a reality show about a dog beauty parlour.’

‘What can I say? It’s very popular. So what do you think?’

‘I think that it’s really good. I love how she has attributed a recipe to each chapter. She’s a really talented writer and reading this is actually making me hungry,’ Wendy said as she reached into her desk draw and pulled out a chocolate biscuit and a packet of cheese and onion crisps.

‘I knew it was good.’

‘But seriously, Ems, maybe this is just her own private musings. For all we know this may just be an exercise set by her therapists.’

‘Lou doesn’t do therapy. Music is her therapy. Look, we spent ages talking about what she wants to do. Don’t get me wrong, she loves music, it’s her life, but she wants to try other things. She’s a brilliant cook, a fantastic writer and an amazing singer. She deserves this.’

Wendy looked at Emma quizzically. ‘I gather that a lot has changed since she’s been back. You and Jessica were hardly her biggest cheerleaders last year.’

‘I know, but things change don’t they and sometimes you think you know it all but you don’t really. So, what are you going to do about this work of art here?’

‘What do you think? Find a publisher, which shouldn’t be that hard. I can think of a half a dozen publishers who would grab at this. If she’s making a comeback, as you said, then this will be a great tie-in. Has she got anything else lined up?’

‘She’s being interviewed by Allure magazine today and I’ve been calling in some favours. In fact, I’ve got to check on one of them right now.’

‘Go on, you crazy woman. It seems as though I’ve got some calls to make. Hey, before you go, you better give me her number. Someone needs to warn her that she’s just acquired a book agent.’

‘Sal, tell me that it’s good news,’ Emma asked as she walked down to reception to find him talking animatedly to their latest temporary receptionist.

‘Did you know that April here is an actress and a singer?’ he said as he leaned away from the desk.

‘No, I never knew that,’ Emma lied, knowing full well that every temp that had ever sat in that desk had thought it’d be his or her way into the world of fame. To her knowledge, since Jessica had opened the doors of the agency, it’d only happened once with their administration assistant, Duncan, who’d been scouted whilst he stood outside having a cigarette with Megan. The last time Emma had seen him was modelling in the pages of the Style section of
The Sunday Times
and a small role in the latest Christopher Nolan film.

‘Sal, you didn’t come all this way just to flirt with our staff,’ Emma said as she kissed him on the cheek. It was funny to think that their lives were coming full circle. Sal used to be such a regular feature in the early days that it got to the point that their mother would set an extra place for him at the dinner table on a Sunday.

‘Don’t flatter yourself. I was only around the corner at the BBC, which is my news. Carter sent me a couple of tracks that he’s been working on with Lucinda. Have you heard it?’

Emma shook her head. ‘We didn’t get round to it last night.’

‘Oh, it’s good. Really good. I knew Carter would be the right person for her.’

‘Who’s Carter?’

‘Her producer. A really nice guy. If he stopped being so bloody precious he could be big really big. Hey, you never know it could still happen, especially once we release this. Anyway, Robert Elms is an old mate of mine.’

‘Oh, I like him. I sent him a note and query once. Is he really your mate or did you stalk him at the studios?’

‘He’s a mate and he knows what he’s talking about. He loves Lou’s newest stuff, so to cut a long story short, he’s offered to have her in as a listed Londoner and have her perform live.’

‘Sal, that’s brilliant. She’s going to go nuts.’

‘Oh, that’s not all sunshine. One of the girls who used to work for me is a booking agent for Lorraine and Loose Women.’

‘No way Sal.’

‘Yes. As I told you the other day. I’m a bloody miracle worker and I’ve managed to get her on both. I don’t know what it is but everything is falling into place. So now that I’ve told you my news would you like to give me the courtesy of telling me why you’ve demanded my presence?’

‘Well, don’t make yourself too comfortable because we’re going on a trip.’

‘You’re just as bad as Lou. Can’t sit still in one place.’

‘Don’t worry; we’re not going far. I’ve had to pull a lot of strings and offer all sorts of bribes but I promise you that Lulu is going to love it.’

Once she’d arrived home, Lucinda decided to give herself the night off. When she thought about it, from the minute she’d arrived home, she’d been on what seemed like a roller coaster, both emotionally and physically. As she laid in her bath with the warm scents of her Jo Malone pomegranate noir bath oil filling the steamy bathroom and the candles flicking silently on the windowsill, she recognised that what she had in her life was enough. She didn’t have to revisit the dizzy heights of fame that Euterpe had reached and she didn’t need the financial reserves that had once been at her disposal when she was living in New York. There was more to her than that. She wasn’t a one trick pony, there were many facets to her that she’d either chosen to ignore or had convinced herself that they didn’t really represent her. She wasn’t a fool. She knew that she’d been in a better position than most people who recognised that they weren’t financially independent and had hit rock bottom. Yes, she had had to hustle and make quick decisions. Yes, she had to budget and make changes to how she lived and viewed the world, but she hadn’t been homeless. She hadn’t arrived in London with her two children and been forced to bang on the council offices, demanding to be housed and then been forced to live in a B & B with damp on the walls and cockroaches for dinner companions. As she lay soaking in the bathtub she closed her eyes and said a silent prayer of thanks. Her children were happy and were due to start the next chapter in their lives, plus her own book of life was yet unfinished despite the surprise phone call from Wendy earlier that had made her want to hunt down her nosey little sister and kiss her. She did have to tell Wendy that she had no interest in becoming a celebrity chef but she was definitely up for what she had in mind.

‘Yes, life is definitely getting better,’ Lucinda said to herself as she stepped out of the bath and wrapped herself in a soft, warm towel. The house was quiet as the twins had managed to extend their shopping trip to an excursion to Islington and from their last text, were planning on a cinema trip with Lena. She couldn’t remember the last time that she’d been truly on her own. Although Owen worked long and unsocial hours they’d been seeing a lot of each other. She was glad to, as Depeche Mode once said,
enjoy the silence
.

Her iPhone signalling the arrival of an email interrupted the silence. Her website and Twitter account had launched the day before and she’d been surprised by the number of emails she’d already received. It was hard to believe that she thought she’d been forgotten.

The first was from Carter sending her further versions of the songs that she’d recorded earlier that week. She wondered where he found the time to sleep; he seemed to be constantly working. The second was an email from Jake asking if she wouldn’t mind looking after the children, as he wanted to take Beatrice on a surprise trip to Paris. However, it was the third email that surprised her. She wasn’t expecting to hear from Lily considering that she’d left her only five hours ago, but there was a draft version of her interview. In the past she’d been used to giving an interview and seeing the finished article that bared no resemblance to what she’d said, but she remembered a story that Lily had told her about how an article she’d written had nearly destroyed her friendship with her best friend.

As Lucinda sat alone on her bed and read the article she realised again how far she’d come and what she’d been at risk of losing. Even more, she was amazed that she managed to come across so eloquent considering she was nursing a hangover and was stuffing her face with fried bread and an organic sausage at the time. As she finished the article and lay down on her bed she felt something stir within her that she hadn’t felt for a long time. She felt at peace.

THE THOUGHT of seeing him again made her sick to her stomach. Her first reaction upon opening her front door to leave was to walk straight to the Tesco Express on the corner and buy herself a bottle of vodka but she knew that if she did that then all of the progress she’d made would have been for nothing. In retrospect, the short time away had been the best thing for her, even though when she’d come back she’d failed to recognise it. She’d hated the idea of attending Alcoholics Anonymous; the thought of having to sit in a room of strangers who she thought would be in judgement of her and ridicule her for following the clichéd road so familiarly travelled by those in the public eye. But it hadn’t been like that all. There were one or two raised eyebrows when it was obvious that she’d triggered more than one recessed memory but over the ninety minutes she’d just sat and listened. That had changed with week two when Jessica found her voice.