Chapter 8
A wave of nausea surged up into Mimi’s throat. She took a step backwards to steady herself and her bare foot made contact with an empty drinks can. As the tinny clatter caught their attention, she saw them freeze, then spring apart like opposing magnets.
Her best friend.
‘Oh shit,’ Rob muttered under his breath.
‘Well this is . . . interesting,’ said Mimi. The nausea was lessening, which was good; for a minute she’d actually thought she might throw up.
‘OK, sorry.’ Kendra swung her legs down so she was in a sitting position, and used her left hand to pull up the strap of her thin pink camisole top. Her right hand, Mimi noticed, was at her side, tightly clasping Rob’s.
Mimi braced herself. ‘Sorry for doing it? Or sorry for getting caught?’
‘OK, you weren’t supposed to find out,’ Kendra said calmly. ‘But now that you have, it’s better that you know everything.’
‘What does that mean? What’s everything?’ Mimi’s knees were shaking because this whole situation was just so utterly surreal. Here they were at two in the morning, on a balcony rooftop in Notting Hill. The lights of London twinkled away all around them; music was drifting up from a car in the street below. The scent of summer-warm tarmac mingled with the garlicky cooking smells from the late-night takeaway on the corner. She’d always loved spending time up here on this magical terrace with its stunning views across the rooftops of the city she loved.
Well, up until now.
‘We didn’t want to hurt you,’ said Kendra.
‘Which is why you pretended to be tired, then crept up here while I was asleep.’
Kendra shrugged. ‘But that makes sense, doesn’t it?’
‘Are you serious?’ As she stared at Kendra in disbelief, Mimi realised this wasn’t the first time it had happened. They were still holding hands, joining forces against her.
Rob said, ‘Let me explain—’
‘No,’ Kendra interrupted, ‘let me do it. And don’t look at me like that,’ she pleaded with Mimi. ‘I’m your friend. I’m not a bad person and we didn’t mean for this to happen, of course we didn’t. But sometimes you click with someone and there’s no way of stopping it. We tried to ignore it, but it just wasn’t possible. Every time we saw each other, the chemistry built up and up, until we just couldn’t . . .’
‘. . . help ourselves,’ said Rob.
‘And how long has this been going on?’ Mimi gestured at them, sitting side by side on the garden sofa.
‘Only a couple of weeks.’
‘Rob, leave this to me.’ Kendra shook her head. ‘It’s been two months,’ she said gently. ‘We weren’t expecting you to wake up tonight. You know what you’re like – once you’re asleep, you’re out like a light.’
‘So it’s my fault?’ Mimi was incredulous.
‘No, no, you don’t understand, it’s nobody’s fault. And we kept it a secret because it seemed like the sensible thing to do. Rob and I were crazy about each other, but what if it didn’t last? We thought we should give it a go first to see how things worked out. Then if the feelings wore off quite quickly, we could just call it a day and carry on as if nothing had ever happened. That way, you’d never need to know about it and everything would be fine!’
What were they expecting, a round of applause? ‘And if the feelings didn’t wear off?’
Kendra shrugged again. ‘Well, then Rob would break up with you. But only once we were completely sure.’
Mimi surveyed the two of them, her boyfriend and the girl who for the last few years had been her best friend. Kendra still appeared to be convinced that they’d only done this because they had her best interests at heart.
It was like one of those elaborate prank shows on TV where the innocent person can’t make sense of the unreal situation they suddenly find themselves in. Except there was no camera crew hiding behind the chimney pots on this rooftop.
‘And before you ask,’ Kendra went on, ‘we are sure.’
‘Great,’ said Mimi.
‘Oh sweetie, you’re upset. I know you don’t mean that.’
Mimi shook her head. She might be lots of things right now, but weirdly enough, upset wasn’t one of them. She looked at Kendra. ‘Oh I really do. I think you and Rob completely deserve each other. It’s like you’re a perfect match.’
The next morning Mimi heard Kendra leave for work on the dot of six thirty, as always. By seven, shards of sunlight were streaming in at an angle through her bedroom window and she’d run through the events of last night a hundred times in her head. Some of her imagined ripostes and one-liners had been so brilliant it was a shame she wasn’t able to hit rewind and inflict them on Rob and Kendra without the five-hour delay.
If this had been a film, though, she could have come up with them straight away. Or climbed back in through the sash window and locked it, leaving the pair of them stuck outside the building for the rest of the night.
She could have flushed Rob’s precious phone down the loo.
Broken every piece of crockery in the kitchen cupboards and flung cornflakes like confetti around the whole apartment.
Taken scissors to every dress in Kendra’s wardrobe.
Pushed the two of them over the parapet and watched them plummet to the ground . . .
OK, prison food was horrible; maybe not that.
Prawns, though. Prawns stuffed into the deep cracks between the floorboards so the whole flat would smell as if it were harbouring dead bodies . . . wouldn’t that be good?
There was a knock at the door. Opening it, Mimi saw Rob standing there, showered and dressed in one of the dark suits he always wore when he had an important business meeting to attend. She’d heard him leave last night, and now he was back.
‘Look, I really am sorry.’ He gave her his trust-me look. ‘I never meant for any of this to happen. If I’m honest, I can’t see it working out for me and Kendra.’ He smiled fleetingly. ‘She’s not even my type. It was one of those things that just happened out of the blue.’
‘Two months ago,’ Mimi reminded him.
‘It was her idea, not mine.’
‘You’re wearing too much cologne.’ In the space of a few hours, Mimi was discovering, she’d gone right off it.
‘Am I? Thanks, I’ll sort it out. I just wanted to drop by and check you’re OK.’
‘Never better, thanks.’
‘You look fine, anyway. I didn’t know if you’d have been crying.’
Mimi shook her head. ‘No, none of that.’
‘Well, that’s good. I’m glad. So, we’re all adults, no reason why we can’t be civilised about this, is there?’ And now he was giving her his closing-the-deal smile, accompanied by the rapid nod.
‘We’re adults,’ said Mimi. ‘No reason at all.’
‘I knew you’d understand.’ Rob glanced at his sleek watch. ‘OK, busy day ahead, better get moving. I can give you a lift into work if you like?’
‘Bit early for me. I don’t have my first meeting until nine thirty. I’d rather walk in,’ Mimi told him.
Visibly relieved to have the situation under control, he made to leave. ‘Excellent. I’ll see you later. No need for awkwardness in the office,’ he said cheerfully. ‘We can do this.’
She gave him a grown-up smile. ‘Of course we can.’
She watched from the bedroom window as Rob emerged from the house and made his way along the pavement to where he’d parked his car. She conjured up a mental image of herself running him over in an army tank, then for good measure flattening that pretentious vintage Porsche of his too.
Then she turned away and surveyed the contents of her room, considering what to do next. Life was about to get complicated and she still hadn’t worked out a plan. On the downside, this was the time when you’d normally throw yourself wailing into the arms of your best friend, who would sympathise and be on your side and agree that your ex-boyfriend was a cheating bastard who definitely didn’t deserve you.
And if you lost your best friend because she turned out to be a two-faced liar with no morals and zero conscience, you’d automatically expect your wonderful boyfriend to console you and help you through the trauma of it all.
Well, she didn’t have either of those options, which was a shame.
On the upside, witnessing their dual betrayal with her own eyes had definitely helped. A lot. Instead of being distraught, the cord had been cut in an instant, as if a razor-sharp guillotine had come crashing down. Because when relationships ended, the worst thing you could hear was the it’s not you, it’s me line or the it just isn’t working, is it? excuse.
Which was fine when you weren’t bothered anyway, but awful to hear when it was coming from someone you actually liked, and usually meant they’d moved on to someone else. Leaving you dumped and disappointed, and only able to imagine the happy couple together . . .
Whereas this time she hadn’t needed to imagine them; it had all been happening right there in front of her, telling her everything she could possibly want to know.
It really was impossible to be distraught when you were furious.
At eight thirty, a text came through from Kendra: Hi, angel, all OK? I’ll be home around six, so let’s have a drink and a proper chat then. Dinner on me this evening – tell me what you fancy and I’ll order it in xxx
Mimi texted back: How about the special menu for two from that nice Indian place on Kensington Park Road?
In no time, Kendra replied: Consider it done. Glad everything’s going to be OK. Love you xxx
Mimi conjured up a mental image of a rhinoceros smashing its way through the swish glass doors of the web design company where Kendra worked, its beady eyes gleaming as it eventually located her cowering behind her desk . . .
OK, stop that. She had more important things to do and not much time to do it in.
At nine twenty-five, Mimi called Jess who worked on reception at Morris Molloy and told her she wasn’t able to make it into work today, so Rob would need to cover her schedule.
‘Oh noooo, you poor thiiiiing,’ cooed Jess, who loved her elongated vowels. ‘That’s going to make things difficult for Rob, isn’t it, at such short notice? But you’re never off sick, so it must be really baaaad.’
‘It’s been a bit of a rough night,’ Mimi confided. ‘I think something must have disagreed with me.’