Chapter Six
‘Come in, come in!’ Katherine Colgan greeted Dee, Chrissie and Amber as if they were long lost relatives who’d travelled to Redhill Wood from the other side of the world. ‘You must be gasping for a drinkie-poo. Oh, Dee, thank you sooo much,’ she said, accepting the bottle of red, ‘that’s one of my favourites. Ooh chocolates, Chrissie. You’re too kind.’ She looked expectantly at Amber.
‘They’re from all of us,’ said Amber with a sniff. Buying this particular woman a birthday gift, even a two quid supermarket spray of carnations, was not something she’d ever planned to do. The fact that Amber was even in this house was purely because she’d been steamrollered into coming along. Her grudge for Katherine Colgan was as fresh as the day she’d made a play for Matthew. Amber checked out Cougar Kate’s outfit. She was wearing a fitted dress with a big gold zip that went from bottom to top. Naturally the zip hadn’t been done up to the neck. It stopped short of Cougar Kate’s jostling bosoms which looked like two puppies trying to make a break for freedom. Amber slid her coat off and handed it to Cougar Kate, taking satisfaction in seeing the woman check out Amber’s figure as she did so.
Yes, cop a load of my cleavage, Amber silently sneered, and not a molecule of silicon in sight! Amber couldn’t wait to get home and see Matthew’s reaction to her newly-upholstered breasts. She’d drive him insane. He wouldn’t know whether he was coming, or coming and coming and coming.
‘Thank you all so much for being here to celebrate my birthday,’ said Cougar Kate graciously. ‘Go and join everybody else,’ she indicated a door leading off the hallway, ‘and eat, drink and be very merry.’
Everybody had congregated in the open plan kitchen-come-dining-room. A flat-screen on the wall was tuned to a radio station playing club anthems. There was quite a crowd in the room, some already tipsy from drinking on empty tums. Others were grouping around a table heaped with food. Amber’s stomach let out a growl of hunger. She had to concede that Cougar Kate had put on a lovely spread. The three women wandered over to another table loaded with different bottles of spirits and ice-buckets full of champagne bottles. Opting for champers, they took their glasses and huddled in a corner of the room, assessing the crowd while they sipped.
‘You have to hand it to her,’ said Chrissie, ‘Cougar Kate has done a lovely job.’ She nodded at the mini banquet everyone was enjoying, then gazed around the room. How she’d love to have a birthday bash like this, and in such a glorious house too.
‘It’s all right, I suppose,’ Amber shrugged. She was looking increasingly like someone with a bad smell under her nose.
Dee laughed. ‘Put the face away, Amber. Cougar Kate isn’t interested in Matthew. Accept her hospitality and leave the past where it belongs.’
‘Easier said than done,’ said Amber, her lip curling like Elvis Presley. ‘Just look at her. She’s in her element playing the hostess with the mostess.’
‘You have to admit she looks pretty good for forty,’ said Chrissie. ‘I’d settle for looking like that now, never mind in thirteen years’ time.’
‘Anyone can look like that,’ Amber rolled her eyes. ‘All that’s required is two hours in front of the mirror every morning, preferably with the contents of Boots’ beauty counter at their disposal, not forgetting a spare five thou for the Dolly Partons.’
‘Ooh, ouch,’ said Dee with a laugh. ‘Did you get out of the wrong side of bed this morning? What’s up with you?’
‘Nothing,’ said Amber quickly. She mentally shook herself. She must stop bitching. The girls were right. Cougar Kate’s flirting with Matthew was water under the bridge. Even so, Amber would never forgive her.
Suddenly the music’s volume dimmed and Cougar Kate clapped her hands. ‘I want to let you all know that the wonderful, internationally-acclaimed Madam Rosa, has arrived!’
‘Gawd, she’s carrying on like she’s a presenter for the Royal Variety Performance,’ tutted Amber.
‘Madam Rosa will start receiving you, one by one, in my lounge as soon as she’s cleaned the room from negative energy…’
‘I’ll bet there’s plenty of that,’ said Amber nastily.
‘…and lit her candles and incense sticks to invoke peace, harmony and contact with the spirits.’
‘Madam Rosa could easily do that if she did her readings by that table full of booze,’ Amber snorted.
‘Give it a rest, Amber,’ muttered Dee.
‘There’s quite a few of us here tonight,’ said Cougar Kate, ‘and consequently time constraints are in place. Each of you will be granted an audience of ten minutes precisely, so make sure you have any questions you want to ask at the ready. Further in-depth consultations with Madam Rosa can be booked at a later date for the very affordable fee of forty-five pounds for forty-five minutes.
‘That’s a pound a minute,’ gasped Chrissie.
‘Nice little earner if you can get it,’ Dee pointed out.
‘Oh for heaven’s sake,’ said Amber, rolling her eyes. ‘This evening is a marketing ploy for Madam Rosa. It’s like any product party. The hostess gets a free gift for drumming up business for the franchise member. Cougar Kate has safely bagged a free forty-five-minute reading for herself, and all she had to do was invite a few friends round.’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Chrissie, ‘after all, Katherine’s gone to a lot of trouble and expense here.’
‘It’s her birthday,’ said Amber. ‘She’s simply combined something she’d have done anyway with a freebie for herself.’
‘Does it matter?’ asked Dee. ‘The main thing is we’re going to have a whole ten minutes to ask Madam Rosa if our partners will ever pop the question. That’s the purpose of us being here, so let’s make the most of it. One question, one answer. By my calculations we’ll still have eight minutes left to ask a second question. Sounds fair to me.’
‘Well I think it’s obscene,’ said Amber moodily. ‘There must be thirty people here. If they all go ahead and book a further appointment with Madam Rosa, that’s well over a thousand pounds she’ll be pocketing. And I’ll bet she doesn’t pay tax either, unlike the rest of us.’
Dee and Chrissie exchanged looks. Amber seemed more wound up than a clockwork mouse.
‘I wonder who will go in first,’ said Chrissie. ‘I’m feeling a bit apprehensive, even though I don’t really believe in fortune-telling.’
‘It’s a load of old rubbish,’ said Amber scornfully. She drained her glass and smacked her lips appreciatively. ‘I’m going to have at least three glasses of fizz before I go in. And something to eat. I might as well freeload while I’m here before listening to Madam Rosa’s twaddle.’
‘Oh for goodness sake, Amber,’ said Dee rolling her eyes. ‘Get another drink down you and shut up. I’ve never known you moan so much.’
Amber’s eyes flashed. That was all very well for Dee to say, but then Dee didn’t have a boyfriend absenting himself all hours. Amber was starting to feel like Matthew’s mum rather than a girlfriend. Her role had become one of housekeeper - cooking his dinner and doing his washing. She wanted a boyfriend who kissed his way down her neck while expertly undressing her, and to hear her clothes drop to the floor in a rustle of silk – not a boyfriend who chucked his own clothes everywhere and left them there for her to pick up.
‘C’mon,’ said Chrissie. ‘I’m starving. Let’s enjoy some of this lovely food, and have a few more drinks to get us in the mood. And while we’re chomping our way through that delicious looking poached salmon, we’ll think up more questions to ask Madam Rosa for the remaining eight minutes you reckon we’re going to have, Amber.
Cougar Kate once again clapped her hands. ‘I’m delighted to say that Madam Rosa is ready. Now, who would like to go first?’