Shopaholic and Sister

I run my eyes over the basket, slightly dissatisfied. Should I maybe—

“The present is fine,” says Luke, just as I open my mouth. “You don’t need to add any more.”

How did he know what I was going to say?

“OK,” I say reluctantly. I look at my watch and feel a swoop of excitement. “Not long now! She’ll be here soon!”

The plan is, Jessica’s going to phone when her train gets in to Oxshott Station, then Dad will go and pick her up. It’s pure coincidence that she’s going to be in London this week. She lives in Cumbria, which is miles away, but apparently she was coming down anyway, for an academic conference. So she’s come down a day early, especially to meet me!

“Becky, before all the excitement starts… I wanted to have a quick word. On the subject of our honeymoon purchases.”

“Oh, right.”

I feel a twinge of resentment. Why does Luke have to bring this up now? This is a special day! There should be a general reprieve from all arguments, like in the war when they played football on Christmas Day.

Not that we’re at war or anything. But we did have a bit of a row yesterday when Luke found the twenty Chinese dressing gowns under the bed. And he keeps asking when I’m going to sort out the apartment.

“I just wanted to let you know that I’ve spoken to the furniture merchants,” says Luke. “They’ll be coming by on Monday to take away the Danish table.”

“Oh, right,” I say sheepishly. “Thanks. So, are they giving us a full refund?”

“Almost.”

“Oh, well! So we didn’t do too badly in the end!”

“No, we didn’t,” agrees Luke. “Unless you count the storage costs, the delivery costs, the expense of packaging it all up again…”

“Right,” I say hurriedly. “Of course. Well, anyway… all’s well that ends well!”

I try a conciliatory smile, but Luke’s not even looking. He’s opening up his briefcase and pulling out a wad of — oh God.

Credit card bills. My secret code-red-emergency bills, to be exact. Luke asked for them the other day and I had no choice but to get them out of their hiding place.

I was kind of hoping he’d be too busy to read them, though.

“Right!” I say, my voice slipping up two notches. “So… you’ve seen those, then!”

“I’ve paid them all off,” Luke says shortly. “Have you cut up the card?”

“Er… yes. And thank you for paying them off,” I add humbly. Luke gives me a hard look.

“Have you really cut it up?”

“Yes! I threw the pieces in the bin!”

“OK.” Luke turns back to the bills. “And there isn’t anything else to come? Anything you’ve paid for recently?”

I feel a tiny clenching in my stomach.

“Er… no,” I say. “That’s all.”

I can’t tell him about the Angel bag. I just can’t. He still thinks all I bought in Milan was a present for him. That’s about my only redeeming feature right now.

And, anyway, I can pay it off myself, no problem. I mean, in three months I’ll have a job and my own income! It’ll be easy!

To my slight relief my mobile phone starts ringing. I scrabble in my bag and pull it out. Suze’s number is flashing on the display.

Suze.

At once I feel a gigantic leap of nerves and a familiar hurt starting to rise inside me.

I haven’t spoken once to Suze since I left her house. She hasn’t called… and neither have I. If she’s all busy and happy with a fab new life, then so be it. She doesn’t even know I’ve got a sister.

I press the green button and take a deep breath.

“Hi, Suze!” I exclaim in airy tones. “How are you? How’s the family?”

“I’m fine,” says Suze. “We’re all fine. You know… same old…”

“And how’s Lulu?” I say lightly. “I expect you two have been busy doing lots of fun things together?”

“She’s… fine.” Suze sounds awkward. “Listen, Bex… about that. I wanted to—”

I cut her off. “Actually, I’ve got a bit of exciting news of my own. Guess what? It turns out… I’ve got a long-lost sister!”

There’s a shocked silence.

“What?” Suze says at last.

“It’s true! I’ve got a half sister that I never knew about. I’m meeting her today for the first time. She’s called Jessica.”

“I… can’t believe it.” Suze sounds totally poleaxed. “You’ve got a sister? How come…”