‘Maybe you could leave a note for Mr Adams.’ The letting agent spoke brusquely, keen to close the door on a potentially deal-breaking neighbour.
‘Hang on.’ The gawky accountant-type behind him raised his voice above the thudding hip-hop beat that was now making the floor vibrate. ‘How often do you have parties?’
‘Not often. Two or three times a week, that’s all.’
‘And the smell,’ said the accountant. ‘What is that?’
‘Hmm? Oh, can you notice it?’ Lola shrugged. ‘No idea. It comes and goes in waves –
something to do with the drains, I think. Cost us a fortune to have everything checked out but it didn’t do any good. We thought maybe Neddy No-Mates had buried someone under his floorboards.’ She paused and said, ‘Why do you want to know?’
‘This flat’s been registered with a lettings agency.’ The accountant blinked rapidly. ‘The owner’s moving to Australia.’
‘You’re kidding. Hey, fantastic!’ Hearing footsteps behind her, Lola turned and said to Sally,
‘Hear that? Neddy No-Mates is off to Oz!’
‘To get away from us?’ All of a sudden nine months pregnant beneath her coat, Sally nodded approvingly. ‘Cool. So does that mean you’re going to be our new neighbour?’
‘I, um ...’ Was that a glint of terror behind the geeky spectacles? ‘Well, I’m not ...’
‘Because if you ever fancy a spot of babysitting, I’ve got just the thing for you right here!’ Sally gave her swollen stomach a pat. ‘I mean, just because we’re having a baby doesn’t mean we have to stop doing what we want to do, does it? Whoo-hoo!’ Eminem had given way to Snoop Dogg. Sally, clutching her stomach with one hand and waving the other in the air, executed some enthusiastic hip-hop-esque dance moves. Whoo-hooooo!’
It was a sight to make a grown man nervous. Two grown men, in fact. The geek and the lettings agent edged nervously away. Lola, filled with admiration, prayed that Sally wouldn’t get carried away and attempt to shake her booty.
Imagine the embarrassment if her cushion fell out.
‘How many of you are there living in that flat?’ said the Beek.
‘Just me and Lola and this little creature when he gets here.’ Still energetically gyrating along to the music, Sally pointed gaily at her stomach.
‘Who needs a man when you’ve got a turkey baster?’ said Lola, winking at the lettings agent.
‘Our baby’s going to have two mothers who know how to have fun.’
When the agent and the geek had left the building, Lola turned off the ear-splitting music and threw open the windows in both flats to disperse the nostril-curling boiled-cabbage smell.
‘Gosh, that was fun.’ Sally pulled the balled-up velvet cushion out from under her coat and flung it onto the sofa. ‘Think it’ll do the trick?’
‘It’d do the trick if I was the one looking for a flat.’ Lola took a bottle of white wine from the fridge and poured out two glasses.
‘Poor bloke, he did look a bit stunned. I suppose we just have to wait now. Should I be drinking that in my condition?’
‘You could always have water instead.’
‘Water? Yeurgh, nasty wet watery stuff. No thanks.’ Lola’s phone rang ten minutes later and she leapt on it. ‘What did you do?’ Gabe came straight to the point. Innocently Lola said, ‘Sorry?’
‘No you’re not. I’ve just had a call from the lettings agent,’ said Gabe, ‘telling me that in view of the Situation, I’m going to need to drop my rental price.’
‘Oh Gabe, that’s terrible.’
‘Quite significantly, in fact.’
‘You poor thing!’
‘He also said getting rid of that putrid smell had to be a priority’
‘Oh dear.’
‘So this friend of yours, this sister-of-Doug,’ said Gabe. ‘I’m assuming she’s there with you now’
Lola looked over at Sally. ‘Might be.’
‘And she wants my flat.’
‘Definitely. More than anything.’
‘What caused the smell?’
‘Four big saucepans of boiled cabbage.’
‘Here, give me the phone.’ Reaching over, Sally grabbed it and said, ‘Gabe? Hi, please let me be your new tenant! I’m super-housetrained, I promise. I’d really look after your flat and I’m completely trustworthy, I’ll pay the full rent by direct debit and leave the deposit with Lola now, you won’t regret it .. . what? Oh, OK.’
‘What did he say?’ demanded Lola when Sally put down the phone.
‘That I was giving him earache.’
‘And?’
‘That moving to Australia was beginning to seem like the best decision he’d ever made.’
‘And?’
‘That you and I deserve each other and he feels sorry for our baby.’
Since Sally was currently sitting on the sofa with one elbow digging into the abandoned velvet cushion, Lola felt quite sorry for it too. ‘So that means ... ?’
Sally beamed and clinked her glass against Lola’s. ‘I can move in as soon as I like.’
Chapter 12.
’Oh, I’m going to miss you s000 much.’ Lola blinked and hiccuped; she hadn’t expected to feel this emotional but actually saying goodbye to Gabe was hard.
‘Hang on, you’re strangling me.’ He prised her off him. ‘It’s like being hugged by a giant koala.’
‘That’s to get you into practice. Oh bugger, what do I look like?’
‘A panda in a pink dress.’ Gabe watched her mopping up mascara. ‘I can’t believe you’re crying.
I’m only going for a year.’
‘I know, I know I’m being stupid.’ Lola blew her nose like a trumpeting elephant. ‘But what if you change your mind? You might decide to stay there for good and I’ll never see you again.
You’re my best male friend in the world and you’re about to fly off to the other side of it. What if you and Jaydena get married and buy a house and settle down and have loads of Aussie kids?’
She expected Gabe to burst out laughing at such a ridiculous idea, but he didn’t.
‘If that happens, you can always come out and visit us.’ Oh God, he really meant it! He was that besotted with Jaydena. Had he never even watched Kath and Kim?
Apart from anything else, Lola knew they had particularly evil spiders in Australia, the kind that hid under toilet seats and bit your bum. So she definitely couldn’t go.
‘You could come back and visit me,’ she offered.
‘What, with all those kids?’ Gabe grinned. ‘Are you crazy? We couldn’t afford it.’
He was in love. Lola did her best to feel happy for him. She looked at her watch. ‘I’m going to be late to work.’
‘And my cab’s due in ten minutes.’ Gabe gave her a kiss on the cheek and pushed her towards the door. ‘Go on, get yourself out of here. You’ve got your new friend Sally moving in tonight –
you won’t even notice I’m gone.’
’You were right,’ said the man who wasn’t a private detective.
‘Oh, hi.’ Recognising him, Lola dumped the pile of hardbacks she’d brought out from the stockroom and said cheerfully, ‘Right about what?’
‘Last night. I couldn’t put that book down. I was awake till four this morning finishing it.’ He shook his head in baffled disbelief. ‘I didn’t know reading could be like that, I had no idea. I’ve just never been a booky person. All these years I’ve been missing out.’
‘Ah, but now you’ve seen the light.’ Lola loved it when this happened; witnessing a conversion never failed to give her a thrill. ‘You’ve become one of us. Welcome to our world; you’re going to love it here.’
‘I need another thriller and I don’t know where to start.’ The man was wearing a navy suit today, with a burnt-orange shirt and a turquoise silk tie. ‘There are so many to choose from. Can you recommend an author?’