My Friend/His Sister Ch. 03

"OK Claire," I said, "what's up?"

She looked down at her mug, picked it up and took a long sip, closing her eyes in the enjoyment. She put down her tall latte glass, but still didn't make eye contact with me.

"I..." she burbled a few moments more and looked up for a few moments dropping her eyes again; Claire didn't know what to say.

Claire always knew what to say, even if it was a blatant lie or complete nonsense, she always had SOMETHING to say.

"Claire," I said, wanting only to help, or at least get to whatever bollocks she was going to say next, "You said you wanted to sort things out, what things?" I sipped from my latte.

"This... this thing you have going on with K..." I looked at her with raised, almost threatening eyebrows, daring her to add another few K's, "with Kevan." She sipped more latte.

"It's more than a 'thing' Claire," I said trying hard to keep a tone out of my voice, "we live together, we're engaged."

"Oh, come on!" she snapped, that was proper Old Claire right there, "You've known each other, what two months... and you're ENGAGED!?"

"We've lived together for seven months," I said, rounding the time up by a couple of weeks, "we've been dating for nearly nine." Much as I tried not to, I put my mug down with a bit of a thump.

"That's still NO time!" she said, and rolled her eyes, closing them, then shaking her head, like in the old days. She was evidently getting back into her stride, "you know... you know he's only using you... for sex I mean."

What.

The.

Actual.

Fuck?

My response was instantaneous.

"Yeah," I said with a hint of a growl, "that's the best bit of it!"

She looked shocked and stunned.

"He's... he's only going to dump you when the next pretty girl comes along." She added next.

It was Claire Anita's usual bollocks but it lacked the usual drive, the directness, the 'I know exactly what I'm talking about' state of mind that she used to use.

"So," I said picking up my latte again, "your idea of 'sorting out a few misunderstandings' was to sit down and tell me that I shouldn't be in love with your brother?"

There was a pause, dead air, a pin dropping would have made the entire room jump.

"Looooove..." she said, rolling her eyes, "that's term I've heard misused for YEARS!"

"No Claire," I said with a snap, "I'm not sure you have!"

"WHAT!?" she snapped back at me, and the entire coffee shop stopped, thew few other customers all turning at the sound, "with MY MOTHER?!"

"Claire..." I whispered, "For Christ's sake!"

"No! You think I don't know about LOVE? I've watched my Mum be in love for bloody YEARS!"

I saw the two ladies behind the counter step a little closer to the edge of it, just in case it was needed.

"Let's take this outside!" I said with a sharp snap, quickly finishing my drink.

"No, fuck outside," She picked up her coffee again with a trembling hand.

"Alright then, keep it down."

Her lips drew into a tight line, and I was ready for a Claire Anita meltdown.

"Love?" she snarled, "fucking LOVE? I loved two people in my life, and they both let me down."

"Who?" I said, getting all schoolteacher, "Tell me."

"Bloody Linda," she said looking down at her half-full latte glass, "Oh, she told me at Christmas that she didn't want me to call her Mum in the house anymore, said that it made her feel old especially when HE was around..." she sniffed loudly and took a long slug of her coffee.

"But..." I said, thinking on how hurt I would feel... no, that was shit, my Mum loved being 'Mum', (Nanny even more) but I could see how it would affect Claire.

I waved to the ladies at the counter, picking up my empty mug and wagging two fingers. The taller of the two ladies nodded and made for her coffee machine, and I heard the hiss of steam.

"And Daddy..." she said, "he always loved Kevan more than me."

"I know that isn't true Claire," I said with hint of a tone, "your Dad worships you, would worship you a bit more if you weren't always badgering him for things."

"And you're going to be on his side of course aren't you..." She rested back in her chair and folded her arms, shaking her head dramatically.

"So, you don't just use him for things then Claire? You don't just ask him for money, you demand he buys you holidays," I thought back on our conversation at Christmas, when he told me she'd all but demanded a car for her present, "you insisted he bought you a car; can you drive?"

"HOW am I supposed to learn without one?"

"You go to a driving school Claire, and you use theirs?"

"Oh... oh... I'm just supposed to jump into some manky fu..." I raised my eyebrows and picked up my new coffee that had just been delivered, flashing my card across the barista's reader again, "some manky car that the world and his wife jumps in and out of?"

"Yep, that's pretty much how everyone else does it."

"Well, NOT ME!"

I was starting to see the Claire I knew now, and almost regretted buying her the extra coffee.

"Claire," I said realising I was going to have to use the schoolteacher voice I normally saved for my four to eleven-year-olds, "You learn to drive in a car with dual controls, THEN you pass your test and buy one!"

"Daddy can afford it!"

"No, Daddy COULD HAVE afforded it," I hint of a raised tone now, "Don't forget your Mum, 'Linda'," I added for extra gravity, "took him for half of his fortune, can't she buy you a car?"

"Oh..." she flapped her hand in annoyance (like she always did with inconvenient truths), "Mummy spent all that."

"What?" She had literally taken the man for millions.

"She bought a new house, a series of cars she never drove and a whole mess of crappy investments, then when she divorced Max her last husband, he took half of the house, two of the five cars and half of what was left of her stock portfolio."

I was surprised, in one of my coffee chats with Cousin Kelly, she had said that the man Linda had left Phil for was absolutely minted.

"I figured Max would have had money?" I said, trying to get the conversation back to Claire and her problems.

"Yeah, so did Mum," she sipped her new coffee, "turned out, he just looked like he had lots of money, in the end it turned out HE liked to marry rich older women; Mum was his third."

"Christ," things started to become clear in my head, "so, it's ALL gone?"

"No," she said staring down, "my university money is still there, neither Mum nor Max could dig that out of the bank, there's a very strict covenant on that, and the bank has to get Dad's solicitor's approval before it's spent," she smiled, "Dad must have known!"

"Has Linda tried to get it then?"

"Yeah, she asked that if she couldn't spend it, could she just raise a loan on it as a security, Daddy's solicitor said that was the same as spending it, and no, she couldn't. Mum had a tantrum and threw her phone across the room... bought another one of course..." her voice tailed off and she sipped from her coffee and stared at it. "She tried to take Dad to court for maintenance but seeing as I'm grown up and she's been married twice since the divorce that really didn't go anywhere, even her solicitor asked what had happened to all the money she took from Dad."

I thought about Claire's lack of make-up, slight dishevelment (as far as Claire was concerned at least) and the distinct change in her dress and manner.

"Claire," I said, with uncomfortable images in my head of my old friend and what her life could be like, "do you still live with your Mum?"

"Yeah," she said, "if you can call it living. We argue all the time, normally about money. She keeps telling me to move out and live with Dad, but..." she sniffed and I saw the thing that shocked me the most.

Tears.

I'd seen tantrums, I'd seen meltdowns, but never tears.

Tears were genuine emotion, and while I'd seen tonnes of shouting-and-screaming attitude, tonnes of foot-stamping paddy, I'd never seen her actually upset.

"I don't think he loves me anymore..." she caught her breath and attempted to fight back her sadness.

"Claire, of course he loves you, I KNOW he still loves you!" I had spent the loveliest Christmas with him after all and saw the delight on his face when he rang her after lunch on both days.

"Mum said..." she wiped the drops of moisture from her cheeks, as if they were a bother, "Mum said... he only loved his first wife and Kevan, we were always second best."

"I know that's not true Claire, YOU know that's not true."

"I..." she gasped, I really thought a breakthrough was coming, but she shook her head and wiped her tears with the back of her hand, "I might have had his love once, but..." she looked around and I saw the tears fall, "I rather think I've blown it with him, and Mum hasn't helped..."

"Claire..."

"Mum's told me I have to move out or find a job, and I..." she gasped, "I can't find one! I've only ever worked with children and my last two jobs have pretty much screwed that idea with anyone. I can't get a reference, and many of the local nurseries are in the town's association and they all know each other." She closed her eyes again, "I'm fucked Laura, totally, completely and with nowhere to run."

"Your Mum won't kick you out surely?"

"She's having to give up our place, her place... whatever... and she's talking about renting somewhere smaller, one bedroom, just enough for her and the new bloke, he's not that fond of me."

I could guess why, but never pointed it out.

"Claire," I sat up straight and leaned forward, "Babe," I said reaching across the table and taking her hand, "You use the money. Go to university! Three years, you'll have the best time trust me!"

"Oh..." suddenly she looked shocked and almost hurt, "Oh Laura! Don't be stupid"

"What?" I snapped back at her.

"You come up with the most ridiculous things, when I really need your help!"

"The money Phil... your Dad has set aside will keep you at University for three years, in some comfort I might add, four if you wanted to do a masters at the end of it."

"University?"

"Of course!" I said, forgetting her suggestion I was being stupid, "I went, my brothers went AND their wives, Kev went, your Dad went, Kelly went, it'll be..."

I could see her face creasing up with some kind of suppressed rage.

"You... you..."

"Me what Claire?"

"You've just listed all the people that have..." she stood, downed her rather hot coffee and stormed out of the café. I stood to watch her departure and heaving shoulders, I'd never seen her look so bad.

I finished my latte and stood, thinking on what I had actually said.

Quite simply, her Mum was broke. Which meant she was broke too, BUT there was fifty grand in her mother's bank account that only Claire could get to. The only problem was she would need to head off to a city somewhere not too far away, and spend three years in lectures, workshops, libraires, visits, exams and some halls of residence and write some assignments.

Better than kipping on a park bench, that was for sure.

I rang Phil as soon as I got home.

"Yes," he said with some real sadness in his tone, "Kelly's Dad told me that it's all going wrong, and they're both having to sell their posh gear online. Linda is down to one fur coat, she even complained about where her old Barbour coat from the garage had gone seeing as the vintage ones were worth lots; to my knowledge she hated them. I certainly don't remember one in the garage when we all moved our own stuff out and sold up." I smiled as Phil continued with the story, "she was nagging everyone, insisted there was one in the garage when we lived there. Fuming because she'd seen old ones going for a hundred and fifty on eBay. We moved out of that place almost seven bloody years before, crazy story."

"It's not so crazy," I said, "If it's the one I'm thinking of, it's hanging in our hallway; Nanna..." I paused, and smiled even broader, unable to stop myself, "Years ago, Nanna was bringing Kev home one weekend, saw it thrown to one side and rescued it from the Mill house garage and Grampa Jim looked after it. She told me it was... Katie's one." There was a silence, "Nanna gave it to me the weekend that Kev proposed to me, it's right here..."

"How totally perfect!" said Phil with a slight tremble in his voice, "so like Nanna and Jim, and what a wonderful end to a shitty story!"

"Yeah," I said, stopping with a bit of a flourish, "so I'm going to try and get Claire to go to University, so she can get that money... your Money and spend it wisely having a great time."

"Perfect Laura," he said, "the girl needs to grow up away from her Mum; I'd give her money, but she'd lose it all to her mother, who'd buy more fucking clothes, and more fucking make-up, possibly even another boob job, then start to complain about Claire when the cash runs out. Not again honey, not again."

I heard nothing from Claire for weeks and had messaged her a couple of times. While I was still a bit concerned for her there was very little I could do, so I hoped for the best and got on with things.

The winter bloomed into a very nice spring, and we decided that with two incomes it was time to sell Kev's flat and buy the house we'd both been thinking about since we graduated.

With advice from John, we found a great new build that would be ready in late summer and came with some sweeteners and small reductions because I was a teacher and he worked in the NHS.

The 'For Sale' sign went up and there was some Interest, with either of us taking turns to vacuum Greebo's hairy chair and anywhere else he might have settled the night before.

Things were moving on and at one of our Wednesday night dinners at Mum's, with Steve and Holly expected in the next few minutes, she asked that with everything moving on, had Kev and I had thought about setting a date for our nuptials yet.

I knew the chapel I wanted to get married in, had a pretty fair idea of what my dress was going to look like, had picked my bridesmaids and we'd even had dinner in the hotel that Nanna had recommended for our reception, and I told Mum.

"Well," she said in that comforting way of hers, "You've only got to name the day."

"I have to at least ask Kev if he has a preference."

"Our lovely Kevan is so much in love with you that he'd agree to marry you anytime, anywhere Baby."

My face curled into a big smile; she was right of course; but then again, I would probably agree with a date that Kev had suggested.

"He'll be here in half an hour," I said.

"Well," she handed me a mug of coffee, "if you want to get married this year, check your diary and you can ask him."

I sipped my coffee and took my phone from my bag. Without really thinking about it, I clicked on my calendar and checked summer Saturdays.

Steve and Holly had married in the Autumn with almost everything 'off the shelf' and at speed, while John and Karen had married in August and had planned the whole thing over more than a year.

I smiled to myself; as a romantic young girl with my first few boyfriends, I'd always seen myself as a June bride and there was the third Saturday, followed by fathers' day as it usually was.

It was still during the school summer term, and I'd struggle to get more than a few days off, but I'd had this dream of marrying on that Saturday, and I noted it down.

"Hey Babes," I was snapped out of my 'what-if' reverie by the sound of Kev coming in through the kitchen door and getting a hug from Mum before his one from me.

"Hey Kev," I said with a smile and holding out my arms for our usual greeting hug.

"She's looking up wedding dates Kevan," said Mum.

"No problem with me," he said, "got a day?"

"Yeeeeeahsortof..." I drawled.

"Spit it out then Baby!"

"Third Saturday in June..." I said spinning at the waist and twirling my fingers in my hair.

"That's towards end of the school summer term," said Mum stating the obvious, "you'll never get the time off!"

"I might not need the time off," I said moving closer to my fiancé.

"Up to you honey," he said, "but it going to be an extremely long weekend, over a very short period of time."

"Uh?"

"You want to get married, one of the biggest days in your life and we'll need to be starting at 1700 on Friday night. We're all diving to Wales, having dinner, going to bed, getting up, getting ready, getting married, big reception that will make Nanna proud, first dance, last dance, back to the hotel and... err... a good nights sleep..." he grinned at Mum, "then up the next morning, large breakfast, saying goodbye to friends and family, drive back home, getting everything ready for the next day, bed, then back to Foundation year with a big smile on Monday morning?" he said with a smile.

I thought about it momentarily, then smiled back.

"I'm game," I said.

Mum looked at me.

"You're totally serious aren't you," she said with a wry smile.

"Totally."

She looked at Kev.

"Kevan?" He smiled, shook his head, but looked across to me and nodded, "Well..." she paused and pursed her lips, "Holly should be here in half an hour..." she ambled across to her kitchen calendar showing February and flicked through four months, "why not!"

And that was that.

Holly arrived with Steve and looked at Mum sat at the kitchen table with the calendar. She stepped across and kissed her cheek like she normally did.

"Planning a holiday?"

Mum looked across the table at me staring at my phone.

"Nah," she said simply, "wedding..."

Holly raised one eyebrow, looked at us both and sat down next to Mum taking out her tablet computer from her bag,

"Cool," she said, swiping it into life, "date?"

We told her.

Steve and Dad served dinner that evening and sat there drinking coffee and laughing at some jolly banter between them, as me, Mum and my lovely sister-in-law opened calendars, added dates and sent emails.

Using the Chapel's website, I sent an email to Mr Davis, the vicar at the chapel so close to Nanna's farm and the resting place of Kev's Mum and Grandpa, introducing myself and asking if there was time for the wedding on that June Saturday.

His response was virtually immediate. Yes, there were no other bookings for that day, he would be totally delighted and as far as he was concerned there would be nothing else on that day, unless there was a very special reason for it.

The first tick was in the book; next I was on the phone to Nanna and giving her the date and asking for the number of the Maerbont Hotel, so I could ring and book there also.

"Give me an hour luvie," she said, the delight evident in her voice, "I'll get a better deal than you will, trust me!"

As we sat down to coffee after our splendid dinner, Kev's phone rang and it was Nanna, confirming that the hotel was booked, all of the 40 or so rooms reserved and space for 150 guests sitting down.

She was personally going to arrange the menu with the kitchens there, and Kev and I were to travel there in two or three weekends time to try them all and decide on our favourites.

"You lucky bitch!" screeched Holly, as Kev switched off his phone with a satisfied flourish.

I slipped my arms around Kev's neck and kissed him loudly.

"Just my dress then," I turned to face Holly, "And yours of course."

"Bridesmaid?" she said with raised eyebrows.

"Of course," I said, and looked at Kev.

"Yeah," he looked across at my brother, "I need your husband to be my best man!"

"What?" they both said as one.

"I owe it all to you Steve; to start with you've always been a consistent mate to me for over twenty-five years and always in my corner, and you Mrs Hardy," he added with a bow, which had my Mum with a hand to her throat and blushing, probably holding back tears, "through some of the shitiest times in my life you were there mate," he looked serious for a moment, "if you hadn't called me over to you that Friday night and trusted me to take care of your sister, I'd still be sad and single."