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Can we put a regular meet up in our calendars for all things art? X
Eeek! A regularly scheduled time slot with Paige made her stupidly excited. Or at least that was Melanie’s initial gut reaction, until she reminded herself Paige was very firmly on the ‘to not do’ list. Melanie was forced to admit, attractiveness had turned into attraction. Now if she could keep it from becoming a crush, she should be fine. She had no idea where Paige was at, but Melanie absolutely didn’t have time for a relationship. Her last one had ended a while ago, two years ago to be precise, and the amount of time it had taken up had been exhausting. She looked across at some of the boxes that filled every room of her flat; she knew logically that not all relationships were the same, but yeah. She quickly looked away. Then there was Paige’s mood swings. Surely a red flag in and of itself. But then again, her old relationship had been so full of red flags in the end they communicated by semaphore.
Not wanting to think of that she went to her guilty pleasure, opened up YouTube and went straight to Sophie’s page and grinned so widely at the preview image of Connie and Sophie. It was bizarre to Melanie that she knew a celebrity, that she knew the woman getting the makeover as well was just too wild. That she had been invited to have one herself inconceivable.
And highly unlikely to happen.
On her priorities list, it kept slipping down. It wasn’t that it wasn’t a high priority for her; she’d be at Sophie’s right now knocking the door down if she could. But Alfie was high up there and the bar was right at the top. They couldn’t fail with the bar. For now, her time had to be spent sorting out the actual logistics of owning a bar. They’d sank so much money into it, had so many loans riding on it, and she had something to prove too, but if the customer numbers started to drop or she found herself desperately needing the press then her makeover would creep back up the list, but for now it stayed where it was. And Melanie had to battle every day with the desire to text Sophie. But she wasn’t sure if the text was going to say, “Yes let’s book it in, this is when I’m free”, or, and more likely, “Come in and use the walls whenever you like, but I’m not sure I can fit in a makeover just yet, no matter how desperately I would like one”.
Allowing herself to feel melancholy for one more minute she finally got through the ads and could watch Sophie’s new video. After ten minutes of pure giggles and smiles, Sophie felt her mood lift; there was no better way to start her day. Connie had been amazing, her full charming slightly unfiltered self, and Sophie had been her usual funny and lovely being.
With a sigh, Melanie admitted to herself that there was a part of her that longed to be in that group. To be really in it and not just on the periphery like she was now. Seeing Paige, Sophie, Marcus, Polly and Bailey had made her realise what a true friendship group looked like. She’d only realised she hadn’t had that before when her old friends had taken a side that wasn’t hers. But she’d had Louisa, and that was all she really needed right now.
Still lying in bed, she went back to Paige’s text asking to set up a regular art catch-up.
Melanie thought through the options for her response. There was the simple, “Yes of course, I’ll sort out some time later”. Or there was the more, “You’re just desperate to see me again, aren’t you?” cheekiness. Or maybe even, “Sure my place or yours ;)” No, she would never.
She wrote out option one, and then before she could stop herself, carried on including all the options, and in a split-second moment of madness, pressed send.
What the hell was wrong with her?
The sent-message anxiety crashed through her body. She rolled over and pressed her face tight into the pillow and groaned. What on earth had she done that for?
Not even looking at her phone she checked the time on her watch. She could fit in a half-route run if she got up now. She quickly got up and dressed in her running gear and set off. She went to grab her phone to listen to music as she would have done normally, but didn’t want to face the consequences of ill-advised texts and set off without it.
Forty minutes later she was washed, dressed for the day, and back in the car ready to see her gorgeous nephew; she had only compulsively checked her phone about fifty billion times. But of course, Paige wouldn’t be up yet, she wouldn’t need to be. Her bar didn’t open until lunch. Which meant that Melanie had all morning to feel nervous about it.
Melanie let herself into her sister’s house and found her and Alfie in the kitchen, Emily clearly getting her stuff together and coat on ready to leave.
‘Morning M, you OK? Alfie is just finishing his breakfast. He needs to finish getting dressed and brush his teeth — we’ve not had a great start to the day and we’re a little behind schedule. Sorry. He’s on school lunch again today.’
‘No worries,’ Melanie said, putting her bag and her phone down on the table. ‘Morning, gorgeous boy.’ Alfie grinned up at her, his mouth full of cereal.
‘Wait, stop. What’s wrong?’ Emily asked, her hand on Melanie’s arm.
‘Nothing, I’m fine.’
‘No you’re not, what is it?’ Emily asked a look of concern on her face.
‘Nothing, honestly, just go. You don’t want to be late for the slicing and dicing or whatever it is you do.’
‘Depends on the day, sometimes slice, sometimes prod.’
‘Lovely.’
‘No, but come on, what is it?’ Emily asked, in what Melanie suspected was her doctors’ authoritative tone. Melanie’s phone buzzed on the table.
‘I just sent a text I wish I hadn’t,’ Melanie said, hoping that wasn’t a reply that had just come through.
‘Huh?’
‘I just text Paige something that . . . I’m just overthinking. Ignore me.’
‘Oh, it’s about the incredible Paige, is it?’ Emily leaned in and spoke quietly, ‘Did you send her a picture of your tits?’
‘God no,’ Melanie said at the same time a little voice said, ‘Why do you have a picture of the Twits? Mummy’s been reading me that book. Can I see a picture?’
Melanie’s mouth dropped open and Emily had to restrain from laughing. ‘Yeah Auntie M loves that book too.’ Alfie nodded and went back to his cereal.
