Dad entered the warm kitchen, followed by Seb, whom Scooby immediately went to greet as though he’d been gone for days. Seb bent down, tactfully making himself as small and unobtrusive as possible, which, bearing in mind his size, was pretty good going.
Sally continued. ‘Anyway, when you said about it before, I just thought it was because they were… different to the sort of people you tend to mix with.’
I wasn’t sure how to take that, and my confusion obviously showed on my face.
‘I don’t mean that in a bad way. But they’re more reserved. You’re used to Jess, who’s rather the opposite of reserved. In a good way.’
‘OK…’
‘So, I just thought it was because you weren’t used to them and you like spending time at home on your own. I’m used to mixing with people all the time, so it was bound to be different. But it wasn’t that at all and maybe I did know that. Or at least had an idea. But I didn’t pay much attention to it. I didn’t think I needed to.’
‘So, what happened, darling?’ Mum asked.
‘I got an email a couple of days ago from one of them. I suppose now I look at it, she’s rather the ringleader. Honestly, they’re a bit like a mean girls clique from school! It was the first I’d heard from them in a while. None of them were returning my messages when I suggested coffee or anything.’
‘Just because you couldn’t host a book club evening?’
Sally smiled. ‘No. Because I couldn’t get them the free upgrades they all wanted for a holiday they’d booked over Easter to Bermuda.’
‘What?’
‘They wanted me to upgrade them to first class.’
‘On a holiday you hadn’t even been invited on?’
Sally gave an eyebrow shrug. ‘Yes. And I don’t have that kind of authority anyway. I’m cabin crew for first class, but I can’t just pull free upgrades out of my… hat.’
I sniggered. ‘You were going to say something else then.’
She smirked. I hadn’t seen her do that for years. ‘I can’t. We have guests.’
‘Oh pffft. He’s ex-Army. He’s heard it all and worse.’
‘Good to know for next time.’
‘So, they wanted freebies, at one of the busiest times of the year and then cut you out when you couldn’t do it for them,’ Mum summed it up.
‘Yes. That’s about it in a nutshell.’
‘Well,’ Mum said, wrapping a protective arm around her eldest. ‘They don’t sound like the sort of people you want in your life anyway.’
‘No. You’re right. I was a bit upset at first, but the more I thought about it, the more it just made me angry that they had treated me like that. That they’d been mean to Lottie when she was doing me a favour, and me forcing her to shut her dog away just because I was worried about them getting a stray dog hair on their designer outfits, and what they’d think of me if they did.’
Things suddenly started making a lot more sense.
‘You were right, Lottie. I mean about saying no to things that don’t make you happy. They weren’t making me happy and, before, I might have bent over backwards to try and win them back, no matter the cost. But I thought about it, and I talked to Oliver and realised that their company didn’t make me happy. I was doing it because I thought they were the “right kind of people” for me to mix with. They barely ate anything, so I barely ate anything and I’m not sure that’s been the healthiest option I could have chosen.’
‘We have worried about you sometimes, darling.’
‘I know. And I’m sorry about that. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the last few days and I’m going to make some changes. Good changes.’
Mum squeezed her, kissing her on the cheek. ‘I’m very glad to hear it.’
‘So… Oliver’s still on the scene then?’ I asked, in what I thought was a casual manner. From the look on my sister’s face, I may not quite have nailed it.
‘Yes,’ she grinned. ‘He is. He’s on his way down from London this evening and going to spend a couple of days working from my place so that we can spend a bit of time together before I have to fly out again.’
‘That’ll be nice, love.’
