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Minnie shook her head wildly and flapped her hand for the phone, but Fleur had already hung up.
‘What?’ Fleur said to Minnie.
‘We can’t all go down there!’ said Minnie.
‘Why not?’ asked Fleur.
‘This is Quinn’s mother’s house, what if he’s there? Plus Tara won’t want a load of strangers coming by.’
‘Who’s Quinn?’ asked Clare.
‘The guy she likes – storm avoider,’ said Leila.
‘Well he’s not going to be there, is he?’ said Fleur. ‘Your mum said Tara wants us all to see the garden or something, said they had a gooseberry tart that needed eating.’
Minnie frowned; she couldn’t go to Tara’s house. What if Quinn popped in and found her there? It would be too awkward. She called her mother back.
‘Mum, we can’t come over to Tara’s,’ she said firmly.
‘Oh Minnie, don’t be ridiculous, Tara wants to see you, and she said to bring your friends, didn’t you Tara? … Oh, well she wants to know how many of you are there?’
‘Four of us,’
‘Four of them, Tara … yes, that’s fine, she says come.’
Minnie felt her skin getting hot. Clare pulled the last curler into place and sprayed a cloud of setting spray over her head.
‘Is Quinn going to be there?’ Minnie asked quietly.
‘I don’t think so, why? Do you want to see him?’ Connie asked.
‘No, I just wouldn’t want him to think I was – um, following him around London.’
‘Tara, Minnie wants to know if Quinn’s coming over?’ Connie yelled.
‘Oh god, don’t ask her!’ Minnie sank down into the chair and put a hand over her eyes. Pleased as she was that her mother had a new friend, it wasn’t ideal that this friend happened to be the mother of the man she’d just been ghosted by.
‘No, he’s at some conference all day. So you don’t need to fret about running into him without your lippy on, Minnie.’
Half an hour later, the four of them were standing outside Tara’s house, each modelling impressively bouffant 1950s hairstyles.
‘Jesus – this is her house?’ said Leila. ‘It’s bigger than my whole block.’
‘You know, if I lived somewhere like this, I’d probably never want to leave the house either,’ said Bev.
‘Shhh,’ Minnie hissed as they stepped up to the front door and rang the bell.
Tara answered the door.
‘Minnie, well look at you? You look gorgeous. I used to wear my hair that way once upon a time.’
Tara was wearing gardening gloves and a green apron over a grey shift dress. Her skin was sun-kissed and her eyes twinkled with life.
‘Are you sure we’re not intruding?’ said Minnie. ‘We won’t stay long.’
‘No, no, come in, come in. Oh my, how colourful!’ Tara said, on seeing Leila and her rainbow hair. ‘What a jolly way to be.’
Minnie introduced Tara to her friends and they all followed Tara through to the kitchen where Minnie’s mother was scowling at a laptop. Leila and Bev both gawped at Tara’s palatial interior with undisguised awe. Minnie mimed closing their gaping mouths at them while Tara was looking the other way.
