Taking Off
Chapter 11
Chapter 11
“No, I’m sorry.”
“Oh shit, I don’t know where she’s gone now.” Aurélie rubbed her feet up and down against the edge of the wall.
“What happened?”
“I left her on the second floor before my break and now, I can’t find her.”
“Don’t worry, we will find her.”
Ana apologised to her colleagues and led Aurélie to the unoccupied penthouse suite. Silvia sampled the armchairs, a 50s style cigarette holder in the corner of her mouth like Katharine Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany‘s. She hissed as Aurélie and Ana walked in.
“Here comes the party spoiler, ladies.” The new recruits stood up and smoothed their cleaning uniforms.
“How could you do this? You know I will get in trouble if John finds out someone has messed about in the suite again.”
“It’s fun, we’re not messing up anything. Why do you care anyway?” Silvia laughed and encouraged the two women to do the same. “It’s not yours you know. At the end of the day, they don’t care if you’ve scrubbed every inch, they treat you like the dirt you take off.”
Silvia banged the door shut behind her as she exited the room.
***
On Saturday, Ana and Aurélie rode the tube to Whitechapel together after work and shopped for the party. Gareth busied himself all afternoon in the kitchen, only requiring Aurélie’s assistance when a phone call distracted him. Aurélie and Ana surfed the internet, discussed music and watched TV as Gareth prepared cocktails and food.
The first guests arrived at eight thirty, quickly followed by Katie and Jed, the DJ. Ana helped Jed setup while Katie updated Aurélie on her recent adventures, including her new idea to train as a pilot.
“That’s amazing, well done!”
“I’m not there yet but you know, that’s an idea,” Katie said.
“I’m so happy for you. I mean, it’s nice to have a dream and make it happen. I would like to fly on your plane.” Aurélie smiled.
“Why, thank you. I thought you were scared of flying.”
“I wasn’t when I was with you, remember? I trust you.”
Gareth apologised as he butted in and introduced Aurélie to his on and off boyfriend Jason. By midnight, Aurélie, Ana and Katie had knocked off many cocktails and they danced with abandon as Jed played a mix of seventies, eighties, nineties and noughties rock and pop and kept them on their feet.
“What is your favourite song to dance to?” Katie shouted over the speakers.
“Le Tigre,” Aurélie said.
“I have to admit I don‘t know much about French music, we don‘t get it over here.”
“They’re not French, they’re American, from New York actually.” Aurélie sat on the sofa. “My feet are gone.”
Katie looked down. “No, I can assure you, they are still here.” Aurélie laughed. “OK, not the best joke, I apologise, it must be those drinks,” Katie said.
When the intoxicating riff from Deceptacon boomed throughout the house, Aurélie left the bathroom queue, ran down the stairs and joined Ana on the dance floor. Their song, their anthem, their crusade. Katie giggled with Jed behind the decks and high-fived her during the see you later outro. Aurélie didn’t know the next song so she hang around with Gareth, Emily, Lucy and Jason in the kitchen. She strained to understand Jason‘s thick Manchester accent as he slurred and hesitated and juxtaposed three stories in the same sentence. Gareth played host, thanking all the leaving guests for attending the party and distributing bags of Maltesers, the perfect coming down chocolate in his own words. Katie picked up her jacket and kissed Aurélie goodbye on the cheeks but Aurélie grabbed her and hugged her. Jed’s hand lingered up and down Katie’s back and Aurélie pulled Katie towards her so Jed couldn’t reach her anymore.
“Hope you had a good time here,” Aurélie said.
“I certainly did.” Katie turned and smiled at Jed.
“Thanks for coming. It seems like everyone had fun, don’t you think?.”
Katie ignored Aurélie and French kissed Jed. Aurélie paused for a few seconds and cleared her throat.
“Excuse me!”
“Pardon?”
“What do you think you are doing?”
“We were snogging,” Jed said.
“I’m not talking to you. Katie, what did you do that for? That was so rude.”
“No it wasn’t.”
Aurélie grimaced. “Yes it was. I would never do that. It’s so disrespectful.”
“Take it easy, it’s three o’clock in the morning,” Katie said.
“I don’t care what time it is. I thought you were a much better friend than that. My mistake.”
“Well, you know what, you don’t know me so well. So mind your own business and everyone will be happy.”
Katie held Jed’s hand and led her out of the house.
After a few seconds, Gareth filled up the silence with a fake burp and a loud laugh. Emily, Lucy and Jason followed Ana to the living room.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for this to happen,” Aurélie said. “I feel terrible now, I’m going to call her.” She retrieved her phone from her pocket.
“Leave it until you’ve both sobered up.”
“But I want to fix it.”
“Of course you do, that’s why you have to wait until tomorrow. You need to calm down now, you got yourself in such a state.”
“I know.” Aurélie let out a few tears. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened to me.”
“You flipped darling, we’ve all been there.”
“But why?”
“Maybe you were a little jealous of Jed?”
Aurélie found an old tissue in her jeans pocket and wiped her nose. “Is this how it looks?”
“A little bit. How long have you been feeling like this?”
“I’m not…” Aurélie wiped her nose again. “A few weeks… No. Since we met.”
“That’s love at first sight darling.”
“I can’t deal with it now. After Luc, I need time on my own.”
“Don’t pass on it, that doesn’t happen every day.”
“I prefer being friends now, I really do.”
***
Katie reached her mother’s house ten minutes later than expected, not due to waking up on the other side of London but to a long queue at the corner shop where she bought a bottle of white wine to bring over. Two teenagers had harangued the owner for over five minutes before the argument resolved itself and Katie had hidden at the back, pretending to browse through the selection of biscuits, as she knew better than participating in such a heated discussion.
Linda commented on her appearance but the arrival of Charlene distracted her, saving Katie the need to justify her unkempt hair. The meal passed quite pleasantly and Katie had two helpings of the moist chicken roast. In the afternoon, she led Matt outside.
“I’ve been worried about my recent drinking. I’m not quite sure as to how much is too much.”
“How many units do you have in a week?”
“I don’t know, it’s pretty irregular.” They both settled on the garden bench and Matt twisted around so he could face Katie.
“Can you work out the average over the last four weeks?”
All things considered, her weekly average turned out to be twenty units.
“That’s a little high for a woman but nothing out of control.”
Katie frowned and rubbed her forehead. “But that’s too much, right?”
“A little bit, yes.”
“I knew it. I went to Hays-Smith-”
“Dr Hays-Smith?”
“Yes. I mean, no. I mean, his son. He died.” Katie’s hand flopped back down to her lap.
“I’m sorry to hear that, he was such a good man.”
“So was I, especially as his son is nowhere near as good.”
“Why not?”
“He told me to sort out my finances and get a hobby, then I won’t be tempted to drink.”
“There’s some truth in there.” Matt stretched his back. “Don’t get yourself all worked up but be aware of how much you’ve had during the week. If you’re below the fourteen units limit, enjoy it. If no, don’t drink it.”
Katie hugged her brother and they joined the others in the living room to watch the Eastenders omnibus repeat.
As every Sunday, Linda offered a sherry at five. Katie savoured a few sips of hers, allowing the fruity taste to linger in her mouth. She also helped herself to a couple of Jaffa cakes and, as she swallowed the last crumbs, her stomach rumbled like an out of tune church organ. She patted her belly to smoother the sounds but a shot of bile rose up her chest and she grabbed Charlene’s arm.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” she said.
She reached the toilets just on time. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t pretty at all.
Matt checked on her after a few minutes.
“That was so weird, there must have been something wrong with the cakes or the sherry.”
“The cakes and sherry were fine. Your liver isn’t though.”
“My liver?” Katie leant on the wash basin behind her.
“Yes. You’ve had a liver malfunction. Go to your GP and ask for a blood test tomorrow.”
“Is it serious?”
“It’s probably nothing too serious but you need to know, especially with your past.”
Katie washed her face. The warm soapy water relaxed her muscles and she padded her skin dry with the hand towel but tears flooded down her cheeks. Despite not believing in God anymore, she kneeled down and prayed for her liver.
