Chapter 39: Deja Vu All Over Again

We arrived at Micester Hall, in a white stretch limousine that Christine had hired, a little after eight. The party was in the same room that Christine and Jake’s wedding reception had been and it felt odd taking a glass of Champagne from a tray held by a girl I used to work alongside. Although I didn’t know most of the people there, I did recognise many of the faces from the wedding. The Great and the Good and all that. In addition to our friends from school, there were also several people of our age that I didn’t know. Clarissa told me they were the children of Christine’s country club friends and most of them went to the very expensive public school on the edge of Westmouth. It went unsaid, but I knew that she’d been out on dates with some of them in January.

If I’m honest, it wasn’t my kind of party—too much standing around talking and not enough dancing. I got the impression that Clarissa felt the same way but was too polite to say anything. After all, she’d only just mended her relationship with her mother and the last thing she wanted to do was tell her she wasn’t enjoying the party she’d gone to so much trouble to organise.

At around ten, Clarissa tugged my hand gently to get my attention and nodded towards the hallway. I let her lead me away from her Aunt Charlotte, who’d been grilling me on all manner of topics for twenty minutes, and out into the hallway. She looked around, letting her gaze settle on a door to the outside, then looked at me and winked. She dragged me outside then spun around, wrapped her arms around my neck and sealed her lips on mine.

“Remember this patio?” she asked, although how she excepted any coherent thought from me after that kiss, I’ll never know.

“How can I forget it?”

“You could say it’s where we first met. Properly I mean. Yes, we’ve known each other since Year Seven, but we never really knew each other. Know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I do.”

She nodded, then looked past me for a moment, as if she was thinking about something. Finally, she said, “When you stepped out of the shadows and came to my rescue that night...” She shook her head. “I don’t think anyone has ever done anything like that for me before. Well, apart from Daddy, obviously. He was my hero, you know? And after he died, I thought I’d never find another. Hero, I mean. But I did. I found you.”

She titled her head up for another kiss, but as our lips came together, we were interrupted.

“Here you are!” We turned to see Jake coming out onto the patio. “Just what the hell do you think you’re playing at, young lady?”

“I’m having a quiet moment with my boyfriend. And stop talking to me like you’re my father or something ‘cause you’re not.”

“I don’t mean this,” he waved a hand in my direction. “I mean the company. Word is that you’ve instructed Pete Williams to tell the Germans you’re not selling to them.”

“So what if I have?”

Jake’s face became red. “Do you have any idea how much money that’ll cost me, you little bitch? Well, do you?”

She looked at me. “Paul says it’s over a million pounds.” She shrugged. “But that’s not my problem. It’s yours.”

“Yes? Well, I’m making it your problem. I told your mother you were too stupid to make a good decision, but would she listen? Would she hell? Stupid, stuck-up cow. Well, I’m not having it, you hear? You just listen to me, and you listen well. You’ll call Pete Williams tomorrow and tell him you’ve changed your mind or so help me I’ll...”

“You’ll what?” I said, calmly. There was no need for me to try and sound more confident than I felt this time. I knew from experience that Jake Rogers was all bark and no bite. “You’ve been trying to con people out of their shares to try and make a packet for yourself and it’s backfired. Big deal. Serves you right. What was it you offered me again? Twenty-five thousand? A tenth of what the Germans are, sorry, were willing to pay.”

“You stay out of this. iI’s got fuck all to do with you. It’s between me and her.”

“Face it, Jakey,” Clarissa said, contempt dripping from her voice as she used his old football nickname. “You lose. You took a gamble and you lost. Deal with it. From what I hear you’re used to losing your bets. Isn’t that why Westmouth United fired you?”

“Why you little...” He raised his hand to strike her, but I reached out and grabbed his forearm, stopping his downward swing.

Staring into his eyes, I said, “It’s like Deja Vu all over again, isn’t it? Except this time, you didn’t get to land the first blow like you did back then.”

“What do you mean, this time?” We all snapped our heads around to see Christine standing in the doorway, her hands on her hips. “Well, is someone going to explain just what he meant? And why the hell it looks like he just stopped you from hitting my daughter?”

Jake pulled his arm from my hand and said, “Chrisy, this isn’t what it looks like. I was just—”