Page 7 of Matilda’s Summer of New Beginnings

‘Thanks.’ He kept his eyes fixed on mine, and there was an odd, dreamy sort of look in them, and a half-smile twitched at his lips, before he drew away. ‘Yes. Thanks.’ He cleared his throat. I was awfully pleased there was lots and lots of cake to help distract me, as I could feel my jaw beginning to sag in that gormless, adoring way again.

‘That lipstick would be from Veronica, our stalwart of the WI.’ He pointed through the door towards a lady dressed in a floaty floral top and elegant cotton trousers, talking to another lady in pale lemon jeans and a white blouse. ‘And I am indeed getting spoiled. Honestly, though, I’m pleased you came with Rosie. It’s about time you visited.’

He looked at me quite seriously, and it was my turn to clear my throat.

‘It was a good weekend to come. Damien has irritated me greatly, and I needed to be away.’ But argh. There he was: Damien sneaking in and trying to spoil my night. Unfair.

‘Damien.’ Jay turned his attention to the cake-laden table and I saw him pilfer a blue sugar flower that had fallen off the edge of a substantially iced and decorated cake. He popped it in his mouth and nodded appreciatively. ‘How’s Damien doing then? Still being irritating, obviously. But what’s he done this time?’ Jay knew all about Damien, and despite the fact that he knew Rosie and Damien had gone out together, and then broken up, he didn’t seem to have too much animosity towards him. But that was Jay all over — good-natured, just like his sister.

‘He’s got himself an exhibition at some awful place called Machismo. It annoyed me. The way he went about it, that is. And I got dumped via text so it’s been a vile week.’ It was on the tip off my tongue to tell him the whole story, but, in my head, I suspected that it wouldn’t show me in a good light. Who needs a needy person in their lives? He’d smiled and shrugged his break-up off, which maybe I should have done as well, instead of wallowing. Never mind. Too late now. But still, the way Damien had snaffled his exhibition riled me. It was sneaky after all, to deliberately go somewhere like that and then tell me not to bother . . . ‘He’s so superior about it,’ I barrelled on. ‘He reckons they only work with up-and-coming blokes — sorry, “emerging male artists” — so I know they would never look at my stuff.’

‘“Emerging”?’ Jay scrunched up his nose. ‘I hate that term. Makes me think of something crawling out of a hole.’

‘Yeah, it’s not good, is it? I wish he would go and crawl into a hole. And then I’d be unable to hear him bragging about it.’

Jay smiled. ‘We can’t have everything we wish for. Never mind.’

‘Well there are plenty of candles in your cake. Maybe you should try to wish on those. If there’s something you’re really desperate for, that is.’

‘Good idea! I’m not really desperate for anything though. I’ve a wish list that would be nice if it became real. But I think I might need a few more candles, considering the magnitude of one of the wishes.’ He stared at the cake with the candles. ‘And you got dumped too? Interesting.’

‘Yes. By text. But I think I might be over it now, though.’ I paused and then continued. ‘I guess the truth is, I’m hung up on someone else too.’ Jay didn’t need to know it was him. And it was true. Seeing Jay had reminded me that there were good guys in the world — men who wouldn’t dump you via text.

Jay looked at me a little sadly, as if he was processing my point. ‘Oh,’ was all he said. ‘Anyone I know?’

Good grief. I felt my cheeks go beetroot. ‘Oh. Just someone.’ Then I thought, hang on: ‘Actually Jay, would you dump someone via text?’

‘Absolutely not!’ The sad expression was replaced with a shocked one. Good. ‘Would the person you like do that?’

‘No.’

‘That’s good. Well, here’s to us dumpees, eh? It’s clearly been the week for it. Maybe I should start working on my wish list.’

‘You should. You need to get blowing!’ Then I thought about what I’d said and worried it sounded a little dodgy. I opened my mouth to explain what I meant, but before I could, Rosie came hurrying into the snug.

‘Yoohoo! Matilda! There you are.’

‘Here I am.’

Rosie beamed at me and took my hand. ‘Come. Come with me. There’s someone I want you to meet.’

Then she began tugging me, so I was gradually being separated from all that lovely cake. And from Jay, of course. ‘Jay . . .’ I tried pathetically.

But Jay simply laughed. ‘I promise I’ll do the candles soon, once I’ve formulated my wish list. Then you can have cake.’

‘Thank you . . .’

‘Here we go.’ Rosie had dragged me into the main bar area. She pointed to a small group of people by the fireplace. A dark-haired girl wearing a soft, clingy, ribbed dress that showed off her neat little baby bump was talking to a blonde girl in a tartan mini skirt and biker boots, who looked as if she’d just stepped out of a 1960s Vogue magazine. The blonde had the biggest earrings I’d ever seen, and I was fascinated by them. She also had a chubby red-haired baby in her arms, who was sucking furiously on a dummy and staring intently at the crowd. ‘That’s Edie. Come on. Let’s introduce you.’ And before I knew it, I’d been propelled towards the blonde girl.

‘Edie!’ Rosie tapped her on the shoulder. ‘This is Matilda. Matilda, this is Edie. And this is Cerys.’ She indicated the dark-haired girl.

‘Oh! Ummm — hello,’ I said, feeling my cheeks heat up. I wasn’t used to being thrust into the eyeline of complete strangers. I tried to stop my eyes doing that weird swivelly thing where you look around for someone familiar to kind of help you out. In this case, I was looking for Jay, but it was no good. And actually, I had my back to the snug where I’d left him with the cakes.

All those lovely cakes.

‘Hello!’ Edie smiled at me. She thrust the baby up towards me. ‘This is Bean. He’s coming to Uncle Jay’s party to give him big squidgy kisses. I’m not sure if Uncle Jay knows that yet, but Bean is, he is. Definitely squidgy Bean kisses.’ She nodded, as if that was settled.

‘Wonderful,’ I said. I wasn’t quite sure what else to say. Babies and toddlers were a bit of an alien species to me.