‘No. Not married. Never has been,’ replied Angie. ‘She lost her job, though. That was a hard blow. She’s working again now but in some little office job. I’m not even sure what it is, but it doesn’t involve the law at all.’
Tiger rubbed at the stubble on his chin. ‘That’s surprising,’ he said. ‘I thought she lived and breathed that stuff.’
‘Yeah, me too. But being pushed out seems to have knocked the confidence out of her. She’ll go back to it, though, I’m sure. She just needs time.’
‘It’d be nice to see her,’ mused Tiger. ‘And Leon, as well,’ he added as an afterthought.
‘So, stay,’ said Angie. ‘Just one night if that’s all you can spare, although you can always bunk up with me if the sofa is more than you can manage. You can ring your mate from my place and tell him you’ve been waylaid by your favourite person in all the world.’
‘Who? Maggie?!’ He winked at her and she stabbed a threatening finger at him.
‘No, you moron. Me!’
Angie had missed this so much, had missed Tiger and the easy way they had of just being in one another’s space. That hadn’t changed in all the years that she had known him. In fact, Tiger didn’t appear to have changed at all, either. She had, she knew that; but Tiger? He was the same person she had met on that beach all those years ago. Maybe that was what having no responsibilities did for a person? Perhaps it allowed you to stay as carefree as you had been at eighteen for your entire life? Angie wasn’t convinced that he was entirely carefree, though. Were the obvious flaws in his nomadic lifestyle finally starting to occur to him? She suspected that he would never admit it, not even to her, but he must surely think about how the future was going to pan out for him. It was a rare person who didn’t reach fifty and start to wonder what the second half of their life was going to look like. The problem for Tiger was that he would never be able to admit it. Through all the time she had known him, his mantra had been to live in the moment and to go where the wind blew him, but at some point he was going to have to work out that he was too old to be blown around any more.
But not yet, it appeared. His decision about her suggestion of a party was made in characteristic style – quickly and without much thought for what might happen next.
‘That’d be great,’ he said. ‘It’ll be cool to see the others. Newcastle can wait until tomorrow. Or the next day,’ he added with a wink.
Briefly Angie considered whether she should tell him about Maggie and Leon. She hadn’t lied when she’d said that Maggie wasn’t married, but she’d not been entirely truthful either. Tiger was apparently still carrying a torch for her, even though, to Angie’s certain knowledge, there had never been anything more than sexual tension between them. A lot of water had passed under the bridge since those student days, though, and whatever it was that hadn’t quite happened was surely in the past now. That said, she didn’t want to spoil her moment with Tiger. She would let Maggie and Leon tell him their news themselves.
A woman came into the café in a red coat that was covered in white freckles of snow. She brushed herself down, with lots of huffing and puffing to no one in particular, and Angie and Tiger both turned to look out of the window. The world had gone white whilst they had been talking. Large fluffy flakes were falling fast enough to cover the pavement in a thin sheen, and the light had taken on the flat quality that heavy snow-filled cloud brings with it.
Tiger’s face lit up. ‘Snow! I haven’t seen snow for years! Let’s go out and kick about it in!’
‘Idiot!’ She laughed, but she was happy to go outside and indulge him. Would he ever grow up? Angie hoped not.
He stood up quickly, heaving his rucksack on to his back with perhaps a little more effort than it used to take, and then set off towards the door, leaving Angie, as ever, to pick up the bill.
39
‘Are we supposed to be dressing up?’ asked Leon when Maggie appeared in the lounge wearing a black jumpsuit and a pair of spike heels. He was wearing the same jeans that he had worn all day but had at least changed his shirt. ‘I thought it was just us and Angie and Tiger.’
Maggie could feel a blush starting on her exposed décolletage.
‘No. Not particularly,’ she said, trying to sound as casual as she could. ‘I just thought it would be nice to make a bit of an effort, that’s all. And I have a wardrobe full of nice clothes. I might as well get some wear out of them.’ She wanted to ask him how she looked but it felt a little disingenuous, asking Leon if he thought she looked nice when she had dressed with an entirely different man in mind.