‘And I’m earning plenty,’ added Leon. ‘So she’s not going to starve.’
Maggie knew that he meant this to be supportive and wasn’t in any way boastful, but she felt her jaw tighten all the same. Not only did it make it sound as if she couldn’t look after herself, but it might also have been taken as a bit of a sideswipe at Tiger, who only ever seemed to have enough money to last him to the end of the week. Deep down, she knew that Leon didn’t mean it like that, and Tiger wouldn’t have taken it that way either. The only person with an issue here was her. Belatedly, she gave Leon a weak smile and hoped that he hadn’t noticed her delayed response.
‘And what about you?’ she asked Tiger, anxious to divert the attention from her. ‘What’s next?’
Tiger gave a sigh, as if his plans were equivalent to a job. ‘Newcastle tomorrow for a while and then up north. I fancy seeing the Orkneys.’
‘It’s beautiful up there,’ Leon said. ‘Quiet, unspoilt.’
‘I should fit right in then.’ Tiger laughed, and they all laughed with him.
‘Can I change the music?’ asked Romany. ‘Something a bit more up to date? It’s like The Place Music Goes to Die in here.’
Angie leant over the back of the sofa and put her arms around her daughter, resting her chin on her shiny hair. She kissed her lightly on the top of her head.
‘If you must,’ she said, ‘but then we need to go back to the eighties stuff later.’
Romany rolled her eyes at the prospect and then changed the music from her phone. Maggie didn’t recognise the song but it was a female vocalist with an acoustic guitar and it reflected nicely the new, thoughtful mood that had taken over the room. Romany, it seemed, was blessed with her mother’s levels of perception.
Maggie lowered herself carefully to the floor, conscious that her knees weren’t quite as robust as they once were, and sat crossed-legged on the rug. Angie came round to join her. She might be carrying a little more weight than Maggie was around the middle, but Angie could still knock her into a cocked hat on flexibility. She sank to the rug in one fluid movement without even using her hands and tucked her legs up under her in a way that Maggie could now only dream of.
‘Look at us,’ Angie said affectionately. ‘We’ve known each other for more than thirty years, we’re all completely different. And I mean, completely.’ She pressed the word for emphasis. ‘And yet, here we all are. Still enjoying each other’s company, still looking out for one another. Who’d have thought it, eh?’
Maggie smiled. ‘Who’d have guessed that when you walked into my student room, unannounced I might add, and uninvited, demanding toilet paper . . .’
‘I didn’t demand!’ objected Angie.
‘I bet you did,’ said Romany, and Maggie raised one eyebrow and nodded at her as if to say you bet your life she did.
‘。 . . demanding toilet paper,’ she continued, ‘little did I think that we would be sitting here tonight, still friends after all this time.’
‘To be fair, neither did I,’ replied Angie. ‘I thought you were uptight and angsty.’
Maggie shrugged to acknowledge that that was a pretty fair assessment of her. ‘Yet here we are. And I think it’s fantastic. Let’s have a toast! To unlikely friendships.’
They all raised their drinks and clinked, echoing the toast to each other.
Maggie leant over and rested her hand on Angie’s leg, applying a little pressure, the equivalent of a hug. It was all down to Angie, the fact that they were still in contact, that she had Leon as part of her life, and Tiger too for that matter. And now there was Romany as well, the closest thing Maggie had to a child of her own. And somehow, Angie was the key to it all, Angie, who she had once thought to be the most selfish person she had ever met.
‘To unlikely friendships,’ Maggie said again.
40
2018
‘If my mum wasn’t dead, I’d kill her,’ said Romany. ‘What the hell was she thinking with this ridiculous plan? Like I need all these crappy mates of hers to look after me. I’m eighteen years old, for God’s sake. An adult! And I do not need babysitting by an ageing hippy with a ridiculous name. I’m more than capable of looking after myself.’ She puffed her lips out, folded her arms and leant back in her chair, making it balance on two legs.
‘It does sound kind of shit,’ replied Laura. ‘It’s a pity the hippy bloke had to move in. We could have had some cool parties at your place.’