Midsummer Magic

‘We both do,’ said Bron, reaching out and holding her hands. ‘Come on, Tati, we’re still young, I still want to do Shakespeare with you. One day …’

‘Maybe I can’t wait for one day anymore.’

She’d said it. Words that she’d never wanted to say, and when she saw how Bron slumped even more, she wished them back. ‘Look,’ she said, letting go of his hands gently, ‘I’m late, we’ve got a show to do. We’ll talk about this later.’

Giving him a swift kiss and a hug, she left him in the corridor and went to get ready, her thoughts churning. Susan’s offer was tempting, but was it the right thing to do?

As usual, it was squashed in the girls’ dressing room. Bron didn’t have this problem in his single dressing room, thought Tatiana bitterly as she found her dressing table in the corner. Naturally the male star of the show couldn’t slum it like she did. She was so mixed up. She loved Bron, she really did, but she hated this, and it wasn’t fair. Someone had laughingly written ‘Star’ in lipstick on her mirror. Ha, bloody ha. The joke was certainly on her, she thought sourly as she sat herself down, and with the practice of an old hand started to apply her stage make-up.

The room was hot and crowded, and full of the noise of women’s chatter. Like so many cheeping hens, Tatiana thought bitchily. She was more of a man’s woman. Women and their idle talk bored her. Which didn’t make for popularity among her peer group, but Tatiana didn’t really care. This batch of hens was even duller than most, so she didn’t feel she was missing out. They were the backstage chorus dancing to Freddie Puck’s tune, as all of them were on this Illusions tour. As she was. As Bron was.

She sighed and looked at herself in the mirror. Pushing twenty-five and was this all there was to offer? She thought again about the deal on the table, and felt her stomach churn. It was all very well for Bron to tell her to be patient, that Freddie’s incessant talks with production companies about a TV series of Illusions would eventually come to fruition, but she couldn’t see it herself.

Tatiana scrutinised her face. Still pretty, she judged – pretty enough to do what she had to do in Bron’s show, at any rate. But for how long? This was a cruel business for a woman. Twenty-five wasn’t far from thirty. Then what would happen to her? When she and Bron had started out, he’d promised her an equal part in the act; equal shares in the profits, and then, when they could afford it, their own theatre company, Shakespeare, proper acting. So how come it was still her looking decorative and pretty, Bron taking all the credit, the gasps and plaudits from the crowd, as he performed yet another incredible trick? If she hadn’t been so damned in thrall to Bron …

They’d met as extras in rep, doing Shakespeare in dreary towns to uninterested punters. It had been a far cry from her drama school ambition to play Juliet at Stratford, and the only bright spot had been Bron, with his lean handsome look and sardonic manner. They had laughed their way through most of the misery of the tour, and he’d taught her card tricks and outlined his twin obsessions of magic and owning his own theatre company. When, after the tour was over, he rang her to say he and his friend Freddie had got a gig doing a magic show in Brighton, it had seemed like a lifeline. Regular money, regular work. After months of scrabbling to pay the rent, it was an easy option. It had always been meant to be temporary – Bron was never going to give up on his theatre plans, but as time went on, they seemed to recede into the distance. And now Tati often found herself wondering if he still wanted it as much as he said he did.

Tatiana formed a cupid’s bow, and painted her lips bright red in a fury. With her green and blue sparkly eye shadow, over-blushed cheeks, and the new haircut (which despite her best efforts didn’t look anything like the photo Julie had shown her), she looked like a painted doll. Which is all she was. Being pretty and decorative was all she was good for. Unless …

Unless she took the offer. She hadn’t been quite straight with Bron. It wasn’t just any old soap: she’d been offered the leading role in a new soap opera the Beeb had just commissioned. Susan thought she should; couldn’t understand her hesitation. ‘You don’t want to be doing this forever do you?’ she’d said with uncharacteristic honesty. Tatiana knew she was right. So why was she still hesitating? Misguided loyalty to Bron was what Susan had called it. But, Bron and her … a future without him was unthinkable, even after what had happened. She pulled on her spandex bodysuit, wincing as she realised how tight it was getting. She still hadn’t managed to shed all her excess weight. Even Bron had noticed and Freddie had made sarky comments too. All the time she was getting older and fatter and there were any amount of silly hens in this hen coop desperate to take her place.

So why don’t you let them?

As Tatiana stood waiting in the wings for the fanfare which heralded her arrival on stage, the thought came to her more strongly than ever. As she let Bron tie her up, throw knives at her, try to cut her in two, and pull hankies out of her ear, while she span and danced like a pretty doll around him, with the same fixed grin on her face, she felt her strongest urge yet to leave. What was there for her here now? She and Bron were growing apart, she could feel it. She knew Bron was hurting too, but what had happened was forming an insurmountable barrier between them. And Freddie was too much of an influence not to suggest she was replaced when she got too fat, too wrinkly, too old.

At the climax of Bron’s act, he produced doves out of a hat, which flew onto Tatiana. As she paraded round the stage (hating what she did with a passion) the bird that had landed on her head shat on her.

In that instant her decision was made. Susan was right. She could do much better than this.

‘Sorry babes, about Henrietta,’ Bron said as they came off the stage. Bron had the absurd habit of naming all his birds. ‘Hope your new hairdo can stand it.’ He laughed, and Freddie, who was standing with him, laughed too. Tati was enraged, it was as if their earlier conversation had never taken place.

‘My hair, yes,’ said Tatiana. ‘Me, no.’

‘Sorry?’ Bron looked confused.

‘That’s it,’ she said. ‘It’s the last straw. Tomorrow I sign up for Sail for the Sun. I’m going to be on the TV.’

‘What about the act?’ said Bron, aghast.

‘What about it?’ said Tatiana. ‘You don’t need me. You just need a pretty face. Well Auberon Fanshawe, I’m tired of being your Debbie McGee. I’m better than that.’

With that, she turned and left the theatre, without even taking her make-up off.

She’d done it. She was free. And a shining future beckoned.

Halloween (#udcdfecaf-9b5a-56d5-8ce3-24b93f5e2990)

‘Combining your moving-in party with a Halloween one was a brilliant idea,’ declared Diana. She looked gorgeous as ever, in a little black dress which accentuated her curves, her auburn hair piled high on her head, with some fetching curls escaping, as she bustled round Josie’s kitchen. From the lounge – which they’d spent the afternoon decorating with wispy bits of cobweb, spiders dangling from the ceiling, flashing skull-shaped lights and pumpkin-shaped candles – came a loud set of expletives, as Harry tried to plug in various bits of electrical equipment to make a sound system any nightclub would have been proud of, but which Josie was somewhat doubtful was needed in a small London flat on a Saturday night.

‘I seem to remember it was more your idea,’ laughed Josie, as she got out plastic cups and put them on the kitchen drainer with the copious amounts of wine and beer that Harry had cheerily brought back from Sainsburys. ‘Josie, it’s so fab that you and Harry are moving in together, why don’t you have a party?’ she mimicked. ‘Josie, Halloween’s coming up, you can combine them, wouldn’t that be amazing!’

‘Well if I left it up to you, you’d have just snuck in here like a pair of sneak thieves, as if you were embarrassed about the whole thing, rather than celebrating the wonderfulness of you two becoming a proper partnership,’ declared Diana. ‘Honestly, I don’t know what you’d do without me.’

‘Er, get on with my life without being bossed about?’ said Josie, and ducked as Diana chucked some peanuts in her direction.

‘I can only hope Harry’s more domesticated than you are,’ said Diana. ‘I don’t know how you’ll manage to keep this place clean without my help.’

Until recently Diana had been renting Josie’s spare room, but when it became clear that Harry was becoming a permanent fixture, she’d tactfully moved out to live with friends down the road. ‘Three is definitely a crowd,’ she’d said, ‘and I don’t fancy being a gooseberry to you two lovebirds.’

‘I miss this,’ said Josie, ‘are you sure you’re okay about leaving?’

Di had been incredibly positive and supportive since Josie had first broached the awkward subject of Harry moving in, but Josie knew how good she was at covering up her emotions. Di didn’t have a huge social network, didn’t get on immensely well with her family, and for all her playing the ‘I love being single’ card, Josie had the sneaking suspicion that she was secretly yearning to settle down herself.

‘Of course I am,’ said Diana, ‘I mean, it is bloody annoying being best friends with someone as pretty, rich and successful as you are, who’s managed to nab a gorgeous man to boot, but I’ll survive.’

‘Oh, Diana, now I feel terrible,’ said Josie, giving her friend a hug.

‘It was a joke, Josie,’ said Diana affectionately. ‘You are so gullible.’

‘Still,’ said Josie wistfully, ‘it’s not going to be the same now, is it?’

Josie had met Di five years earlier, through a mutual friend, Carrie, who worked with Josie and had been to school with Di. They both quickly decided they didn’t like Carrie as much as they did each other. They’d started meeting once a week for drinks, and soon it had turned into regular weekends on the pull – Diana’s confidence taking Josie places she would never have been alone. Without Diana pushing her, Josie doubted she would have followed up Harry’s tentative calls when they’d first met up again. It was no good, happy as she was, Josie was going to miss sparky, lively Diana, who called a spade a spade and always let you know when you were in the wrong, but was also an incredibly loyal, fun friend.

‘No, it won’t,’ said Diana, ‘but it will be different. And that’s good too.’

She was being so positive about it, Josie hoped she wasn’t protesting too much.

‘And you really don’t mind?’

‘Don’t be daft, of course I don’t,’ said Diana, ‘I’m happy for you. You and Harry are made for each other. Now what else do we need to do? How’s the punch?’

Josie looked at the punch into which Harry had cheerfully flung a bottle of vodka, copious amounts of red wine, and not nearly enough orange juice, in Josie’s opinion. It seemed to be a bit lacking in the fruit department, and they’d run out of oranges. ‘What do you think about this punch? Does it need more fruit?’

‘Haven’t you got any more apples?’ said Diana. ‘It’s Halloween, you have to have apples. It’s the law.’

‘I think I might still have some left in the cupboard,’ said Josie.

She rummaged around, and then produced a couple of rather wrinkled-looking apples.

‘Great,’ said Diana, ‘here, let me peel them.’

‘Why?’ said Josie.

‘Because …’ said Diana. ‘It’s Halloween and you need to see the name of the man you’re going to marry … which will begin with H, obviously.’

Despite her straight talking and often cynical nature, Diana was extremely superstitious, always walking round a ladder, and freaking out if a black cat strolled across her path.

She grabbed one of the apples from Josie and peeled it with a flourish.