The Family Way

She gestured with her glass, taking in the party, the flat, the city.

‘Not around here.’

His wide white smile. Megan loved his smile. ‘In sunnier places. You ever dive?’

‘No, but I’ve got a certificate for swimming a length in my pyjamas. Not really the same thing, is it?’

He laughed. ‘It’s a start.’

He liked her. She could tell. It happened quite a lot. She knew she wasn’t as pretty as Jessica, who had a kind of baby-faced beauty about her, or as tall as Cat, who was as long-limbed and rangy as a dancer, but men liked Megan. They liked all those curves and a face that, because of some genetic accident, somehow looked slightly younger than her age. They liked that contrast. A girl’s face and a woman’s body, Will always said excitedly, heading straight for Megan’s breasts.

She smiled at Kirk, and he did her the honour of blushing. It felt good to have this kind of contact after being with Will for so long, and having to make sure she didn’t send out the wrong signals. Tonight she could send out any signal she liked.

Then suddenly there was finally a song she knew and loved – the one where Edwyn Collins sings, ‘Well, I never met a girl like you before.’

‘That can be our song,’ Kirk said, grinning sheepishly, and usually such ham-fisted flirting would have turned her right off. But she let him get away with it because she liked him too. Right at that moment, she liked him a lot. He wasn’t part of her world and that was fine. She was ready for a break from her world.

And then there was that moment she had almost forgotten about after all the years as someone’s girlfriend – the look of recognition in the eyes of someone you don’t know yet – and suddenly his face was an irresistible object, and their heads were slightly tilting to one side, and finally they were kissing.

He was a good kisser and that was nice too. Enthusiastic, but not trying to clean your tonsils with his tongue. A really good kisser, Megan thought – just the right amount of give and take. She liked that too. But what she liked best was that he could have probably fucked any girl at that party, but he clearly wanted to fuck her.

And Megan thought, you’re in luck, mate.

So they found themselves in one of the bedrooms, and Megan started to relax a little when she saw there was a lock on the door, and soon she was fulfilling her biological destiny on a stack of coats, while downstairs Edwyn Collins sang, ‘I never met a girl like you before,’ and, yes, somehow it felt like it was just for them.

Megan smiled to herself as her sister came through the turnstile.

Jessica looked gorgeous passing through the crowd, Megan thought, like a woman without a care in the world among a mob of tube-weary commuters. Men of all ages turned for a second look – checking out the slim legs and that effortlessly size 10 frame and the round baby face that often made strangers believe she was the youngest of the sisters.

Looking at Jessica made Megan feel shabby and fat. That was the trouble with curves. You had to watch them or they got out of control. Megan was suddenly aware that she had only fingercombed her hair that morning, and that she had to stop keeping Mars bars in her desk.

They hugged each other at the ticket barrier.

‘Look at us,’ Megan said, linking arms with her sister. ‘Grace Kelly and a crack whore.’

Jessica sized up her sister.

‘You look exhausted, Dr Jewell. Doesn’t that sound great? Dr Jewell, Dr Jewell.’

‘I’ve been pretty busy. It feels like every woman in the East End wants me to look up her fanny.’

‘Oh, I know the feeling. Are you still okay for lunch? We could have done it some other time.’

‘We’re fine, Jess.’

‘And they do give you a four-hour lunch break, don’t they?’ Jessica said.

She was wide-eyed with concern. There was an innocence about her that both her siblings lacked, as though she had been spared most of life’s sharp edges. The middle child, buffered by the presence of the big sister and the baby.

Megan just smiled. It was true that her morning surgery ended at twelve, and her afternoon surgery didn’t begin until four. But her morning surgery usually overran by almost an hour – she just couldn’t seem to get her consultations down to the required time – and before afternoon surgery began, she was expected to make her round of house visits.

‘I’ve got us a table in J. Sheekey’s,’ Jessica said. ‘Is fish all right for you?’

Fish and a few glasses of something white would have been fine with Megan. But she really didn’t have time for an elaborate lunch in the West End. In truth, she just about had time to grab a sandwich at the nearest Prêt à Manger, but she didn’t want to cancel lunch with one of her big sisters.

‘It’s not really all lunch break, Jess,’ Megan said gently. ‘I have to see someone in their home before surgery starts again.’

‘You mean sick people?’

‘Sick people, yeah. I’ve got to see a woman this afternoon. Well, her little girl.’

‘You visit sick people in their homes? Wow, that’s terrific service, Meg. I thought they only did that on Harley Street.’

Megan explained that the sick people with a doctor on Harley Street didn’t need someone to come round to see them. Those people had cars, taxis, spouses who drove, even chauffeurs. Her patients in Hackney were often afflicted by what was known as no means. No cars, no money for cabs. Many of them were stuck at the top of a tower block with a bunch of screaming kids, and all this stuff in their heads about it getting worse if they sat in a doctor’s waiting room. So house calls were actually far more common at the bottom end of the market.

Megan didn’t tell Jessica that the older, male doctors at the surgery all hated making house visits, and so farmed the majority of them out to her. Despite being four years younger, Megan had always felt the need to protect Jessica from the horrible truth about the world.

‘Somewhere closer then,’ said Jessica, trying not to sound disappointed.

‘Somewhere closer would be good.’

They bagged the last table in Patisserie Valerie, and after they had ordered, the sisters smiled at each other. Because of Megan’s new job, it had been a while since they had seen each other. They both realised that it didn’t matter where they had lunch.

‘How’s Paulo and his business?’

‘Good – business is up eighty per cent on last year. Or is it eight per cent?’ Jessica bit her bottom lip, staring thoughtfully at the mural on the Pat Val wall. ‘I can’t remember. But they’re importing a lot of new stock from Italy. Maseratis, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, all that. People here order them. Then Paulo and Mike go and get them. How’s Will?’

‘Will’s sort of out of the picture.’

Jessica flinched. ‘Oh, I liked Will. He was really good-looking. For a short guy.’

‘He wasn’t so short!’

‘Kind of short. I suppose it’s hard to keep a relationship going when you’re both working so hard.’

‘Will’s never done a day’s work in his life. It’s actually hard to keep a relationship together when one of you is a slut hound.’

‘Oh. Oh, I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t be. Best to find out these things before – you know. Before it’s too late. Before you go and do something stupid.’

‘But you loved Will, didn’t you?’

‘I think I was grateful that somebody seemed so interested in me,’ Megan said. ‘Especially such a good-looking short guy.’ They laughed. ‘Don’t worry about it. Really. It was never one of the great love matches. Not like you and Paulo.’

‘Still – it’s sad when people break up. I hate it. Why can’t things just stay the same?’

Megan smiled at her sister. Jessica – last of the great romantics. She was exactly the same when they were growing up. Jessie always had Andrew Ridgeley on her wall, and some unreachable boy she had a hopeless crush on.