Waiting for Sunshine by Jane Sanderson

Author:Jane Sanderson [Sanderson, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473569997
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2022-06-06T00:00:00+00:00

As well as the house, there was a Land Rover Defender at their disposal, complete with its own inscrutable driver in a Belstaff jacket and aviator shades. Crazy, especially as no one was allowed to ask him who he worked for. Kim was the only one who knew whose place this was, and she said they were only here on condition that she didn’t breathe a word. Even Rocco wasn’t allowed to know. Well, Kim said, especially Rocco, who’d never kept a secret in his life. She said, ‘They’re not that interesting, it’s not Bowie or anyone, so just stop asking me, and soak it all up.’ But there was something both intriguing and absurd about clambering into the immaculate black Defender and speaking to each other in hushed voices because the guy at the wheel with the buzz cut and shades – on this rainy day – inspired an intimidated silence. Only Juno and Sunshine felt no inhibitions. They sat side by side on their mothers’ knees and sang a terrible song they’d named ‘Bumpety Bump’, more of a chant than a song, really, bumpety bump rhyming noisily and pointlessly with thumpity thump and lumpity lump, and after two minutes of it, Julia clapped a hand over Juno’s mouth, and said, ‘Cease, girls!’ and the peace that followed was heavenly. Jules leaned her head towards Chrissie’s.

‘I miss you,’ she said, very quietly. ‘I haven’t always been a good friend to you lately, and I’m so sorry, and I miss you.’

Julia’s chin was resting on Chrissie’s shoulder, and her lips touched Chrissie’s ear when she spoke. Chrissie smiled, remembering all the times in their friendship that Julia had used intimacy as currency, buying her way back into Chrissie’s good books with a brush of her lips upon Chrissie’s cheek, a seductive murmur against her ear, a hand trailed through her hair with a lover’s touch.

‘I miss you too,’ she said, although it wasn’t quite true.

‘Then come home,’ Julia said, more loudly now, so that the others heard her too.

‘Oh, Chrissie,’ Kim said. ‘Yeah, come home, darling.’

Chrissie smiled and nodded, and gave nothing away. She felt an odd sense of separation from her friends, their lives, this dynamic, but it wasn’t unpleasant; it only made her feel more resolute. She kissed the top of Sunshine’s head. When she looked up, Stuart was watching her. They locked eyes, and stayed that way for a few moments, as if they each were trying to read the other’s mind, and then Stu gave in and said, ‘Penny for your thoughts.’

‘I was thinking,’ Chrissie said, in a light, casual voice, ‘of a little terraced house with a long garden and views of the hills; a solid northern house, sturdy and anonymous – a little fortress.’

The car fell silent. All eyes were upon her now, and of course it was always going to be Julia who spoke up first.

‘You mean, you want to leave London?’

‘Yes,’ Chrissie said. ‘Maybe.’

‘Are you mad?’

Chrissie looked at Jules. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m not.

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