The Beauty Room by Regi Claire

Author:Regi Claire [Claire, Regi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857907790
Publisher: Birlinn Limited

15

THE PHONE SHRILLS Celia awake. Alex, she whispers and reaches out a hand. The space on the carpet beside her is empty. He’s gone, having left her wrapped in the winter coat, sleeves tied loosely across her chest. Swaddled like a newborn babe. Which is just how she feels. Chuckling to herself, she blunders out into the corridor. The light is on, thankgod, and there’s no sign of him.

‘Hello,’ she mumbles, trying to wrestle herself into the coat without dropping the receiver. A strand of saliva-wet hair slaps her shoulder. She smiles as she catches sight of her breasts, hard and pert, in the oval mirror and for an instant her image is eclipsed by those sensations again – like flowers bursting and bursting fiery petals into a black sky.

‘Cel! How are you? Boys just went off to school so I thought I’d give you a buzz.’ Lily of all people. Prurient Lily hot on the scent, tracking her down from the other side of the globe.

‘Lily, hi. I’m okay …’ If Lily knew, she’d never stop asking questions; she loves private gossip, the more juicy the better. Celia remembers her account of the twins’ birth in graphic detail, including various recipes for cooking placentas. She grins, glances down at her bare feet, ‘Yeah, pretty much okay. And yourself?’

She wiggles her toes as she hears Lily’s usual, ‘Fine, fine.’

‘So, did you get my letter?’

‘Letter? No. When did you post it?’

‘Last week some time. Everything’s kind of topsy-turvy right now. I’m having the house revamped and –’ Celia sucks her teeth.

‘Don’t worry, Walter’s calmed down. Tell you though, he was bloody mad after that call!’ Lily laughs her breathless giggly laugh which Celia will always associate with winter bedrooms and rose gardens.

‘Not with you, Cel, honestly. Probably more with himself even than your mum. He must have realised he can’t expect to be rewarded for legging it. And she did set up that trust fund for the boys. But you know, what with him being the only son and having his own business and a family … Anyway, he specifically asked me to say hello because he’s still away. An extended business trip to Australia actually, some wine-growers’ seminar. He said to make sure and ring you, see you were doing okay.’

Why can’t he find out for himself? Celia kicks the wall, rasping her toes on the grit-rough plaster. He’s got the number, hasn’t he? The back of her head has begun to throb; the swelling’s the size of a five-franc coin.

‘Listen, Lily, I’d be happy to make more of that money over to you, I told Walter.’ If the decorators hadn’t removed the upholstered chair for the steaming, she’d have given it a good shove down the corridor. ‘Instead he got more furious. Ranted and raved about Mother and what a bitch she was. How he’d always done what she wanted.’

There’s a pause at the other end of the line. Celia feels dribbles starting on the insides of her thighs, a feeling whose sleaziness she finds she adores and intends to prolong.

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