“I know!” she screams back.
“That’s brilliant, Simone! I’m so pleased for you! And mega proud!” I give her a one armed hug, trying not to spill my coffee on her.
Simone works for an Advertising agency. She’s been working on landing Penners for ages, so I know how big a deal this is for her. She loves her job, and as proven, is very good at it.
She’s also stunningly gorgeous and has no clue as to the actual effect she has on men. With her lovely swishy, long blonde hair, saucer blue eyes and skin the colour of cream.
She is sweet, kind-hearted and über wonderful, and I just love her to bits.
“We should celebrate tonight,” I enthuse, getting more and more on board with the idea as I talk about it. “I was supposed to be having dinner with Will, but I’ll cancel. We can get dressed up, have cocktails at Mandarin’s …”
“No.” She waves me off. “You can’t cancel on Will.”
“I can, and I will.” I start to laugh at my own joke.
“You’re a dork.” She nudges my leg with her foot, chuckling.
“And you wouldn’t have me any other way,” I grin.
“That I wouldn’t.”
“Look, he’ll understand, Will’s a very understanding man.” I take another bite of my biscuit and drop crumbs all over my T-shirt. I brush them off. “Tonight isn’t a big deal, we were only having dinner. Seriously, you and I will go out and celebrate – I’ll call Will now.”
Honestly, I could do with the distraction of alcohol tonight because my nerves are fraught over the whole Jake interview thing, and Simone is my very best drinking partner.
“You’re sure?”
“I’m definitely sure.” I grin.
“Then you are definitely on.”
Putting my coffee down, I lean over and retrieve my phone from my bag.
I have a text waiting from Vicky:
Good luck tomorrow, darling girl. Come straight to my office when you’re done with Jake, I want ALL the details ;)
A winky, smiley face. Christ, she’s making it sound like a bloody date.
A white hot thrill shoots through me at the very thought.
Jesus, Tru, sort yourself out.
A: Jake is way out of your league, and always was.
B: It actually is just an interview.
And C: You have a very lovely boyfriend by the name of Will. The one who you’re about to cancel on.
I lean back on the sofa and speed dial Will’s number.
“Hey baby,” he coos down the phone. “You okay?”
“I’m fine … I was just wondering, would you be majorly pissed if I cancelled tonight? It’s just that Simone found out today she landed that big client she’s been working on for months and also that they are promoting her to Ad Exec! So I thought I should take her out to celebrate.”
“Of course I don’t mind. Go out, enjoy yourself. And tell Simone congratulations from me. Rain check for tomorrow night, darling?”
“Definitely.”
“Love you.”
“You too.”
I hang up, tossing my phone on the table.
“Get your best on,” I say, grinning across at Simone. “Because tonight, you and I are celebrating.”
I take a quick shower, washing my hair. I blow dry it, and run my straighteners over, smoothing it out.
My hair is dark, thick, naturally curly … basically unruly. I wear it long to try and drag the curl down. I inherited my wild hair from my mum. She’s Puerto-Rican. My dad is English.
And no, before you ask, I don’t look anything like J-Lo. I wish. Well maybe except for my ass, it’s about as big as hers.
My mum and dad met while he was touring America with The Rifts. My mum was in her first year of university. She’d moved to San Francisco from Puerto Rico to go to university. It was a big thing for her and her family; she was the first to ever go to university.
My dad was doing a gig at her university, and it was love at first sight. They spent the four days that my dad was in San Francisco together.
After my dad left to carry on with the tour they kept in touch. Then six weeks later my mum found out she was pregnant with me.
She was only eighteen at the time, my dad twenty-three, with their whole future in front of them.
Dad went back to San Francisco and they had a choice to make.
They said getting rid of me was never an option for either of them, so one of them had to give something up.
It was either my dad’s music or my mum’s university degree.
Mum gave her degree up.
She told my dad that being a mother was now the only important thing to her, as she’d lost her own mama when she was very young.
She broke the news to her dad, and he went ballistic. He gave her an ultimatum. It was either me and my dad, or her family back home.
She chose us.
He disowned her. Her whole family cut her off.
So she left San Francisco and her dream behind and went on tour with my dad and the band to follow his.