Chapter 9
Lili knocked on the cottage door. She noticed that the curtains were closed, although it was now dark out. She’d believed Joss when he’d said that Abigail hadn’t opened them all week. From what she could see through the little pane of glass in the door, Lili guessed the projector was still on, casting a flickering white light around the room. She knocked again. She heard something muffled, then Abigail’s voice as she opened the door. ‘I said, I don’t need anything… oh, it’s you.’ Abigail looked past Lili, clearly checking Joss wasn’t there too. ‘He’s not here, Abigail. He’s moved out, gone to stay with a friend.’
‘Good, then he won’t keep bothering me.’
Lili rolled her eyes. Abigail was exaggerating. From what Joss had said, he’d only knocked on her door once.
Abigail had only opened the door a crack, Lili noticed. ‘Can I come in? I’ve bought some groceries. I thought we could have a girls’ night in, watch a movie.’ Lili frowned, thinking of those home movies she knew her friend had been sitting watching all week. As she stepped into the cottage, she silently scolded herself for not thinking more carefully when she’d persuaded Abigail to bring them along. It hadn’t occurred to her that this would be the result; that Abigail would sink into a pit of despair while watching them. She looked terrible. Lili thought how she wouldn’t be surprised if Abigail hadn’t changed out of her PJs all week. She guessed her friend hadn’t showered, either.
Lili stopped just inside the lounge and stared around the room. When she had dropped her friend off the previous weekend, the lounge had been immaculate. Now there were piles of takeaway cartons on the coffee table and bits of food over the carpet where she hadn’t hoovered. On the sofa were her duvet and pillows. Lili guessed she’d been sleeping down there, watching the home movies until she fell asleep in the early hours, exhausted. There was a white projector screen set up in front of the fireplace. Lili didn’t remember bringing a screen with them and wondered where it had come from.
The projector was still whirring in the background. Lili stared at the screen. A silent movie was playing; Toby and Abigail sitting on this very sofa, his arm around her shoulder, waving for the camera.
Lili turned to look at Abigail. She was standing by the door looking guilty, as though she’d done something wrong.
Placing the shopping bag by her feet, Lili walked over and put her arms around Abigail. She wanted to say,stop tormenting yourself.Instead, she stepped back, brushed the greasy hair from Abigail’s eyes and said, ‘You are having a shower and cleaning yourself up.’
‘But—’
‘No buts.’ Lili took her by the hand. ‘Come on.’ Together they walked up the stairs, Abigail reluctantly taking the lead. ‘Right, where are your clothes?’ It did not surprise Lili when she walked into the bedroom and discovered Abigail hadn’t even unpacked.
A few minutes later, Lili made her way down the stairs and heard the shower. The first thing she did when she walked into the lounge was turn off the projector, which took her a few minutes of fiddling with the machine to find the switch. The next thing on her agenda was opening the curtains and a window to let in some fresh air.
Lili stood for a moment, breathing in the cool evening air before rolling up the sleeves of her blouse. She crossed the lounge and found what she was looking for in one of the kitchen cupboards – a black bin liner. Clearing the takeaway boxes and emptying the plates of leftover food into the black sack, Lili came across a letter tucked in an envelope. Luckily, she hadn’t tossed it in the bin. It might be important. Picking up the letter, Lili realised what it was. It was addressed to Abigail, and she was sure it was the one from Toby that the solicitor had handed to her friend during the reading of the will.
Lili looked towards the stairs, wondering if the letter had anything to do with all this. She had the impulse to sneak a peek, but resisted it. Instead, after wiping the coffee table down with a damp cloth, she put the letter back where she had found it. Returning to the kitchen, Lili put on a pair of Marigolds from under the sink unit and started tackling the pile of dirty dishes, half-eaten cereal and leftover toast. She sighed at the row of mugs sitting on the worktop with dregs of tea and coffee in the bottom. It appeared Abigail hadn’t washed up a single thing. She had got through almost all the mugs.
Peering under the sink unit for some washing-up liquid, Lili found something even better. ‘Dishwasher tablets!’ A quick hunt through the base units in the kitchen revealed an integrated washing machine, a fridge with a small freezer compartment, and a dishwasher. ‘Thank god!’ Lili didn’t fancy standing there washing it all by hand – she’d have had to do it in stages because there wouldn’t be room on the draining board. She opened the dishwasher and smiled. Although it was compact, with a bit of thought, she managed to get every dish, mug, knife, fork and spoon in. She switched it on, gave the surfaces a quick wipe with a pleasant lemon-smelling surface cleaner from under the sink, and smiled, satisfied the kitchen was clean and tidy.
When she stepped back into the lounge to collect her shopping from the mat by the front door, Lili thought she heard the sound of a hairdryer upstairs. She peeked around the door and called up the stairs, ‘I’m popping a pizza in the oven – is that okay?’
The hairdryer stopped momentarily.
‘What was that?’ Abigail called down.
‘I’ve brought pizza. It will be ready in about fifteen minutes.’
‘Okay. I’ll be down in a sec.’
‘Great.’ Lili breathed a sigh of relief. It had occurred to her that Abigail might refuse the shower and crawl into bed. She heard the hairdryer again. Lili left the door open to the stairs and returned to the kitchen. Ten minutes later, the pizza was cooking nicely in the fan-assisted oven, and Lili had brought out a large bowl of salad, with tomatoes, cucumber and some sprigs of thyme, and set it on the coffee table. She found paper napkins in one of the drawers and opened a bottle of wine, setting it down beside two glasses on the coffee table. A large bowl of popcorn and a box of chocolates completed the movie night meal.
Her brow creased into a frown as she thought of movie night. She didn’t mind spending time with Abigail. She could have movie night any evening with Nate. But it had made her realise that she had made no time for Abigail since Toby’s death. She could blame it on the distance; London was a two-hour car journey away, and that was on a good run. Or she could blame it on work. But she knew she could have taken a couple days off, even a week, to stay with her friend and offer her some support. Lili was feeling exceptionally guilty – more so since discovering that Abigail was not in a good way. She wasn’t surprised. She doubted she’d been in contact with her family who lived here, either. By the look of things, she had barely moved off the sofa, let alone got out and about to visit people.
Before Lili took a seat on the sofa to wait for Abigail, she walked over to the projector screen, which was about the size of a forty-inch television, intending to shift it. Lili had just started to drag it along the floor, surprised at how heavy it was, when Abigail walked down the stairs and caught her. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Ah.’ Lili looked at her, wide-eyed. She didn’t want to tell Abigail that this had to stop; she imagined that if she did, it might be the end of movie night. She didn’t want to leave. ‘I thought I might light a fire.’
‘It’s not cold. We just have to shut a window.’ Abigail walked over and shut the window Lili had left open.
Lili was pleased to see she hadn’t put her pyjamas back on, but had changed into the outfit – jeans and a long-sleeved cotton top – that Lili had found in her suitcase.
Lili was still determined to put the screen away. ‘What about for a bit of atmosphere, then?’ There was a coal bucket full of coal, firelighters, matches and some kindling on the hearth.
‘All right.’
‘Can you help me shift this?’
Abigail reluctantly took the other end. Together, they lifted it, but not as far as Lili would have liked. ‘I want it here.’