Read Online Waiting for Wednesday by Nicci French - Free Book Online

we’ll
cancel it. Will that make you happy?’
    ‘I want you to have a party,’
said Olivia. ‘It’s your birthday. But I want you to enjoy it. You
won’t enjoy it if people are being sick and there are fights and the house is
being vandalized.’
    ‘It won’t be like that.’
    ‘And no sex.’
    ‘Mum!’
    ‘What?’
    ‘This is just embarrassing.’
    Olivia reached forward and touched
Chloë’s cheek. ‘You look lovely, by the way.’
    Chloë blushed and mumbled something.
    ‘There are crisps and nuts and cartons
and cartons of juice,’ said Olivia. ‘What I’m trying to get across to
you, Chloë, is that you’ll all have a better time if you don’t get
falling-over drunk. You can talk to each other and – and dance and
things …’
    ‘Oh, Mum …’
    ‘But nobody enjoys being really drunk
and falling over and being sick. That’s not a good time. I mean, Frieda, back me
up over this. Am I being a wet blanket?’
    Frieda was standing by the window, gazing
out into the garden. There were unlit candles in jam jars along the gravel path. There
was a ring at the door.
    ‘Oh, God,’ said Olivia.
‘Already?’
    ‘I’ll get it,’ said
Frieda.
    She went to the front door and opened it.
‘Josef! You’re just in time.’
    Josef wasn’t alone. Next to him was a
man who was even taller and bulkier. He was wearing jeans and a leather jacket. He had
long curly hair, tied at the back of his head in a ponytail.
    ‘This is Stefan,’ said Josef.
‘And he is from Russia but we will be pleasant to him in any case.’
    Frieda shook Stefan’s hand and he gave
her a slow smile. ‘You are Frieda? I have heard. You are going to have a beautiful
bath. It is big and made of iron, like in an old film.’
    ‘Yes, I’ve heard of you too,’
said Frieda. ‘You helped Josef take my nice old bath away.’
    ‘It was a bad bath,’ said
Stefan. ‘Cheap rubbish. It cracked like that’ – he snapped his fingers –
‘when we took it.’
    ‘Well, thank you both for doing this.
Although I’m worried that while you’re doing it, my bathroom still
doesn’t have a bath.’
    Josef looked concerned. ‘Yes, Frieda,
I must talk with you. There is a small problem.’
    ‘What problem?’
    ‘More problem with the pipes. But we
talk later. I sort it.’
    ‘You know, I had to have a shower
here,’ said Frieda. ‘While they were preparing for the party. I have to
carry a towel round with me.’ She stopped herself. ‘But it’s good of
you to do this. You’d better come in. Can I get you something to drink?’
    ‘Now we will have juice.’ Josef
tapped the pocket of his coat. Evidently there was a bottle in there. ‘At the end
of the night we will celebrate together.’
    Olivia gave Josef and Stefan a variety of
instructions, constantly adjusted and added to. Meanwhile the doorbell rang
intermittently and young people began to drift in. Frieda stood to one side and watched
the scene, as if it was a piece of theatre or an exotic tribe. Suddenly she saw a face
she recognized and gave a start. ‘Jack! What are you doing here?’
    Jack was training to be a psychotherapist
and Frieda was his supervisor. She knew him well, but seeing him in this context was a
surprise. He, too, seemed taken aback and blushed a deep, unbecoming red. Even by his
own standards, he was wearing bizarre and mismatched clothes – a pink and green hooped
rugby shirt, with an ancient, moth-eaten tuxedo over the top, and baggy brown cords.
    ‘Chloë invited me,’ he said.
‘I thought it might be fun. I didn’t expect to see you, though.’
    ‘I’m on my way out.’
    ‘Is that Josef I can see?’
    ‘He’s the bouncer for the
evening.’
    After a minute or two Josef looked at her,
over Olivia’s shoulder, with a faint smile that was a plea for help. Frieda walked
across the room and tapped Olivia on the arm. ‘Let’s go and get our
meal.’
    ‘I just need to check on a few
things.’
    ‘No, you don’t.’
    Frieda led Olivia, still