The first of hopefully two updates this week. I hope you enjoy it. Love, IJKS xxx
Chapter Four Hundred and Fifty Eight
Things were more than a little awkward in the Austin/Palmer household the following morning, not least because before taking to bed in the spare room, John had let slip that Xavier had known all about the proposal. He had tried to explain why but Gina had been having none of it and was thoroughly irritated at being the last to know. She still didn't accept that John was proposing for any other reason than he had had a scare and there was no way on earth that she was going to say yes. John was gutted.
Charlie and Joey were more than a little excited, as they left the estate agent, having put in an offer on Tony and Rachel's house. And, with it having been accepted, it looked like it was soon to be their house. Next stop, the bank…
At home, Bianca was knee deep in cookery books. Tonight, she had the house to herself and her hope was that she would be capable enough to prepare a meal for Vittorio and impress him. So far, things were going well and providing tonight was a success, things would hopefully continue that way.
A small part of her still missed Liam and he was never completely far from her mind but she was utterly determined to make things work with Vittorio. He had shown a whole new side to himself and she hoped that from now, she would be able to leave the past behind them and be able to trust him.
Claire was nervous, knocking on Nicole's door but she decided that it was an important enough mission to take her out of her comfort zone.
"Oh, hi, Claire," the pretty blonde said, opening up the front door. "I wasn't expecting you."
"Sorry," Claire apologised, aware that they had only met a handful of times.
"Oh, no, it's nice to see you," Nicole said, welcoming her inside. "I'm not feeling too good so it's nice to have some company."
"Oh, are you okay?" Claire said, following her inside.
"Yeah, just a bit sick for some reason," Nicole said. "Would you like a drink?"
"No, I'm okay thanks," Claire said. "I just uh… I wanted to talk to you about Ruby."
It wasn't even lunch time yet and Charlie and Joey were both pleased with a job well done. They'd had their offer accepted on the house and a mortgage agreed with the bank. Everything was set in place for them to move into their new home apparently as seamlessly as possible. They were nervous but excited which felt like the best position to be in.
"Do you have time for a coffee before you head off for your shift?" Joey asked.
"Hmm… I reckon I could just about manage that," Charlie grinned, stealing a quick kiss.
Angelo went for a run to clear his head. He felt like he was in a constant bad mood at the moment. Life just felt empty, as if he had no prospects. All he had was work. He had a few friends but really, his best friends were Charlie and Joey and they would always have each other and their own lives ahead of him. He didn't have any other real mates and after Shandi, all of a sudden, he felt very lost and alone.
He slowed his run down when he spotted Miles and the date he missed out on, walking along together. He was even more irritated. He sped up, running as far away from them as he could.
"Why aren't you at the restaurant?" Bianca exclaimed, breathless from running around in a panic.
"Because I'm here?" Joey replied.
She and Charlie had gone to the Diner to enjoy a coffee before they had to go to work.
"Joey, I need you desperately," Bianca said, pulling up a chair.
"Hey, I am here, you know!" Charlie protested.
"Not like that!" Bianca said. "I mean, not that I wouldn't because you are hot but quite frankly, I can barely deal with one man, let alone throwing in a woman as well."
"Hey, I am still here," Charlie complained.
"I'd pick you too," Bianca told her.
"Oh, well, that's okay then," Charlie grinned, satisfied.
Joey giggled.
"Anyway, I am having a food catastrophe," Bianca said.
"What kind of catastrophe?" Joey asked.
"I have to cook."
Joey waited for her to continue.
"No, that's the catastrophe," Bianca explained. "I have to cook. I can't. I don't know how. You have to help me."
"I think this might be my cue to go to work," Charlie said.
She stood and kissed Joey goodbye before affectionately ruffling Bianca's hair. Bianca and Joey both guffawed before Bianca turned her urgent eyes back to Joey.
"Help? Please?"
Nicole and Claire sat side by side on the sofa.
"I was worried about the prediction too," Nicole admitted. "And she seems to have invested a lot in what she said, which is worrying, especially as she's so vulnerable right now after coming out of that… place."
She looked down, a little anxious about mentioning where Ruby and Claire had met.
"Yeah," Claire said. "She's doing really well but she's not as strong as she'd like everyone to think she is. We need to protect her."
Nicole nodded.
"I just don't want her to get all swept up in this idea of everything being perfect for her within the next couple of months," Claire said. "Because if it doesn't happen and she gets her heart broken, it could really set her back."
"I know," Nicole agreed. "What do we do?"
Joey had taken Bianca over to the restaurant to help her prepare a meal for Vittorio. The plan was to at least do the ground work and for Bianca to finish it off at home with the bits that even she couldn't get wrong.
"So, how are things going with Vittorio?" Joey asked while the worked in a corner of the kitchen.
"Yeah, so far, so good," Bianca said. "It feels… new. Like, he's changed all the bits about him that I didn't like."
"That's got to be good, right?"
"Definitely."
"And what about… Liam?" Joey asked.
"What about him?" Bianca asked stiffly.
"Have you heard from him at all?"
"Nope. And I'm taking that as a sign that it's all over, never meant to be and Vittorio is the guy I'm supposed to be with," Bianca said. "You know, because you and Charlie are with each other."
Joey burst out laughing.
"I don't know," Claire sighed. "I mean, I thought of talking to her but Charlie and Joey kind of tried that, didn't they? And it didn't go down well."
Nicole also sighed.
"Yeah," she said. "She didn't seem to appreciate anyone saying anything negative about what Mitzy told her."
"Ruby is my best friend," Claire told her. "Probably the best thing that's ever happened to me. I don't want to upset the relationship we have by not supporting her."
Nicole studied her sad face, feeling bad for her.
"Then maybe we need to go to her parents with this," she suggested. "Maybe they need to lead the way."
That evening, Vittorio went out to buy wine before his evening round at Bianca's. He wasn't quite sure what to expect this evening, considering in their entire relationship, she had never so much as made a sandwich. However, he was looking forward to it the way that he always looked forward to spending time with her. He loved her.
Someone he wasn't so keen on, however, was now standing right in front of him.
"Why don't you just leave my sister alone and go back to Italy?" April said.
She was on her way to meet Xavier. The pair of them were planning to go to the cinema. April didn't particularly want to play gooseberry to Bianca and Vittorio and Xavier wasn't keen to spend any time in his awkward house with Gina and John.
"Because I'm in love with her," Vittorio said sincerely. "And I have changed. I wish you would believe that. And that you would support us, as I intend to stay here and to ask her again to be my wife."
April stared at him in horror for a moment and then stormed off.
Having helped Bianca arrange her romantic meal for Vittorio, Joey had gone home and prepared her own romantic meal for Charlie, deciding that she deserved to be treated as well. She even went to the trouble of giving Ruby some cash to go for a meal of her own with Claire. So now, with music playing, Joey was enjoying spending time in the kitchen and cooking up a storm. Sometimes, with getting so involved in the running of the restaurant itself, it was easy to forget how much she actually loved the actual cooking, which she actually didn't get as much time to do as she had expected when they'd started up. So it was a real treat to cook a detailed, proper meal from scratch and know that Charlie would be really thrilled.
Over at the farm, Indi was stuck at home watching TV with Dex and his goldfish. After their disastrous night together, where she had run out before they had got intimate, Indi had been adamantly avoiding Romeo. So now she was stuck, bored out of her mind with her weird brother and his fish. It was almost driving her to pluck up the courage to face her fears and contact her boyfriend. Almost.
"What's all this?" Charlie asked, entering the flat to find dinner on the go.
"Dinner," Joey said. "For you."
Charlie beamed at her, looking elated.
"What did I do to deserve it?" Charlie asked.
Joey wrapped her up into her embrace, kissing her softly on the mouth.
"You are just exquisitely you," she replied.
Claire and Ruby sat in a corner booth at the Diner together.
"So, Joey just gave you money for us to go out to dinner?" Claire asked, utterly bewildered.
"I think she wanted some uh… private time with Charlie," Ruby remarked.
Claire blushed.
"Makes me a little ill to think about it," Ruby said. "But hey, a least I don't have to hear it!"
Claire laughed.
"And we get a free dinner," she put in.
"Exactly," Ruby agreed.
"Wow," Vittorio enthused. "You've certainly been hiding your light under a bushel."
"Excuse me?"
"I didn't realise you could cook," he explained, as they tucked into their meal.
"Oh! Thank you!"
She blushed.
"You know… I'm really happy that we decided to make another go of things," Vittorio said, taking her hand. "That you gave me another chance."
She smiled.
"Me too," she said.
"And I'd really love it if we could make a proper go of things," he continued. "If we could…"
He dug into his pocket and produced a ring box, opening it and presenting it to her.
"Get married," he said. "Like we were going to before."
Charlie squeezed Joey's hand and then began to tuck into her meal, one of her girlfriend's speciality aubergine dishes with couscous.
"This is so amazing," Charlie said. "I love it so much. And I love you so much."
Joey smiled shyly and thanked her.
"And I love you too, obviously," she added.
They grinned at each other.
"I still can't believe we're buying our own place," Joey said. "I mean, I feel like a proper grown up."
Charlie chuckled.
"Almost," she teased.
"And I feel like we've got to such a great place in our lives," Joey continued. "Especially with Ruby getting well again and having Claire as such a good friend. I think they're really looking out for each other."
"Yeah, I think they are. Claire's a really great kid. And I know we'll always worry about Ruby but she seems okay. I mean, we're both concerned about that stupid prediction but for now, she's fine. She's doing well. And you're right, we're both doing well. The restaurant's doing fantastically. I'm doing well at work. We've got a mortgage on a great house."
She leaned over and placed a delicate kiss on Joey's lips.
"I fall more in love with you each and every day."
Joey smiled.
"And I feel the same about you," she replied.
"Well, what do you think?" Vittorio asked, eager for his girlfriend to answer.
"Um…" Bianca managed.
She stared into his handsome face. She thought briefly of Liam and then returned to gaze into his eyes.
"Yes," she finally said. "Yes, I will marry you."
"So, what's it like being back here after the clinic?" Claire asked.
The evening was drawing on and she and Ruby were having a nice time together.
"Yeah," Ruby said, with a smile. "I feel much better than before I went in there. It definitely helped. And I feel a lot safer in life in general now that I know I'll always have you by my side as my best friend. I've never really had a proper best friend before. You know, like people have in movies and stuff. I never realised how important it was. But I don't think I could get through even a quarter of what life threw at me if I didn't have you."
Claire smiled, genuinely touched.
"I feel the same about you," she said. "I feel like I've got a family now, through you. I was only thinking earlier that you're the best thing that's ever really happened to me."
Ruby blushed, not quite sure what to say. She didn't think anyone had ever needed her like that before.
"Well, as long as things don't change when I have to move house," she said.
"They won't," Claire said. "You said it's not far."
"It's not," Ruby promised. "We'll still see each other all the time. Plus, I have a really good feeling about life in general right now. Things are going so well for Charlie and Joey, for you with your job, with the prediction Mitzy had for me…"
Claire shifted slightly.
"What?" Ruby asked.
"Nothing," Claire said.
"No, what…?"
"Ruby, just… be careful. Please?"
"What do you mean?"
"I just… worry about you getting your heart set on this prediction and if it doesn't happen…"
"Why wouldn't it happen?"
"Because she's a crazy hippy?" Claire said.
The words weren't quite as gentle as she had hoped. Ruby frowned.
"I thought you of all people would be supportive," she complained.
"I am supportive," Claire said. "I'm supportive of you, my best friend. I don't want you to get hurt. I want you to be happy."
"I was happy until you told me not to be," Ruby said.
"I want you to be happy based on something real," Claire said more tenderly. "Not because some woman told you to wish upon a star."
They both sighed.
"I know you don't believe in it but I do," Ruby eventually said. "I have to. I have to believe that there's love out there for me and that I'm going to find it in the next couple of months. I have to hope. I have to believe."
Claire looked down, not feeling any more comforted than she had before.
Next time… Nicole and Claire challenge Mitzy, Romeo and Indi have a heart to heart and Bianca has second thoughts…
