That was when he heard the bang of the front door downstairs, followed by the sound of footsteps on the staircase. Was it Lola or the new girl, the Queen of Trash?

Gabe left the flat, closed the door behind him and waited on the landing to see which one of them it-

‘Aaaarrrggh!’ Lola let out a shriek of fright and almost lost her footing on the stairs. One hand grabbed the banister while the other covered her mouth.

‘No, I’m not a ghost,’ said Gabe. ‘It’s really me.’

Lola was clasping her chest now. ‘But you’re ... you’re .. what’s going on?’

‘Didn’t work out.’ He loved Lola to death but still hated having to tell her, to admit he’d failed.

Her mouth dropped open. ‘You changed your mind?’

‘No.’ Gabe briefly shook his head. ‘She changed hers.’

Lola threw herself at him, knocking the air from his lungs. Whoosh, she was in his arms babbling, ‘You mean you’re back? Oh my God, that’s fantastic! Is Jaydena completely mad? I can’t believe it, I thought I was hallucinating! What a cow!’

This was why he loved Lola. ‘I think so too. She got back together with an ex.’

‘Oh well, her loss.’ Lola gave him another rib-crushing squeeze. ‘Come in and tell me all about it. Shall we leave your stuff out here? My God, you went all that way for nothing! Will you be able to get your job back? Where on earth are you going to live?’

‘What are you talking about?’ Following Lola, Gabe said, ‘I’m back. I’ll be living here, of course.’

‘You mean in Sally’s flat?’

‘For crying out loud, it’s not her flat! It’s mine! I’ll explain to her that I need it now, give her a week’s notice. And I’vejust been in there,’ he said incredulously. ‘Have you seen the state of the place?’

‘She’s not terribly tidy.’ Hastily, since she was the one responsible for Sally moving in, Lola added, ‘ Very nice though.’

‘Not terribly tidy? That’s like saying the Beckhams aren’t terribly thrifty. She only moved in four days ago – imagine what it’d look like after four months! No,’ Gabe shook his head, ‘she has to go. As for a job, I’ve no idea. I haven’t even thought about that yet. The last week hasn’t exactly gone according to plan.’ He took the can of lager Lola was offering him and pinged off the ring pull.

‘No wonder you’re a bit grumpy,’ Lola said sympathetically.

‘I’m not a bit grumpy. I went to Australia, I came back again and I didn’t even have time to get a suntan.’ Exasperated, Gabe glugged down ice-cold lager before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Dammit, I’m pissed of

‘OK, you choose. Now, do you want to carry on talking about Australia or shall we change the subject?’

He surveyed Lola, who was evidently dying to unleash some gossip. Nodding in realisation he said, ‘Right, of course, you’ve seen that guy again. Doug, isn’t it? Has he forgiven you yet?’

Lola’s face fell at the mention of her first love. ‘Not even slightly.’Then she brightened. ‘But something else has happened. I’ve met another man.’

‘And to think they call you fickle.’ Gabe regarded her with affection, because it wasn’t her fault his own life was crap. ‘Go on then. Who is he?’

‘Actually,’ Lola grimaced, ‘this is the weird bit. He’s my father.’

At seven o’clock they heard the front door open and close, then the sound of someone climbing the stairs.

‘Here’s Sally.’ Lola stayed sitting, clearly not looking forward to the next bit.

‘Right, I’ll speak to her. The sooner this is sorted out, the better.’ Gabe rose to his feet, ready to do battle with the bag lady who’d wrecked his flat.

‘The thing is, she—’

‘Don’t worry, I know she’s Doug’s deranged sister, I won’t yell at her.’ Ha, much.

‘But—’

‘I shall be charm personified: said Gabe, opening the door.

Except the girl he came face to face with on the landing was no bag lady. This girl was tall and curvaceous in a red wraparound dress and an elegant cream coat. Her hair was baby-blonde and swingy, her eyes were the colour of chestnuts, accentuated by expertly applied eyeliner. Her mouth was curvy and painted red to match her dress. She was even wearing Jo Malone’s Lime, Basil and Mandarin, which was Gabe’s all-time favourite perfume.

This couldn’t be the girl he’d spoken to on the phone last week, surely.

‘Hello!’ She smiled cheerily at Gabe and, key poised, headed for the door of his flat.

It just couldn’t.

Gabe cleared his throat. ‘Are you Sally?’

She stopped, turned. ‘Yes! And you must be a friend of Lola’s.’ Her eyes sparkling, she indicated the mountain of luggage and said jokily, ‘Are you moving in?’

‘I’m Gabe Adams.’ God, it was her.

‘Gabe?’ Sally looked puzzled. ‘But that’s the name of the one who moved to Australia.’

‘I didn’t move to Australia, I went to Australia. But things didn’t work out,’ Gabe said evenly,

‘so now I’m back. Look, I realise this is inconvenient for you, but I’ll help you pack up your stuff. And if you could be out by the end of the week, that’d be great.’

She stared at him. ‘Excuse me?’

How could any girl who lived in such abject squalor look like this? How was it physically possible? ‘Well, you’ll be moving back in with your mother.’ Ha, lucky old her. ‘I’ll even hire a van if you like.’ Gabe felt he was being more than generous; with all the stuff she’d strewn around his flat he’d need a pantechnicon. ‘And we can do it any time this week, whenever suits you best.’

‘I don’t understand,’ said Sally. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

‘But you have to. Because it’s my flat and I need it back.’ Her eyebrows furrowed. ‘And I’m saying you can’t have it back because the agreement was that I could live here for a year at least.’

‘OK, OK.’ Gabe heaved a sigh; it had always been on the cards that she might dig her heels in, decide to be difficult. ‘I’m giving you official notice as of today. That’s in the contract.You have one month to find somewhere else. God knows where I’m going to stay until then, but—’

‘Hang on,’ Sally interrupted. ‘What contract?’

‘The one you signed with the lettings agency.’

‘I haven’t signed any contract,’ said Sally.

Behind him, Gabe heard Lola’s door click open. He turned and said evenly, ‘What’s going on here? Why didn’t she sign the contract?’

Lola could feel her heart clattering away in overdrive. She’d been hiding behind the door listening to their heated exchange. Now it was time to face the music. Uncurling her clenched toes, she took a deep breath and said reluctantly, ‘I cancelled the agency.’

‘Why?’

Oh God, Gabe had been dumped by his girlfriend, he’d just arrived back from Australia, and he was suffering from jet lag on top of jet lag. All in all, he wasn’t in the sunniest of moods.

‘OK, the thing is, I was trying to help.’ When she went on the defensive, Lola knew she used her hands a lot; now they were going like a pair of wind turbines in overdrive. ‘And you told me yourself that the lettings agency charges a fortune, so when Sally came along I thought I could save you a heap of money, which I thought you’d be happy about. Because I knew we could trust Sally, she obviously wasn’t going to be giving you any trouble with the rent, so it made sense to just, you know, deal with her direct and cut out the middleman. She gave me the deposit and the first month’s rent in cash and I paid them into your account.’

‘No problem, I’ll give it straight back,’ Gabe retorted.

‘This isn’t fair.’ Sally’s tone was heated. ‘You’re being completely unreasonable.’

‘Me?’ Gabe jabbed at his own chest and yelled, ‘I’m being completely unreasonable? What about the state of my flat?

Would you say the carnage you’ve reduced it to is reasonable?’ Sally stared at him. ‘How do you know what I’ve done to it?’

‘Because I went in and had a look!’

She gasped. ‘You can’t just let yourself in whenever you like.’

‘You can’t stop me.’ Gabe was really losing it now. ‘It’s my flat!’

‘Which you rented to me. And I like living here.’ Sally’s eyes abruptly brimmed with tears.

‘What’s more, I’m not going to move out.’

‘Oh please.’ Lola was by this stage feeling absolutely terrible. ‘I’m sure we can arrange something. Who are you phoning? Not the police?’

Having pulled out her mobile, Sally was blindly jabbing at buttons. ‘I’m getting Doug over here.

He’ll sort this out.’

Doug? Yeek, the very name was enough to set Lola’s heart racing. Would Gabe and Sally think her shallow if she quickly washed her hair and re-did her face before he turned up?

Chapter 20

The answer to that was a resounding yes, but she’d gone ahead and done it anyway. When Doug arrived at her flat forty minutes later he surveyed the three of them and said levelly, What a mess.’

Lola really hoped he didn’t mean her. If she said so herself, she was looking pretty good.

‘You’re telling me.’ Gabe’s tone was curt. ‘Have you seen what your sister’s done to my flat?’

‘I don’t need to. I can guess. She’s not what you’d call tidy,’ said Doug with heroic understatement.

‘And she’s a liar.’ Gabe turned to Sally and said accusingly, ‘When we spoke on the phone, you told me you were completely trustworthy’

‘I am!’

‘You promised you were super-housetrained.’

‘Oh God, you’re so picky.’ Sally rolled her eyes. ‘That’s just what people say when they want to rent somewhere. Like when you go for a job interview, you have to act all enthusiastic and tell everyone you’re a really hard worker. If you said you were a lazy toad who’d be late for your own funeral, they wouldn’t take you on, would they?’

Gabe threw his hands up in the air. ‘So you lied.’

‘It wasn’t a lie. Just a little fib. It’s not against the law to be untidy.’

Gabe addressed Doug. ‘I just want her out.’

‘I can see that,’ said Doug. ‘Right, tell me exactly what’s going on.’

When they’d finished explaining the situation, Doug looked at Lola and said, ‘So basically this is all your fault.’

‘Oh, of course it is. I do my best to help people out and this is what happens, this is the thanks I get.’

‘Legally’ Doug turned to the others, ‘either of you can cause untold hassle to the other. If you ask me, that’s a waste of everyone’s time and money. Shall we go and take a look at the flat now?’

‘Everyone put on their anti-contamination suits,’ said Gabe.

Over in Gabe’s formerly pristine living room, now awash with magazines and clothes and abandoned food and make-up, Doug nodded sagely. ‘Oh yes, this is familiar.’

Defiantly Sally said, ‘But it’s still not an arrestable offence.’

‘What I don’t understand,’ Lola was puzzled, ‘is when I came to the house in Barnes, your bedroom was fine. Completely normal.’

‘That’s because I have a mother who nags for England.’ Sally heaved a sigh. ‘And because she has two cleaners who barge in and tidy my room every day. Which is why I was so keen to get out of there.’ Glaring defiantly at Gabe she added, ‘And why I’m defmitely not going back.’

‘How many bedrooms here?’ Doug was exploring the flat. ‘Two?’

There was a pause.

‘I hope you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking,’ said Gabe.

AC Doug shrugged. ‘Do you have any better ideas?’

‘I have a very much better idea,’ Gabe retorted. ‘She’s your sister. You can take her home with you.’

‘Not a chance. Lola, could you have her?’

Sally complained. ‘You’re making me sound like a delinquent dog.’

‘Trust me,’ Gabe gestured around the room in disgust, ‘a delinquent dog wouldn’t make this much mess.’

‘I would take her.’ Keen though she was to scramble into Doug’s good books, Lola couldn’t quite bring herself to make the ultimate sacrifice and thankfully had a get-out clause. ‘But I’ve only got the one bedroom.’

‘Fine. So you two,’ Doug turned back to Gabe and Sally, ‘have a choice.You either hire yourselves a couple of solicitors to slug it out or you give flat-sharing a go for a couple of weeks.’

‘I can’t believe this is happening to me.’The stubble on Gabe’s chin rasped as he rubbed his hands over his face.

‘You never know,’ Lola said hopefully. ‘It might work out better than you think.’

‘Ha! I’ll end up strangling her, then I’ll be arrested and slung in prison, then neither of us’ll end up living here.’ As he said the word prison, Gabe winced and looked apologetically at Lola.