Raul's Revenge

'Getting married' were emotive words for Penny in her fragile state... She looked at Amy—small and slight, with a mass of wild ginger hair, her hazel eyes soft with concern—and tried to smile confidently. Amy had always been the sensitive one and Penny the practical one. How had it all changed?

'There's nothing much to tell, Amy. Raul was sup­posed to travel with me on Friday, but something came up at the last minute and he couldn't. He called me last night; maybe in a day or two...' Her voice trailed off.

If only it were that simple... After walking out of the kitchen on Thursday night she had gone to the guest room and undressed. Maybe she had hoped that Raul would follow her and everything would be back to normal, but he hadn't.

Instead the next morning he had coldly told her that he had to stay on in Spain a little longer. He was keen to win a government contract to build a desalination plant in southern Spain and needed to discuss the project with Costas; it was the old man's department handling the tenders. The unspoken implication had been that Penny's attitude to Costas and his daughter had not helped.

She had felt guilty and tried to apologise. Raul had dismissed her apology with a curt, 'Not important.' But when he'd added that Mrs. Grimble, the caretaker of his London apartment, was expecting her, and that she was to wait there until he arrived, she was somewhat reas­sured. Until they reached the airport... However hard she tried she could not fool herself into believing that his goodbye kiss had been anything more than duty, not desire.

'This is Amy you're talking to, remember? You can't fool me; you're as thin as a reed, with a face like a fiddle... What's gone wrong with the great love affair? You know you can tell me. Cry on my shoulder any time. Hey! That's what friends are for.'

'Oh, Amy,' Penny sighed. Amy's tender concern broke the little control she had left, and with her eyes filling with tears she began. 'You were right all along; I'm not cut out to be any man's mistress. You warned me not to move in with Raul but I wouldn't listen. I was so sure we would get married. But now...' she shrugged her slender shoulders dejectedly '... I don't know anything any more. I think he's tired of me. The last night, well...'

She poured out all the events of the past few weeks, all her hopes and fears. She held nothing back, and when she had finished, to her astonishment, Amy laughed!

'Honestly, Penny, from what you have said, you have nothing to worry about. Basically you two argued in Dubai and again in Spain—hardly a reason for parting.

Don't forget it was Raul's suggestion you sell this place-and, incidentally, I think I've found a buyer.'

Raul had told Penny to sell her apartment, insisting that she could get a much better return on her capital by investing it, convincing her that she did not need her own place. And, of course, she had agreed, seeing it as another token of his commitment. But now Penny was not so sure. 'Maybe I should hang onto it,' she said bleakly.

'Oh, for God's sake, be positive! Only two days ago Raul told you stay at his London apartment. That doesn't sound like a man who is tired of you—quite the reverse.'

'Do you really think so?' Penny was desperate for any kind of reassurance.

'Look, you say his housekeeper in Spain thinks he will marry you but he has a problem with commitment. The answer is simple. This is a leap year. Instead of worrying yourself to death over what may or may not happen, the next time you see him ask him to marry you.'

‘The twenty-ninth of February is long gone. In case it has escaped your attention, we are now into summer,' Penny said drily.

/> ‘The whole year is leap year. Do it. Ask the man. What have you got to lose?'

The outrageous suggestion brought a genuine smile to Penny's face, but still she shook her head. 'No, I couldn't; I haven't the nerve.'

'God!' Amy exclaimed, jumping to her feet in irri­tation. 'You used to be such a confident, ambitious young woman.' She frowned down at her friend slumped on the settee. 'Remember our plans at college? Within one year we were going to open our own chemist shop. We even had the name picked out—Sense and Sensibility, pinched from Jane Austen. The perfect blend of modern medicine alongside homoeopathic cures. You were the sense and I was the sensibility, with my passion for natural medicine.

'It strikes me that since falling in love you have become the opposite—hopelessly over-sensitive to everything Raul does. You're turning into a wimp, girl. Tell me, how long are you going to continue living with the man? One year, two, five? In love but in limbo...'

The truth was hard to hear but Penny knew that her friend was right. In the first flush of love she had re­lished her life of leisure. But over the past few weeks of long hours alone in hotel rooms or at the hacienda, the enforced idleness had finally made her begin to question what she was doing. 'In love but in limbo' was very apt. It was exactly how she felt.

'Come on, Penny, don't be a coward. It's the nineties. Women's lib and all that. When Raul arrives propose to him. Otherwise you might drift on for years, worrying yourself to death about his intentions. Is that what you want?'

It wasn't... 'You're right, I know.'

'Hooray, the woman has seen sense at last. Now repair your make-up and let's go to Bertorelli's in Covent Garden to celebrate your forthcoming marriage—' Amy grinned broadly at Penny '—and pig out on Italian food. You look like you could use a good meal.'

Penny chuckled out loud. 'You are impossible, but I adore you.'

The night was a huge success. They stood and watched the buskers in Covent Garden, and laughed at the antics of a silent clown with a cat on his shoulder. They talked and drank their way through a typical Italian meal of pasta followed by Osso Bucco, and forgot about the coffee.

Finally they flagged down a taxi, and tumbled out of it at the entrance to their old apartment decidedly in­toxicated and laughing hysterically for no reason they could remember. Amy passed out on the sofa in the living room and Penny, with greatest difficulty, managed to find a blanket and cover her friend before falling asleep fully dressed in her old bedroom. No thought of re­turning to Raul's apartment entered her head.

The raucous ringing of a bell broke through Penny's hazed mind. What the hell? she thought, and rolled over on her back. 'Oh, my head,' she groaned aloud, looking around the room with some puzzlement until the events of the previous evening penetrated her sleep-fogged brain.

She lay where she was, trying to gather the energy to get up. At least the ringing had stopped, she thought gratefully, then winced as the sound of a door opening and closing ricocheted through her head like a rifle shot. She closed her eyes and was on the brink of dozing off again when a cheerful voice shouted, 'Coffee, sleepyhead.'

Penny opened her eyes to see Amy, fully dressed in a smart grey suit, grinning down at her. 'What time is it?' she murmured, sitting up. She accepted the mug of coffee from Amy's hand, took a large gulp of the steaming brew, and felt it hit her stomach like a lead balloon.,

'Eight; unlike you, I have to be at work for nine. How do you feel?'