There’s an awkward pause as this sinks in. Even Chloe looks at a loss for words for a few seconds, a puzzled frown forming on her face.
“But why have you never reached out to us before?” she asks eventually. “We all thought it was a joke at first, the invitations to the hen party, when we haven’t heard from you in ten years.”
Poppy shrugs at that. “It never felt like the right time before. It would have been so minor, just inviting you for a catch-up over lunch or something. This was the best moment. At an important time in my life. I wanted you all to be there to see it. And thankfully, you all agreed. I knew you would.”
“What about all the stuff we did to you?” Tanya says quietly, earning her looks from the rest of us. She’s still wearing her massive jumper from the plane journey, even though I can see she’s sweating. Why doesn’t she take it off?
Tanya has always overexaggerated the impact of our silly school pranks. And I guess Poppy did too, if she’s talking about what an effect they had on her life. It’s so trivial to me. The idea that anyone would hold on to anything that happened at school just seems ridiculous. We’re adults now, not teenagers. None of what happened before matters.
“Tanya,” Esther snaps, but Poppy laughs.
“That’s the whole point,” she says. “I want to let bygones be bygones. Move on from the past. All I wanted when I was younger was to be friends with you all. Don’t you think that might be possible now?”
“You really think that?” Tanya whispers, but she’s interrupted by Chloe talking over her.
“If you keep paying for private island holidays maybe,” she says, but she grins to let us all know that even she, materialistic as ever, could possibly be joking.
“So who is the lucky groom?” Esther asks, eager to move away from the subject of the past. “We don’t know anything about him.”
“Ah, yes,” Poppy says. “My groom.”
The rest of us exchange uncertain glances.
“We’ll talk about my groom later, I think,” Poppy says. “When we’ve all had a lot more alcohol in us.”
“I’m fine with that,” Chloe says, downing her wine and pouring another. “So what do you do now, Poppy? I saw you follow me so you must know I’m pretty huge on Instagram. Almost a million followers.”
Poppy raises her eyebrows as if she’s impressed, but I sense she’s playacting. “Yes, I did see. You must be on it every day, even though you never managed to find the time to follow me back. Well done, Chloe. As for me, I’m a doctor at Great Ormond Street Hospital, actually. I’m currently training to specialise in paediatric cardiology.”
That shuts Chloe up.
“Oh, that’s great,” she mumbles.
It is great. I mean, we all knew Poppy was smart but to have reached such a position when she’s only the same age as us seems unbelievable. Even Tanya and Esther look impressed—a mixture of shocked and impressed anyway. It’s like we all thought that, despite her brains, Poppy Greer would end up much like the rest of us, if not worse. Perhaps stuck in some dead-end office job dreaming of how she was meant to be someone.
“I knew you’d make it,” Tanya says, and Poppy gives her a funny look.
“Are you still doing your art?” I ask.
Poppy nods, though she doesn’t seem happy about it. “I’ve been lucky enough to display my work in galleries across the country. Loads of people are in love with it. I’m starting to make quite a name for myself.”
“That’s amazing,” I say, though my stomach squeezes when I think about what we did all those years ago.
There’s something off about Poppy’s whole energy, but I can’t place it. Maybe I’m just not used to the new Poppy, but it feels more than that. There’s a smugness there, at announcing her job. She knows she has the rest of us beat when it comes to work. And she definitely leads the conversation.
“What have you all been doing?” she asks, but she’s looking at me. “Annabel? How is married life? You’ll have to tell me.”
I frown. How is married life? I’m not sure. Andrew didn’t even do the romantic proposal—we were walking past a jewellery shop and I mentioned what I liked, and he asked if we should “probably” think about getting married. I didn’t even get one of those rings at the time. Instead, he gave me a prenuptial agreement to sign. But I was so in love—am so in love—that I didn’t care. Now I think I would have insisted on that ring. Oh well. I went and bought one for myself later. Andrew gave me his credit card and told me to buy whatever I liked, so it’s basically the same thing. Three years in and we have a brilliant marriage. We don’t argue at all, like so many couples. And we go for dinner and drinks with Andrew’s work friends all the time.
“It’s good,” I say, aware of everyone waiting for a response. “You’ll enjoy it, Poppy. As long as you’ve picked the right man. Like I did.”
“You certainly picked a good one,” Poppy says.
“You’ve never met Andrew,” Esther points out. “So how would you know if she’s picked a good one or not? But you have, Annabel,” she adds at my falling face. “Trust me, you have. Tanya too, with Harry.”
“Well, the marriage has lasted three years, so he has to be good, right?” Poppy says. “Don’t you think so, Chloe?”
Chloe looks startled. Clearly, she hasn’t been paying attention and is probably still fussing about her phone being taken away. “Uh, right.”
“Glad you think so,” Poppy says.
I’m about to question Poppy when she gets in there first, turning her attention to Esther now. “And what do you do, Esther?”
“I’m an investment banker at Goldman Sachs,” Esther answers, lifting her chin. “I’m doing very well for myself, thank you.”
“That’s fantastic.” Poppy leans forward. “You must really value your job.”
“I do,” Esther says. She lets out a nervous-sounding chuckle. “Honestly, it means everything to me.”
“I understand,” Poppy says, nodding. “I’m the same with mine. You hold on to that job and make sure you don’t let it go.”
For some reason, Esther glances at Tanya, then down at her lap, blushing. Chloe seems to be looking at Tanya too. Am I missing something here? Why has it gone so quiet?
Poppy stands suddenly, stretching her arms above her head and revealing a toned stomach. “How about we move this party to the hot tub? There’s a plug nearby for the CD player. I know, so retro. Chloe, why don’t you help me bring the booze along, set up for a little party?”
“Um, okay.” Chloe, unused to being told what to do, rises.
Esther, Tanya, and I can’t help but laugh that someone has finally ordered that little diva around, and with such cool nonchalance.
We all stand to go, but Poppy does a double take which makes us stop in our tracks.
“I didn’t ask Tanya what she was doing now!” she says. “Although of course I know a little bit. Who hasn’t heard of Tanya Evesham’s amazing social events? I just have to get myself invited one of these days.”
Tanya looks caught out, her face reddening. “I didn’t think you’d have heard about them.”
“Well, and why not?” Poppy says. “Us Londoners have to stick together, no? We’ve escaped the drudgery of Bristol to new heights. Your parties used to be the highlight of the season. Obviously, I was too busy with my job to be able to go to any, worst luck.”
“We used to all go,” I blurt out, because Tanya seems to be frozen, mouth open. “The three of us, I mean. Tanya used to invite us to London and we’d make a whole weekend of it. I haven’t been to any in forever. There was one six months ago but I couldn’t make it.”
“I think that’s the one I heard about,” Poppy says. “Wasn’t it some heiress’s birthday party, Tanya?”
“I can’t remember,” Tanya says, though she keeps flexing and unflexing her fingers. “I throw so many.”
“You were there, Esther, weren’t you?” Poppy says.
Esther looks surprised. “Uh, yes, I guess I was. Chloe was too.”
“I haven’t heard of any in a while,” Poppy says. “You’ll have to invite me to the next one.”