Are You Ready? (28 page)

‘Next weekend my two best friends are having an engagement party. They have this house in Salthill right on the water. It will be great fun, and it will give me a chance to show you the true Galway, not just Quay Street and the touristy bars.'

Sarah saw the excitement in his eyes. Even though she was due to work the next weekend, she knew Clodagh, who had now finished college for the summer and was always looking for extra work, could cover it, so she agreed.

‘Great,' Hugh said, as he smiled and ordered more wine. ‘Wait until you meet my parents and friends! And you just have to meet my cousin Pat, he loves art, too. They will all love you, they can't wait to meet you.'

Sarah was happy he was excited about the proposed trip, but as he planned the weekend, and she heard him name all the people she would be meeting, she began to get nervous. Hugh seemed so determined this would be a perfect weekend and everyone would like Sarah. She hoped he wouldn't be disappointed.

After work on Tuesday Sarah was just telling her mum about her upcoming weekend trip to Galway, when the doorbell rang. Sarah answered it and was surprised to see John and Tom at the door. They both gave her a kiss and headed for the kitchen.

‘Your mum asked me to pop in and see if we could fix your shed door. She said it keeps sticking,' her brother-in-law John said, as he headed out to the garden.

‘Are you here to help, too?' she asked Tom, who looked great in a pinstripe suit and blue shirt.

‘No, not in this suit! I just popped into John's after work to drop back a DVD of his, when he roped me into coming here, with the promise of a pint after.'

‘Well, let me get the alcohol rolling, then,' laughed Sarah. She opened the fridge and pulled out some beers. Tom relaxed and took off his suit jacket.

‘So tell me about this wedding invite that is spurring Mel to think you are the next Monet!'

Sarah blushed, but showed Tom the invite.

‘Well done, Sarah,' he said approvingly. ‘It looks fantastic. I don't know much about art, but you obviously have great talent, good luck with it.'

Sarah appreciated his honesty, and knew that paint-by-numbers was about as arty as he and his brother John got. At least he was trying to be supportive. While John and Sarah's mum were busy over at the shed, Tom and Sarah chatted about their godchild, Mel and John, and the latest Quentin Tarantino film. Tom was so relaxed and just a regular Dublin guy, he didn't have an interest in the arts like Hugh, but he was happy to have a beer and chat about sport or Sarah's family. Eventually John made it back into the kitchen having fixed the shed door.

‘Why does my brother get the beers while I do all the work?' John asked, as Sarah handed him a cold Budweiser.

‘It's because Sarah thinks I'm the best-looking, of course. Charming and single, who could resist! Isn't that right, Sarah?' Tom joked.

Sarah felt herself blush again. She was mortified by Tom's remark. She had Hugh now, and tried to think of him rather than the lads who were now teasing each other about their fashion sense.

‘Well, did you hear about Sarah?' Sarah's mum said as she opened a pack of Bakewell tartlets for the boys. ‘She is off to meet Hugh's family this weekend in Galway. I'm telling you, John, we could have another wedding to be planning!'

Sarah didn't think she could blush again so soon, but she did. Why did mum say that now, right in front
of Tom and John? she thought, fuming. She tried to change the subject to baby Fiona, which always worked with her mum, but she still felt awkward, and was glad half an hour later when the lads excused themselves and headed to Dalkey for a pint. Sarah went to bed feeling guilty she wasn't prouder that Hugh wanted her to meet his family in Galway; but she just didn't want everyone thinking she was about to be married – it was a while away yet.

Ali couldn't believe her wedding was only a few weeks away! She felt time was speeding up. The last few weeks had been a blur: of finalizing wedding songs, trying to write wedding speeches, and buying clothes for the big honeymoon. She was up to her eyes in contracts; she had barely seen Robin all week, because she had to work so late every night. Her boss was really piling it on her. It seemed to be her tactic to make sure Ali had time for work and nothing else when she was in the office. Ali thought this unfair: everyone knew brides had to do some wedding jobs between nine and five. How else could she research Hawaii online, or print off rough copies of her wedding booklet? She knew her interest in work had been poor recently, but the wedding just did consume all her thoughts and actions. Her aim this week was to get her wedding booklet finalized and printed. She needed two hundred copies, though, so it would be hard to print them while her boss was snooping around. She would have to do it after work hours, or during lunch.
Just then Mary walked in, her nun-like bun looking tighter than ever.

‘Ali, we've a case that we've to take and to do free of charge. I'm against it, but the powers that be say we have to. They say we need to be seen to be doing some pro bono work, it's good PR for the firm. I'm going to pass the client over to you, there is no point wasting one of the senior partners on a freebie job, but don't forget you need to be up-to-date with all your own work, too. Just try to do this case as quickly and cheaply as you can.' And with that she tossed Ali a file with information on the case.

Ali would normally have been curious about the job, but she happened to be online chatting to a travel expert in Hawaii who was recommending places for her to eat at and visit. She placed the file in her ‘to-do' pile and ploughed ahead with the online chat, all the while looking deep in thought, so that Mary wouldn't suspect anything.

It wasn't until the next day, when Ali got a message that a Mr Fleming had been trying to contact her that she knew she had better flick through the case notes and then call him right back. She was meeting a make-up artist in Brown Thomas at 1 p.m., to discuss make-up options, so she decided this guy better be quick on the phone, she had things to do.

She opened the file and started reading about him. He was forty-two, lived in Dublin and had two kids. His problem was the custody of and access to his children. Ali wasn't sure how her company were
supposed to help, as family law was not really their area, but the more she read the more she slowed down and started taking notes. It seemed Paddy Fleming and his then girlfriend Trish had had two children while they lived in a nice-enough estate in Lucan. Things had been going well until he was laid off in work. He had found it hard to get a new job, and as time went by he had become more disheartened, and had begun betting a little and drinking too much. Even so, he had still looked after the kids all day and had never drunk around them. But with him unemployed, it hadn't been long before his girlfriend had found someone new and had upped and left him. She was now married and living in a well-to-do area in South Dublin, and had prevented almost all contact between the kids and her ex-partner. As they had never been married he didn't have many legal rights, and the fact that Trish could now afford a great solicitor meant Paddy couldn't surmount all the legal barriers she had set up. Ali didn't know what to think about the case: she had heard of this kind of thing happening before, but she wasn't sure there was much she could do to help the man. As she went to close the file she saw a letter that Paddy had enclosed. Along with it were some photos of what must have been him and his two young children. The kids were the spit of him – blond hair and fair freckled faces – and in the photos they were all hugging and laughing, and Paddy was beaming with joy. You could imagine how hard it would be for him, not to be allowed to see them. She put the photos down and read the letter. In it Paddy
described how he felt, and how not having the kids was sucking the life out of him, how they were all he cared about, how Trish had exaggerated his drinking and betting and made him out to be a lowlife scum, and how she had bamboozled his legal team until they couldn't fight her any more. Paddy said he just wanted one last chance to be a part of his kids' lives. Ali picked up the phone and rang him, and after two minutes of talking to the soft-spoken man she knew what she had to do. She rang the Elizabeth Arden counter in Brown Thomas, cancelled her long-awaited appointment and agreed to meet Paddy in a local bagel bar for lunch in an hour's time.

Within five minutes of talking to Paddy, Ali knew she had to do her best to help him. He held his head in his hands as he explained how the child custody meetings had been full of lies. How he had turned down many jobs, as they would have meant being away long hours from the kids, and how he couldn't have done that, he was a hands-on dad and needed to play, talk and eat with them every night. How, when he finally had got a good job, Trish hadn't cared: she had met someone richer and ‘better class' and had grabbed the kids and gone. How Trish didn't even work herself now, and yet had a nanny to look after their children: ‘She never did like getting her hands dirty.'

‘I would gladly look after them every day, but even once a week would give me hope,' Paddy whispered.

As Ali headed back to the office, she rang an old classmate of hers who used to specialize in family
law and they agreed to meet for drinks after work. Ali used to dream of cases like this, but after years of conveyancing and checking the legality of planning permissions she had forgotten what it was like to help someone who really needed it. As she saw her wedding booklet on her desk, she felt embarrassed. I've been so caught up in the wedding that I've forgotten what's important in life, she thought guiltily. She was so lucky to have a man who truly loved her, and would never do to her what Trish had done to Paddy, and she was lucky to have great friends and family who would help her out. Paddy had no one. She remembered what her boss Mary had said to her about doing the case as quickly and cheaply as she could, and she knew she wouldn't be able to spend her whole working day on it, but she knew it needed that. I'll just have to work after hours on it, she thought. She had planned to spend her evenings working on the wedding, but this afternoon had made her feel guilty about that, so instead she copied her wedding booklet onto a CD, and ran down to the local printer.

‘It will cost a good bit to proof it and print out two hundred copies, you know,' said the sales assistant.

‘I know,' Ali said as she reached for her credit card, ‘but I've more important things to do than wait for copies to print.' And with that she headed back to the office and to the long night of work that lay ahead of her.

Ben was at home in his living room trying to show his dad how to play Tiger Woods Golf on his PlayStation 2.

‘How do I pick the nine iron, Ben?' asked Joe.

Ben didn't have a clue, he was only used to playing soccer, rugby or car-racing games, but as Joe couldn't play golf or even go for a pint nowadays, Ben had thought it would be nice if they could do something together apart from watch TV or eat. So when he had seen the new Tiger Woods computer game advertised he had raced into HMV to buy it, knowing how his dad missed the excitement of playing real golf. Ben was trying to read the game manual as Joe picked Padraig Harrington as his player, and Augusta as his golf club of choice.

‘Well, I never thought I would get to play in the US Masters,' Joe laughed.

Ben eventually worked out how to tee off and so they started. It took Joe a while to get the hang of using the game controller, and for him to realize that
actually swinging the controller like it was a golf club would not help Padraig win anything! Maura had a friend in for a cup of coffee, and Ben went into the kitchen to get some biscuits for his dad, but just before he opened the door he could hear her talking about him.

‘Ben is just so responsible now, such a grown-up. I knew he had it in him, we are both so proud of him.'

Ben couldn't believe it. All he had ever heard for years was how he had to ‘grow up' or ‘get real', and now at last his mother was boasting about what a man he had become. He was chuffed. He knew playing computer games might destroy this brand-new grownup image, but as he headed back to the living room laden down with chocolate chip cookies and tea he didn't care. He was learning you could be a grown-up and have fun, too.

After an hour of trying to play golf against the likes of Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson, they decided to call it a night.

‘Don't worry, Dad, you will get the hang of it soon,' Ben said, as he unplugged the TV.

‘Oh, I'm not worried, Ben. Sure, don't I have all day to practise while you are out at work slaving away,' Joe laughed. ‘But tell me, Ben,' he asked, ‘how are you really finding being back working as an accountant?'

Ben wasn't so sure what to tell his dad. Yes, there were days when he loved being his own boss, and felt chuffed at getting work off to clients on time, but there were other days, too (a lot of other days), when it was
hard to be responsible for the whole company, for all the staff, their wages, the office, the clients, and make sure the business ticked over as well as his dad had done for the last twenty-five years. He decided to be honest and tell his dad, tell him he had up and down times.

‘That's just life, son. Not every day will be the same, but that's the fun of it, also. Life would be boring if every day was the same – if every meeting was alike, every round of golf equal, every person similar – that's just the way it is. If the positives weigh up the negatives, that's the main thing.'

Ben knew his dad was right, and he was gradually getting the hang of the company, and realized he was the envy of many of his friends, who only dreamt of running their own businesses.

‘I know, Dad, and I know I should have said this a long time ago, but I'm sorry. Sorry for just not realizing how important me entering your business was to you, for just not getting it. But I get it now, I really do, and I'll make you proud.'