Claire and Anna arrived at Coopers Restaurant early. Alice turned up fifteen minutes later. She seemed thrilled to see Anna. ‘I hear you’ve a new man in your life,’ she enthused. ‘I want
all
the gory details later.’
‘God, I’d be here al
l night,’ Anna laughed good-
naturedly. She was careful not to ask Alice how her love life was. Claire had
her
well warned.
‘Olive won’t be here till ten. She does yoga on a
Monday evening,’ Alice explained.
‘Does she still follow Victoria around the place?’ Anna was blunt. ‘Last time I saw her she was peeping out of the back pages of
Ireland’s People
with Victoria. It was the opening of some new clothes shop, I think.’
‘Well, she still loves to go out, I know,’ Alice explained. ‘Her husband is very much the stay- at-home type. He’s not gone on the whole social scene.’
‘God, he sounds
the opposite to Simon. No won
der she’s so looking forward to coming out with us,’ said Claire. ‘Oh look, there’s Olive.’
‘Hi, girls.’ Olive made her way down the steps to the others. She waved almost nervously.
‘Hi, Olive,’ the girls waved back.
‘Sorry I’m so late. Oh you shou
ld have gone ahead and ordered
without me. Thanks, I’ll have a glass of Bud,’ she told the waiter.
‘You look fantastic, Olive,’ Claire beamed.
‘Yes you do,’ Anna agreed. She wasn’t sure if she trusted Olive. Olive had been wary of ever being seen talking to Anna in school. Anna hadn’t been
‘cool’ enough.
They ordered their starters and a bottle of red and white. Anna’s tummy was grumbling. Another busy day in the store had left no time again for eating.
‘So is everybody looking forward to the party?’ Olive looked from one face to another.
‘Very much so,’ Anna lied.
‘Victoria was saying
that she realized not every
body will have a partner to bring along but that they’re welcome to come on their own anyway,’ Olive said, mainly for Alice’s benefit but Anna thought the comment was aimed towards her and felt a surge of annoyance.
‘I would have thought it a better idea to leave the men out of it altogether,’ said Alice. ‘After all, it was a girls’ boarding school run by nuns. Men were strictly forbidden.’
Everybody laughed. The wine was poured.
‘But if the men were banned we wouldn’t get to see all the telly hubbies.’ Anna held her glass up.
‘Cheers, girls.’
‘Now, now, we’ll have no bitching,’ Claire tutted.
‘Remember we all grew up together.’
‘Like one big happy family not,’ Alice said.
‘So what does Victoria do all day?’ Anna couldn’t help asking.
Olive shrugged. ‘Shop, I suppose. Look in the mirror? I’m not really sure, to be honest.’
‘Aren’t you two joined at the hip any more?’
‘No, we had our operation a while ago. I’m free now.’
‘So you saw thro
ugh her in the end,’ Alice mut
tered. ‘Everybody does eventually.’
The starters arrived. Anna tucked into her salad. The evening was turning out to be a bit of fun after all. Olive wasn’t so bad. People changed. You had to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe even
Victoria wouldn’t be so horrendous either.
‘Do you still keep in touch with Mark Landon?’ Alice asked during the course of the meal.
‘Well, I haven’t seen him since I went to Galway but he used to live across the road from me in Ranelagh.’
‘Did he? Lucky you. I always thought Mark was divine,’ Alice sighed. ‘Is he not married?’
‘No,’ Anna put her knife and fork down. ‘No, he is not.’
‘Funny, I thought a man like that would have been snapped up long ago.’
It was strange waking up in her old bedroom. Anna stretched lazily on the bed and rolled over. Oh, the joy of not having to get up at the crack of dawn!
The first thing she had to do today was ring
Darren.
He’d be expecting her call.
And anyway he’d no way of contacting her. Grandad was sipping tea in the kitchen. ‘Would
you like a cup? The kettle’s boiled,’ he croaked.
‘Thank you.’ She fetched herself a tea bag.
‘Are you married yet, Anna?’
‘I don’t have time,’ she answered.
‘You’re no spring chicken, you know.’ He nibbled on a plain digestive.
She made no reply
. Grandad could be quite insen
sitive when he wanted to be.
She went out to the hall, dialling Darren’s number before she could change her mind.
He answered promptly.
‘Darren?’
‘Hey, gorgeous.’
‘I’m in Dublin.’
‘Great, what are you up to?’
‘Nothing much and yourself ?’
‘I’m up to my eyeballs in business meetings today.’
‘Oh.’ Anna was disappointed.
‘I’m afraid I won’t be able to see you this evening.’
‘I see.’
‘Are you mad at me?’
‘No, not at all, I understand. You’re keeping the weekend free for me though, aren’t you?’
‘Sure, I’ll call you.’
‘I’ll look forward to it.’ Anna put the phone down.
So much for that. Anna was upset. Surely he wasn’t that busy? It wasn’t as if she was in Dublin every week. Surely he could have fi
tted her some
where into his busy schedule? What was going on? Was he losing interest already? Hadn’t they just spent the most magical weekend together? Maybe she shouldn’t have slept with him. Maybe that was the reason he seemed to be going off her. Men were sometimes a bit funny after sex. They saw you in a different light
once the mystery had dis
appeared.
But it had seemed so right. It had felt so right. Snap out of it, Anna, she told herself. He’s
busy, that’s all there is to it. Sure wasn’t she the very one who was constantly snowed under with work commitments? She of all people should be more understanding. Besides there were things to be done. A dress had to be bought for this blasted party.
The traffic into
town would be manic, Anna reck
oned. So she took the bus. She stood at the bus stop outside Stillorgan shopping centre and waited for a 46A. As long as Darren showed up at the party that was the main thing. And he would. Of course he would.
Eventually a bus stopped. Anna hopped on, taking a seat upstairs. The sun was shining. Life didn’t seem so bad after all. She’d really have to stop being a pessimist. Not all men were bastards. Only some of them.
Just the ones that Anna had the misfortune to cross paths with.
At Grafton Street, she hopped off and ambled down the main street along with the hundreds of shoppers. In Brown Thomas she bumped into Olive trying on a cream strapless evening dress.
‘Hi there,’ Anna said making her jump.
‘Hey, Anna.’ Olive’s face broke into a smile.
‘You’re in the same dilemma as me, I take it.’
‘At this stage I feel like turning up in a pair of old jeans,’ Anna laughed.
‘Same here. What do you think of this?’
‘It’s stunning,’ Anna said truthfully.
‘Almost a month’s wages.’
‘But you only live once,’ Anna reminded her.
‘You’re right, I’ll take it.’
‘Want to grab a coffee?’
‘Sure,’ Olive grinned.
It was funny, Anna thought as herself and Olive chatted easily about life in the coffee shop in Brown Thomas; she’d lived under the same roof as the girl for six years and had never really had a proper conversation with her.
‘Do you know something, Olive?’ she confided,
‘You’re so different now to what you were like in school.’
‘In what way?’ Olive seemed surprised.
‘Well, don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but I thought you were quite nasty in school. You laughed every time Victoria bullied anyone.’
‘God, that’s terrible.’ Olive looked contrite. ‘If I laughed it was only because I was afraid of Victoria. It wasn’t like I thought anything she ever did was funny.’
‘I’m dreading going to the reunion. I mean, if it was in anybody else’s house I wouldn’t mind so much.’
‘We’re all in the s
ame boat,’ Olive almost whis
pered. ‘I don’t particularly want to go along either. But I’d say the night will be interesting. I don’t really know what to expect.’
‘Is the house nice?’
‘Amazing,’ Olive sighed.
‘Lucky girl, eh?’
‘Do you know something?’ Olive said after a while. ‘You might find this hard to believe but I actually envied you in school.’
‘Me?’
‘Yeah, you were so independent and did your own thing, you know?’
‘God, that’s funny that you think that.’
‘I was the sad case following Victoria and those around hoping to be accepted. You were so strong.’
‘Not inside I wasn’t.’ Anna gave a slight shudder. She didn’t like to think about it too much.
‘Anyway, enough about school. What are your plans for the rest of the day?’
‘I have to find a dress for starters,’ Anna nibbled on her scone, ‘and then, I dunno . . . I might call round to Claire’s.’
‘Don’t you have to be back in work tomorrow?’
‘Yeah, but not until lunch time. I’ll drive down in the morning.’
‘Are you meeting that sexy man of yours?’
‘Not this evening,’ Anna tried to keep her voice light.
‘I’m sure I’ll see him at the party.’ Olive stood up and brushed the crumbs off her skirt. ‘By the way you should give Alice a ring. She’s dying to go out. She really is.’
‘Well, maybe I will,’ Anna smiled.
‘So,’ Alice met her later in the bar of The Morrison
Hotel, ‘describe it.’
They sat in the corner and ordered two vodkas and diet Cokes.
‘It’s short and black but completely different to
Olive’s and it’s got these chiffon sleeves. Cost a bomb but I’ll worry about that later.’
‘It sounds bliss. What’s Darren wearing?’
‘I don’t even know if he’s coming,’ Anna sighed.
‘Nonsense,’ Alice argued. But what did
she
know about anything? ‘So, do you want to go dancing?’
‘Tonight?’ Anna looked surprised. ‘Sure nothing’s open on a Tuesday.’
‘Tomango’s is.’
‘God, well there’s a blast from the past!’
‘Let’s go for the laugh.’
‘I’ll kill you for doing this to me,’ Anna groaned.
‘You’re only young once,’ Alice said as she hauled her out of her seat.
‘I
was
young once,’ Anna said.
Alice was determined to live it up on the dance floor. She shook her hands wildly to songs like
‘I will survive’ and ‘It’s raining men’. The music was brilliant and the place was packed with people having fun. But somehow, Anna felt, if Darren had been with her, the night would have been slightly more fun. What was wrong with her? Would she never be able to enjoy a girls’ night out ever again? This was insane!
‘How on earth are we going to get home?’ Anna asked Alice at about 2 a.m. ‘Stillorgan is miles and miles away.’
‘Look out for somebody drinking water,’ Alice suggested. ‘They’re usually the non-drinkers. One of them will bring us as far as town.’
‘Oh I dunno about that,’ Anna hesitated.
‘Go on,’ Alice urged. ‘It’s a tried and tested method.’
Anna glanced around the room trying to spot the non-drinkers. Eventually she approached a man with a pint glass full of water.
‘Is that water you’re drinking?’ She fluttered her eyelashes at him.
‘Yesh shis, I’m trying to shober up fore I get home,’
he said. ‘Want shome?’
‘No thanks,’ Anna muttered and walked away.
‘No luck?’ Alice asked her. ‘Okay, let me try.’ Five minutes later she returned with a man. And, more importantly, a lift.
His name was Nigel.
‘Are you sure you don’t mind about this?’ Anna tried not to show her delight
too
much.