The Heartbreak Cafe (18 page)

‘
I’m hungry,’ Nina said, checking her watch. It was almost
lunchtime; they’d already been here for three hours.

‘
Just a little while longer …’ answered Trish
distractedly.

Nina
rolled her eyes and ran her hand over the spines of the scrapbooks
on the shelves. She had to admit, it had been a mildly interesting
morning. She’d come across several mentions of her mother among the
stacks – pictures and articles from when Cathy was in school or
various community events she had been involved in. She had to give
her mother credit; she’d been quite the popular one.

On the
other hand, she’d only come across evidence of her father a couple
of times, once in a class photo of his high school graduation and a
second mention in the wedding announcements. It didn’t surprise
her; clearly in those days Patrick had been just as anti-social and
invisible as he was now. It made her further question why her
mother had ever got involved with such a wallflower, such an
outcast, when clearly she could have had her pick of any of the men
in town. Her mother was a stunner, and while she could see from the
photo that Patrick had been reasonably handsome in his youth, she
couldn’t figure out how this was enough to catch her mother’s
eye.

Right now
though, Nina was bored and eager to get out of this little room.
She felt her stomach growling and traced a subconscious circle
around her abdomen. She was wearing a loose top today, as looking
at her profile in the mirror this morning she was sure she’d seen
the beginnings of a bump.

Trying to
put the thought out of her head, she chattered meaninglessly with
Trish.

‘
So what about this guy you’re seeing,’ she asked her, ‘what’s
he like?’

Her
friend smiled. ‘He’s great.’

‘
Is he local? How long have you been seeing each
other?’

Trish
shrugged. ‘A few months, nothing to get overly excited
about.’

But Nina
could tell by her demeanour that, despite her protests, she was
actually very excited by him indeed. She smiled.

‘
So, what does he do?’

‘
He runs a company, is very busy, has a lot on his plate.’ Nina
looked at her, intrigued by her short, rather cryptic answers. It
was as if Trish, who was normally so talkative, was purposely
avoiding giving her a straight answer about this particular
subject. ‘Look, I think we’re finished here for a while,’ she said,
snapping shut the book she was examining. ‘Let’s go out and grab a
bite. Heaven knows you’ve been complaining enough about being
hungry, you’d think that you’ve hollow legs or were eating for
two!’

Trish
turned her back and Nina blanched, relieved that her friend had
missed the flush creeping up her neck.

They
grabbed a sandwich at the supermarket deli, and afterwards, Trish
decided to head home to work on what she’d collated so
far.

Nina
returned to her house, feeling drained of her energy after the
short walk home. Opening the front door she was met with the smells
of her father cooking his own lunch.

She
walked into the kitchen, and he greeted her with an absent
nod.

‘
Did you have a nice morning, Dad?’ Nina asked, making a vain
attempt at conversation with the man she shared half of her genes
with.

‘
Yes thank you, Nina.’

‘
Did you do anything interesting?’

His eyes
turned to her, almost as if he’d just realised that she was talking
to him. ‘I found the problem in Mrs Murphy’s set. It was easy in
the end, don’t know why I didn’t figure it out before.’ He pointed
to a TV set in the living room, its innards scattered all over the
dining room table. Nina didn’t know what was more disturbing, the
mess in the room, or the words that had just come out of Patrick’s
mouth – more than she had heard him say she arrived.

‘
Great, sounds … interesting.’ She paused for a moment, not
quite sure what else to say, then it dawned on her. ‘Well, I spent
the morning at the library, going through old newspapers looking
for photos for Trish’s book. I found a lot of pictures and articles
with you and Mum in them.’

Patrick
looked up, and finally Nina felt that she had his full attention.
‘Pictures?’

‘
Yes, while I was looking through the archives with Trish, I
thought I’d told you about that. Well, she’s putting together this
book for charity, a photographic history of Lakeview.’

Patrick
looked blankly at her, as if she’d just told him Trish was planning
to fly to the moon.

‘
Well, the stuff I looked at was interesting; some from when
Mum was in school and some other events. I saw your wedding
announcement, and an old class photo of you,’ she added smiling
kindly.

Patrick
looked somewhat troubled and Nina wondered if the mention of her
mother was making him uncomfortable. She felt bad then but there
was a side of her that wanted to continue this conversation as it
was the first thing in ages that had caught her father’s attention.
‘She seemed to have a lot going on when she was young, didn’t she?’
she added, wondering if he might be tempted to confess some
interesting tit-bit about how they met or how they came to be
married.

But once
again, Patrick simply nodded disinterestedly and offered nothing,
turning his attention back to making lunch. Nina waited for a beat,
wondering if he would say anything else. When he didn’t, she
shrugged her shoulders and made one last attempt at communication.
‘Well, I’ve already eaten so I’m going to head up to the room and
read for a while. Let me know if you need anything.’

‘
OK, Nina.’

As she
turned to climb the stairs she looked behind her one last time, and
as she did, could have sworn that her father’s brow was creased.
But was it through concentration – or concern?

Nina
didn’t know.

‘
Oh, isn’t this the most gorgeous little thing? I so want to
have a little girl!’ Deirdre exclaimed, holding up a small pink
babygro with little roses sprinkled over the length of
it.

Emer
smiled. ‘I know. I got one just like that as a present before Amy
was born. That’s the beauty of knowing in advance what we were
having.’

Jess
looked at the small piece of clothing, wondering if this was some
sort of test from her friends. If it was she definitely wanted to
pass it. ‘It is so cute! I can’t wait to get cracking on buying all
these,’ she said with gusto. She had to admit, all the baby
accessories, cute clothes, toys and gadgets did seem awfully fun.
It was almost like going back to the days of her own childhood, and
all the pretty little things she used to have.

Emer
smiled and Deirdre looked delighted.

Jess
still couldn’t believe the change in her friends since she had
announced her intention to get pregnant. Since then, they’d been
inviting her on all their outings; be it coffee in Lakeview or in
shopping trips in Dublin and this weekend Emer had asked her to
stay over for the night as Dave had a work thing. Jess was only too
eager to agree as once again, Brian would be abroad. Today they’d
spent the morning strolling around Lakeview, and popping in and out
of anywhere that caught their interest.

There was
no doubt that the brand new camaraderie she now shared with the
girls was worth the baby bombardment. Only problem was they still
thought she and Brian were trying in earnest for a child of their
own.

Since
their initial conversation about it, Jess had become more and more
convinced that they needed to think seriously about their future,
but so far Brian was still having none of it.

‘
Ah Jess, come on,’ he’d complained when recently, she’d raised
the subject of going off the pill. ‘I thought you said we’d talk
about this first.’

‘
Brian, I’ve read all about it. It can take up to year for the
drug to fully leave my system, which means I could be thirty-six
before we even start.’

‘
Well, I think that’s no harm, seeing as you’d get pregnant
tomorrow if you thought it’d make your friends happy,’ he chuckled,
still completely unable to take her concerns seriously. ‘Love, I
know you better than you think and I honestly believe that this is
just another one of your nutty fixations.’ He then went on to
remind Jess about a recent incident whereby she’d fallen in love
with a shockingly expensive Chanel handbag, and had obsessed about
it for weeks afterwards before finally giving in and buying it.
‘And how many times have you used it since?’ he challenged, forcing
Jess to admit that yes, once she’d got the darned thing home the
thrill had very quickly worn off.

‘
This isn’t the same as a stupid handbag Brian,’ she grunted,
annoyed that yet again she was being painted as shallow and
idiotic.

He kissed
the top of her head. ‘I know that hon, and maybe it’s a poor
comparison, but I’m just trying to make you understand that a
decision like this needs time.’

The
difficulty, Jess pointed out, was that they were fast running out
of time. But was it really that, she wondered now as she saw Emer
smile beatifically at her little daughter, or was it like Brian
said, that she no longer wanted her life to be viewed as silly and
pointless by her best friends.

‘
Did you find out what you were having when you were pregnant?’
she asked Deirdre now, preferring to keep them talking, as when
they directed such questions at her she became uncomfortable and
perplexed. Especially when sometimes they carried on like she was
already pregnant, asking her about what she and Brian were thinking
about this or that, and what they planned to do when the baby was
born. Because let’s face it, Brian wasn’t thinking anything other
than how vexed the subject made him.

She
cringed thinking about what he’d say if he was a fly on the wall at
one of these outings.

Deirdre
beamed. ‘Not for Dougie, but we knew about Dylan. Do you think you
and Brian will want to know?’

‘
Not sure really, is there a rule about that?’ Jess felt
herself flush.

‘
No no, just your own preference,’ Emer said. ‘We did because I
really wanted the nursery all set for Amy, all pink and pretty and
girlie and I knew I wouldn’t have the energy to do it afterwards.
Anyway Dave is useless at DIY and all that so I decided better to
know in advance and just get it done.’

‘
I see,’ Jess said.

‘
Anyway, let’s get going,’ her friend went on. ‘I’m starving –
Amy had me up at five this morning and I haven’t eaten since then.
Will we head to the cafe?’

‘
Great. I’ll just pay for this first.’ Deirdre went to pay for
some Transformers contraption she’d picked out for the boys and
soon after, the three woman and their children headed further down
the main street to the Hearbreak Café.

‘
Hello there,’ a young and friendly looking woman greeted them
upon arrival.

‘
Oh hello Nina,’ Emer replied. ‘How are you?’

‘
Great, great. You’re in luck; your usual table is free this
morning. Do you need a hand with anything?’ she asked and Jess
noticed she seemed especially amenable to their entire entourage,
given that the room was pretty small and the buggies and carriers
would take up lots of space.

‘
Not at all, we’re grand thanks. Oh by the way, this is
Jess.’

‘
Hello. I’m Nina,’ she said holding out her hand, and with her
bright green eyes and open smile, Jess automatically felt she was a
person you would feel at ease around.

‘
Jess Armstrong. Nice to meet you.’

‘
Jess is a friend of ours from Dublin,’ Deirdre supplied. ‘She
still lives there but who knows maybe we can recruit her to
Lakeview someday, eh Emer?’

Jess just
smiled and laughed, knowing full well what Brian would have to say
about that.

‘
Are you working here all the time now, Nina?’ Emer
asked.

Nina
looked down at her shirt, which had the café logo over the left
breast. ‘You could say that. I thought myself it would only be a
few hours a week, but Colm – you know the bakery manager?’ she said
and Emer nodded. ‘Well he’ll be away over the summer, so I told
Ella I’d cover for her whenever she needs me. Anyway, how are you
all? Busy morning?’

‘
Sort of. We were just going around the shops, looking at baby
clothes.’ Deirdre told her.

Nina
twirled her dark ponytail. ‘Oh who’s having a baby?’

‘
Jess is,’ Emer said and Jess’s head snapped up.

‘
Congratulations!’ Nina enthused, her gaze immediately shifting
to Jess’s stomach.

‘
No well, actually I’m not pregnant. Yet, I mean, um …’ Jess
spluttered, to Nina’s obvious confusion.

‘
What she means is that she’s not pregnant yet, but she and her
husband have decided it’s time,’ Deirdre answered more
diplomatically.

Jess
smiled, pleased that someone was able to explain on her behalf.
‘Soon, hopefully.’

‘
Oh that’s… great,’ Nina nodded, looking unsure of what to say
next. ‘Well, good luck with it.’