The Heartbreak Cafe (29 page)

In the
meantime, she’d thought it prudent to see a doctor, and discovered
she was in perfect health and her pregnancy was so far totally
normal. Although the GP Jim Kelly was local, he was old school, and
Ruth trusted that he would honour doctor-patient confidentiality
and respect her privacy.

Actually
she prayed he would.

Tonight
she was meeting Nina and Trish for dinner locally, and was looking
forward to going out and having some fun. She wouldn’t be able to
drink of course, and hoped the girls wouldn’t notice anything, but
she’d already thought of a cover story – namely a new diet she was
trying.

She’d
agreed to meet the girls at The Steakhouse, and as she was still
rather self-conscious of being out and about on her own, her dad
had agreed to give her a lift as far as Main Street. She knew she
looked good though; she wore her hair up and was wearing a tulip
dress from Gwen Stefani’s line, which looked modern and funky but
was cleverly designed to hide her now-burgeoning figure. Her frame
was so tiny that now, barely ten weeks in, she could already see
herself beginning to show.

The girls
were already at the restaurant when she arrived and they waved as
she approached the table. While Ruth still hadn’t quite forgiven
Trish for some of the remarks she’d made in that article for the
paper, she knew Trish probably couldn’t help ramping up the drama
for the benefit of her readers. It was how the media worked after
all. And Ruth knew better than to let anyone think she’d hit any
nerves. First and foremost, she was a professional. .

‘
Hey there,’ she said, enthusiastically greeting them both with
air kisses. To her satisfaction she noticed Trish gazing enviously
at her clothes. Her former classmate hadn’t an ounce of style, and
tonight she looked boring and ordinary in generic black trousers
and a drab lime green top that did nothing for her. Nina by
contrast looked beautiful; dressed in a gorgeous pattered shift
that highlighted her dark colouring and her hair fanned out
prettily around her shoulders.

‘
I love your dress,’ she said sitting down beside
Nina.

‘
Thanks, it’s new actually.’

‘
Where did you get it?’ Trish asked. ‘I haven’t seen anything
like that in Connolly’s or Kramer’s lately,’ she said, referring to
the town’s main clothing stores.

Nina
reddened a bit. ‘Oh I got it in Dublin actually,’ she said almost
as if she’d spoken out of turn, Ruth noticed.

‘
Really? I didn’t know you’d gone to Dublin. When were you
there?’ As usual the questions from Trish came thick and fast, and
Ruth wondered if it was just force of habit from the journalism, or
was she always that inquisitive?

‘
Um, a couple of weeks ago. I had a few things to do
there.’

‘
You should have told me, we could have gone together and I
could do with some new stuff.’

‘
Ah, it was only a last minute thing, and I knew you were busy
with work.’

‘
How come it was last minute?’

‘
What?’

‘
You said it was a last minute thing. Was there some kind of
emergency or problem or something?’

‘
Trish really,’ Ruth interjected with a light laugh. ‘Talk
about the Inquisition!’

‘
Oh sorry,’ she replied, with what seemed like genuine chagrin,
and Nina gave Ruth a grateful look.

‘
Truthfully, I had a day off and I needed a couple of things so
I decided to take the bus. I couldn’t really find anything I liked
here.’

‘
I know what you mean,’ Ruth said groaning. ‘I’ll have to go on
a shopping expedition myself soon, as the stuff I have won’t fit
…in – around here I mean.’ She paused, horrified by her inadvertent
slip of the tongue and hoped she’d rescued it in time.

‘
I can imagine,’ Trish said grinning. ‘I suppose designer
dresses and fancy shoes are wasted on Lakeview.’

‘
No, that’s not what I meant. More the fact that all my LA
stuff is much more suited to warmer weather.’ She gave a meek
smile. ‘It’s been so long since I was home, I’d almost forgotten we
don’t really do summers here.’

‘
You can say that again,’ Nina laughed and the waiter came to
take their drink orders.

‘
Are we all having wine?’ Trish asked and to Ruth’s surprise
Nina shook her head. ‘I’m on duty at Ella’s tomorrow,’ she
said.

‘
Ah go on – one glass won’t kill you,’ the other woman replied
and Nina shrugged. ‘OK then, maybe just the one but that’s
it.’

‘
Great, a bottle of the house plonk sound OK to you
Ruth?’

‘
Actually …’ Ruth looked at the waitress. ‘Could you just bring
me a glass of water with lemon? And at room temperature please, not
chilled.’

The
waitress didn’t bat an eyelid and if anything looked delighted with
this bona fide LA-style request. ‘No problem,’ she grinned, moving
away.

Trish and
Nina were staring at her. ‘What?’ she asked. ‘I don’t drink
usually. Way too many calories and I need to keep an eye on my
weight.’

‘
Yes, I noticed you’d filled out a bit since you got back,’
Trish commented in typical forthright fashion, but Ruth was
pleased; it merely meant that her diet cover story would work all
the better.

‘
Ruth, she’s joking!’ Nina said hastily, looking sideways at
Trish. ‘You’re still only tiny.’

‘
No, no she’s right. I’ve gone up to a size two since I got
here as Mum keeps force-feeding me carbs – and she keeps forgetting
that I’m lactose-intolerant,’ she trilled, feeling almost as if she
was back playing a part, and she noticed Nina and Trish exchange
amused glances.

‘
So how is everything, Ruth?’ Nina asked, after the drinks were
brought to the table. ‘Are you missing the LA
lifestyle?’

‘
Not really,’ she replied automatically but just in time,
figured she’d better keep up appearances, especially in front of
Trish. ‘Of course I miss having my assistant and the parties and
the premieres, but honestly? The reason I came here was to spend
time with my folks and that’s what I’m doing.’

‘
Hmm, a little bird told me you’ve been spending some time with
Charlie Mellon too,’ Trish said coyly and Ruth looked at
her.

‘
What? Where did you hear that?’

She
smiled. ‘I told you, a little bird told me.’

‘
Well, the little bird was wrong. I did see Charlie ages ago,
yes, when he called to drop off something for Dad at the house, but
other than that…’

‘
Right. Whatever you say,’ Trish replied in a tone that
suggested she didn’t believe a word of it. It was times like this
when Ruth really did miss LA – even though Hollywood was a small
town and the rumour mill moved fast, it surely wasn’t as fast as
the one in this place!

And once
again she hoped against hope that her doctor wasn’t in cahoots with
Trish Brogan, or soon her little secret would be everywhere. As it
was, one only had to count back the weeks to figure out exactly
when it happened and worse, who the father was, and Ruth didn’t
need that kind of melodrama, not again. She didn’t think she would
be able to cope with it this time, not when she’d just about got
over the last round.

She
decided she’d better change the subject. ‘Tell me, do you think
they’d desauce the meat on here? My stomach really can’t handle
anything made with starch.’

The
following day Nina was working the afternoon shift at the cafe –
much to her relief as after last night’s ginormous steak portion,
she’d had a severe case of indigestion that had kept her up most of
the night. Thankfully she’d got away with sipping slowly at the
wine, and once Trish had made inroads into the bottle, she’d failed
to notice that Nina had drunk hardly any at all.

She’d
really enjoyed herself though; Ruth was good company and could be
quite hilarious once you broke through her sometimes rather guarded
persona. It was funny too how despite her protests she still hadn’t
quite left her LA life behind, and Nina knew the chef at the
restaurant must have been scratching his head at her various
requests.

They’d
had great fun last night, especially when Ruth decided to fill them
in on all of Hollywood’s celeb secrets, like which massive male
heartthrob was secretly gay and which long-time married ‘power
couple’ couldn’t stand the sight of each other. It was priceless
stuff and Nina knew that Trish sorely wished she worked for a
newspaper that would be interested in such juicy gossip. But then
again, nobody would probably believe her, and in truth, it was hard
to tell if Ruth was being serious or just ramping up the scandal
for fun.

In the
end, it had been well after midnight by the time they’d left the
restaurant and by then Nina’s sides were sore from
laughing.

Half way
through the afternoon, Emer, Deirdre and their respective broods
came in to the cafe, followed closely by Jess.

Nina’s
stomach knotted; she hoped that Jess wouldn’t mention anything
about their meeting in Dublin that time.

‘
How are you all?’ she greeted, coming over to their table
immediately. Meeting her gaze and obviously sensing her concern,
Jess gave her a surreptitious wink.

‘
Hi there… Nina, isn’t it?’ she said, purposely pretending she
didn’t know Nina all that well, and she felt relieved.

‘
I’m good, thanks. How are you all today?’

Once her
customers were seated and the children settled in, Nina took their
orders and dropped them in to the kitchen. On her return out front
she overheard part of the three women’s conversation.

‘
Are you sure Brian won’t mind the kids running amok on those
gorgeous walnut floors?’ Deirdre was asking Jess.

‘
Well … I’m sure it will be fine seeing as it’s a garden party,
so everyone should be outside mostly …’ she replied, tone
hesitant.

‘
We’d better pray for good weather so!’ Emer laughed, and
Deirdre shot her a look.

Her
interest piqued by their chat, Nina hovered around a nearby table,
taking much longer than normal to clear it. She knew she shouldn’t
listen in, but she was eager to find out if they were still bending
Jess’s ear about getting pregnant.

‘
It should be fine,’ Jess said. ‘And Brian is really looking
forward to it. It’s been ages since we had you guys
round.’

‘
Jess is having us all over for a party next Saturday,’ Emer
said, addressing Nina, who jumped guiltily.

‘
Oh … that sounds nice,’ she replied, smiling.

Jess
caught her eye. ‘Yes, I thought it would be good for all of us to
get together, the kids too so that no one will have to worry about
babysitters.’ Deirdre and Emer were smiling and nodding in
agreement.

Nina
looked at the children, secretly wondering if Jess knew what she
was getting herself, and her furniture, into. Little Amy was in the
process of smearing Petit Filous onto her clothes and Deirdre’s
boys were in the middle of painting each other’s faces with
coloured marker.

She
swallowed hard. ‘That’s very nice of you.’

‘
Yes, and one we really appreciate,’ Deirdre said. ‘And I think
it’ll be good for Jess to see what her house will look like when
it’s full of little ones, since it won’t be long till she has her
own.’

Nina
couldn’t help but think that the woman sounded like an
over-aggressive mother-in-law, and one look at Jess’s face
suggested she felt the same. Poor thing looked like she wanted to
cry.

‘
Yes well, everything in its time, I suppose,’ Nina said,
trying to help get her new friend off the hook, and Jess gave her a
grateful smile. ‘Do you need any help with catering, or anything?
Ella does a great line in finger food, although I suppose with it
being in Dublin and everything, you’ve already made your own
arrangements.’

‘
No, I would actually love that,’ Jess said brightly. ‘Saves me
the headache of worrying about what to get, or how to cook it.’ She
grimaced. ‘Brian is great on the barbecue, but I’d burn
toast.’

‘
That’s a really great idea, Nina,’ Deirdre said, ‘I would
totally offer to give Jess a hand, but I’m afraid I might be more
trouble than I’m worth with these two. Don’t worry about tidying up
too much beforehand though,’ she said to Jess, ‘Because the place
will get torn up in no time.’

Judging
by the barely masked glee on Deirdre’s face, it was almost like she
was relishing the prospect of letting her children loose on Jess’s
nice house. What sort of friends were these?

‘
Well, let me know if you want to talk to Ella about nibbles,’
she said to Jess. ‘I know she’d be delighted to help out, and we
can organise someone to drop them up to you that
morning.’

‘
I’d really appreciate that,’ Jess smiled. Then she paused, as
if something had just occurred to her. ‘Actually Nina, I was
wondering if you’d like to come along too? If you’re free, that
is.’

‘
To the party?’

‘
Sure.’ She could tell that Jess was almost enjoying the
surprised looks on the other girls’ faces.