‘I think I should go home,’ she said, turning back to Joe.
‘You’re right. It’s late. And we do have work tomorrow.’
She smiled at that. ‘Would you like to share the taxi again?’
‘No, I can walk from here. It’s not far.’
She needed to leave but at the same time she didn’t
want to go. ‘Thank you, Joe. I really enjoyed tonight. The penguins, the pub, the band, everything.’ She sounded like a polite child, she realised, embarrassed. ‘Thank you, Niamh,’ he said, just as politely. ‘So did I. I’ll see you tomorrow.’ Then, just before the taxi drove away, he kissed her quickly again.
Eva let herself into Lainey’s apartment and walked into the living room without turning on the lamps. The red flashing light of the answering machine caught her attention. She pressed it. Lainey’s voice filled the dark room.
‘Evie, it’s me. Where are you, darling? Listen, I’ll try again later. Heading out myself now for another work dinner, so I’ll talk to you later, okay? Bye.’
There was a second message. Lainey again.
‘Still out, Evie? God, you’ve got a better social life than me. Are you out with Greg again? I’ll try again later.’
The phone rang again as Eva stood beside it, making her jump. It was Lainey once again. She had just started to leave a message when Eva picked it up.
‘Lainey, it’s me, I just got in.’
‘Evie, at last! Are you okay? I’ve been trying all night. When I kept getting the machine I got a bit worried that something had happened to you. Are you okay? What have you been doing?’
Eva sat down on the sofa with a bump, still
holding the phone. Oh yes, she felt okay. She felt better than okay, she felt…
‘Evie, are you there? Hello? Don’t say the bloody phone has packed up.’
‘Sorry, Lainey, I am here.’ Eva snapped out of her thoughts.
‘So what have you been doing tonight?’
Eva sat down, still dazed. ‘Having one of the best nights of my life, I think.’
Greg WAS waiting behind the reception desk when Eva came in the next day. She smiled at him. She’d woken up feeling like she was in love with the whole world.
‘Hello, Greg. Have you come to present me with my gold watch for long service?’
He just stared at her blankly.
‘It’s my last day,’ she prompted him. ‘Remember? Your new receptionist is starting tomorrow.’
‘That’s right, so she is.’ He paused. ‘You went to see the penguins last night after all, I hear?’
‘I did.’ One of the waitresses must have told him. She smiled broadly. ‘Aren’t they the gassest things? The way they walk. And there were so many of them. We were expecting a couple of dozen at most, but there ‘
He interrupted her. ‘You went with that Joe? That kitchenhand?’ He made ‘kitchenhand’ sound like another word for leper.
‘Yes, with Joe.’ What in God’s name was Greg’s problem? Was he jealous?
‘I was going to take you,’ he said, almost sulkily.
He was jealous. Well, if he was going to behave like a child, she’d talk to him like a child. ‘Yes, Greg, you were,’ she said in a patient voice, ‘but you had to work. And Joe offered. And I am only in Australia for a little while, so I accepted his invitation.’
That seemed to satisfy him. ‘So are you free tonight? For dinner with me?’
She hoped she wasn’t. She wanted to see Joe again. That morning she’d lain in bed thinking about him. She’d decided she really wanted to see him again. Talk to him again. Kiss him again. And most important of all, tell him everything. About her real name, her real life and her real job.
‘Niamh?’ Greg prodded.
‘I’m not sure yet,’ she hedged. The phone rang. As Eva moved to answer it, Greg walked away to speak to the manager, his face stony.
It was Lainey. ‘Listen, Evie, can you talk? I’ve got a crisis.’
She looked around. Greg had gone into the kitchen. ‘What’s up?’
‘My landlord’s just rung on my mobile. He’s finally agreed to build new cupboards in my bedroom but only as long as his brother-in-law does them. And his brother-in-law can only come and measure up tomorrow night, when he’s up from Wangaratta or
some place out in the bush.’
‘So you want me to be there to let him in?’
‘No, he’s got a key. It’s just that I really don’t like him to be there when I’m not. He came up once before to do the kitchen cupboards and I swear he went through my things. Could you …’
‘Be there when he comes? Of course I will. What time?’
‘He can only make it in the early evening. After work.’
Eva pulled out her diary. Written across the page in question were two words. ‘Rex. Vet’. ‘Oh Lainey, I can’t. I’ll be taking Rex to the vet then. Unless you want me to postpone that?’ she asked hopefully.
‘Oh God no, that’s much more important. Poor little Rex needs that done as soon as possible. Oh, damn. Let me think for a second …’
Beside her Eva heard a cough. Greg was in front of the desk, waiting for her. ‘Just a moment, Greg.’ She smiled politely at him.
Lainey overheard. ‘Is that Greg there? Greg Gilroy? Can I talk to him?’
Eva handed the phone over to a surprised Greg. She watched as Greg listened to Lainey for a few minutes. He pulled out his diary. ‘Sure, I can. What, round six o’clock? No worries, Lainey. Happy to help. I met Niamh because of you, after all. Heh heh. Yeah, see you.’
He passed the phone back to Eva, who was shuddering a little inside. ‘Lainey?’ she spoke into the phone.
‘All sorted. Greg will go to the flat for me. He’s great on all this renovation and building business, too. And I even remembered to call you Niamh when I was talking to him, aren’t I great?’
Eva pressed the phone closer to her ear, hoping Greg hadn’t heard. She was pleased when he moved away.
Lainey kept talking. ‘So is that all okay with you too, Niamh? You could leave a spare key out for Greg to let himself in while you take Rex to the vet. Then he can wait for the landlord’s brother and just let himself out afterwards.’
No wonder Lainey was doing so well in her job, Eva thought, feeling slightly streamrolled. But these arrangements did seem to make sense. ‘That all sounds fine,’ she said.
She had just hung up when she saw Joe come in through the front door, carrying a bag. Her stomach gave a funny kind of leap at the sight of him. ‘Hi.’
‘Hi.’ He gave her that slow smile. ‘Thanks again for last night. I really enjoyed it.’
‘I did, too. Very much.’ Eva wanted to stand there smiling at him all day.
‘Are you free tonight? To see that film we were talking about last night?’
She nodded. ‘I’d love to.’
He reached into the bag he was carrying. ‘I brought you that book we were talking about, the Bill Bryson one.’
‘And I brought one for you too. The short stories.’
Greg came over just as they were exchanging the books. ‘What is this, a book club?’ He picked up both of them. ‘Never heard of them. More of a Stephen King man myself. Know his stuff, do you, Joe?’
‘I do,’ Joseph said.
‘Like them, do you?’
‘I do. They’re terrific. Real page-turners.’
Greg looked ostentatiously at his watch. ‘You’d better get to work, Joe. Another busy day.’
Joseph turned toward Eva. ‘See you tonight,’ he said clearly.
Greg stared back and forth.
‘We’re going to see a film,’ Joseph explained, very nicely. He gave Eva a quick wink, then went into the kitchen.
Ten minutes later Greg came into the kitchen. Joseph was at the sink washing a large pile of saucepans. Greg didn’t meet his eye, just spoke in a loud voice. ‘Had to make a change to the roster, mate. I need you to work a double shift today, all right? Through till ten-thirty.’
‘No problem at all, Greg,’ Joseph said. The film they wanted to see didn’t start until eleven. He turned back to the saucepans.
‘Rex, please come out. This isn’t funny any more.’ Eva lay down on the floor and peered under the cupboard again. She could just make out a kitten’s silhouette in the shadows. ‘Rex, come on, it’ll be great fun at the vet’s, really. I promise you.’ Eva had spent the last hour and a half trying to coax him into the basket. She’d already had to ring the vet twice to say she’d been delayed. The receptionist hadn’t seemed to mind. ‘The vet’s doing a few of these procedures this evening, so we can just move little Rex to the end of the queue.’ There were going to be lots of pre-and post neutered cats at the vet’s surgery? She’d already been told she’d need to wait for a while after the operation, to be sure that Rex had fully recovered. It would be like sitting in some kind of kitten purgatory, she thought. There were some times she wished Lainey wasn’t her friend.
‘Oh, Rex, please. It’s Lainey’s fault, not mine.’ She reached under the cupboard, sliding her hand from side to side. This method would mean she might actually have to touch him, but if it was the only way. ‘Oww! She pulled her hand out swiftly. There was a long red scratch down the back of it. He must have guessed what was going to happen to him. Eva couldn’t blame him. She’d be hiding under a cupboard if she was being neutered today too. She tried another tactic. ‘Rex, I’d actually be perfectly happy if you stayed a male cat, but all the research shows it just won’t make you happy. This is just the best thing all round, physically and psychologically. So would you please just get in that basket? Not for Lainey, not for me, but for yourself.’ Nothing. Not even a hint of movement. The intercom buzzed. Eva jumped, hitting her head against the cupboard. Oh hell, that would be Greg. She’d hoped to have left the spare key out for him and been well gone by the time he arrived. He’d been at Four Quarters the previous night, entertaining a table of businessmen, when she had arrived back there to meet Joe after his shift finished. He’d been watching as they left together, Eva had realised. And he hadn’t been happy about it. The intercom buzzed again. Twice. ‘Coming!’ she called. ‘Okay, Rex, please stay right where you are,’ she spoke under the cupboard before going to the door.
At least if the kitten stayed there she’d know where to find him. She’d already wasted thirty minutes chasing him from room to room. ‘Hello,’ she said cheerfully, as she let Greg in. ‘I’m sorry the key wasn’t left out for you. I’m just running a bit late, still trying to put Rex into his basket.’ Greg walked in past her and made his own way through to the living room. He smirked when he saw the basket on the floor in front of the cupboard, with an assortment of cat toys and lures scattered in front of it. ‘Having a few problems?’ ‘Just a few,’ Eva admitted. ‘It’s a bit hard to catch a cat when you’re not used to them.’ Greg seemed to find it funny. ‘They’re very simple creatures, Niamh. Really. Like women. All they care about is their food and comfort.’ He smiled as if to say, no offence, I’m only joking of course. Fortunately he had gone into the kitchen and didn’t see the expression on her face. I’ll stick you in the basket and take you to the vet, you sexist pig, she thought. Only the fact that this sexist pig was going to pick up the soon-to-be-castrated cat made her bite her tongue. What was Lainey doing hanging around with people like this? Disobedient cats. Sexist pigs. She’d really fallen into bad company since she’d emigrated. Greg came back with a tin of opened catfood. With a condescending ‘Watch this, you might learn something’ kind of smile, he tilted the tin in Rex’s
direction and let the smell waft under the cupboard. Nothing happened for a few seconds. Then one little black paw appeared. The top of a little black head. Then half a kitten body. In seconds Greg had scooped Rex up and dropped him in the basket, tin of catfood and all. He quickly shut the lid. ‘There you are. Simple.’ He was very pleased with himself. ‘My hero,’ Eva said with a fake smile. Greg glanced at the cat basket. ‘You know that the clasp is broken?’ Eva hadn’t noticed. ‘But it still closes, doesn’t it?’ she asked hopefully. ‘Seems to,’ Greg said, trying it again. ‘Anyway, he won’t be in it for long, will he? Just the drive to the vet. Then he’ll probably be a bit dopey on the way back, so it shouldn’t be a problem.’ Eva gingerly picked up the cat basket, holding it away from her body. A black paw came out through the plastic bars and made a grab for her dress. She held the basket even further away. ‘Well, thanks for that, Greg. I’ll have to leave you to it, I’m sorry, I’m late enough as it is.’ Greg nodded. ‘So did you enjoy yourself last night?’ His jealous-and-hurt voice was back again. She nodded. ‘I did, thanks.’ She’d really better get going, especially if she was going to leave time to get lost on the way there, as she knew she would. ‘Thanks again, Greg. You’re happy to let yourself out?’
He was already settling on the sofa with a newspaper. She left before he had a chance to suggest dinner or a film tonight. She’d decided there was something about him she really didn’t like. And it wasn’t just his dancing.
Outside, Eva quickly packed Rex and his basket into the back seat of Lainey’s car. She wound the seatbelt around the basket to hold it secure, spent a few minutes working out her route, then drove off. As she turned onto the freeway and settled back to enjoy the driving, she started thinking about the conversation she’d had with Lainey that morning.
‘I can’t believe it, I leave you alone for a second and look what you get up to. So what’s Joe like? Does he like you? Do you like him?’
‘Lainey, I don’t know. We’ve only just met each other.’
‘But you’ve been on proper dates with him, haven’t you?’
‘Net really. We just went to see the penguins together. And a band. And a film.’
Not that they’d seen the whole film the night before. Midway through, Joe had leaned over and whispered to her, ‘Have you seen enough?’
‘What?’
‘Have you got the general idea?’ he whispered. ‘Do you want to leave? Go somewhere we can talk rather than just sit beside each other?’
She’d nodded. That was exactly what she’d like to
do. So they’d crept out of the cinema, bumping against other patrons, and practically ran down the road to a small bar. And there they’d stayed, talking and drinking wine until it shut at two a.m. and they were asked to leave.
Lainey was roaring laughing. ‘You don’t call those dates? Of course they’re dates. If they look like dates, walk like dates, they are ‘