Mr Right for the Night (33 page)

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.