‘Hiya, hon,’ Sharon said, giving her a hug. ‘You here long?’
Holly started laughing. ‘I thought it was on at eight o’clock so I came at half seven.’
‘Oh no.’ Sharon looked anxious.
‘Don’t worry, it was fine. Daniel kept me company,’ Holly said, pointing him out.
‘Him?’ John said angrily. ‘Watch yourself with him, Holly. He’s a bit of an oddball. You should have heard the stuff he was saying to Sharon the other night.’
Holly guessed she’d caused this confusion, and quickly excused herself from their company to join her family.
‘Meredith not with you tonight?’ she asked Richard.
‘No she’s not,’ he snapped back rudely, and headed over to the bar.
‘Why does he bother coming to these things at all?’ she moaned to Jack as he held her head to his chest and rubbed her hair, playfully consoling her.
‘OK everyone!’ Declan was standing on a stool to address the gathering. ‘Because Ciara couldn’t decide what to wear tonight, we’re all late and my documentary is about to start any minute,’ he said proudly, ‘so if you can just all shut up and sit down, that would be great.’
‘Oh, Declan …’ His mother admonished him for his rudeness.
Holly searched the room for Ciara and spotted her glued to Daniel’s side at the bar. She laughed to herself and settled down to watch the documentary. As soon as the announcer introduced it everybody cheered but were quickly hushed by an angry Declan, who didn’t want them to miss a thing.
The title Girls and the City appeared over a beautiful night-time shot of Dublin, and Holly became nervous. The words ‘The Girls’ appeared over a black screen, followed by footage of Sharon, Denise, Abbey and Ciara all squashed up beside each other in the back of a taxi.
Sharon was speaking: ‘Hello! I’m Sharon and this is Abbey, Denise and Ciara.’
Each of the girls posed for her close-up as she was introduced.
‘And we’re heading to our best friend Holly’s house because it’s her birthday …’
The scene changed to the girls surprising Holly with shouts of ‘Happy Birthday’ at her front door. Then the camera returned to Sharon in the taxi. ‘Tonight it’s gonna be just us girls and NO men …’
The scene switched to Holly opening the presents and holding the vibrator up to the camera and saying, ‘Well, I’ll definitely need this,’ before returning to Sharon in the taxi saying: ‘We are gonna do lots and lots of drinking …’
Now Holly was popping open the champagne, then the girls were knocking back shots in Boudoir, and eventually there was Holly with her crooked tiara on her head and drinking out of a champagne bottle with a straw.
‘We are gonna go clubbing …’
There was a shot of the girls in Boudoir, doing some very embarrassing moves on the dance floor.
‘But nothing too mad! We’re gonna be good girls tonight!’ said Sharon sincerely.
The next scene showed the girls, protesting wildly, being escorted out of the club by three bouncers.
Holly’s jaw dropped and she stared in shock at Sharon, who was equally surprised. The men laughed their hearts out and slapped Declan on the back, congratulating him for exposing their partners. Holly, Sharon, Denise, Abbey and even Ciara slithered down in their seats with humiliation.
What on earth had Declan done?
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
There was complete silence in the club as everyone stared at the screen in anticipation. Holly held her breath; she was nervous now about what was going to appear. Perhaps the girls would be reminded of what exactly they had all conveniently succeeded in forgetting about that night. The truth terrified her. After all, how drunk must they all have been to forget completely the events of that night? Unless, somebody was lying, in which case, they should be even more nervous right now. Holly looked around at the girls. They were all chewing on their fingernails. Holly crossed her fingers.
A new title appeared on the screen: ‘The Gifts’.
‘Open mine first,’ shrieked Ciara from the television, thrusting her present towards Holly and shoving Sharon off the couch and on to the floor. Everyone in the club laughed while they watched Abbey dragging a horrified Sharon to her feet. Ciara left Daniel’s side and tiptoed over to the rest of the girls for security. Everyone oohed and aahed, as one by one Holly’s birthday presents were unveiled. A lump formed in Holly’s throat as Declan zoomed in on the two photographs on the mantelpiece while Sharon’s toast was made.
Once again a new title took over the screen, ‘Journey to the City’, and showed the girls scrambling over one another to get into the taxi. It was obvious they were pretty pissed by now. Holly was shocked; she had actually thought she was quite sober at that stage.
‘Oh, Nick,’ Holly moaned drunkenly to the taxi driver from the passenger seat, ‘I’m thirty today, can you believe it?’
Nick the taxi driver, who couldn’t give a flying flute what age she was, glanced over at her and laughed, ‘Sure, you’re only a young one still, Holly,’ his voice low and gravelly. The camera zoomed in on Holly’s face and she cringed at the sight of herself. She looked so drunk, so sad.
‘But what am I gonna do, Nick?’ she whinged. ‘I’m thirty! I have no job, no husband, no children and I’m thirty! Did I tell you that?’ she asked him, leaning towards him.
Beside her in the club, Sharon giggled. Holly thumped her.
In the background the girls were all chattering excitedly to one another. It sounded as if they were talking over one another; it was hard to see how any type of conversation was going on.
‘Ah, enjoy yourself tonight, Holly. Don’t get caught up in silly emotions on your birthday. Worry about all that shite tomorrow, love.’ Nick sounded so caring, and Holly made a mental note to call him and thank him.
The camera stayed with Holly as she leaned her head against the window and remained silent, lost in thought for the rest of the journey. Holly couldn’t get over how lonely she looked. She didn’t like it. She looked around the room in embarrassment and caught Daniel’s eye. He winked at her in encouragement. She smiled weakly and turned back to face the screen in time to see herself screaming to the girls on O’Connell Street.
‘OK, girls. We are going to Boudoir tonight and no one is going to stop us from getting in, especially not any silly bouncers who think they own the place.’ And she marched off in what she’d thought at the time was a straight line. All the girls cheered and followed after her.
The scene immediately jumped to the two bouncers outside Boudoir shaking their heads. ‘Not tonight, girls, sorry.’
Holly’s family howled with laughter.
‘But you don’t understand,’ Denise said calmly to the bouncers. ‘Do you not know who we are?’
‘No,’ they both said, and stared over their heads, ignoring them.
‘Huh!’ Denise put her hands on her hips and pointed to Holly. ‘But this is the very, very extremely famous … em … Princess Holly from the royal family of … Finland.’
On camera Holly frowned at Denise.
Her family once again howled with laughter. ‘You couldn’t write a script better than this,’ Declan laughed.
‘Oh, she’s royalty, is she?’ the bouncer with a moustache smirked.
‘Indeed she is,’ Denise said seriously.