“You see,” he continued as Daisy stared at the floor. “Mum really wants me and Jonathan to each settle down with a wife and children and it would make her so happy if she thought I was at least going in the right direction.”
Daisy tried her best to let Eddie’s crazy notion sink in. She’d imagined being asked to accompany himself and his mother on a luxurious weekend at a health spa, or asked to take her swimming with dolphins, or go skydiving just so he could try it out himself, but this? This was downright mental. Could they really pull it off?
Her own mum would be admitted to a nearby clinic with shock. And Lorna would think she’d finally lost her marbles, with no hope of ever retrieving them. As for Jonathan? Well, his reaction could go any which way but it wouldn’t be pretty. It would look like she was deliberately driving that final nail into the coffin of their dead and buried relationship.
Eddie paced the apartment’s shiny floor in anticipation of Daisy’s response. She sat there in silence, her face twitching in thought, so obviously weighing up the pros, if there were any, and cons of the situation. Anything was better than an outright no, he supposed.
“Well?” he asked eventually. “It’s quite simple really, isn’t it? You are a trained actress after all.’
“Simple? Is it now, Einstein? For your information I gave up acting two months ago in order to enter the real world and sell shoes so I can pay my bills. It’s about time you stood on planet Earth yourself.”
Eddie wasn’t listening. “So, so simple,” he said. “And from what I can see, you’re all packed and ready to go. Say something, Daisy. Say yes.”
Daisy smirked back at him and her suitcase caught her eye from the hallway. It was smirking too. She stuck out her tongue at it.
Minus the bikinis and plus a few woolly jumpers, she was just about ready to go. Somehow, she didn’t think she’d have any need for skimpy swimwear in the back end of Donegal.
“I must be crazy. I must be stark-raving mental to even contemplate this…”
“You beauty! I knew you would. I just knew it…”
“Just for one week, though. After that, we’re finished. Split up. Over forever. Deal?” she said in a muffled voice as Eddie hugged her with delight on the sofa.
“Deal!” said Eddie. “I’ll make it up to you. I’ll take you on a super-duper holiday, all expenses paid…”
“Now you’re talking.”
“And shopping! I’ll take you shopping till you drop.”
“I hate shopping.”
“That’s right. No shopping then. Eating then. Lots of eating out, every single night for as long as you want.”
The grin on Eddie’s face would have made anyone smile.
But Daisy didn’t smile. She burst into hysterical laughter at the thought of the sheer madness she was about to allow into her life. Going home to village life in Donegal as the girlfriend of a man that everyone, apart from his mother, knew was gay. Facing sniggers from nosy neighbours and country cousins who had never ventured out of their comfortable village boundaries. Had she totally lost the plot?
Sod it. It would be fun, if nothing else. It wasn’t as if she lived there anymore, and her mother would understand. She would have to tell her the truth from the outset, of course.
“Can I just make one teeny weeny suggestion?”
“OMG, what is it now?”
“That, er, red thing you’re wearing … ”
“Yes? It’s my favourite dressing gown. I’m going to change out of it now, don’t worry. Why?
Eddie fingered the bally, fleecy texture of the robe and then let go in mock disgust.
“It’s just that, I don’t think there’s too much room left in your suitcase for it,” he said. “And my hired car is very small. You’re just going to have to leave it behind.”
Daisy sashayed along the narrow corridor and back towards him, swinging the fabric so that it brushed across his designer stubble.
“Christ, you’re naked underneath!” squealed Eddie. “Don’t do that! Get dressed!”
“I could turn you yet, my boy,” said Daisy, raising an eyebrow seductively.
“Never,” he shouted, covering his whole face with his hands.
Daisy leaned over, lifted his chin with her finger and looked right into his eyes.
“Remember, sunshine. In this relationship, I wear the trousers. Me. Not you. So no more bossiness or slagging out of you, OK? Got it?”
Eddie playfully got down on his knees and hugged Daisy’s legs tight.
“Got it. Totally.”
“Now what were you saying about my dressing gown?”
“The dressing gown comes to Killshannon. Long live the dressing gown. I’d wear it myself if you asked, and I will love you forever and ever more.”
“A week,” she said, unclasping his arms from around her calves. “I’ll pretend to love you for a week. And then we’re finished. Forever. In the meantime, get up off that sofa. You’re coming with me to Deane’s for dinner. It’s not every day my best friend comes to town.”
You Can’t Bury Love…
If this were a movie, there would be slow, pulsating, romantic music playing softly in the background, thought Jonathan Eastwood as he watched his best friend Christian Devine wave off the love of his life at the terminal of George Best Belfast City Airport. Yes, a big, soppy love song that would tear the heart from a stone should be belting out over the sound system right now.
Nobody else seemed to notice Christian’s torment and Jonathan found it so out of character that he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry for his buddy.
Holiday-makers brushed and pushed past them, the smell of stale tobacco mixed with sun-tan lotion and a hazy mixture of different perfumes and colognes filled the stuffy June air.
“She’ll turn around,” said Jonathan, knowing what Christian was hoping for.
They waited for Anna to turn around and blow Christian a last farewell kiss as she reached the boarding gate. They watched closely, Jonathan hoping now as desperately as his friend was, as her dark curly hair bobbed further and further into the distance. Even a quick wave would do, but an air kiss would be spot on.
“Let’s go, mate,” said Jonathan. “Come on. We’ll go.”
“God, I am missing her already,” whispered Christian. “How is this possible? You guys are right. I am turning into a sop.”
“She isn’t going to turn around,” said Jonathan. “She’s gone.”
They walked away and Christian continued to mumble, craning his neck so he wouldn’t miss it when she turned to wave one last goodbye.
But she didn’t wave. Or blow a kiss.
Anna Harrison disappeared out of his life as quickly and as easily as she had come into it eight weeks ago. Now she was gone for six whole months without the blink of an eye or the shed of a solitary tear.
What a bitch.
What a totally gorgeous, funny, intelligent, bitch she was.
Two months was as good as