‘… That makes sense.’ I made myself say. ‘Thanks for telling me. You didn’t have to.’
‘Yeah. But I did. Well, I wanted to. We’re going to try being friends, aren’t we? Well, we are friends?’
‘Sure.’ I didn’t know what we were.
He must have picked up on my desolation because his tone changed to Let’s Cheer Up the Poor Sap. ‘Hey! How about you and me hang out on Saturday? Maybe go for a walk. I’ll see you and Quin at the party but that’ll be crazy, like. No chance for the chats there. But Saturday? Anytime you like, just you and me?’
It was all soooo Pity Poor Rachel. ‘That’s sweet of you, Luke, but it’s going to be insanely busy on Saturday. Mum, Anna, Angelo, everyone, you know?’ I made myself laugh.
‘Cool, cool.’ He sounded so unbothered. ‘Listen, what present should I get your mum?’
‘God, I don’t know …’ With a nervous giggle, I said, ‘A photo of you.’
A moment of startled silence followed before he spoke. ‘Estée Lauder Night Repair.’ He’d decided to behave as if I hadn’t just been really weird. ‘That’s what my mum always asked for. So, ah, see you there.’
76
Say what you like about Claire, she was organized. Despite her setback with the swinging, she was still all over Mum’s party. Every single task was allocated to someone – plus a back-up person, just in case the first one had a nervous breakdown.
There was a spreadsheet and multiple parallel timelines.
People’s phones were set to ping to remind them to …
Leave their home.
Eat something.
Yell, ‘SURPRISE!’
I was twenty minutes late when Dad met me at the front door. ‘You’re always on time,’ he said. ‘What kept you?’
Too overwhelmed to lie, I said, ‘I was out with Luke. It did my head in.’
‘Ah, now.’ Tentatively, he patted my back. ‘Now, now, now.’ Then, ‘Now. Now, now, now.’
‘That fucker Costello?’ Helen called. ‘Where’d you go?’
‘Morrigan’s.’ I stood in the sitting-room doorway. They were all in there.
‘Aaaand?’ Helen asked. ‘What d’you get up to?’
‘Gave him a hand job by the stream.’
‘Must you?’ Mum demanded.
The answer was yes. Acting coy was the worst thing you could do with this lot. Invent an outrageous scenario and they were far more likely to lose interest.
‘Are you okay?’ Margaret asked.
‘No, but I will be.’
‘Do you have any noise-cancelling headphones? JJ needs to borrow a pair.’
‘I have. I’ll drop them in tomorrow after work.’
‘Now that you’ve sorted out your son’s headphone needs …’ Claire was a little sour and it was hardly fair to take it out on Margaret, but when were emotions ever rational? ‘This is the plan for Saturday. At fifteen hundred, I will arrive at the SugarLoaf Inn –’
‘“Hours”，’ Helen, who was stretched out on the floor, said. ‘Fifteen hundred hours.’
‘At three p.m.,’ Claire countered, ‘accompanied by Francesca, Luka, Molly and …’ She barely faltered over his name. ‘… Adam, I will arrive at the hotel. There I will meet Kate and Devin and check us all in.’
Although the SugarLoaf Inn was only twenty kilometres from central Dublin, lots of people were staying the night, so they could drink themselves comatose at the free bar, without worrying about getting home.
‘After a fortifying glass of champagne, I’ll join forces with’ – she pointed at Margaret – ‘your husband and children, then we’ll dress the room. This means that Holly and JJ will blow up the balloons. Garv, along with Luka, Devin and … Adam … will pin the ceiling with streamers. I’m in charge of the table place-names, the most important job – one wrong move and we could be looking at an outbreak of slobberknockery. That means “brawls” but you could probably guess from the context –’
‘Goody bags,’ Mum interjected.
‘I’m getting to them.’ Claire was brusque. ‘At approximately seventeen fifteen –’
‘Hours!’ Helen said.
‘At a quarter past five, after a light meal to line our stomachs, hair and make-up arrive, then we change into our party finery.’
‘The goody bags?’ Mum pleaded.