Chapter 9
9
ALICE
Glasgow Airport – May 1995
Alice rolled down the window of Larry’s Mercedes and tried not to panic because he was doing 95mph on the motorway. The legal firm she worked for had already made three of his speeding fines disappear and she wasn’t sure they could swing a fourth.
That was actually how she’d met him. He was a frequent flyer at her office, and always stopped at her desk for some chat, which she was happy to reciprocate. All in the name of customer service of course. Nothing to do with him being six foot three, and so good-looking he could easily be one of those male models on the aftershave adverts. Not that he was in need of a job. Everyone knew that Larry McLenn owned several of the coolest, trendiest wine bars in the city, and he was photographed almost as much as the celebrities who partied in them. Alice had seen him a few times when she’d been in his bars with her ex-boyfriend – a Premier League football player who’d transferred down to an English club a few months before. Alice hadn’t cared that he’d moved away. She was twenty-five, free, single, had a great job, and was loving life in her tiny but gorgeous city-centre flat. In fact, she was the one who often got mistaken for a model, which she always thought was hilarious because last time she checked, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell weren’t nipping into C I know they will.’
Morag had only started dating Cillian a couple of months ago, so no one was more shocked than Alice that her pal had quit her job at the firm and decided to go back to Ireland with him. He’d been in Glasgow working on a construction project for his Irish employers, so he had a good job that could support them until Morag found work, but still it was a bit out of character. Morag had always been the more sensible one of the two, the level-headed one that didn’t get carried away or swept up in her emotions. At least, until now…
‘No, I’m not worried,’ Morag answered, pulling the cuffs of her sleeves down over her hands. That was what she always did when she was worried. ‘I just… I’ll miss you.’
‘Oh, Mo,’ Alice wailed, as she stretched over and wrapped her arms around her friend. ‘I’ll miss you so much too. You know it’s not too late to change your mind.’
Pulling back, Morag fanned her face, trying to dry the tears. ‘No, I can’t. It’s the right thing to do. I know it’s quick, but I really like Cillian. And it’s time for a change of scene. I want to see different places. I can’t go through life only having lived in Glasgow.’
This was the same story she’d been telling since she first broke the news and Alice still didn’t get it.
‘That’s not true, we’ve been to Benidorm. And Magaluf. I’ve still got the scars from when I fell over the sea wall.’ Alice hoped bringing up one of their favourite memories would cheer them up, but it actually did the opposite. She had to pull a napkin from the silver container in the middle of the table to dab her cheeks.
‘I am happy for you, though, I promise. Cillian is so lovely. Look at us, all grown up and somehow we both managed to land really great guys.’
Bloody hell, Alice watched her friend’s face crumble and realised cheery stuff wasn’t working either. Morag was getting more upset by the minute.
‘Did I hear something about “great guys”? That has to be us, Cillian,’ Larry interrupted with a cheeky wink, as he put down a tray with the coffees and four packets of plain crisps. ‘They didn’t have pickled onion, so I got these instead.’
Alice frowned as she cast a glance over at the counter. She was sure she could see what she’d asked for in a basket behind the tills. Larry must not have noticed.
‘And I didn’t get the chocolate because you told me you were on a diet. Don’t want to lead you astray.’
Okay, so sometimes he took things a little too literally, but he was only looking out for her and he was right. She did want to lose a couple of pounds so that she could squeeze her size-twelve body into the two new dresses he’d bought her for their holiday next month to Marbella. Both the dresses and the holiday were his birthday gifts to her, but he’d somehow managed to buy size tens. He’d told her they were non-returnable because they were designer, so she was just going to have to make it work. Walnut whip deprivation was a small price to pay.
Morag didn’t seem to be quite as understanding about it and didn’t even thank Larry for the coffees. Alice would never in a million years say anything, and she felt terrible for even thinking it, but sometimes she wondered if Morag was a little bit jealous of her relationship with Larry. All the girls in the office used to talk about how gorgeous he was and maybe Morag had fancied her chances with him a little bit. It would definitely explain how weird she’d been acting towards her lately.
Hopefully some time away in Ireland would sort it all out, and when Morag was ready to come back, whether that was in a few months or a year or whenever, she’d be her old self again.
Cillian sat down on the same side of the table as Morag and spotted her red-rimmed eyes. ‘You okay?’
Morag nodded. ‘Yep. I was just telling Alice how much I’m going to miss her.’
Alice handed out the coffees from the tray. ‘I’m going to visit you as soon as you’re settled though. Just let me know when I can come. I’ll be over so often you’ll be sick of me.’
Beside her, Larry coughed and she felt his knee nudge hers, so she changed the subject. Not that he would mind her going to visit Morag, but he did like her to be with him at the weekends, even if it was just waiting at his flat for him to come home from one of his bars.
‘We’d like that, Alice,’ Cillian said, and she thought again what a nice guy he seemed to be. Not that she knew him well yet. When Alice had been seeing the footballer, Morag was dating a guy who did something in finance, and they would all hang out together most weekends. There had been no double dates lately though, so Alice had never really got to know Cillian. She’d change that when she visited, or when they came back to Glasgow for weekends.
‘Tell me about your home over there, Cillian,’ she asked, taking the pressure off the situation by changing the subject of her best friend leaving.
For the next ten minutes, while they drank their coffees, they chatted about Ireland and Cillian’s family and all the things he had planned for Morag when they got back to his hometown on the outskirts of Dublin.
‘His friends sound so nice,’ Morag chipped in. ‘All really good, decent men. Not like some of the ones here.’
Alice wasn’t sure where that was coming from, but she didn’t dwell on it. It was only right that Morag was viewing her new life through rose-coloured glasses. ‘Then you’ll have to bring some of them over when you come back. A couple of the girls in the office are still single,’ she joked.
Their laughter was cut short by the scraping of Larry’s chair as he pushed it back. ‘Right, Alice, we’d better be going. I don’t know what the traffic will be like on the way home and I need to stop in to speak to a couple of my managers.’
‘But their flight doesn’t leave for another?—’
‘I know, and I’m so sorry, but it’s work,’ he said, and Alice could see from his apologetic smile that he felt bad dragging her away.
Reluctantly, she got up, and Morag and Cillian did the same.
Morag pulled her handbag off the back of her chair. ‘It’s okay. We should probably go on through security anyway.’
‘We’ll walk you there,’ Alice told her, ignoring Larry’s quiet sigh. Okay, so they were in a hurry, but this was her best friend, so he could give her another five minutes.
Bags picked up, they left the café and made their way across to the glass wall of the terminal, where the entrance to the security section was located.
When they got there, Alice pulled a little camera out of her bag, just one of the gifts Larry had bought her since they met. ‘Larry, can you take a picture of us?’ She turned back to Morag. ‘I need proof you existed, just in case you run off into the sunset and forget all about me.’ She was teasing, but Morag wasn’t laughing, and Larry didn’t look too pleased about yet another delay to them getting out of here. He snapped a couple of quick pics of the girls, and a couple with Cillian in them too then tossed the camera back to her.
Alice turned and hugged Cillian. ‘Take care of my girl. She’s special, you know?’
‘I do,’ he agreed, and Alice warmed to him even more.
Larry had given Morag a peck on the cheek, and now the two men were shaking hands and saying goodbye, which gave the girls a moment together. They wrapped their arms around each other, all the swallowed tears coming right back up again.
‘I’ll miss you so much. Take care and have an amazing time,’ Alice said in Morag’s ear, inhaling the scent of her daily squirt of Rive Gauche.
‘I will. I love you, but Alice…’ Morag whispered, holding on tight. ‘Be careful with Larry. I don’t think he’s who you think he is.’
Before Alice could fully absorb what had just been said, Morag McTay spun around and walked out of her life.