Chapter Fifteen
INT: ROSE PEARL / INT: SCHOOL BATHROOM
‘You know, I really appreciate you doing this,’ says Roo.
It’s Saturday morning, and I’m helping her pack her work paraphernalia into a pair of wheelie suitcases. There’s way more of it than you’d think when you watch her videos.
‘It’s grand,’ I say. ‘I’m actually looking forward to seeing you in action. Also I’m going to heckle you from the back of the restaurant.’
Roo gives me a look and places a stuffed owl into her suitcase. ‘By the way,’ she says, ‘I’m going on another date on Friday.’
‘Yes!’ I’m so pleasantly surprised to hear this I almost drop the candelabra I’m putting in the case. ‘With who?’
‘His name is Daragh.’ Roo shows me a photo. Obviously you can’t judge a book by its cover – there was nothing about Roo’s last date’s photo that screamed ‘clown egg’ – but Daragh is definitely good-looking, and he certainly looks more warm and friendly than Justin.
‘He looks lovely,’ I say truthfully. ‘How long have you been chatting to him? And why didn’t you tell me about it?’
‘We’ve only been messaging since yesterday,’ says Roo. ‘And we just arranged the date this morning.’
‘What changed your mind about dating?’
‘I dunno,’ says Roo. ‘Your little post-clown-egg pep talk, probably.’
‘Really?’ I say. ‘Wow. I didn’t realise I had such power.’
‘You kind of do,’ says Roo. ‘You were right, I am ready to move on from Justin. And you were right that one clown date shouldn’t turn me off forever. So I went back to the app. Then I matched with Daragh and thought Fuck it, if Annie’s giving in to her pheromones with Art Sullivan, I can do this.’
I laugh. ‘Jesus, I never thought that would be my legacy. But you’re welcome.’
‘So I sent him a message saying hi, and he replied and said …’She finds the message on her phone. ‘“Hi, Fred. Is it weird if I say you look more like a dark-haired Veronica Lake?”’
‘He got the Fred Astaire reference!’
‘He did,’ says Roo. ‘So we got chatting about old films and he’s not, like, a weird obsessive or anything but we’re into the same stuff.’
‘So far so very good.’ Justin couldn’t understand why Roo liked ‘black-and-white shite’.
‘That’s what I thought,’ says Roo. ‘Then we messaged a bit more today and …’ She shrugs, but she’s smiling. ‘He seems really nice. And funny. He’s a framer.’
‘A what?’
‘He works in a gallery,’ says Roo. ‘He frames pictures. I googled the gallery, it’s legit.’
‘Very sensible research,’ I say. ‘So who suggested meeting up?’
‘He did,’ says Roo. ‘He told me about this film club he goes to that shows classic movies. They’re showing one with Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper on Friday and he asked if I’d like to go too. So I said yes. I mean, the film looks cool and, you know, it’s not a date date …’
‘Roo,’ I say, beaming at her, ‘that is definitely a date.’
At eleven o’clock Roo and I, each pulling a wheelie suitcase, arrive at the private upstairs room of Rose Pearl, one of the most chic venues in town.
‘Are you sure I look okay?’ I say.
I’ve borrowed a black broderie anglaise dress from Roo for the occasion. It’s been a long time since I wore anything this colour but it’s weirdly nice matching Roo again.
‘You look great,’ says Roo. ‘Now come on, let’s unpack.’
The room is lovely, large and airy and decorated in soft turquoise and rose gold, and we’re welcomed by an extremely friendly Francesca, who shows us where to set up all Roo’s stuff and leaves us to it.
‘How are you feeling today?’ says Roo, adjusting the angle of the owl. ‘About the whole Director Dickhead situation, I mean.’ She looks at me. ‘Unless you no longer think he’s a dickhead?’
I think of what Art said about Roo’s job yesterday. ‘Oh, I still think that,’ I say. ‘But now I know we’re not going to fight whatever this weird thing between us is, I feel kind of …’
How do I feel? I think about it for a moment and say, ‘I feel relieved.’
‘Good,’ says Roo.
‘I mean,’ I say, ‘we’re both very stressed. It’s just relieving some tension. It’ll help us work better.’
‘Are you basically comparing being with him to a stress-relieving wank?’ says Roo.
‘I suppose?’ I say, but as soon as I say that I know it’s a lie. Whatever’s happening between me and Art is personal, in its own strange way. Just not emotional. Which is a relief in itself.
It takes us a while to get everything set up to both Roo’s and the brand’s satisfaction, but I have to admit it all looks amazing when we’re finished.
Roo’s props are arranged on a table in a corner of the room, where she’ll do individual readings when everyone’s finished eating.
Roo’s just tweaked the candelabra to exactly the right angle when the attendees start arriving.
I’ve never been to an event like this and I’m not sure what to expect, but everyone is lovely and it’s great to see Roo in her element.
The only other time I’ve seen her do a public event was in the VIP area at a music festival a few years ago, and while she totally held her own, that was a very different crowd.
The event is being hosted by a popular comedian, and when she introduces Roo to the audience I expect her to make a joke about seeing into the future (Art isn’t the only person who thinks that’s what Roo does) but she’s clearly already a Roo-fan.
‘I’m going to be first in the Roo-queue, gals,’ she says. ‘I need all the help I can get!’
‘The cards and I will do our best!’ says Roo.
‘It’s all about looking at whatever’s bothering you in a new way.
’ She turns to the audience with a reassuring smile.
‘I know tarot can look a bit scary if you’re not used to it, but there’s nothing spooky going on here.
’ She’s so charming and confident in front of the crowd.
I think of the shaggy little girl I met in the school cloakroom over twenty years ago and feel a rush of pride.
The next couple of hours is a whirl of delicious food, mocktails and samples of really nice moisturiser.
I take a photo of my fancy table and send it to the Frog Boyfriend group chat (see, there’s more to my life than Northside!).
My anxieties about having no one to talk to are alleviated by a lovely skincare influencer whose whole family turn out to be Northside fanatics.
But eventually all the mocktails make their presence felt and I slip out and find the extremely pretty bathroom.
I’m washing my hands when two of the event guests come in.
‘I can’t believe they got Roo Sánchez O’Reilly to do personal readings,’ says one, a tall woman with amazing eye make-up. ‘I love her Cards of the Week on Insta. She’s so gorgeous, isn’t she? Her dress is amazing.’
‘I love it,’ says the other. She catches sight of me at the sinks. ‘Oh, hi! You’re working with Roo, right?’
I smile at them. ‘I’m just helping her out today.’
‘Well, tell her we think she’s brilliant,’ says the first girl, with a warm smile.
‘I will,’ I say. ‘And she is.’
I’m still smiling as I head back to the dining room, and then I remember the last, very different time I accidentally overheard people talking about Roo.
It happened in the loo beside our form room in my second year of secondary school. I’d just flushed and was about to open the cubicle door when I heard some girls enter the bathroom and then Lizzie Lattin’s voice saying, ‘So who did you get as your science partner?’
‘Rosa Maria,’ said a voice I recognised as her friend Olivia’s.
‘Oh God, one of the creepy goth twins,’ said Lizzie. Someone laughed.
Creepy goth twins? I felt like I’d been slapped. Did they actually call us that?
‘She’s not that bad,’ protested Olivia, but she was laughing as well.
‘She’s so pretentious,’ said Lizzie. ‘I mean, Rosa Maria Sánchez O’Reilly? What sort of ridiculous name is that?’
‘Her dad’s Spanish,’ said Olivia.
Lizzie scoffed. ‘That’s what she says. I bet her name’s really Rosie O’Reilly or something. God, she’s such a little try-hard, it’s so annoying.’
If they’d just been talking about me, I wouldn’t have left that cubicle until I was sure they were long gone.
I would have sat there letting what I’d just heard roll round and round in my head.
I probably would have cried. Okay, I definitely would have cried.
They’d always ignored us. Now I knew for sure they were sneering at us too.
It was the confirmation of all my worst fears.
But I couldn’t let them keep talking like that about Roo.
Roo, my only friend now my primary school friends had all forgotten me.
Roo, who had given me that wonderful present a few months earlier.
Roo was so much better than all of these bitchy girls.
How dare they talk about her like that? How dare they?
I felt a rush of rage and adrenalin as I opened the door of the cubicle with such force it banged against the wall and I marched out to see Lizzie, Olivia and their friend Lucy standing by the sinks.
The girls let out shrieks of shock.
‘I heard what you were saying about Roo,’ I said.
Olivia and Lucy exchanged uncomfortable glances but Lizzie just flicked her hair back and said, ‘Yeah, well, of course you did, if you were lurking in the toilets like a total weirdo, listening in to private conversations.’
‘I wasn’t lurking,’ I said. ‘And I couldn’t help hearing you. They can probably hear your horrible honking voice over in the gym.’ I glared at her. ‘Have you ever actually listened to yourself? You sound like a foghorn.’
Lizzie raised her eyebrows. ‘I’m sorry, what did you say?’
‘You heard me.’ I was full of righteous energy.
I could feel the adrenalin pumping through my veins.
For the first time since I’d started at that school, I felt like I was showing these girls my real self.
‘And you’re wrong about Roo. Her real name is Rosa Maria Sánchez O’Reilly. Her dad’s from Valencia.’
Lizzie rolled her eyes. ‘Valenthia? Am I supposed to be impressed by that?’