Chapter 26
26
My phone rang at 7.30 a.m. Joey. “Did I wake you?”
“No.” I’d been up since 5 a.m., reading through the reams of information he’d emailed.
“Can I sit in on today’s meetings?” Quickly, he said, “I know you can do this without me. But they’re the types who feel better if another man is there. Please, Anna.”
“Oooh. That sounded nice.” Abruptly I shut up. Too reminiscent of the past. “Thank you. Perhaps that would be helpful.”
“…Grand. But you’re just humoring these clowns?”
“Joey, no . The whole issue is that they were written off without being given their say. If they’re able to do the work, we pass their details to the Project Manager.”
“They won’t be up to it.”
“We don’t know that. But if they’re not, they need to see it. It’s no good us telling them.”
“Can I wear my suit?”
“ No. And I do the talking. All of it.”
“…Have you music on there? The Cure?”
“To put me in a good mood. So which crew is first?”
“Tilers. Peadar Brady, the man from last night who’s tiled every kitchen in Ireland four times over.”
“Joey, lose the attitude or stay away.”
After a pause, then a sigh, he said, “See you downstairs at eight thirty.”
“Eight twenty. We need to be there before them.” Then, “Are you busy? Could you bring me up a couple of Danishes?”
“Uh. Sure. Gimme a few minutes.”
I dived into the bathroom. If I moved fast I’d have my hair washed before he got up here. Naturally, I’d barely rinsed my conditioner when the knocking began and I had to drag a towel around myself.
“Five Danishes—I got a selection.” There was a tray in his hands. “Orange juice, yogurt with red jam in the bottom and a large pot of Oxo.” There was even a slender vase containing a daffodil.
“Put it down anywhere.” I was looking for a hair-dryer.
“This is a great song.”
It was “Feeling Good,” but the Michael Bublé version. I braced myself for snarkiness. “Yes, I know, Frank Sinatra’s… dog …did a better version. But this is the one I love.”
Joey seemed hurt. “The Bublé is class, puts on a great show…Wait, this is a suite ? How d’you swing that?”
“My first room was over the bottle bin. I complained.”
“You did? Not the Anna Walsh I know.” He slanted me a sly smile. “Bet you were lovely about it, though.”
“I actually wasn’t. I intensely dislike Brogue-face Kilcroney.”
“…Brogue-face…?” Suddenly Joey was laughing so hard he was almost unable to speak.
I’d unearthed a hair-dryer. Thank God.
“…A brogue.” Joey was shaking with hilarity. “It’s exactly what he looks like.”
“I’ve to get dressed. Out! Thanks for the food.” I pointed at the door.
Wiping away tears, he collected himself. “There’s a load of new people working here today. Well, two. One of them tried to stop me bringing this up to you. This is what happens, Anna, when you won’t let me wear my suit.”
“Leave, please.”
—
Peadar Brady arrived with three other men. I welcomed them into the lounge and asked, “What’ll you have to drink?”
“Tea?” Peadar consulted the others. “Yep, tea.”
“Nothing stronger?” Good manners dictated that I ask.
“Cripes, no!” There was some nervous joking about accidentally gluing themselves to the floor, then we all sat.
“May I start,” I said, “by apologizing that you weren’t consulted before the work was allocated. The oversight occurred because the developers are planning to use Sundarata, a mosaic tile company based in Bali. They went with tilers who work exclusively for Sundarata, because they had more experience with those specific products.”
“But…tiling is tiling.”
“Absolutely! So let me show you some pictures. Unlike most mosaics, these tiles aren’t just painted glass but pigmented right the way through.” I clicked on several images where the little squares looked more like gemstones. I sighed and I meant it: “They’re so beautiful.”
“What they are,” Peadar Brady observed, “is very small.”
“Tiny,” I agreed. “Very fiddly. But they need to be that small for mosaic art.”
“What’s that now?”
“All sixteen cottages will have unique bathrooms, with customized mosaic art.” I clicked to the next photo, a wall which looked like a tropical jungle. “This is just a display but gives a sense of what the developers want.” Dreamily, I said, “Hard to believe that something so detailed is done with tiles.”
Peadar frowned.
“The imagery must reflect the local landscape, so the guest feels the outside is brought inside. Do you get me?” I checked that Peadar was still following. “But your brief is wide—you can do marine scenes, mountains, flowers, whatever you like, so long as they’re of the natural world. And obviously each must be unique.”
“Wait now,” Peadar said. “Just so I’m clear—who’s to do the marine scenes and that? You mean you’d be expecting us to design them?”
“Well…yes.”
The four of them exchanged looks. “That’d be some load of work,” one of the men said.
I nodded in full agreement. “It’s a big project. Challenging.”
“We’d need more lads,” Peadar said.
Beside me, Joey tensed.
“And a design team,” I said.
After a pause Peadar said, “You’d be looking at a hefty bottom line.”
“How hefty?” I asked.
“Hefty.”
There was actual heat coming from Joey, he was so anxious.
“…Would you like Joey and me to give you some space?” I asked. “So you can do your calculations?”
“…Ah. No. Look, we’ll leave you to it and we’ll do the sums back at the ranch.” They were quick to get up.
I thanked them for coming. “Call if I can be of further help.”
“Look. Anna, is it?” Peadar pulled me aside. His tone was hushed. “The job would be too big. We’re only a small set-up. Even if we took on more lads, we’ve no experience in the fiddly work. I’ll be straight with you. We were riled because we weren’t even asked to tender but now we know the whole story, we understand.”
“You should have been given all the facts from the beginning,” I said. “I really am sorry that you weren’t.”
“That’s appreciated.” Surprising me with a smile, he said, “Good luck to ye. It’ll be a great thing for the townland. Bye now.” Abruptly he departed.
“Jesus.” Joey made a show of mopping his brow. “I thought they were going to style it out.”
“Joey, they couldn’t. This gives me no pleasure, but they wouldn’t have the cash flow to buy product in advance from Sundarata. Have you seen their prices? They’re insane.”
Joey’s smile went all the way to his eyes. “I can’t decide if you’re an evil genius or…just a genius? But are we going to enact this pantomime in every meeting today? Can’t we just tell them that they’re not up to the task? You’re too nice.”
“Being nice is my literal job. The only reason I was hired.”
“And you’re brilliant at it. Those poor men. They fell right into your trap and they still think you’re lovely.”
“Yeah. Resting Eejit Face strikes again. Helen says that’s my default expression.”
“You don’t look like an eejit.”
“You’re grand, Joey.” I glanced at my phone. “Twenty minutes till the next lot. I’m going to ‘reach out’ to Aber Skerett. You check the email account, see if there’s anything new.”
“I’m across it,” he called after me.
“Be more across it,” I called back. “—Ah, hello! Is that Mr Skerett?”
After a quick conversation, I was back to Joey. “Aber Skerett will be in town tonight. He’s bringing his mother to Living Well with Dementia so he’ll pop in here while they’re singing their songs.”
“What songs?”
“How do I know? That’s all he said, that he’d call in here ‘while they’re singing their songs.’?”
“Oh, right!” Joey said. “It’s a dementia thing. Before my dad died, he was totally loo-la but still recognized ‘songs from his yoot.’?”
I caught my breath—Joey had referenced his dad. Should I say something? “Joey—”
“Next crowd is here.” He was staring out of the window. “Decorators, this time. Quick, do your sweet face and delightful voice.”
I hissed, “They’re my regular face and—Hiii! I’m Anna Walsh, thank you for coming.”
—
“…And don’t hesitate to call,” I did my final handshake of the day. “If I can be of further help.”
I remained standing, watching the seventh and last of the crews leave the Broderick. As soon as they’d disappeared, exhaustion hit.
Beside me, I heard Joey say, “I’m fucked. Being nice is a killer.”
“You weren’t nice,” I said. “You were just quiet.”
“By saying nothing I was being nice. Bunch of operators.”
“No! How could they know the work was beyond them if they weren’t told? Now they’ve been treated as contenders and the disrespect has been erased.”
Five of the seven crews told me there and then that the project would be too much for them. The other two said they’d call when they’d done their figures. Just about all of them expressed approval for the project, wished us luck, laughingly asked for a job for their wife, suggested that a cut-price rate be available for local residents, and so on. It was a good day’s work.
“Are you back off to Dublin now?” I asked Joey.
“We’re not finished yet. Aber Skerett will be here in a couple of hours. And there’s a few more loose ends to tidy up.”
“I’ve got this. You don’t need to babysit me.”
“I know you’ve got this. That’s obvious. But it’s been a day and I’m not in the mood for a long drive. What actual day is it? Tuesday? Okay, unless there’s some disaster, the construction boys can go back to work Thursday morning and we can both go home.”
The thought gave me a pang. “I’ve—mostly—enjoyed myself here. It’s restored a lot of my confidence. Thanks for giving me the chance.”
“Well, it was Brigit’s idea. But a good one.”
“I’m sure you had your doubts.” To put it mildly.
“Ah, no…” Then he gathered himself and smiled, too brightly. “You’ve been great.”
“Tell me, Joey, do you enjoy your job?”
“I do.” He became thoughtful. “The start of a project, when everything is coming together. The excitement, the hope. I love it.”
“But isn’t it all so uncertain?”
“Oh God, yeah. Red tape. Investors getting a better offer. A million things could go wrong, sometimes they do, then the whole thing is derailed.”
“ Oh no! ” I muttered.
He laughed. “It’s usually around then I decide I’m throwing in the towel. But there’s ups and downs in everything and over time you learn to be philosophical. The only part that really hurts is getting an idea, then discovering someone’s got in just ahead of me. Or if I can’t pull together the finance, but another broker does.” He shook his head. “Hate that. Listen, I’m gonna call my kids, have a quick shower, then can we get some dinner before Aber Skerett arrives?”
“That’s an idea. Why don’t we go to the ‘fifties-style diner’?”
“Because it’s closed. Until June. We could go out.” He indicated the metropolis of M’town beyond the window.
“But what if it takes ages and Aber Skerett arrives and we’re not back and—no, Joey. We stay focused until the job is done. It’ll have to be here.”
My phone beeped. I took a quick look and smiled. It was from Angelo. Hey. Facebook memories tells me it’s four years since we were in Belo Horizonte. Heart full of gratitude for my time with you. Hope today is a good one. Sending all the love xxxx
“Angelo,” I said, to Joey’s questioning face.
“You’re still…close?”
“We text. Talk sometimes. We were lucky, we got out while we still liked each other.”
Joey seemed stymied. Then he said, “He was so different from Aidan.”
“I guess…that was the whole point.”