Chapter 32
32
‘Share? We can’t share.’
The thought of even getting changed in front of someone new horrified me, let alone sharing a bed. The last year had not been particularly kind to me and through comfort eating, which had been the only thing that made me temporarily happy, I’d put on just under a stone. Mum had commented on it recently, and said that at my age, life was too short not to eat the biscuit, or the cake that I wanted, but I don’t think her permission had really helped me to control my recent food habits. Just thinking about taking my clothes off and someone seeing the roll of fat which had developed around my belly which I’d never had before made me cringe. Thank you, menopause. You’re so kind to constantly gift middle-aged women these wonderful qualities. Not only the weight but the constant brain fog and other unexpected things which crop up on a weekly basis. Only the day before, when I was waxing my faint moustache, I noticed a huge coarse hair had sprouted from my chin.
‘What the hell are we going to do now?’ I asked as I plonked myself down on the bed.
I felt an arm come around my shoulders at the same time as I felt the weight of Seamus sitting next to me on the bed. This was way too intimate. For the last thirty years or so, the only people I’d been in a bedroom with were my husband or one of my daughters and even then I’d always managed to cover myself up. I wasn’t one of those mums who flaunted everything they had in front of the whole family. In fairness, Michael didn’t get to see me often without my clothes on and when we did ever get around to being intimate it was always strictly with the lights off. Also, I slept in a Marks and Sparks nightie these days and was dreading the thought of only having the strappy negligee I decided to treat myself to for this trip because I wanted to feel at my best at all times. I wasn’t sure that it would hide an awful lot.
‘We’ll sort it later. Don’t worry. There’ll be a solution. I just need to give it some thought. I saw Michael downstairs and he said that he’d organised some teas and coffees in the bar. They’re all waiting for us. I think we should go, Jo Jenkins.’
I resigned myself to the fact the bed situation wasn’t something that we could deal with right now and without a great deal of thought, and while I wanted to text both Emma and Michelle to tell them what had happened, I was pretty sure that they’d find the situation far more amusing than I had.
‘Chin up, babe.’
I turned towards Seamus and raised my eyebrow again – this was the second time he’d used that word.
‘Since when have you been a “babe” type of guy, by the way?’
‘Since I had to pretend to my friend’s ex-husband that she is the love of my life.’ He winked. ‘Babe.’
I grinned. It didn’t seem to matter what I found myself doing, I struggled to look at this man and not be smiley. He had one of those faces that was constantly happy and it was infectious. He had such a lovely energy and was a wonderful presence to be around. Maybe I just had to embrace that and be thankful that he’d volunteered to accompany me on this trip and that I didn’t have to come alone.
As we approached the bar, which was opposite the reception desk, the girl behind the desk smiled at Seamus and I could see that he was blushing slightly.
‘You OK there?’ I asked.
He rested his hand on the small of my back and practically propelled me through the door.
‘I am, but that receptionist did offer me a bed in her room for the night. She told me that if we were struggling with the arrangements there was a huge bed in her room and that she’d be prepared to let me “share”.’
‘Oh! My! God! The cheeky cow. How dare she?’ I felt rage creeping up within me.
‘Thank you for jumping to my defence, Jo Jenkins. Very kind of you. I did thank her very much and say that you and I would be perfectly fine together, then I practically ran up the stairs back to you. She scared the living daylights out of me.’
My rage quickly subsided. My fake date was back to where it should be.
I turned towards the reception desk and saw that the woman had been watching us like a hawk. I never thought I’d have to be worrying about Seamus being propositioned right in front of my eyes. I turned towards her and smiled, and slung my arm around his waist.
‘She looks like she’d eat me alive!’ he whispered into my ear, as he reached down towards me and kissed my cheek. I burst into laughter and so did he.
‘It’s good to see you laugh, Mum. It’s been a while. And you are…?’
My daughter Lucy had come across to greet us. She leaned over and kissed my cheek, an air of coolness about her. It wasn’t the reunion I’d envisaged. I thought it would have been a bit more, well, huggy really. Maybe it was because it was a generally awkward situation for all of us. I immediately forgave her.
‘This is Seamus, who I told you about.’
She had the good grace to look bashful.
‘Oh yes, sorry. I must have forgotten your name. Nice to meet you.’
‘You too. Your mum talks about her girls all the time. It’s clear to see that they get their good looks from their mother. On the picture above her fireplace you look like three sisters.’
I batted him on the arm and blushed. Lucy looked from one of us to the other and then invited us to join the large group around a couple of small tables. Noticing that she was chewing the inside of her cheek (a family trait!) I smiled at her and noticed that she shook her head as she sat down and looked away.
‘Seamus, my man. Joanna, darling. Come and join us.’ Michael was reorganising the seating to squeeze us in and was obviously giving it large in front of his friends. As I looked around the room, I realised that these people were actually our friends. Some of whom I hadn’t seen since we’d split up. It’s strange when a couple parts company. Sometimes people take sides, some people stick by you through thick and thin. Michael’s charm meant that in our situation, nearly everyone except for my wonderful friend Lisa had gradually dropped away. Clearly he’d kept in touch with them all and as I heard him talk about inviting them over to the villa in Spain, I realised the reason. He was fun. While I’d been wallowing in my loneliness and self-pity, he’d been thriving; living his best life with not a care in the world.
Seamus glanced at me from his seat a couple of times. He’d been put next to Claudia and I couldn’t even begin to imagine what they would have in common to talk about apart from us. I hoped she wasn’t grilling him too much about our relationship.
I got up and excused myself to go to the loo, and when I came out of the ladies’, I found Michael and Seamus standing awkwardly at the bar, arguing about who was going to pay for the wine for the dinner table, and Michael appeared to be winning.
‘Trust me, Seamus,’ I said. ‘When Michael gets an idea into his head, there’s no backing down. I learned that years ago.’
‘I just didn’t want to take advantage of his hospitality. He’s already covered the cost of our room.’
The words ‘our room’ made me cringe but I pushed the thoughts away, thinking that I would deal with that later. Also, I would remind Michael at some point that the wedding budget he was using to cover the cost was coming from a fund I’d contributed to way more than he had.
One crisis at a time though.
‘So, how is your room, Joanna, darling? Everything OK for you both?’
‘Yes, it’s lovely, thank you. Very nice indeed.’
‘Excellent. Strangely the woman on reception must have got the bookings wrong because she said you were in adjoining rooms so I told her there was clearly an error when I wanted you to be upgraded. Glad it’s all worked well, mate .’ He looked directly at Seamus and I hoped that both of our pasted-on smiles of gratitude did not reflect what we were really thinking.
‘So, how did you two meet?’ Michael continued. ‘You never mentioned anyone special, Joanna? Surely, as your husband, I should be the first to know.’
I went to speak but Seamus beat me to it.
‘You think? I would have thought that really, as her ex -husband, you should be the last to know.’ He forced a laugh. ‘Mate!’
The two men stared each other down and I felt that I needed to break the uncomfortable silence between them.
‘We’ve got to know each other while Seamus has been doing some work at Aunty June’s house, didn’t we?’ I smiled at Seamus, proudly resting my hand upon his arm.
‘Yes. That’s right,’ Seamus said. ‘I’ll never forget the moment I first laid eyes on Jo. She opened the door to her house and she took my breath away. I thought she was one of the most beautiful people I’d ever met, and when I got to know her better, I knew it was both inside and out. I just couldn’t wait to spend more time with this wonderful, brave, kind and inspiring lady. I suppose you could even say it was love at first sight for me. And remember, babe, it’s your house now.’
‘ My Aunty June’s house, you mean,’ Michael corrected. ‘Daft old battle axe. Never did like her but can’t believe the old biddy left it to you. That was very interesting to find out. Couldn’t believe it when the girls told me. Thought she might even leave it to them if she didn’t want to leave it to me. I was her only nephew, after all.’
‘To be honest, Michael, the girls will get it in the end anyway, so they’ll have their chance.’
He walked away but not until after I’d heard him mutter under his breath, ‘They most certainly will. Maybe sooner than you think.’
A shiver ran up my spine.