Chapter 30
30
Brianna had arranged to pick up Nora, who was obviously in no fit state to drive, on her way over, and the two women buzzed their arrival at one minute to seven. Jess had poured three generous glasses of wine while she waited.
When she opened the door, she was shocked by her first sighting of Nora. She looked dreadful, and Jess couldn’t stop the little gasp she emitted at the sight of her glamorous friend’s bedraggled blonde locks. She had no make-up on either – that was unheard of. What really got to her, though, was the fact that Nora was in a leisure suit, and on her feet was something she’d never ever thought she’d see her friend’s dainty tootsies slide themselves into: Ugg boots.
Nora didn’t do casual, and Jess had had no idea she even owned a leisure suit, let alone Uggs. It was then that it hit home just how bad a way she was in.
Racing over, she wrapped her fragile friend in a bear hug. ‘Did you get a park OK?’ Jess asked, looking over Nora’s shoulder to Brianna, who was bringing up the rear, laden down with supplies.
‘I’m in for the long haul,’ she replied, holding up her bottles of wine, ‘so I got Pete to drop us off. He’ll pick us up on his way home from squash around elevenish – Harry’s at my mam’s for the night.’
The three women trooped through to the lounge where their glasses of wine were waiting.
Brianna sat down and kicked her boots off before tucking her legs up under herself and reaching for her glass, while Nora collapsed down on the settee and knocked her drink back in two gulps. Then, spying the cheese ball, she dived into it, scooping big chunks onto the artfully arranged crackers and shovelling them in her mouth as though they were on a conveyer belt. Brianna and Jess exchanged startled glances.
At last she stopped eating long enough to hold her glass out for a refill. ‘God, that’s better. Your cheese balls really are the biz, Jess. I needed that.’
Jess preened as she got up to take another bottle out of the fridge. ‘I’ve always maintained that there really are healing properties in a cheese ball. I think it must be the cheddar, or maybe it’s down to the cream cheese.’
‘Or maybe it’s just down to all the different cheese,’ Nora said, starting in on the crisps.
With their glasses topped up, Jess and Brianna tussled over the crisps and dip before Nora polished them off. The cheese ball was out of bounds – poor Nora needed it more than they did. Then, supping their drinks, they listened while Nora filled them in on what had got her knickers in such a knot.
‘Ewan wants us to… to do a b-b-b—’ She sounded like a five-year-old sounding out her letters.
‘Wants you to do what, Nora?’ Brianna and Jess chimed patiently.
Jess knew they were both hoping she wasn’t going to reveal some new sex act they hadn’t heard of.
‘He wants us to do a b-b-bungee jump together off the top of Liberty Hall.’
Jess and Brianna looked at each other, shocked. Liberty Hall was Dublin’s tallest building.
‘And I can’t do it!’ Nora wailed.
‘Right, enough is enough!’ Jess stated, getting up from her armchair perch to shove another loaded cracker in her friend’s gob. It had an instant calming effect.
‘You need to tell Ewan the truth. You can’t keep pretending to be someone you’re not, and, Nora, face it – you’re not an adrenaline junkie.’
‘Why can’t I keep pretending? I managed to pull off the mountain-bike ride, skydiving and waterskiing, so surely that qualifies me? I just need to find a way to fight the fear.’ Nora’s expression was petulant.
Brianna interjected, ‘Feck fight the fear! It qualifies you as an eejit, yes, because you were absolutely terrified doing all of those things, and think about it – where will it end? He’ll have you white-water rafting down the Amazon, or swimming with great whites if you’re not careful, or, or…’
‘Or leaping off tall buildings with a piece of elastic tied round your legs,’ Jess finished.
‘I know, I know. My nerves are shot, and look.’ She held out her trembling hands, and both women looked in shock at Nora’s chewed fingernails.
‘Nora Brennan, listen to me. This is not you. You are not a nail-biter. You get your nails done once a week, for goodness’ sake! I aspire to have nails like yours.’ Jess paused to gaze briefly at her own short-clipped nails. Long nails were hopeless when you earned your money tapping out articles on a laptop.
Her face took on a puzzled expression. ‘What I don’t get, though, is how you managed to skydive and all that other stuff but you can’t do a bungee jump? What’s so scary about that by comparison? Not that I’m encouraging you or anything.’ She popped a handful of dip-laden crisps in her mouth. ‘Yum. Brie, that feta and spinach dip is divine.’
‘Yeah, it is, isn’t it? Marks had a special on, so I grabbed a couple.’
‘Excuse me, you’re supposed to be helping me sort my life out, not talking about bloody supermarket specials.’
‘Sorry.’ Both women were contrite.
Mollified, Nora answered Jess’s question. ‘I was na?ve when I did the skydive. I had no idea what I was in for or how terrifying it would be. As for mountain biking’ – she shrugged – ‘anyone can ride a bike; I just pretended I was doing a spin class. Being flown to the South of France in a private plane helped take the edge off the waterskiing.’ Her blue eyes filled with fear. ‘But there is absolutely no fecking way I can throw myself off a building with nothing but a pair of pantyhose holding me up – not even if I popped a couple of Valium first!’
‘Then tell Ewan the truth for your own sake, or you’re going to give yourself a nervous breakdown.’
‘OK, OK.’ Nora held up both hands in defeat. ‘You’re right. I know, and I will – I promise, but he’s in the States for the next two weeks filming.’
‘Well, as soon as he gets back, you come clean.’ Jess wagged a finger at her.
‘What do I say, though? Ewan’s said all along how great it is that he’s finally met a girl who’s into all the same stuff as him. If I tell him I’m not who he thinks I am, he’s bound to give me the flick. He’ll think I’m just as fickle as those fans of his who send through pictures of themselves in the nude all the time.’
‘Women do that?’ Brianna asked, frowning.
‘And men.’
Jess raised an eyebrow. ‘Really?’
‘Yep, really. Honestly, you two have no idea what celebrities have to put up with.’
No, Jess thought, she obviously didn’t, and the taste she’d experienced of life in the limelight – finding an unflattering photo of herself plastered in the papers – had left her cold.
‘You don’t know that he’ll think you’re fickle,’ Brianna said, earnestly tucking a lock of hair behind one ear. ‘Tell him you’ve decided adventure sports aren’t for you, after all, but that you’re happy to be his cheerleader. If he’s as keen on you as you are on him, he’ll understand.’
‘I hope so because I’ve never felt this way before about anyone, and, girls, I’m absolutely bloody terrified I’ll lose him.’ Nora sniffed, her eyes filling.
Brianna pulled a tissue from her sleeve and handed it to Nora. ‘It’s clean, I promise. If he’s a keeper, you won’t lose him. Have a bit of faith in him,’ she advised wisely as both she and Jess got up and wrapped their arms round their friend.
When they broke away, Nora blew her nose and managed a small grin before draining her glass with a slurp. ‘Any more wine going?’
‘So how did your protest go, Brie?’ Jess asked as she filled Nora’s glass and sat back down.
Brianna brought them up to speed with the playgroup she was so passionately trying to save.
‘You really are a sucker for a good cause.’ Nora shook her head. ‘Dublin’s down-and-out would be lost without you.’
‘I would hardly call a group of mammies passionate about their community having a centre where their children can meet to play “Dublin’s down-and-out”, Nora.’ Brianna was indignant.
For Jess, however, as Brianna mentioned ‘a group of mothers’ in the same sentence as ‘community centre’, the penny at last dropped. Gosh, she could be so thick, she thought, tipping her wine down her throat. Hang on, though – perhaps the group of mothers about which Nick had been so derisive were nothing to do with Brie and her band of merry mammies? Then again, what were the odds of more than one group of mums up in arms over the demolition of a building in a city the size of Dublin anyway?
‘Er, Brie, what building is it that you’re trying to save?’
‘The Bray Community Centre. I thought I’d told you that?’
‘Um, no, you didn’t, actually.’
‘Ah, well, no matter.’ She shook her head, her face growing animated as she began to relay the latest. ‘The protest went really well. RTé even showed up with their cameras rolling. The infuriating thing is that the company behind the proposed project refused to meet with us. Bloody cowards, whoever they are. All they care about is money. I tell you, girls, they march in and destroy the lifeblood of small communities, but I’m not going to let them destroy mine!’
Nora clapped her hands and drawled in an American accent, ‘You go, girl!’
Oh dear, thought Jess. Now wasn’t the time to mention that she was ninety-nine per cent certain the cowardly company Brianna was on about belonged to Nick. She already seemed to have made up her mind that he wasn’t right for her, and revealing that it was him behind her latest cause’s proposed demolition would definitely not endear him to her. She decided she’d keep quiet about it for now and see how her date went tomorrow night. If they got on well and decided to see each other again, as she hoped would be the case, then she’d have to come clean and tell Brianna. It would be up to her then as to whether she still wanted to have them both round for dinner.
For some reason, Owen’s face floated before her, but she batted him away, having a sneaky scoop of the cheese ball instead while Nora was fossicking in the fridge for further supplies.
They’d broken out the chocolate and were cracking open the third bottle of vino when Brianna piped up with, ‘That Nick chap you set Jess up with is cooking her dinner tomorrow night.’
Bugger , Jess thought. She’d wanted to steer clear of any conversation regarding Nick.
‘Whaat? When did that happen?’
‘He invited me over when he dropped me home last week.’
‘But you didn’t tell me that when I rang you. I thought you’d never hear from him again after your Oscar-winning “Drunk Woman” performance.’ Nora looked most put-out.
‘Well, you didn’t exactly give me a chance to tell you, did you? You were too busy issuing orders about my needing to upgrade my knickers, and before you ask, for your information, I have done so.’
When Pete arrived to pick his wife and Nora up shortly after eleven, after a hard night bashing a little black ball around a court, he looked perturbed when Jess answered the door. He clearly didn’t like to ask why she had a pair of lacy green knickers on her head, nor why Nora was taking aim at his wife with the matching bra.