Chapter 1 #2
The house felt so quiet as Sive went upstairs to bed. It seemed strange not to be calling goodnight to Mimi as she passed her bedroom, aware of the quiet emptiness behind its closed door. And then there were two, she thought, a wave of melancholy washing over her.
As she got into bed, she felt a pang that there was no Marlowe sticking his head around her door and nosing his way in, jumping up on the bed to knead her legs and demand rubs.
While Marlowe was Mimi’s cat, he didn’t play favourites and he’d divided his time equally between the three of them, happy to accept adoration from whoever was available to provide it.
Hearing Aoife moving around downstairs brought a sense of comfort, but it was only a matter of time before she’d move out too.
She was already spending more time at Jonathan’s place, and the only reason they weren’t living together yet was because he was still sharing an apartment with Sam while letting the house he owned in Sandymount.
Once his tenant’s lease was up, Aoife would move in there with him.
That would just leave Sive here in their childhood home.
What would happen then? She could hardly go on living alone in a house that belonged to the three of them.
Her heart ached in anticipation, already missing the life she and her sisters had shared here since their parents died – cooking together, unwinding over meals and bottles of wine around the kitchen table, swapping clothes and make-up and late-night confidences.
She loved the whole effortless choreography of their life together and she felt lost, cast adrift at the thought of losing it.
They’d still see each other all the time, of course.
They were best friends, and nothing would ever change that.
But it wouldn’t be the same. She knew it was inevitable that everyone would move on eventually, form new ties and have families of their own.
But so much had changed already in the last couple of years, and Sive’s heart was struggling to keep up.
They’d lost Detta, their beloved great-aunt, who’d been such a big part of their lives.
And she was still reeling from her break-up with Ben.
She hadn’t seen it coming. It had been a total shock when, shortly after returning from his year-long travels, Ben told her he’d fallen in love with a Portuguese woman he’d met on the Annapurna circuit in Nepal and was moving to Lisbon to be with her.
She’d been grateful that shooting of Vital Signs was due to start immediately afterwards, so she’d have no time to wallow.
But while the shoot had been intense and exhausting, it hadn’t provided the level of distraction she’d been hoping for.
She’d forgotten how much time was spent sitting around on a set waiting for something to happen, and she’d had far too much time alone with her thoughts to brood.
Tonight she’d told her sisters she was fine, and she was most of the time – cheerful, getting on with things, enjoying work.
Then it would hit her randomly, out of the blue, a sucker punch that left her winded and struggling to breathe, feeling like the ground beneath her feet could splinter apart at any moment and send her hurtling into the abyss.
Ben had been her best friend and constant companion for almost as long as she could remember.
They’d grown up across the road from each other and been in the same class at school.
Somehow, they’d bonded quickly and become fast friends despite having very little in common.
He’d been to birthday parties in this house; he’d kicked a ball around the back garden with her father; he still remembered her mother’s brownies and sense of fun.
It struck her as unbearably sad that she’d never have another boyfriend who’d known her parents.
It wasn’t just the break-up she was grieving; it was another tie to the past lost.
But there was no point in pining for the way things used to be.
Time would march on whether she liked it or not.
Besides, there had been lots of good changes too.
Inheriting Detta’s theatre at Halfpenny Lane had come with a lot of challenges for her and her sisters, and it had been hard work turning its fortunes around.
But they’d made it a successful business that they were all incredibly proud of and it had enriched their lives in so many ways.
It had given them the opportunity to create their own work; it had brought Jonathan and Sam into their lives; it had reunited Mimi with Rocco; it had brought them love and new friends and a sense of purpose.
It would do her good to be back in the fold at Halfpenny Lane, surrounded by her theatrical family.
She loved being part of a company, and she was looking forward to getting back to the stage.
She’d missed the visceral energy of it and the immediacy of live performance.
There was nothing as satisfying as feeling a piece hit with an audience, knowing in the moment that it’s working.
With filming, you never knew what take the viewers would ultimately see – if they’d see it at all.
There was always the chance you’d end up on the cutting-room floor.
Once rehearsals started, she’d be far too busy for wallowing in self-pity.
She was looking forward to working with Sam too and seeing him every day.
They were good friends, but there’d always been an undercurrent of mutual attraction between them and the potential for something more.
It had never gone beyond mild, light-hearted flirting while she’d been with Ben.
But she wasn’t with him now … The possibility of starting something new stirred a warm tingling in her stomach.
She picked up the script of A Christmas Carol from her bedside table and began flicking through it to find Belle’s lines, highlighted in yellow.
She’d always loved the story and had a faint memory of her parents reading it to her and her sisters one Christmas Eve when they’d been too excited to sleep, her father doing the voices of all the ghosts.
She didn’t know if it was a true memory or something Aoife or Mimi had told her – but it was a nice one either way.
She snuggled down and began reading Belle and Ebenezer’s scenes together, the familiarity of the words comforting her. It would be so much fun playing this with Sam and watching him discover himself as an actor. She just had to nail that audition tomorrow…