Chapter 12
Back in her room, she phoned Carmel O’Sullivan to tell her Evan had no special dietary requirements.
‘Thanks so much for inviting us, Carmel. We really appreciate it.’ There was no need to tell her that Evan had had to be strong-armed into accepting the invitation.
‘Not at all. I’m delighted you’re coming.’
‘There’s just one thing. About Evan…’
‘We haven’t seen hide nor hair of him since he’s been here. It’ll be nice to get a look at him up close. It’s quite exciting, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah, about that. He’s a very private person, and he’s kind of… hiding out here. He wants to be incognito and he thinks he’s got away with it.’ She explained what she’d told Evan about the O’Sullivans not watching TV and that they wouldn’t recognise him.
‘I’m sorry. If you’d rather we didn’t come, I totally understand.’
‘No, of course not! It’ll be a bit of a laugh. I’ve honestly only seen that Spider-Man a couple of times when Charlie’s been here. He’s a huge fan.’
‘He won’t be a problem, will he?’
‘Don’t worry, leave it to me. I’ll make something up, turn it into a bit of a game for him.’
‘Thanks so much, Carmel. See you tomorrow.’
When she’d hung up, she grabbed an A4 notepad and pen from her bag to make a shopping list over breakfast. She ate at the kitchen table and when she’d finished her list, she started working on some kind of plan to make sharing the house with Evan more harmonious.
She didn’t want to have the same tussle with him every day any more than he did.
It would be easier to get through the rest of their time together if they both knew where they stood.
She tore off a new page and drew a table with a column for each of the remaining days they were here.
When she’d cleared up after breakfast, she found Evan in the living room, hunched over his laptop. He was wearing his glasses again. Why did he have to look so damn cute?
‘What now?’ He straightened up as she approached him, eyeballing her with a put-upon expression.
‘You wanted it in writing, so here it is,’ she said, placing the chart she’d made on the table in front of him. ‘What do you think?’
‘What’s all this?’ He scanned the page quickly. ‘I didn’t agree to any of this – shopping in Dingle, pub, swim,’ he read, his eyes bugging out. ‘Apart from this.’ He pointed to ‘dinner at the O’Sullivans’’ in the Christmas Day column.
‘That’s why it’s the only thing I’ve put in your half,’ she said, pulling out a chair and sitting beside him. ‘I’ve divided each day in two, see?’ She pointed to the side of the chart where she’d written ‘M’ beside the top row and ‘E’ beside the bottom. ‘All the other stuff is mine.’
‘Oh, okay.’ He nodded.
‘So you’ll know where to avoid if you don’t want to bump into me. You’re welcome to join me on any of this if you want to. But it’s completely up to you.’
He looked at the chart again. ‘You have a swim on Christmas morning?’ He screwed up his face. ‘Where would you go swimming around here?’
‘Uh, where do you think?’ She waved to the windows and the wraparound views of the sea.
‘In the ocean?’
‘Yeah. It’s a Christmas tradition. Though, to be honest, it’s not so much a swim. It’s more charging into the sea and running back out again as fast as you can.’
‘No wonder your family wanted to escape to New York this Christmas.’
‘It’s not just our family. It’s an Irish thing and loads of people from around here will be doing it.’
‘I thought your traditions would be more alcohol and music based.’
‘Well, now’s your chance to bust those stereotypes and experience the real Ireland. It’s not all twinkly eyed leprechauns dancing jigs and having drunken brawls, you know.’
‘Next you’ll be telling me there’s no Santa Claus.’
Mary laughed, surprised he’d momentarily abandoned his grumpy demeanour and actually made a joke.
Maybe there was hope for him yet. ‘It’s a good laugh – and it’s for charity.
You should come.’ She had no idea why she was trying to persuade him.
But she couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for Evan.
He couldn’t really be happy spending Christmas sulking all alone.
Maybe her mother was right, and she was here for a reason.
Perhaps she was meant to be his Christmas angel, bringing some joy back into his life and showing him the true meaning of Christmas, like in a cheesy festive movie.
‘I bet you’d enjoy it.’
‘No thanks. You can count me out.’ He turned back to his laptop.
‘Fine. As for meals, you can have the sunroom and I’ll eat in the kitchen. So now you just have to fill in your half with whatever you’ll be doing. Moody walk on the beach, slob out on the sofa or whatever.’ She handed him a pen.
He gave an exasperated groan, taking it from her. ‘Jeez, I didn’t think I’d be getting homework! Do you seriously need me to write it in?’
‘I think it’s better if we both know where we stand, don’t you? Let’s not make this situation any more difficult than it has to be. Besides, how can I promise to stay out of your way if I don’t know where you’ll be? You don’t want a repeat of the Annascaul incident, do you?’
‘Fine.’ He unscrewed the cap of the pen and began writing.
‘I can make some suggestions if you’d like?’ she offered. ‘There are some lovely drives around here.’
‘No thanks. All done.’ He replaced the cap on the pen and handed the sheet back to Mary. He’d scrawled ‘Moody walk on the beach/Slob out on the sofa’ across his half of every day.
‘Great,’ Mary said, refusing to rise to his bait. ‘Message received and understood. Though you might want to skip the moody beach walk on Christmas morning because that’s where I’ll be, along with half the town. So you’ll have the house to yourself for a few hours. Try not to miss me too much.’
He flattened his mouth in a facsimile of a smile.
‘Right,’ she said, standing. ‘I’m going into Dingle to do some shopping.’
‘I know,’ he said, going back to his laptop. ‘I read it on your schedule.’
‘Want to come?’
‘No thanks.’ He didn’t even look up as he spoke.
‘Well, suit yourself. You can either stay here and sulk, or put on your cat burglar disguise and come into town with me,’ she said, channelling her mother.
‘Cool. I’ll stay here and sulk then.’
‘You don’t need to do any shopping?’
‘Nope. I’m all set. I’ve got everything I need right here.’
Hah! He was going to be so embarrassed on Christmas Day when she gave him a present and he had nothing to give her – and it would serve him right. Maybe she should get him an Aran jumper after all, just to spite him. That’d really show him up.
She went to the hall to get her coat and pulled it on, then went back into the living room. ‘Do you want me to get you anything while I’m out?’ she asked, pulling her hair free of the collar. ‘Food, drink?’
‘No thanks. Your mom stocked the place up for me. It was part of the deal.’
‘Sweet deal.’
‘You’re not kidding. And I did the same for her.’
‘She told me you’d got her turkey and ham. How did you know she’d want to cook a full Christmas dinner at your place?’
‘I asked her what she wanted. She put in an order.’
‘Did you put in an order with her?’
‘No, I just told her I didn’t want to do any major cooking and pretty much left it up to her.’
‘So what have you got?’
‘There’s smoked salmon, veggie lasagne, a fish pie…’
‘That’s my brother Aidan’s fish pie. We always have it on Christmas Eve.’
‘Homemade bread, pigs in blankets—’
‘We call them sausage rolls.’
‘Lots of mince pies, a Christmas cake,’ Evan continued. ‘Plus cheese and a bunch of deli stuff. So you might want to pick up some stuff for yourself while you’re out, but I’m all set.’ He put his hands behind his head and gave her a smug smile.
‘Are you seriously saying there isn’t enough food for both of us?’
‘Don’t blame your mom. She thought I was going to be here on my own.’
‘Oh, come on! Mum doesn’t do individual portions.’
‘I suppose we could make it stretch if you insist on staying.’
‘Wow, that’s so generous of you.’
‘I know.’
‘There’s no turkey or ham? Stuffing?’
He shook his head. ‘I wasn’t going to cook a full Christmas dinner just for myself. Anyway, I already had all that at Thanksgiving.’
At least she’d still get a traditional Christmas dinner at Carmel’s. But it was a pity there wouldn’t be any leftovers in the house. Leftover sandwiches were her favourite Christmas food.
‘I’m more into the sandwiches the next day anyway,’ Evan said, as if he’d read her mind.
‘Well, I’m sure Carmel will give us some leftovers if we ask her,’ she said, buttoning her coat.
‘I’ll get some things to bring to their house tomorrow while I’m in Dingle.
’ She gave him a sly smile. ‘If you don’t want to come shopping with me, I guess you’ll have to turn up with your arms swinging. That’ll be embarrassing for you.’
‘My arms swinging?’ He laughed, eyebrows raised questioningly.
‘It means turning up empty-handed, and it’s not done around these parts.’
‘Well, maybe I shouldn’t go over for dinner after all, then?’
‘Don’t be like that. It was very nice of them to invite us and you’ve already accepted.
It’d be rude to back out now, especially when Carmel’s already made your personalised place setting.
’ She chewed her lip thoughtfully. ‘Tell you what. I’ll get the O’Sullivans something from both of us if you agree to share all the food. ’
He gave a resigned sigh. ‘Okay. Deal.’