Chapter Twenty-Nine
‘Wakey, wakey,’ I whisper to the body under my covers.
I set a cup of sweet tea on the bedside table with warm buttery toast. A delicious breeze floats through my window, thanks to Donal.
Not a movement, just a slight rise and fall of my white linen bedsheet on the left side as a small snore echoes from beneath.
I move my dog-eared copies of Bridal Guide, My Wedding, The Knot and Confetti onto the floor, then I round the bed and pull across my Maku curtain.
It’s only ten in the morning, and already the skies are pure blue, not a cloud to be seen.
These glorious clear skies that have become as normal as the ringing of the Angelus at six o’clock.
There’s movement and a groan from under the covers; I turn my head.
The smell of freshly baking donuts from across the road rushes in.
‘Wakey, wakey. It’s ten o’clock,’ I say, in a quiet voice.
I’m still in my sleep shorts and sports-bra top, bare feet.
My head throbs a little bit from the bottle of Baileys we had when Mia woke me up at one in the morning.
I’m pretty sure it was slightly gone off, too.
I was conscious of my day ahead today, so I did drink water in between.
We had the best talk and I’m so glad about that.
‘Good morning.’ I gently pull the sheet back as Mia’s short, half-gelled blonde curls appear.
She’s still fast asleep. The poor thing got back to her house in Dalkey after the party, but Logan didn’t wake to let her in!
She’d given him her key. Typical Logan. Never sparing a thought for anyone else.
I just know that Donal would have ensured he left her key under the plant pot and texted her to tell her.
In fact, I’d surmised, Logan was the polar opposite to Donal in every way.
Only concerned about how his life was running; no thought to anyone who didn’t directly help him in his endeavours.
There is no way Logan would have wrapped his arm around a sick, homeless addict and walked him to an ATM to give him money for a hostel and then buy him a hot meal, the way Donal had outside my flat.
‘Morning,’ Mia croaks now, her bedhead sticking fully out of the sheet. ‘Sorry, again, for waking you. That idiot brother of mine! Cost me nearly a hundred euro in a bloody cab! Oh! My head!’ She holds her palm to her skull.
‘The Baileys!’ I grimace. ‘No worries, I wasn’t asleep, as I told you. I was staring at the ceiling, deliberating life. Again, I’m sorry I left without telling you.’
‘Oh, I understand why you did, don’t worry.’ She yawns, pulls herself up against the headboard. ‘How do you feel this morning?’
‘Better than I thought I would, to be honest.’
She rubs her eyes. ‘I still can’t believe my idiot brother tried to get you back?’
‘Yeah, well, there we have it. And again, I’m also sorry I didn’t confide in you that I had been secretly wanting him since he left me.’
‘Like I said, I knew.’ She stares at me with sympathetic eyes.
‘Well, look. We’ve both moved on now, and like we promised last night, no more secrets. I nipped across to SuperValu to buy bread so brought you a cuppa tea and toast,’ I tell her, and she reaches for the cup on the side table.
‘Thank you, I’m gasping,’ she says gratefully.
‘I’ve had two cups already.’ I laugh.
‘So, I have some news,’ Mia says. ‘I didn’t get a chance to tell you last night because we had so much to talk about.
But I got an offer of a full-time job, entertainment journalist with the Telegraph Sunday-supplement magazine.
I’ve wanted to apply for years, but I couldn’t with Michael, and I’m just over the moon they are taking me on.
I never thought I’d have this career, so I’m going to move to Belfast. I’m investing some of the house sale in stocks and shares and using the rest for rent. I just want a brand-new start.’
Mia looks happier than I’ve seen her in years, and my smile says it all. ‘That’s amazing! Mia! I’m so happy for you. Look at you! How exciting! Congratulations!’ I bend over and hug her tightly.
‘I don’t want another serious relationship for a long time. Marek is brilliant, but I’m not jumping into that. I want to concentrate on me, building my career, being independent. It’s time I stood on my own two feet and grabbed the world by the balls!’
I nod in understanding. ‘Good for you. I’ve no doubt you will be a big success. You are brilliant at what you do.’
‘My first job is interviewing Stephen Rea, the actor, next week about a short film he’s done called éist. It’s tipped for an Oscar nomination. I just adore him, so I’m buzzing!’
‘I’m buzzing off your buzzing!’ I laugh wildly.
‘You sleep?’ Mia sips her tea.
‘The Baileys helped.’ I nod.
‘I’m so glad you’re okay.’ She looks so beautiful with her still smudged make-up and wild bed hair.
‘I really am,’ I reassure her.
Without missing a beat she says, ‘Did Donal get in touch?’ Then blows into her cup, sipping again.
‘No. And he won’t,’ I tell her, my voice perfectly resigned.
Mia pats my hand. ‘You don’t know that. Oh, tea’s heavenly, thank you.’ She swallows another mouthful with an audible gulp.
We sit in silence as Mia drinks her tea and nibbles at her toast. When she’d arrived last night, I told her all about Donal and what happened at House with Logan.
In a really short space of time, I told her how much I actually liked Donal, as she fell onto my couch, wide eyed and tipsy.
And I finally got the answer I already knew to a question I asked her.
Logan had been home to Dublin three times since we broke up, she told me.
We’d gone through that half bottle of Baileys, deciding not to look at the best-before label, declaring what we didn’t know wouldn’t kill us.
Mia kept telling me to call Donal and apologise, but there was no point.
I had used him. As far as he was concerned, I had only agreed to go on that date with him because I desperately needed someone to face Logan with me, and I would never have gone otherwise.
I looked like a phoney. Donal was anything but.
‘Is that your phone?’ Mia nudges me.
‘Huh?’ I prick my ear to the door, and hear my phone ringing in the kitchen.
I jog out to the kitchen, grab my phone from the counter, pull the charging cable out. I see six missed calls.
brIDE BELINDA is flashing up.
Uh-oh.