Chapter Thirty-Four
‘That’s not what Peter R. told us,’ Kathleen chirps in. ‘He definitely saw a kiss.’
I turn to Logan, my eyes pleading, my face sweating, fanning myself with my hand. ‘Tell them. Please, tell them all the truth.’
‘It’s really over between us? You’re not just playing hard to get?’ Unbelievably it seems the penny still hasn’t dropped. Logan Hunter is used to getting what he wants. All the time.
‘Yes!’ I drag the short word out as far as I can, exasperated. ‘We are over. It’s done.’
Logan holds his head in his hands. ‘Seriously cannot believe you really won’t take me back, Gracie?
Wow. Did not see that coming. You’ve really changed.
’ Logan seems shellshocked, his ego bruised and battered.
His tousled blond locks are indeed preened to perfection with gel, his well-manicured fingernails rest on his lip.
He’s immaculately put together, despite saying he ‘rushed’ out first thing to find me.
‘It is him!’ Denise pipes in again. ‘You’re that actor bloke, I’ve seen ya on Ireland AM.’
‘Thank you. Thank you very much.’ Logan smirks at her.
‘She didn’t say she liked ya, she just said she’d seen ya. No need for the thanks,’ Amanda snorts.
‘It’s over, Logan. It been over since you walked out on me on our wedding day without a care in the world for my feelings. It was probably over before that, if I’m really honest. I am truly over you,’ I tell him with absolute confidence.
‘He left ya on yer weddin’ day?’ Belinda’s voice is softer now. ‘Oh, hun. Fuck a duck, that’s brutal.’
‘Prick,’ Amanda proclaims.
‘Gobshite,’ Denise hisses.
‘I texted her before. It’s not like I left her standing at the altar!’ Logan throws his hands out wide.
‘Well I can’t fathom how they’ve not given you the Nobel Peace Prize yet, ya brave boy!’ Belinda jeers.
Donal steps in. ‘Speaking of weddings?’ he says, controlled. ‘It’s my sister’s big day and we better get her back into that church. Stevo will think he’s in a scene from The Graduate.’
‘Wha’?’ Belinda screws up her face, ‘Stevo’s not a graduate, he never even did his Leaving Cert, he’s a plumber.’
‘Benjamin and Elaine?’ Donal says.
‘Who the fuck are they? On the groom’s side?’ Belinda asks, hissing in a low voice.
‘Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross! Great movie, man . . .’ Logan says, then starts to sing in his trained baritone voice, ‘Hello darkness my old friend, do-de-do-de-do-de-do-de-do-de-do-de-do . . .’
‘Is he high?’ Amanda asks seriously.
I take action. I have to. ‘Logan, shut up! I need you to confirm what I’m about to say.’ I spin him around by his elbow. ‘Before you all go back in, please let me tell you the truth about last night?’
The Kearneys all stare at me.
‘The truth is this. Last night, Logan told me he still loved me, tried to get me back. I had thought this was what I wanted since he left me, but then I met Donal and something changed. But last night, some drunk yup boy pushed into me and I fell into Logan, who’d followed me, and that’s when he kissed me.
’ I look at Donal. ‘And that’s when you walked out and saw us .
. .’ I am panting as I hold his eye contact.
‘Oh she DOES like ya!’ one of the sisters yells, I don’t know which one because I’m fully focused on Donal’s face.
‘Ya didn’t believe her!’ another tags on.
‘Do you believe me now?’ I ask Donal, I don’t care about anyone else, only him.
‘But . . . you got into a taxi together so soon after I left?’
‘I was going home. Again, Logan followed me out, practically forced his way into my cab, then tried it on again. I swear on my life.’ I cross my heart.
‘Well I—’ But before Donal can answer me, Logan butts in.
‘Listen, dude. I know when I haven’t nailed an audition and that’s what this feels like. It’s over for me. I’ve lost this one. She wants you.’ He reaches up and places his hand on Donal’s shoulder, dropping his chin to his chest in a very dramatic fashion. Always the performer.
Silence falls.
Logan starts to walk away, the crunching under his feet as he exits my life.
Stage left.
Curtain down.
We all stand looking at one another in the baking sunshine. The seagulls break the silence as they soar in circles. Me, the Kearneys, and the squawk of the seagulls.
Belinda finally speaks. ‘Sorry to be a pain in the hole here, but I’ve a church full of wedding guests and a pint of Bulmers and a roast beef dinner waiting for me in Howth, and I for one could eat a scabby man’s leg through a gatepost. Peter R.
?’ They all look to their big brother for the next steps.
‘Absolutely. This is your day. Let’s go make an honest woman of you.’ Donal props his hand on his hip and Belinda links her arm through his.
‘Yes, go, please,’ I say. ‘I can walk home, it’s not that far. Have the best day, sorry, again.’
‘You sure?’ Donal checks as he straightens his tie.
‘Quite sure.’ I nod, as I take a few steps backwards.
Amanda claps her hands. ‘Right, let’s get this one up the aisle!’
‘Bombs away!’ Denise declares, fixing the bottom of Belinda’s dress. It takes every fibre of my being not to adjust the train myself.
‘Everything will be fine.’ Kathleen arches up on the tippy-toes of her Chanel kitten heels and whispers in my ear.
‘He really likes you, and he hasn’t liked anyone in so, so long.
Love is a complicated thing . . . I met Marina, my girlfriend, on a couple’s retreat.
We were both there with our boyfriends!’ She laughs heartily. ‘But when you know, you know, right?’
‘Let’s go, gang,’ Donal tells them and they gather in a line.
I slip away.
No one calls after me. I finally allow the tears to fall.