Chapter 5
5
“So, nothing was resolved, or something was? Which is it? I’m confused.”
Maeve looked over at Oonagh, frowning as they both continued to find ways to spread out all the information and give aways the Down GAA expected to be passed out from their booth located on the edge of the Land of Giants area in Warrenpoint’s Municipal Park. Although the festival didn’t officially start until 10:00 a.m. and the Giants Parade at 1:00 p.m., families were out earlier, taking their kids to see where the giant Fionn Mac Cumhaill was sleeping on his motorcycle. It was a tradition for kids to get their pictures taken in front of the sleeping giant as they shouted and banged on his foot to wake up.
“Like I said. He said he loved me, and before I could even wrap my head around his revelation and his declaration of love, he just apologized for ruining our lunch and promised I would never have to worry about seeing him again.”
“And you just let him leave without a better explanation?”
“He didn’t give me the chance! He peeled out of the parking lot as fast as he could before I even took three steps away from his car after closing the door.”
“And you haven’t spoken to him or seen him since this happened over a week ago?”
“Nope. He only communicates now strictly by text or email. Besides, how was I supposed to react when he finally told me the truth of what had happened that night? It was a lot to process. Feckin’ bloody plike.”
“Please tell me how you really feel,” Oonagh laughed. “I feel blessed that I was the only one who knew what happened to you that night. Shane once told me that after you left for the States, he’d run into Liam a few times when he was performing in Belfast. He had the impression that there was more to the story on his end, and always looked a bit sad. But now we know.”
“Enough about Liam. Don’t forget to put aside and label at least seven boxes of the colored lanyards to put on the GAA and Olympic parade floats. The lanyards that are free tour passes to visit the Croker; the players can toss them to the kids along the parade route. By the way, thanks for volunteering to help set up the booth.”
“No problem, any time. Do you think the Church Lane Coffee stand is open now? I could use a coffee and a nibble. You interested? I can run over and pickup an order.”
“Yes, please; the largest coffee they have and a wee bun. I’ll stand guard here until the volunteers from Down show up.”
Pulling up a chair in the booth, Maeve sat down to relax, stealthy doing a bit of people watch as more vendors finished setting up. A few came over to introduce themselves and exchanged a bit of craic making sure she knew where the location of the secret loo was so she wouldn’t have to stand on long public lines. They were also excited to have the Newry, Mourne, and Down District Council, and the GAA bring more attention to this corner of Ireland and its history.
Just as Oonagh returned to the booth with their coffee, Maeve heard what sounded like distant thunder rolling in. She knew it wasn’t the actual weather because the sky was clear, and the sun was shining, but she could guess what was happening.
“Oh, sweet Jesus, Mary, and Joseph—would you look at that? Our hometown hero had arrived. You’d think he was the bloody pied piper the way his fans are following him, trying to touch his person for luck.”
Maeve choked on her coffee, laughing at Oonagh’s very accurate description of the ‘fandamonium’ Liam McCann’s public arrival generated.
“And here I thought it was only the wee lads and lasses who followed his tune.”
“Bollocks … where are the damn fairies when you need them? My guess is they’re still hiding out at the Fairy Glenn in Rostrevor. They must have missed the memo.”
Moving his way down the street through the growing crowd following him, they watched as Liam finished signing a few autographs while posing for a few pictures and selfies, before reaching his final target to where Maeve and Oonagh sat.
“Good morning, ladies. Isn’t it a grand day to welcome Fionn Mac Cumhaill to our legendary festival and celebratory craic?”
Oonagh couldn’t suppress her feelings, giving Liam an eye roll.
“My aren’t you a gas. Hitting the bottle a bit early this morning, or are you still langered from a night out with the boys?”
“As always, a pleasure Oonagh. It’s been a while, and I can still see you and Maeve are thick as thieves and she’s kept you apprised of our exciting time of reconnecting after so many years. Hard to believe we never really ran into each other before this.”
“If that’s what you’re calling it.”
Maeve jumped quicky to keep one of them from drawing first blood.
“Okay, that’s enough. Thank you for coming out this morning. Are you here to man the first shift of booth duty?”
“Yes, that is what I’m here for. There are a few other players who are on their way to cover the presence of hurling and handball teams to start the rotation of volunteers Aisling put together.”
“Great, things are under control. So, if you don’t need anything else from me, we’re going to take off and see a bit of the festival before it gets too busy.”
“G’wan then.”
Walking away from the booth, Maeve looked over at Oonagh, and raised an eyebrow at her.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
Sighing, Maeve just shook her head.
“I can see he’s hurting. That flippant conversation he just had with you. It’s one of his self-protection tells.”
“I thought he was just being an ass. Can’t believe you saw all that in one short conversation.”
“My reaction messed with his head. That why I’m going to follow the suggestion you gave me made a couple of weeks ago.”
“Remind me; what did I say that was so profound that you are finely listening to my advice?”
“I’m going to tell him that I never stopped loving him either.”
After the end of a very successful day, Maeve was to wound up to go home. Knowing that she had to be at the football grounds by 7:00 in the morning, she wanted to celebrate her personal victory in pulling off the daunting task of showcasing Irish sports at one of the largest annual events in the region. Walking past the evening concert at the bandstand, she stopped to listen to Brian Kennedy, long loved entertainer, singing his famous Irish love song.
Closing her eyes to listen and concentrate on the melody and the lyrics, she discovered a connection to the story being told of a woman finding love again after the heartache for a lost love. It’s message was to never give up, and your true love will find you, if you just stop and look around. Love doesn’t have to be perfect to be genuine.
Pulling out her cell phone from her bag, she scrolled through her list of contacts then selecting Liam’s information to open the window for sending a text message.
Liam, come celebrate with me. I’m at
The Whistledown Hotel. Pints are on me.
I’m grabbing an outdoor table now.
Glancing at the full moon that hung in the cloudless, steel gray sky over the open waters of Carlingford Lough, Maeve sat down at an empty table in the outdoor patio area that fronted the hotel. As time slowly ticked by, doubt and panic set it. Her spontaneous action to text Liam an invitation to join her had been mistake, as her second-guessing tendencies kicked in. Convincing herself this whole idea was a huge mistake; she grabbed her bag and phone from the table and began preparing to leave when she heard his voice.
“Hey.”
Startled, Maeve quickly sat back down in her seat, as Liam stepped up onto the patio.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Am I too late for the free pint?”
Detecting the hint of a smile on his lips, she watched him pulling the chair out next to her. Picking up the table menu listing the festival weekend specials, he flipped the card from front to back, giving her the impression he was considering if he wanted to order something of the menu. Even under the patios warm lighting, she could see he was staling and calculating what to say to her.
“No, you’re not late. Though in ten minutes I was thinking I would have to either send out a search party or drink alone.”
He was chuckling in response when the waiter can over to take their order.
“The lady and I will have two large pints of the black stuff, and a Finn’s Giant Meringue Mess Sundae. Oh, and don’t forget to bring an extra spoon.”
Walking back into the hotel to place their order, Liam grinned at her.
“I didn’t think to ask. I assume you still have your wicked sweet tooth and insatiable dessert addiction?”
“Of course. I’m surprised you remember. As my one of my daily centering mantras states, ‘life is too short to end with dessert’?”
“That it is.”
The waiter returned with their pints and the massive ice cream sundae which sent them into spontaneous laughter at the size of the confection they were going to share. As their mutual mirth subsided, Maeve lifted her pint glass and extended it towards Liam as he did as well in her direction.
“Slante.”
After taking a drink, Maeve then put down her glass, avoiding direct eye contact with Liam as she lifted one the spoons next to the sundae, to take a bite. The sound of pleasure hummed from her mouth as she spoke her verdict on the dessert.
“Gorgeous, just gorgeous.”
Picking up the other spoon, Liam took his own bite, shutting his eyes with his own moan and smile of agreement.
“Liam, I owe you an apology for how I reacted to our conversation when we tried to have lunch. I wasn’t angry, just shocked and I needed some space to process what you said. Especially when you said you love me. It made things very confusing since there were so many loose ends and hurt beliefs.”
Liam stared at her with his lips pursed tightly. A mixture of changing emotions traveling across his features as he weighed the pros and cons of how to respond. Bollocks she whispered to herself internally, this wasn’t a good sign.
“Thanks; apology accepted. Despite the two of us avoiding each other over the last six years, I’ve enjoyed spending time with you and working together. I’d forgotten how passionate you were about Irish sports. You also made me realized that you didn’t have the whole picture of what really had happened the night we broke up, and I needed to bring that to light.”
“So why aren’t you addressing the elephant sitting next us here at the table.”
“Oh, the Giant’s messy sundae? It is huge, and …”
“Stop it. I’m talking about your love confession.”
“Oh yeah, that. Yes, I have come to the realization that I still love you and probably never stopped. It explains my dismal track record with the ladies,” Liam chuckled. “But if we are going to be bluntly honest with each other, how do you feel? I want you to be happy, but I also need to hear from you if there is even a chance we could start over.”
Tapping her spoon against her pint glass, Maeve took a moment to verbalize her thoughts to his question.
“If you had asked me this question an hour ago, I would have said, yes, ditto to your everything you have said or speculated. But, sitting here now, discussing all these big emotions and feelings, I know I really do need to take a step back.”
“In other words, yes the feeling is more than mutual, but you aren’t ready to commit.”
A slow burning anger and agitation crawled up her spine. Where was this sudden change of attitude coming from? Talk about mixed messages and crossed signals.
“That’s not what I said. I need time to process. Yes, I love you, but we need to take things slow, let things progress at their own speed. Did you think we could just flip a switch, and things would go back to how they were before we broke up? We may not see that now, but we are two different people and have both changed more than we think. Do my feeling even have any validity?”
Lifting his pint glass, Liam knocked back its remains, before reaching into his pocket for his wallet to extract a few bills, tossing them onto the table.
“You’re right. We both need to take a few more steps back to seriously think about where we go with this earth-shattering reveal. Maybe it was immature of me to think that if we cleared the air, all would be happy. But it makes sense. Do we want what we had, or find something new? Either way, it’s getting late, and I must be at the grounds early for warmups. Again, thanks for the pint, and the serious craic to consider.”
Leaning in, Liam bent down to kiss her cheek as Maeve’s hand shot upwards to caress the spot warmed by his lips as he continued turning away, walking back up the street and into the crowd of people still milling around at the roads’ insertion. If his gesture didn’t seal their situation’s end, then she was more of an idiot than she had previously thought.