Are You Ready? (4 page)

‘Yeah, I know, Molly, I'm lucky to be going away. I can't wait to go on safari, and try whale-watching. I just wish I was going away today.' She laughed. ‘Anyway, I can see you are busy, but what are you doing this weekend? Maybe we can go for drinks? I'll ring Sarah and see if she's free.'

‘Good idea, I'll talk to you then. I've got to check on some brownies. Good luck with work.'

‘Yummy brownies. You're so lucky. I'm going back to an afternoon of total boredom. Anyway, hope to see you on Saturday.'

Ali paid for the sandwich, crossed over the road into Merrion Square, and sat on a park bench. A pity Molly was so busy, as Ali would have loved to have had a laugh and chat with her over lunch hour, anything to get her mind off work. But at least she had the park, and even though it was still a bit cold to be eating outside it was a great place to come and relax during her busy work day. It was here that she had actually met her boyfriend Robin.

It had been August, and Ali had been with some college friends for lunch. It had been roasting and they had all been half-eating half-sunbathing, and one of the guys had brought his work-colleague, Robin, along. Ali had fancied Robin right from the start: he was tall and big, with a massive head of dark hair, and always seemed to have a tan. She was his opposite, being small, with pale skin and short blonde hair. He was popular with the lads as he was very funny, and before long Ali had been praying he would be there for lunch, and wearing her best clothes into work the days
when she thought he might be. Soon it was just her and Robin meeting up, and one day when he suggested they didn't go back to work, and instead mitched off for the Friday afternoon, she hadn't needed to think twice about ringing her boss to say she had forgotten a dentist's appointment. She'd jumped in a cab with Robin and they had headed off to Killiney beach for the afternoon, ending with beers and a long overdue kiss. That night, on the way home in a taxi, Robin had rested his hand on Ali's knee and her heart had started flipping – she knew there and then that she was in love and he was the one for her.

That had been five years ago, and she had never looked back. She was madly in love with Robin, and even though they had become more settled, and spontaneous trips to the beach didn't really happen any more she didn't mind, they were so happy. She knew he was the one. She got her
Lonely Planet
guide to South Africa out of her handbag. Robin and herself had been saving for over a year for this special long-distance holiday. She smiled with excitement as she started reading about lions, wineries and shark-diving.

As Ali opened the door of her apartment, the smell of cooking was tantalizing. She was delighted: Robin was a great cook and there was nothing she liked better than one of his meals served up to her after a long day's work. Robin jumped out of the kitchen wearing jeans and his Batman apron and greeted her with a big long sloppy kiss.

‘You can't go into the kitchen yet,' he ordered. ‘I'm cooking you a surprise dinner, but I've a bath running for you, and you can relax in there.'

Ali grabbed him and hugged him.

‘You are the best boyfriend in the world,' she whispered into his ear. ‘I love you, but what is the big occasion?'

‘No occasion, I'm just getting excited about our trip, and thought we should kick-start the holiday countdown with a special evening. Anyway, I've left all the South African holiday brochures beside the bath so you can re-read them for the millionth time. Relax,
I'll call you when the food is ready.' And with that Robin closed the kitchen door.

Ali lay soaking in the bath, reading about the elephants, and the best time of day to go up Table Mountain. As she got out of the bath and started to get dressed she thought: I'm so spoilt, I have a great boyfriend, a beautiful apartment, and lovely friends. If I could just sort out work my life would be perfect.

As she waited to be called in for dinner she looked around and admired the apartment. It was so lovely, so warm, so them. They had bought it two years ago, and even though it had been hard to get enough money together to afford Dublin's crazy property prices, both of their parents had helped them, and with her being a solicitor and getting a 100 per cent mortgage, they had managed to buy a small apartment, part of a new development of eight apartments right in the heart of Dalkey village. It was so handy to be able to walk to the village's fashionable pubs, shops and restaurants. She had gotten so used to being able to walk home that she felt grumpy having to pay for a taxi when she was coming home at night-time!

The apartment had two bedrooms, and even though Robin had had great plans to turn the spare room into a study where he could do some of his architecture work at home, it was now Ali's walk-in wardrobe: full of all her clothes, shoes, bags and books. Her parents kept asking when she was going to get married and have a baby, but she kept thinking if they had a
baby they would need to buy it its own apartment, as there was no space here! But she knew she shouldn't complain: she had been so lucky to have met and fallen in love with Robin. For years she had found it hard to connect with the affluent ‘South Dublin' boys. She had felt most of them were very materialistic and barely knew where Kilkenny was, let alone Castlecomer, the little country town she had grown up in; but Robin was different and understood how even though she loved Dublin, she still savoured a trip home to her family in Kilkenny, and a weekend spent revisiting the Castle and going out for the day on a small boat in Dunmore East. In college she had at first lived in digs, then in various different apartments with other girls studying law, but there was nothing like living with someone you loved, someone who was ‘home' to you. Living with Robin was like being back living with her family: he was home and love and family all rolled into one.

Finally she was allowed to enter her own kitchen. Robin had turned off most of the lights, and put candles everywhere, with Norah Jones in the CD player. Two bowls of prawns cooked in wine and garlic lay on the table, and Robin was opening a bottle of white wine. She was overwhelmed. She kissed him long and hard.

‘What is all this for? Is everything OK?' she asked Robin.

‘Of course.' He laughed. ‘Like I said, I'm very excited about going away, and want to make sure you are, too. It will be a big trip for us and I wanted to get you in the mood, so I bought some South African
wine, and I've got steaks for our main course – I hear they are huge steak-eaters over there.'

‘All this to get me in a holiday mood? Wow, we should go away more often. You never fail to surprise me.'

‘Well, I was hoping you'd look at those leaflets on shark-diving again. I'd really like you to do it.'

‘I should have known there would be an ulterior motive! But to be honest, with enough wine and steak inside me I'd agree to anything.'

And as she washed back the prawns with a beautiful Sauvignon Blanc, she thought, Maybe I will go swimming with the great whites. It couldn't be any scarier than working with Mary every day anyway!

As Sarah sat packing envelopes with the art gallery's summer exhibition schedule, to be sent to all their biggest customers, she kept her eye firmly on her mobile phone, willing it to ring. Ever since she had met Ross in the bar with her sister last week, she had been dying for him to ring. She just knew he was different to all the rest of the guys who took her number: he had seemed so friendly and chatty that night, and Tom would hardly have been with him if he wasn't nice. She had actually fancied Tom for a long time. He was good fun, attractive, and unusually tall – which long-legged Sarah needed in a guy. But seeing as he was her sister's brother-in-law there was not much she could do about it, although she often suspected Mel would have loved her and Tom to have gotten together. Then they could have done plenty of couple things in a group. When Mel and John first got engaged everyone used to joke that as best man and bridesmaid they would surely hook up! But even though he used to flirt with her at first, he didn't seem that interested now, and she
presumed that like everyone else he felt sorry for Mel's little single over-the-hill sister. But she could forget all about Tom if this Ross guy came up trumps. Ring, ring, please ring. Oh God, she started laughing, most girls want an engagement ring, while I'll settle for even a phone ring!

Just then her mother walked in the door dressed in her cream Karen Millen trouser suit, and Avoca Hand-weavers long green woollen cardigan. At sixty-two she might be getting older, but she still dressed as stylishly as most twenty-seven-year-olds.

‘It's great to see you laughing, Sarah, better than that worried look you've had stuck to your face the last few days, staring at that phone like it held the answer to the Da Vinci Code. Must be a great man to make you want it to ring so badly. I hope he is worth it.'

‘I've told you, Mum, it's not a guy. You think I'm obsessed with finding a man, but don't get me confused with what everyone else wants for me. I'm just expecting a very important call from a client.'

‘A client! Well, I won't hold the Art World up then. I just came round to tell you I'll not be home for dinner tonight. I'll be late.'

‘Why? Where are you going?' Sarah asked, presuming her mum was out on another theatre night with her girlfriends.

‘Well, actually, I've a date.'

Sarah dropped the gallery schedules on the ground, sending them flying everywhere. ‘What do you mean, a date?' she almost shouted.

Sarah's dad had died almost seven years ago. After a long battle with cancer he had finally slipped away in his sleep one morning, surrounded by his whole family. They had all known he was nearing his end, and persuaded the hospital to let him die at home. It had been so sad, but he had been happy to be back overlooking his green garden full of all the plants and trees he had spent years growing. And even though Sarah knew her mum was still young, and that plenty of men were attracted to her looks and sense of fun, and even though there had been the odd mention of meeting ‘a friend' for a drink, she had never thought her mum would be ‘dating'.

‘Now, Sarah, I know this must be hard for you, seeing as you are still unmarried, unlike your sister, but someone in the house has to date, and if not you, then me. You know I still love your beloved father, but he would want me to be happy. So when Bill Macken from the bridge club asked me out, I thought why not? Anyway, we are going for dinner and drinks in Blackrock, so do not wait up for me. Have a good night, pet, and don't worry: one day your prince will come.' And with that she walked out of the gallery door and left Sarah shocked.

How come her mum was getting dates and Sarah wasn't? It was mortifying. And as happy as she was for her mum, she suddenly had visions of her getting married and leaving home and herself being left all alone with the cat.

Suddenly her mobile started ringing, and even though she would usually have waited a few rings
before answering a call from a new guy, she picked it up immediately.

‘Sarah, this is Ross, we met the other night with Tom. I'm sorry I didn't ring you sooner. How are you?'

How am I? she thought. I just found out my mum is dating and getting more interest from men than me, and that if something doesn't change soon I'm going to have to marry that creepy old man from the sandwich shop down the road just so I don't turn into Dublin's gloomiest spinster.

‘I'm fine, Ross, just busy in work. What's up?'

‘Well, I was wondering if you would like to go out some night this weekend for a drink?' As Sarah sat there she thought of her sister Mel, who always told her to play by ‘The Rules' and always pretend to be too busy for the first date just to see if the man was keen enough to persist until you agreed to meet him. But times were tough, and desperate times called for desperate measures.

‘I know this seems forward, Ross, but what about tonight? I could meet you in the same pub as last week – about 8 p.m.?'

And before Ross knew what had hit him Sarah had the whole night booked and planned. If her mum could go dating mid-week, so could Sarah! Now, what to wear?

Ross winked at Sarah from the bar as he ordered drinks and more peanuts. God, she needed more than one pack of peanuts, she needed more soakage. She could feel herself getting more and more drunk. She didn't mean to be like this on a first date, but after agreeing to meet Ross earlier she had spent the whole afternoon thinking of how she was the only one of her friends who was single and always ‘on the lookout for a man'. She had had some boyfriends, but none of them that serious, and the relationships had always ended before they reached the ‘let's move in' chat. About a year ago she had given up all hope of meeting someone, and slowly begun falling more and more into the single-girl-living-with-her-widowed-mother role. Even though she loved her mum, today had made Sarah realize for the first time that she was not just putting her own life on hold by becoming a young spinster, but putting her mother's life on hold, too. No wonder her mum hadn't been out on dates before: she had probably felt bad about leaving her youngest
daughter all alone at home with no man. Well, that had to change, and dating wasn't too bad once you got used to it; and Sarah was well used to it, what with her older sister and her many friends all setting her up. She had got used to knowing what were good and bad signs on a first date, and the way Ross was laughing so much meant he was having a good time, and she hoped he would ask her out again. Having a few extra drinks on her had made her louder, more confident, and if she said so herself, funnier. This date was going great.

Ross arrived back from the bar with their two pints of beer.

‘So let's get the whole single dating chat and stories out of the way, Sarah. We are both in our thirties and—'

‘Our early thirties,' Sarah interrupted.