Positively Yours (2 page)

‘Well, as you can see, we are very busy, and we try to save the staff time for displaying buggy options to people who are actually about to have a baby.'

‘I'm sorry,' Erin managed to whisper back to the young girl, who was now returning the buggy to the display.

Erin was about to explain to her that all she wanted was a child – and to spend every weekend in stores like this, discussing cot, buggy and nursery options – but she could see the girl was annoyed. So she turned and walked towards the shop door. As she left she could see the girl pointing her out and talking to another assistant. No doubt they are discussing how crazy I am, shopping for a buggy when there is no baby in sight, Erin thought.

She caught a glimpse of herself reflected in the busy South Dublin baby shop window. Her white face and big sad brown eyes stared back at her. She debated going to the hairdresser to get her long brown hair blow-dried before going out for dinner tonight with her husband and friends, but after the embarrassment in the baby shop, she decided to head home. She looked back at the mums and mums-to-be entering Little Tots, and couldn't help feeling pangs of jealousy. All she wanted was to be pregnant. She placed her hand on her flat stomach.

‘When will it be my turn?' she asked out loud.

‘
I HAVE A
delivery here for Erin Delany,' said the courier.

‘I'm Erin, let me sign for that,' she said. The young man in a helmet handed it to her, got back on his motorbike and sped off.

Erin closed the door behind him, and as she started walking back up the polished oak stairs towards her office she began opening the large wrapped parcel. Out fell two pieces of fabric – one a soft brown cloth embossed with blue flowers, and the other a heavy crimson and gold embroidered piece. Erin had been waiting all week for her supplier to send these swatches of material. They were for one of her clients, who still couldn't find the right fabric for their new curtains.

An interior designer, Erin worked in a small yet bright office in Sandymount alongside her friend Paula O'Driscoll, an architect. Erin had always been fascinated by colours and materials and had opted to study interior design in college for three years. Her first job had been in the busy design section of Habitat, before she moved on to work in Hudson's – a small, exclusive interior design firm, where she spent most of her time fitting out apartments for investors all over the city as well as supervising two pub fit-outs and working on the concept for a funky new Thai restaurant in Temple Bar. Constantly obsessed with light, colour, texture and design, she went to
endless trouble to source new materials from Swedish, French and Irish designers and craftsmen. She got huge satisfaction from the family homes she helped renovate or redesign.

Despite being rushed off her feet, Erin had still found the time to fall in love. She'd met her future husband, John, through her cousin Barry. Barry was mad into sailing, and so was John. Erin and her two older sisters, Alison and Rebecca, were always hanging out with Barry and his gorgeous sailing buddies, and when one night his friend John tagged along, Erin had known from the second they were introduced that she liked him. He had such kind eyes and made her feel so comfortable. She was sick of trying to meet ‘nice men' in nightclubs, it just hadn't happened, but then along had come John! Those early days were such fun, with discos in the sailing club and afternoon trips to Howth Harbour! And before she knew it weeks had turned into months, and months into years, and they were married.

The following year her friend Paula returned from working in London, and like many architects wanted to become her own boss. Paula suggested that they go into business together, combining the skills of an interior designer and an architect. She believed they would complement each other, and urged Erin to think about setting up their own company. Erin liked the idea of being her own boss and choosing what projects she got to work on. And so, encouraged by her husband and after much deliberation, the two friends had set up in business together, offering a complete design service.

They had found a run-down office to rent, above an optician in Sandymount village. Despite its neglect, the office's warren of pokey rooms upstairs had two big bay windows that let in great light and overlooked the busy street below. John had been a great help in turning the old and cramped rooms into a brand new office. He was busy working in the bank during the day, but spent every evening helping to get the place right.
It had taken a lot of hard work knocking down partition walls to enlarge the work space, but it had been worth it in the end. They had never been so excited as the first day when Paula unlocked the old cream wooden front door and declared the two girls ‘in business' at last.

Erin and Paula had gone into partnership when the economy was booming and there was plenty of money to spare. Back then people had been more prepared than ever to spend money on completely refurbishing their newly bought houses, holiday homes and offices. But as the economy changed, business became harder to come by. Months had gone by without Erin working on any new apartments or fancy offices. And with nothing new being built, Paula was finding it harder to get any work also. They were both struggling, but hoping they could ride out the recession. And while the glory years seemed to have gone, Erin had noticed that people were still doing upgrades on their current places. Many weren't buying flash new houses any more, but were staying put and using any spare money to do up what they already had. Attic conversions, remodellings and extensions were what people suddenly wanted and needed help with. And regardless of the economy there was always someone buying an old wreck of a house and needing help not only from an architect but also from someone who could give the place a fresh clean look, too. Erin and Paula were both good with their clients and through word of mouth they gradually got enough jobs to keep them going. They still had to compete with the big firms, but theirs was a smaller, more individual service. They could not only help maximize the space in a house but give advice on furnishing it too, and all within a budget.

Erin enjoyed working with clients and discussing with them what they wanted to do with their property. Each project was individual and different and she could get lost for hours planning and sketching design briefs. To her, each job was
as important as the next: she was not only helping someone change their home but putting her own mark on it, too.

She was in a competitive business, and she had to work long and hard, but as the years went by, she didn't mind spending hours measuring rooms, meeting tradesmen, working on budgets or getting quotes on kitchens, because it all kept her mind off the big white elephant in the room, the one thing she wanted more than anything, yet couldn't get no matter how many suppliers she had on speed dial – a child of her own.

GRACE MILLER WAS
searching online for a Hallowe'en costume for her golden retriever Coco when her phone rang.

‘Hi, Mum!' Grace said, as she closed the internet down and made her way to the plush oversized cream couch that filled her living room.

‘Grace? How did you know it was me?' her mum asked suspiciously.

‘We have Caller ID. Everyone in the States has it. I have told you this a million times! So how is everyone in Ireland?' she asked.

‘Well, I know I'll see you in America next week, but everyone else is just counting down the days until you are home, pet,' said Patsy Slattery to her only daughter.

Grace smiled as she looked around her large Californian home, imagining how her life was about to change. Grace and her husband Ethan were leaving ‘the golden state' and America to go and live in Dublin. They were only moving there for a year, but it was still a big decision, and even though Ethan was the American and had never spent more than two weeks at a time in Ireland, it was Irish-born-and-raised Grace who was more nervous of the move. She had gotten used to her large house with its own swimming pool, the sun permanently shining in the sky, and the American way of
life. And even though she couldn't wait to live closer to her mum and family, she knew she would miss the climate, the twenty-four-hour outlet malls, and the American breakfasts – complete with pancakes, big omelettes, bacon, waffles, grits and coffee refills!

Patsy started to fill Grace in on a welcome-home party that her two brothers wanted to throw for her in November. But before she moved home to Ireland, Patsy was coming over to visit Grace for a week. Not only to help Grace pack, but also to get some sunshine before the long Irish winter set in.

‘Your brothers are so excited to have their big sister home. And I know Ethan's work say it is only for a year, but when you start your family you might decide Ireland really is a better place to raise a child!'

Grace's whole mood changed, and she sat up straighter on the couch and repeated what she had already said to her mother a million times.

‘Ethan and I are perfectly happy with our lives. We are a family already; we do not need screaming kids ruining that. How many times do I need to tell you? Please, Mum, no more talk of me having babies, it is not going to happen.'

And with that Grace managed to get her mum off the phone and go back to searching for cute Hallowe'en outfits for Coco.

‘Who needs whining children, when I have you, Coco?' she said, as she began ordering a dog's Harry Potter costume.

GRACE WAS BUSY
packing up the house in San Diego. They were renting it out for the year they would be in Ireland, so Grace needed to put in storage anything she wasn't bringing home with her. She started with the photo frames, and carefully covered some of her favourites in bubble-wrap. It was while she was parcelling up the three silver wedding gift ones and the fancy glass frame Ethan's sister-in-law Cindy had given them, that she came across an old photo album of the summer she had first come to America. She sat down on her bed and began flicking through the photos and memories.

She smiled, remembering that time when, as gawky students, she and her friend Sharon had spent a summer working in San Diego. It was only supposed to be for a few months, in-between finishing college and starting ‘real life and real jobs'. They had arrived over and booked into a motel on Pacific Beach, and immediately Grace had fallen in love with the sunshine, the sea at her front door and the laid-back way of life. She had gotten a job in a restaurant called the Marina Grill, which overlooked the ocean. It had been popular with local residents and tourists alike, due to its stunning location, large fresh fish menu and famous beer-battered onion rings! The staff had all been young, and after their shift ended they
had often closed the restaurant but stayed on drinking beer there until the early hours of the morning. Sharon used to join Grace and one of the other waitresses, Rachel, for a drink after her day working as a guide in San Diego's SeaWorld, and the girls had many a fun night with the waiters and any Irish tourist that stopped in. It was while working there that she had met Ethan Miller.

Ethan had been a local, and many a night had had a burger and fries in the Marina Grill. Grace had often served him, and found his confident and chatty manner a change from many of the quiet young Irish boys she'd known back home. Before long, the other waiters started teasing Grace that Ethan only wanted her to serve him. And it had been no surprise when – the evening he'd managed to make eating a basket of fries last two hours – he'd admitted that all he'd really been doing was waiting for Grace's shift to end, so he could buy her a drink. When Grace had finally collapsed into her bed in the motel at 3 a.m. that night, Sharon had known that her friend was smitten. Soon all Grace had talked about was Ethan, but Sharon hadn't complained: it had been great that her friend's new boyfriend was a local, and could show them around California. And they had spent many a weekend piling into Ethan's old jeep and exploring San Francisco, Los Angeles and even Tijuana. As the summer progressed Grace had fallen more and more in love with the golden state and Ethan. He was everything the Irish men she knew weren't: blond, tanned, athletic and full of life. He said she was different from all the Californian blonde bimbos he knew, what with her long red Irish hair and clear green eyes.

Before Grace knew it, the summer had been over and it had been time to go back to Ireland. Sharon had been eager to get back to Dublin and start a career in finance – after studying business for four years she'd been keen to make her mark on
the Celtic Tiger – but Grace hadn't wanted to return to ‘rainy old Ireland'. She had studied marketing, and as Ethan had kept reminding her, she could work in marketing in the States, too. The thought of working in America, where Grace was beginning to feel at home, with the man of her dreams beside her, had been too tempting. It had been a huge decision, but one she'd felt was right, so after returning to Ireland to pack her belongings and break the news to her family, Grace had bought a one-way flight to San Diego and begun her new life with Ethan in America.

It had been exciting hanging out with Ethan's friends and spending days on the beach trying to get her Irish skin tanned. Unlike along the East Coast of America, being Irish had still been a novelty in San Diego, and Grace had soaked up the attention, and questions like: ‘Do you know Bono?' But the transition had been hard at times, too, and she had often been homesick, missing her family, and in particular her mum, a lot. When she had heard that her friend Sharon had not only gotten the big job in finance that she craved, but also met a man and bought a house with him, Grace had felt a little jealous. And there had been days when all she had craved were Denny Irish sausages and a bottle of Lucozade; but still, having Ethan had made up for all of that.

She had moved into his rented duplex apartment, only a ten-minute drive from the beach. Ethan and his friend Alex had been setting up their own IT company, and even though Grace had found it hard when he worked late hours, he'd kept saying that it was all for her, and that one day his firm would be huge, and then they would be able to afford a house right on the beach.