Three Women (25 page)

With Tom due back tomorrow night, she didn’t want him coming home to an empty house and she had organized for Jack and Erin to come for dinner. The family needed to be together to discuss the situation. The company being sold or closed down would have a massive effect on everyone and Tom needed to know that he had the full support of his family.

Nina felt like everything was in slow motion as she prepared a simple meal and waited for Tom’s return. He had phoned her from the airport and sounded exhausted. Studying herself in the mirror, she was determined to look well and appear collected on his arrival. Her blonde hair was washed and dried, hanging softly round her face, her skin a honey colour from long walks on the beach; and she wore a simple Betty Barclay blue-grey shift dress which brought out the colour of her eyes. Mascara, lipstick and lip gloss, a spray of her favourite summer perfume, and she was ready to greet him.

Arriving in the hall door, he clung to her and she hugged him tight. His skin was almost grey and he looked tired out, his eyes full of disappointment.

‘Tom, leave your bag and come down to the kitchen,’ she fussed. ‘We’ll have a drink and you can tell me all about it.’

‘Unfortunately there’s not much good to tell,’ he admitted grimly.

She fixed two large gin and tonics and sat down beside him as he revealed the outcomes of the various meetings.

‘The firm is going to be sold to Larry Maxwell and his group. The figure they are paying is far less than what I would have expected for the company, but that is the only offer on the table. They will take over all the assets of the business and will also assume its debts. There will be a few redundancies, as they do not want to duplicate roles within the company. On the sale, I will resign from Harris Engineering but will retain a small shareholding and for a period of four months be available to help with any transitional problems with customers and suppliers,’ he explained, his voice breaking. ‘And then at the end of the sixteen weeks I’m out of it.’

‘Oh, Tom.’ Nina didn’t know what to say. ‘But at least this way you will get something for the company.’

‘By the time I pay off other outstanding loans for investments I made in two big property ventures, there will be very little left. I’m sorry.’

‘Is there any alternative to this?’ she asked.

‘No. There is no alternative, because the bank will just go ahead and put the company into receivership and then no one gets anything.’

Nina’s pity for her husband was heartfelt. He was seeing something he had worked so hard for crumble around him.

‘I feel so useless, Tom. I wish there was something I could do to help.’

‘There is nothing anyone can do at this late stage,’ he said
bitterly
. ‘It’s like a truck going down the mountain with no brakes – there is no way to stop it.’

‘Then we have to look to the future,’ she said, trying to be positive. ‘If the house has to be sold, so be it – we can find a new house, a smaller house. After all, there’s only the two of us really, and we don’t need anywhere too big.’

‘Selling now means that we’ll get nothing like what we would have got a few years ago if we put it on the market,’ he warned.

‘I know, but we’ll still get more than we originally paid for Clifton – so hopefully once you have paid off the loans we might have enough to just buy somewhere else,’ she said optimistically. ‘Then, fingers crossed, we can both work and between us we’ll get by … We’ll survive.’

‘Nina, you’re in cloud cuckoo land!’ he said, exasperated. ‘I’m sixty-four. Don’t you realize that there is no work for someone like me except I create it myself?’

‘Exactly!’ she said, doing her best to be hopeful.

An hour later Erin and Jack arrived, and Erin threw herself into Tom’s arms.

‘Dad, I’m so sorry,’ she said, flinging her arms around his neck.

Jack was stoical, saying little as Tom explained all the ins and outs of what had happened and about the expected takeover of the company.

‘But Dad, why can’t you stay in the company?’ insisted Erin. ‘It’s not your fault there’s been a downturn in the economy. You know the business, you love the business.’

‘I know, but Larry can expand it using his existing contacts all across the UK. There is great synchronicity, as they have been one of our main suppliers. We owe them a lot of money,
but
in return for this deal they will get a strong foothold in the Irish market for their products.’ He trailed off. ‘Then they won’t need me.’

‘Dad, please don’t do it!’ begged Jack. ‘The company is your life! Can’t you borrow the money from the bank?’

‘No, the bank is part of the problem!’

‘What about Uncle Bill?’

‘Bill has already helped as much as he can. I’m not asking him to put himself any further at risk financially over this!’

‘Well what are you going to do then?’ Erin asked.

‘We are going to have to sell the house,’ Tom said slowly. ‘It’s our only way to raise the necessary capital to pay off any outstanding loans and leave enough for your mother and me to buy a smaller place and have some money to retire on.’

‘Sell Clifton?’

‘Yes,’ Nina said firmly. ‘I know it must be a shock, and we are all upset about it, but it’s the only avenue open to us.’

‘I love this house,’ wailed Erin. ‘Jack and I don’t want you to sell it.’

‘It’s my fault our family home has got to be sold,’ Tom said, blaming himself, ‘but we have to sell it. There’s no choice.’

Dinner was a pretty sombre affair, but Nina could see that everyone realized how much effort was going to be needed in the months ahead.

‘Dad, is there any part of the business you can salvage?’ asked Jack.

‘The only thing that I’ll be left with are the two small agencies for Baz’s solar-panel systems, which Larry’s company has no interest in retaining as they manufacture similar solar-panel systems themselves. Personally I think that the Swedish ones are far superior, but they have little monetary value. I’m
still
friendly with Baz and Morten and they both said that they are still happy to have me continue to represent them here in Ireland.’

‘Well that’s something!’ said Nina. She had very little understanding of solar-heating systems, but at least it was a straw for Tom to cling on to.

By the end of the meal there was a growing sense of accepting the inevitable. Erin and Jack were both determined to support them as much as possible and not get involved in a blame game, which was what Tom had feared.

‘So what happens next?’ asked Erin.

‘I’ll talk to the auctioneers to arrange for them to come and see the house,’ he said. ‘The solicitors will draw up the contracts for the sale of the business and then … Well, I don’t know what happens then. I wish I did, but I have no bloody idea.’

‘Things will work out,’ Nina jumped in, seeing the dismay in their eyes. ‘They always do. Our generation is used to recessions and downturns and getting out of them. We will manage, so don’t you two be worrying about us.’

‘We can’t help worry!’ shouted Erin, bursting out crying. ‘You’re our mum and dad!’

They stayed talking for hours, till eventually Tom and Nina went to bed. Nina realized that Tom felt utterly defeated and was finding it extremely hard to come to terms with the sale of the company. Barring a miracle, in a few weeks Harris Engineering would be under new management.

‘Tom, it’s all going to be okay,’ she said, leaning over and kissing him. ‘We still have each other, and that’s what matters most.’

ERIN COULDN’T BELIEVE
how hot it was outside as dublin sweltered in a heatwave. Everyone was wandering around in sandals and T-shirts and sundresses, and sitting outside restaurants and cafés and bars as if they were in France, or stretched out on the grass sunbathing in the city parks, in St Stephen’s Green and Merrion Square.

Trying to put her worries behind her, Erin had gone off for a week’s holiday with Claire and Sinead in Marbella, to an apartment near the beach. Since then she’d been at Jenny’s hen weekend in Kilkenny and gone down to the cottage in West Cork for a few day’s break with Jack and her mum and dad.

She hadn’t seen Luke for weeks. But at least she had made the effort and gone over to London to Luke’s work barbecue thing held in one of the partners’ homes. She’d flown over on the Saturday morning, as she had a work thing herself on the Friday night, and discovered that Luke was working in the office himself most of that day. In the evening they’d gone to the barbecue in Richmond. The house and garden and food
had
been fabulous, but Luke had been so busy schmoozing with everyone that they had barely spoken.

The partner’s wife, Lauren, who was French, had come to talk to her. ‘Marcus always says that all the young men and women who work for him are far too busy trying to impress each other and outdo each other!’ she laughed. ‘In time they will calm down and make time for their pretty girls and wives and kind boyfriends, and realize what is important – home and family. It is just a question of time!’

But then Luke hadn’t bothered to come over to Dublin to visit her, even though things with her family were all up in a heap, with her dad absolutely gutted about losing his company. She and Jack were worried sick about what was going to happen and how they were going to get through it all. Neither of them had any money to help out, but the least they could do was to be there to support their parents as the house was going to have to be sold.

‘Erin, will you plug in that fan, please!’ begged Nikki. ‘I’m sweltering here.’ She was finding the last few weeks of her pregnancy really hard. She suddenly seemed to swell and puff up, and could no longer fit into anything half normal.

‘Shit – I look like a blimp. What is this baby doing to me?’ she wailed as Erin fastened her sandals and Claire made her another plate of sundried tomatoes and olives in oil. She hadn’t put on a single pair of her expensive high-heeled shoes in weeks, as her feet wouldn’t fit into any of them, and her racks of designer clothes lay forlornly in the wardrobe because her bust had got so big she couldn’t attempt to put any of them on lest she burst them!

They’d made an emergency visit to Mothercare and to the expensive maternity shop Bonne Maman.

‘This is outrageous,’ Nikki groaned, paying a fortune for a beautiful silvery-blue dress with a scooped neckline and material that seemed to skim her bump and hips, making her so sexy-looking that Claire wanted to buy one too.

‘You look like one of those Old Master paintings, all soft and sexy and curvy,’ she sighed. ‘But it wouldn’t probably look as good on me!’

‘You are welcome to borrow it any time!’ laughed Nikki.

Erin knew that Nikki was trying to prepare herself for the massive change having a baby was going to bring. She was being fantastic about it, and as the weeks went by everyone was getting really excited. Now she had only four weeks to go and Snoopy B was gone head down, getting ready to be born and putting so much pressure on Nikki’s nether regions that she could hardly stand and couldn’t walk for too long.

‘For God’s sake, how long will this go on? At the rate Snoopy B is pushing down I’ll be able to pull him or her out by their hair! It’s so uncomfortable and I need to go to the loo every twenty minutes!’

Nikki had gone on maternity leave and was already bored, fed up with sitting around reading baby books and going on mother-and-baby social sites.

‘I think I might be slowly going mad,’ she said as she opened a package that she had ordered on the internet, containing breast cones and a breast pump and pads.

‘Claire, maybe we should do something really special for Nikki to cheer her up,’ Erin said. ‘What about us having a big dinner or a baby party for her?’

‘We have to do something,’ agreed Claire. ‘She’s become a real couch momma. I found her asleep there yesterday when I came home from work and she was still in her pyjamas and hadn’t even brushed her hair!’

‘What about having a big baby shower for her like all the celebs do?’ Erin laughed. ‘You know she’d love that.’

‘She’d absolutely adore a baby shower!’ agreed Claire. ‘We’ll have lots of the girls over and make a big fuss of her and have lots of food and vino for everyone!’

‘We’ll make some non-alcoholic cocktails too,’ added Erin.

So it was all arranged for Saturday night. Erin and Claire filled the apartment with a mixture of pink and blue balloons and lots of gorgeous baby goodies, and Claire cooked up a storm while Erin took Nikki out of the way for a few hours. She had booked a pamper treat at their favourite place in nearby Ballsbridge; afterwards they’d go for a late lunch. She had arranged a gentle massage and a special mother-to-be pamper pedicure and manicure for Nikki and one for herself.

‘My feet won’t know what’s hit them,’ Nikki said, all relaxed after her massage, as she let them soak in the soothing foot bath.

‘And when we get home you are having a rest for two hours before everyone comes,’ bossed Erin. ‘We don’t want you and Snoopy B to be too tired for the party!’

The night was so warm that they completely opened the big patio door on to their large balcony so it seemed as if their sitting room was twice the size and airy, looking out over the garden area below. They set up candles and flowers on tables out on the balcony and round the rest of the apartment, and put on music. Claire had cooked a whole load of tapas and they had made a big jug of sangria. They did a last check of the
place
before all Nikki’s friends arrived. Her mum, Maeve, and sister Hayley were coming too.

Erin had literally just pulled on her own pretty cream-and-pink shoestring-strapped dress when the guests started to arrive. Everyone was laden with gifts for Nikki and so excited about her going to be a mum. She appeared in her silver dress to huge cheers and hugs, and was given the big chair on the balcony with lots of cushions to sit on as her friends milled around her.

‘Thank you for coming, everyone,’ she said, eyes shining as they all swapped baby stories and her mum told them about when Nikki was born.

‘She was three weeks early. I was out shopping when I suddenly felt I’d wet my pants. I was so embarrassed, standing there with a shopping trolley with a puddle on the floor in front of me in the supermarket. There was a lady in the next line and she was so kind. She said to me, “I think that you should go to the hospital.” I was mortified and told her that I was fine – I’d just had an accident and my baby wasn’t due for about three weeks! Anyway, she made me leave my trolley and get into her car, and by the time we came near the hospital my contractions were so close I thought that Nikki would be born in a Ford Fiesta. They rushed me into the labour ward and about twelve minutes later Nikki was born … Her dad missed the whole thing, but Mary Byrne was an angel – she was with me.’