Finishing Touches Page 17

  ‘Don’t ask me!’ Cassie murmured happily, cheeks bulging.

  ‘All I know is that I’m starving for no reason at all,’ Aileen reflected. ‘We’d better be careful or we’re going to end up as huge as hogs.’

  They decided their friend spoke wisely. So from now on, they would pig out on Sundays and maybe Saturdays but during the week they would eat prudently.

  The rest of the day passed in a lazy haze. They read the papers and their books and Aileen’s musical snores rent the air as she dozed off. Cassie was in that lovely state of lethargy, neither awake nor asleep, just totally relaxed. More relaxed than at any other time since her father’s death. She had made the right move, she knew it, and things could only get better.

  ‘We got a great colour, didn’t we?’ Aileen preened as she pranced around the bedroom after having her shower, dressed in only a pair of white briefs. They were getting ready to go out on the town.

  ‘Can I wear your white cotton top if you’re not wearing it?’ Cassie asked. ‘Mine’s in the linen-basket at home. I’ll have to collect it on Tuesday.’

  ‘Of course you can,’ Aileen replied cheerfully. ‘Could I have some of that gorgeous pink nail varnish you’re wearing?’

  ‘Be my guest,’ Cassie handed her the bottle.

  ‘Are you ready yet?’ Laura queried, poking her head around the door. Of course she looked sensational in a pair of black tailored pants and a loose white knitted top, with her jet-black hair hanging like a shiny curtain around her face. Aileen, in an eau-de-Nil batwing top and white jeans, looked as fresh as a daisy, while Cassie in the white cotton top with a short beige pencil skirt looked tanned and vibrantly healthy, her chestnut locks glinting after a day in the sun. There was nothing like a day’s sunbathing to give a healthy glow and they looked a very attractive trio as they entered the Burlington Hotel. They had decided to go for a drink before heading off to Annabels nightclub.

  The hotel was abuzz as a group of Japanese tourists checked out and a coach-load of Americans checked in. It was just as well they had walked, Aileen reflected; otherwise they would never have got parking. Besides, she wouldn’t have been able to drink. In spite of her zany ways, Aileen had a core of sense to her and she never drove after drinking. They sat perched on bar stools, enjoying Bacardi and Coke, watching the activities around them. They were laughing and chatting and thoroughly enjoying themselves when two rather drunk middle-aged men joined them at the bar. The first introduced himself as Will Paxwell and offered to buy them a drink, urged on by his companion, who, he told them, was called Mick Browne. They were in PR, they informed the girls with an air of great self-importance. Cassie glanced at Laura, whose expression unmistakably said, So what?

  ‘Come on now, girls, what are you drinking?’ Will said expansively as he breathed whiskey fumes all over them.

  ‘We’re fine, thank you,’ Cassie said politely, wishing they’d scram. They’d been enjoying themselves until this pair offered their unwelcome attentions.

  ‘Oh come on, doll! You’re a nice-looking bird. I’d like to buy you a drink!’ leered Mick, putting an arm around Cassie’s shoulder. Cassie froze. She didn’t want to cause a scene, but she was damned if a drunk man, a complete stranger, thought he could put his arm around her just like that. What was it with some men that made them think women were there purely to stroke their egos and make them feel good? Well, times had changed and so had women and she wasn’t going to sit and be mauled by an ignoramus. Giving Mick an elbow in the ribs that made him gasp and wheeze in shock, Cassie stood up and glared at the puffy-faced man. ‘I do not want a drink from you. I am not a “bird” or a “doll” and please leave us to have our drinks in peace.’

  ‘What the fuck are you? Some kind of fucking feminist or something? All I’m offering is to buy you a fucking drink!’ Mick blustered angrily. ‘What you need is a good six-inch prick inside you and I’m just the man to give it to you.’ There was real venom in his voice.

  Cassie turned her back on him. She was shaking inside. She felt sick and somehow violated by his crudeness.

  ‘Listen, buster!’ Laura hissed icily. ‘Get lost or you’re going to be had up for harassment. Believe me, I’m a lawyer.’

  Aileen turned to Will, who was staring blearily at them. ‘Take your obnoxious little friend and clear off before I call the manager.’

  ‘The manager’s a personal friend of mine,’ muttered Will, as he took the furious Mick by the arm. ‘Come on, Mick, don’t waste your time on these lezzers.’

  ‘Yeah, fucking lezzers, that’s what they are. Wouldn’t know what to do with a real man,’ Mick wheezed as he and his friend reeled off, leaving the girls shaken.

  ‘Are you all right, Cassie? You’ve gone a bit pale?’ Laura asked anxiously.

  ‘Can you believe that?’ Cassie demanded. ‘Can you not even go and have a drink with a few friends in this day and age without having to put up with that crap?’ She felt so angry and helpless. At that moment she hated every man in the universe.

  ‘And the awful thing is that he is the one who feels hard-done by? He’s the one who thinks he’s got a God-given right to treat women like dirt. And he expects them to like it,’ Laura fumed.

  ‘They’ve ruined our night and our perfect day!’ Aileen raged, glowering at the barman, who had just passed by and given her an innocent smile.

  ‘Well, if they do that, they’ve won, and I’m not letting two creeps like that ruin my day,’ Cassie retorted, trying to regain her composure. ‘Come on, let’s have another drink and forget about the bastards!’

  ‘Right on! That’s my girl!’ Laura assented.

  ‘Three more Bacardi and Cokes, please,’ Aileen ordered the bemused bartender. ‘Did you see the ears on that Will creep? Dumbo had nothing on him. His mother should have pinned them back when he was a baby. I’m sorry I didn’t call him Big Ears,’ she muttered regretfully.

  ‘Did you see the other old yoke with the head dyed off him? He must have been sixty if he was a day,’ Laura scoffed.

  ‘Probably a eunuch to boot!’ Aileen was still highly indignant.

  Cassie laughed. ‘Ah forget them. They’re pathetic and not worth a minute of our time. Come on, let’s drink up and go down to Annabels. I’m dying for a bop. I haven’t been dancing in ages.’

  ‘Me neither!’ said Aileen ‘Come on, let’s hit the road!’

  They didn’t have far to go. Annabels was the hotel’s night club and was one of the most popular nightspots in the city. It was packed with glamorous young people intent on having a good time, and before long the girls were out on the floor dancing, the incident in the bar completely forgotten. Cassie met Jim Walsh, one of the guys who had done the training course with her, and they started comparing notes about their respective branches. He was with two friends and they all joined Aileen and Laura at the bar and spent the rest of the evening together. They came back to the flat for coffee after the disco.

  It was lovely to have the freedom to bring back friends to the flat, even though it was the early hours. It was not something that could be done on a regular basis in Port Mahon, Cassie reflected. Although her mother had never objected to her bringing Donie in for a quick cup of coffee after he left her home, Nora didn’t like Cassie to keep very late hours. Aileen was not allowed to bring men home under any circumstances and Laura wouldn’t bother because there was no way she would introduce anybody to her father. It was just so liberating to be able to invite people home for coffee and laughs and a chat, knowing there would be no disapproving faces in the morning.

  ‘It was a day of days,’ Aileen said happily as she snuggled down in her bed. She was snoring in seconds.

  The first of many, Cassie promised herself, as she switched out her bedside light and fell asleep.

  It was the kind of day that was to be repeated many times over the months that followed as the three of them adapted to living together, thoroughly enjoying the freedom of doing as they pleased and living the life they wanted to. />
  When Cassie went to stay on her weekly overnight visit home, Nora frequently moaned about the fact that she missed her daughter’s company but Cassie eventually began to be able to let it in one ear and out the other. All of the family had come to stay in the flat at one stage or another and Barbara in particular had been most impressed. This was exactly the way she wanted to live, she confided in her elder sister. As soon as she left school, she too was going to come up to Dublin and live a life of glamour and sophistication just like Cassie. When the girls took Barbara and Judy to Annabels, they were ecstatic.

  Angela O’Shaughnessy had not spoken to Aileen for a month after her departure from the family home in Port Mahon but Aileen had weathered the storm well. She had pretended that things were normal, and when she went home on her weekly visit she acted as though nothing untoward had happened. Eventually Angela could put up with it no longer as it almost killed her not being able to moan, and she made it up with her. Besides, it was very handy haying Aileen in the city. She could get her daughter to do all kinds of messages for her, like getting her crochet cotton from Trimmings on the quays. Aileen used to come back from Port Mahon practically foaming at the mouth because of the list of messages her mother had given her to do.

  Angela so enjoyed her first shopping weekend staying at the flat that she began to make plans to come up once a fortnight. Aileen had to put her foot down. Staying at the flat, having her daughter and the girls cooking for her, with not a thing to do except act the lady, suited Angela down to the ground. And she would have been a very regular guest if Aileen hadn’t said no. She pointed out to her mother that Laura and Cassie might want to bring their mothers up and besides they couldn’t be expected to have visitors all the time. Of course Angela had got huffy but fortunately this time it didn’t last too long as she wanted to come up to Dublin to do her Christmas shopping and she had to be talking to Aileen for that!

  Fifteen

  It was the girls’ first Christmas in the flat and the excitement was mighty. Although the three of them were busy socializing with boyfriends and workmates, they had decided ages ago that they would keep this particular Saturday free to decorate the flat and celebrate their first Christmas as independent women.

  ‘Let’s bunker in, light a huge fire and I’ll cook one of my gourmet dinners,’ Aileen suggested. Cassie and Laura guffawed. Aileen was not the world’s greatest cook.

  They started off the morning with a big fry-up, a rare treat as they were usually too poor to afford the luxury of rashers and sausages. Cassie had volunteered to cook breakfast. Humming to herself, she got the pan out of the cupboard and switched on the grill. The kitchen was cold, it always was in winter, but once the cooker was going there’d be a bit of warmth in the place. It was hard to believe she had been living here only since the end of September. And what a difference it made not having to commute in and out of Port Mahon to work.

  Aileen appeared at the kitchen door, shivering. ‘Brass monkey weather, isn’t it? I’ll stick on the Super-Ser.’ She wheeled the gas heater in from the sitting-room and lit it. Cassie smiled at the sight of her friend huddling over the heater. Aileen was a very cold creature and winter was a trial to her. At the moment she was dressed in a pink flannelette nightdress, quilted dressing-gown and pink bedsocks. As well as having an electric blanket, she brought a hot-water bottle to bed. The only time Aileen ever longed to be married, she had confided in Cassie and Laura one night as they sat talking over supper, was on a bitterly cold winter’s night. Then a husband would come in very useful.

  ‘That smells gorgeous!’ Laura arrived, already dressed and raring to go. She had been up studying since six. She wanted to have her assignments finished so she could go into town with the girls and enjoy herself without feeling guilty. Cassie had great admiration for her friend. She was really slogging her guts out to get a good law degree and holding down two part-time jobs as well.

  ‘This will keep us going,’ Cassie said to the girls as she dished up rashers, sausages, eggs and pudding, adding two slices of crispy fried bread to each plate.

  ‘Yum yum!’ Laura dived on her breakfast, giving the impression that she hadn’t eaten in weeks, whereas she had in fact scoffed a pizza with her college friends for supper the night before. Laura never put on a pound, much to the envy of the other pair; they were constantly watching their weight, with varying degrees of success.

  Cassie had been out with Jim Walsh for a Chinese meal. She saw him occasionally but it was just social really. They enjoyed each other’s company but it wasn’t the romance of the year.

  Aileen had broken it off with POD, as she used to call Peter O’Donoghue, her soldier boyfriend. He spent months abroad on tours of duty and their relationship had suffered badly because of it. The best thing was a clean break, she told the girls. There was now a man called Liam Flynn in her life. He was an architect, Aileen informed them. The girls had never met him and Aileen didn’t talk a lot about him, which was totally unlike her, so they respected her privacy and didn’t pry. They knew Aileen would discuss him when she was ready.

  ‘What’s for dinner?’ Cassie asked as she dipped her fried bread in tomato ketchup and took a satisfying bite.

  Aileen smirked. ‘Chicken à la Aileen. Remind me to get cashew nuts in the village.’

  ‘Cashew nuts! How posh!’ grinned Cassie. ‘Can we afford a bottle of wine?’

  ‘I’ll check the kitty,’ Aileen said, responding with alacrity to the mention of wine. ‘Yikes, I think we’ve been robbed!’ she exclaimed in dismay a minute later, appearing in the doorway with the kitty jar in her hand. ‘There’s only thirty pence left!’

  ‘Calm down,’ Laura interjected, coolly leaning over to pinch one of Aileen’s crunchy rasher rinds, which she proceeded to eat with relish. ‘The coalman called and said he wouldn’t be around again before Christmas so I got a couple of bags. And we were out of toothpaste and loo-rolls so I got some.’

  ‘Never mind, we can make provision for a bottle out of the Christmas fund,’ Cassie said cheerfully. They had been putting a couple of quid aside over the previous few weeks especially for Christmas. Today it was going to be spent.

  ‘Speaking of the Christmas fund . . .’ Aileen sat down again to finish her breakfast. ‘I saw a dote of a Christmas tree down the village. It will be perfect in front of the window but we’d better get a move on in case someone nabs it!’

  Half an hour later they were ensconced in Aileen’s Mini on their way into the city. Zooming through Mornington Road, as was her wont, Aileen passed within inches of a terrified cyclist and narrowly avoided sending a startled cat to its eternal rest. Her driving skills were on a par with her cookery ones!

  ‘Go easy!’ murmured Laura. ‘We want to be alive to eat this “gourmet” dinner.’

  ‘You’re perfectly safe!’ retorted their flatmate as she swung left into Ranelagh village and came to a screeching halt on double yellow lines outside the greengrocer’s. ‘I’ll just tell them to keep the tree for us,’ she said airily, hopping out of the car and forgetting to put the handbrake on.

  The traffic was brutal as the world and his mother headed into town to do their Christmas shopping and they were bumper to bumper the whole way in. Cassie and Laura were pleading for valium as Aileen lane-hopped with abandon to the sound of horns hooting in their wake.

  When they finally got to Henry Street, it was buzzing with carol-singers and street-traders and throngs of people doing their Christmas shopping. ‘Let’s get to it!’ said Cassie, pulling out the list. Tinsel, decorations, balloons, fairy lights for the Christmas tree, snow for the windows – they didn’t know where to start. They decided to have a cup of coffee and a cream slice in the Kylemore to plan their strategy. ‘I think we should go to Hector Greys for the lights,’ Cassie mused. The others nodded in agreement as they sipped the hot milky coffee and made short shrift of cream slices.

  The stalls on Henry Street were a delight. They rooted and rummaged through decorations, deciding wh
at would suit and what wouldn’t. Laura held up a beaming cherub with gold-and-silver wings. ‘Ah look at this little angel. Isn’t she adorable? We could put her on top of the tree.’

  ‘And look at these!’ Aileen exclaimed, holding up six little robins, ‘we could put these on the branches.’

  ‘I like these Santa Claus lights. Could we get one set here and the others in Hector Greys?’ Cassie asked, holding up a set for their inspection. They all agreed that they were perfect. They bought coloured balls and tinsel and completed their purchases in Hector Greys as planned. Then they went on the trail of their Christmas outfits.

  ‘I hate these communal changing-rooms,’ muttered Cassie as she struggled into a slinky black dress. Beside her a blonde was undressing, with a perfect figure and a tan to add insult to injury. She wore beautiful silk lingerie and Cassie felt totally inadequate in her white cotton briefs and bra.

  Aileen caught her eye. ‘I’m going to treat myself to some new underwear! Silk too!’ she whispered.

  ‘So am I,’ vowed Cassie. ‘And I’m going on a diet!’ She bought the dress in a bigger size.

  Laura bought a beautiful red silk shirt and a pair of black matador pants. Aileen could find nothing that she liked and was beginning to feel very down in the dumps.

  ‘Let’s try Girls Only,’ suggested Laura.

  Aileen made a face. ‘I don’t like their stuff. Some of it is real cheap and tarty-looking.’

  ‘Yeah, I suppose so. Come on, let’s try that little Indian boutique down Liffey Street. They’ve lovely stuff there!’ Laura said encouragingly.

  ‘Maybe we’ll just go home.’ Aileen was becoming despondent.

  ‘Come on!’ ordered Cassie. ‘We’re not going home until you’ve got your outfit.’

  Ten minutes later Aileen was twirling around in a beautiful fringed Indian skirt with a matching shawl, over a white blouse. The rich autumnal colours of the skirt and shawl suited her auburn hair beautifully and she looked lovely. It was an unusual outfit, but pure Aileen.