And then I see him.
He fidgets with his cufflinks, he runs his fingers through his hair, and his eyes dart around him as he greets people with air kisses and strong handshakes as well-wishers pat him on the back.
He looks like a dream in his black tuxedo, and the shadow of stubble on his chin makes me want to reach across the room and touch his face.
Rachel links his arm, her eyes scanning her surroundings and her sky blue evening gown glistening under the chandeliers. She looks my way, but of course she doesn’t know I exist. Her eyes widen and she nudges Aidan to pose for another photograph.
‘How you feeling?’ Cain asks me as I squeeze his arm to try to kill the pain of seeing Rachel and Aidan together in real life.
‘I need a drink,’ I confess to Cain who grabs two glasses of champagne from a passing tray and we clink them together, lost in the crowd of spruced-up businessmen and -women who shout over each other in loud American accents.
‘Are you sure this is a good idea?’ Cain asks me as his eyes skirt around the bustling room of strangers. ‘I swear I’ll die for you if this plan all falls flat on its face.’
‘It won’t,’ I assure him as the room falls to a hush. ‘Believe me, it won’t.’
‘But he doesn’t even know we’re here!’ Cain says, speaking so close to my ear that anyone would think he was whispering sweet nothings to me. ‘What if he sees us?’
‘Shh!’ I tell him as a small stout man in a tuxedo that should really be at least two sizes larger takes the microphone on the small stage. ‘This is the big moment of truth right now. OK, here we go.’
The MC tells a few jokes, some a bit close to the bone for such a prestigious event, and eventually he cuts to thechase of awarding a massive contract to an Irish–American company that will apparently go on to make such a huge dent in the industry, its ripples will be felt across the city for decades.
‘When choosing the recipient of this contract, we were looking for a company that had family at heart, because after all, to build over a thousand new family homes across so many districts, it takes a family man to know what he’s doing, and there’s no better family man in the business than the one and only Bruce Bowen!’
The tuxedo-clad, mostly male audience and the beautifully dressed ladies who are dotted through the crowd applaud with vibrant enthusiasm as a glitter ball spins above the microphone and triumphant music plays at full blast throughout the room.
I’ve never seen anything as contrived in my whole life, and, when Rachel and her father spit out a well-rehearsed drivel on the importance of family, my heart almost stops with nerves for Aidan, who is due to speak after them.
‘I’d like to thank my husband, Aidan Murphy, without whom we would never have clinched this deal for our company, Bowen Developments,’ she says. ‘He is the epitome of what New York business is all about. He’s hungry, he’s harsh, he’s cold as ice when he needs to be, and he’d do absolutely whatever it takes to push a contract over the line, even if some people get hurt, and let’s face it, in this business they often do.’
Everyone seems to find this hilarious and they burst into applause. I can’t take my eyes off Aidan. He has gone a whiter shade of pale, and his lips are pursed tightly. I know that face. He shakes his head slowly.
Now it’s his turn to take the mic. My stomach churns.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, it has been an honour to have worked on this pitch with Rachel, my, ahem, my wife, and alongside my father-in-law Bruce for the past few months,’ he says, shoving his hands in his pocket in a way that tells me he’s more nervous than he’s letting on. ‘I just know that the future of construction and development in this part of New York City is in very safe hands. But my family is …’
He sees me now. Oh God, he sees me, and this wasn’t supposed to happen. The mic screams out feedback and everyone in the audience puts their fingers in their ears until the stout man in the small suit tries to take over and make it all better.
Aidan sees me, and he breaks into a huge smile, his hands go to his face and he wells up as I wave shyly towards him, shrugging apologetically for taking him by surprise.
‘I’ll leave you to it,’ Cain says with a smile.
‘No, don’t go!’
‘I’ll be in the bar next door. Enjoy your moment with your man.’
My head spins back towards Aidan again and my stomach flips.
‘What I wanted to say is that my family is in Ireland, and that’s where I want to be from this very moment on,’ says Aidan, without the amplification of a microphone now, and the audience gasps. ‘I’m absolutely nothing like the person my ex-wife just described. In fact, I don’t recognize myself in anything here tonight.’
A wave of disbelief and shock ripples around the room. I think my own heart has stopped beating. Rachel and her father stop air kissing well-wishers to listen now to what he is saying, and Rachel shoots him a dagger look to stop, but I can see that he has only just started.
‘I can’t do this any more, folks,’ he says, smiling now as if he has won the lottery. ‘I’m not hungry and harsh, I’m not cold-hearted, and I’m certainly not out to hurt anyone in the name of another man’s business. What I am, though, is out of here, and I’m glad to say goodbye to a life of false air kisses, back stabbing, and a world where money makes you popular. Goodnight, everyone. Rachel, we’d agreed this would be the very end, so that’s it. Bowen Developments, thank you and goodbye!’
A slow trickle of quiet applause comes from the far end of the room, but it seems that others are too frightened to join in.
‘Aidan, if you walk now you can never come back, I’ve told you this!’ screams Rachel, but her father nods at her to be quiet. ‘You’ll regret this! You could have just played along and lived a really comfortable life here!’
‘I’m tired of playing your games, Rachel. I’m gone!’ he tells her. ‘This is not the life I want to live. Goodbye.’
