‘Okay,’ he shrugged. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, Con.’
The door closed behind him. Lulu wasted no time in winding her arms around Con and kissing him full on the lips. He quickly extricated himself from her grasp.
‘Come on, Lulu. We’re both married, for God’s sake.’
‘Don’t be silly. No one ever needs to know...’
‘That’s not the point, Lulu.’
She frowned at him. ‘Come on, Con. We both know how unhappy you are. You hardly spend any time with Sorcha. Every free moment you get, you’re out with me.’
‘No, I’m out at rallies, which you happen to like attending. And I might be unhappy, but it’s not Sorcha’s fault. She’s done nothing apart from try to love me well.’ Con ran his hands through his hair as he crossed the room to plant himself on the edge of the king-size bed. ‘It’s the fact that The Fishermen have the power to do some good in this shit-show of a world, but instead we just pump out soppy ballads for teenagers to snog along to.’
Lulu skipped over and sat next to him on the bed. ‘Oh, don’t be so down on yourself. It’s notjustteenagers...’ She grabbed Con’s face and planted another deep kiss on him. He pushed her away with a little force.
‘No, Lulu. I’m serious.’ He stood up and crossed the room to the minibar, where he fixed himself a whiskey.
Now she was perturbed. ‘I don’t understand you, Con Daly. You’ve got just about everything that a human being could wish for, but you’re so bloody grumpy.Of courseit’s your marriage that’s getting you so down.’
Con downed his drink. ‘You’re wrong. It’s nothing to do with my marriage.’ He shook his head. ‘Actually, no. It’sallto do with my marriage. I’ve been so caught up in trying to fix the world’s problems that I haven’t spent enough time on Sorcha.’ He refilled his glass. ‘I’ve had my priorities all wrong.’
Lulu parted her legs. ‘You can say that again. Come here. I’ll make you feel better.’
Con sighed. ‘Please leave me alone, Lulu. Being here without Sorcha has made me see things clearly. Jesus,’ he continued. ‘I should have been there for her this weekend.’
Lulu straightened up from her insouciant position. ‘Sorcha’s boring. She doesn’t understand your world. Unlike me.’
‘She might not understand my world, but she understands me,’ Con snapped. ‘I love her more than anything. I’ve got a lot of work to do to fix things.’
Lulu narrowed her eyes. ‘You love her more than anything, do you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then why, all those years ago, did you steal her away from her family?’
Con hung his head in shame. ‘I couldn’t stand to be without her,’ he whispered.
‘But you didn’t respect her enough to stay, and you weren’t brave enough to sort things out yourself. You used Helen McCarthy to do your dirty work.’
‘Don’t remind me.’
‘Oh, I will remind you,’ she said. ‘You were very selfish, Con.’ She stood up and began to walk slowly over to him, like a lion approaching a wounded gazelle. ‘But now you have a chance to do something unselfish. We’re meant for one another, Con. Don’t fight it.’
Con stood still as Lulu placed her hands on his chest and looked up into his eyes. He chose his words carefully.
‘Lulu. I am very sorry if I’ve given you the wrong idea. Yes, we’ve spent a lot of time together. But we were using our joint fame to promote peace in the world. And that’s it.’ He removed Lulu’s hands from his chest. ‘As for the other night...’ He shook his head. ‘I can only put it down to getting langers. It won’t be happening again.’
Lulu’s face twisted into a sneer. ‘It didn’t happen in the first place.’
Con furrowed his brow. ‘What?’
‘We got back to yours, and after about two minutes of kissing – which was feeble, by the way – you just kept mumbling about Sorcha. So I left you to pass out on your bed.’
Con was filled with rage. ‘You let me think we slept together!’
Lulu shrugged. ‘You missed out. I’m very good.’
Con grabbed her arm. ‘Get out.’
