‘Don’t worry,’ she said, turning to him. ‘I think I scared her off. The coast is clear.’
‘Scared her off?’ Luca frowned. ‘Fuck! What did you say to her?’
‘Nothing really, I don’t think.’ Ali smiled at him innocently. ‘She was out of here so fast, I barely had time to say “bye”.’
‘When was this?’ Luca looked towards the door, wondering if he could still catch Claire. It was her Saturday off, and he’d told her he could devote the whole weekend to her. He didn’t want her to think he was reneging on the deal. Besides, he’d been looking forward to spending all day in bed with her. It was nice to be able to relax and cuddle between bouts of fucking, without having to worry that she’d get the wrong idea and start thinking it meant something.
‘About ten minutes ago.’
Luca picked his mobile up from the counter and punched in Claire’s number. ‘Seriously, Ali, you can’t just barge in here whenever you feel like it,’ he said, as Claire’s phone went to voicemail. ‘Hi, Claire, sorry you had to run into mysisterthis morning. She has serious boundary issues.’ He sighed. ‘See you later, yeah? Call me.’ He hung up and tossed the phone onto the table.
Ali was staring at him, her mouth open. ‘Okay, who are you and what have you done with my brother?’ she asked.
‘It’s not what you think.’ Luca sighed again. ‘Anyway, you haven’t answered my question. What are you doing here?’
‘Well, that’s a lovely welcome home,’ Ali said archly. ‘I just got back from London this morning. I told the taxi to drop me here because I’d missed you, and I thought we could spend the day together. I was going to take you out for breakfast.’
Luca smiled, softening a little. He could never be cross with Ali for long. ‘Okay. Or we could have breakfast here, if you like. There’s loads of food.’
‘There is?’ Ali pulled open the fridge. ‘Wow, there really is! Seriously, what’s got into you? You’re letting girls stay overnight, you’re buying food…’ A smile spread across her face.
‘Not girls,’ Luca said crossly. ‘Agirl.’
‘Weirder still.’ She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, scrutinising his face. ‘We’re going to talk about this over breakfast,’ she said. ‘But first I need to pee.’
She dashed off to the bathroom and Luca started taking things out of the fridge. Minutes later, Ali reappeared. ‘You have conditioner in your bathroom,’ she said gleefully, as she came back into the kitchen. ‘Girlyconditioner. And moisturiser.’ She grinned slyly at him. ‘Luca Ffrench-Carroll, do you have agirlfriend?’
14
Claire listened to Luca’s voicemail, wishing she could rewind and start the morning again. She felt such an idiot now for running off like that, mortified that Luca might see it as the behaviour of a jealous girlfriend. It was true she had been angry at being confronted by another woman in his flat, but only because she hadn’t wanted to be put in an awkward situation. If only she’d stuck around for a few minutes instead of high-tailing it out of the door, she’d have found out that the girl was hissister. It made sense, now that she thought about it. She had the same colouring as Luca – the same olive skin, dark hair and brown eyes. She hadn’t even known that hehada sister. He never mentioned his family – not that they spent a lot of their time talking. It occurred to her that she knew very little about him. It would have been nice to stay and meet his sister – and then she could have spent the rest of the day in bed with him having amazing sex. She felt a pang of regret, longing to turn around and go back. But now she was reluctant to face him, embarrassed about the way she had left. She called Luca back and toldhim she had things to do today but she would see him that evening.
It was a beautiful day, unusually warm for May, and as she walked into town, the pavement cafés were already full of people sitting outside, enjoying the sunshine. It lifted her spirits. The weather seemed to put everyone in a good mood, and the city felt like a happier, friendlier place. She found it endearing the way Irish people got completely overexcited at the first hint of sun, immediately donning summer clothes and sunglasses, heading to the beach and diningal fresco. She loved days like this when the world seemed full of promise. She just wished she had someone to share it with. If she hadn’t been such an eejit, she could have been sharing it with Luca and his sister. Still, she wasn’t going to let that get her down and spoil the day.
Determined to make the most of it, she decided to treat herself to breakfast in her favourite café. She walked to Dame Street, and read her book while lingering over a delicious full Irish in the Queen of Tarts. But though breakfast alone with a good book was usually her idea of bliss, today she struggled to feel content. She was usually happy in her own company, but now she felt unsettled and restless. Maybe it was because of the weather or perhaps because her mother had been away from home for the past couple of weeks and she had had enough of the solitude, but she craved companionship.
When she got home, she decided to ring Mark to cheer herself up. She dialled his number, buoyed at the prospect of having someone to talk to, even if it was at a distance.
‘Claire, hi!’ He sounded gratifyingly pleased to hear from her and his friendly voice cheered her up. ‘Great to hear from you. How are you?’
‘I’m good.’ She smiled into the phone.Better now. ‘How are you?’
‘Still getting the run-around from Millie,’ he said, with a sigh, ‘but otherwise I’m fine.’
‘Oh no! What’s Millie up to?’
‘She left me – for the bloke across the road.’
‘Ouch! That’s a bit close to home.’
‘Tell me about it – she didn’t even have the decency to try to hide it. Every day she’d be there, flaunting herself in his front window, where she knew I’d see her.’
‘Well, you’re better off without her.’
‘Oh, she’s home again now. Came slinking back last night with her tail between her legs.’ He sighed. ‘That’s not true, actually – her tail was in the air. She’s shameless.’
‘And you took her back?’
‘What can I say? I’m putty in her paws.’
