‘No, it’s ok. Zoe won a scholarship to St Judith’s. There’s no way I could afford the tuition fees there. The uniform cost more than our flights over here.’ She laughs again but this time it rings with a sadness.
‘Sorry, it really is none of my business.’ It does explain the ten-year-old Nissan though.
As if she can read my mind, she says, ‘Please tell me you didn’t leave your swanky Audi outside here?’
A laugh I didn’t think I was capable of right now rumbles from my chest. ‘Actually I did. Fuck it, it’s insured.’
‘Oh, how the other half live.’ She winks and sticks her tongue out playfully.
Yet again, another fucking stupid, insensitive remark. Jesus, I’m such a halfwit.
‘Again, I’m so sorry. I don’t mean to be so insensitive. It’s a trait I was born with, much to my mother’s disgust.’
‘It’s ok, I was born with the same one.’ She chuckles and stops polishing long enough to look at me head-on. ‘You’re actually one of nicest people I’ve met at St Judith’s. I prefer blunt honesty, to brutal backstabbing. Let’s just say both Zoe and I haven’t exactly received the warmest welcome. The second she started in that school, questions were flung at me from every direction. Irish people are so damned nosy!’
‘Thanks.’
‘Ha! See, I told you I had the same trait as you!’
She steps away to refill one of the older gent’s pint glass, smiling cheerfully and laughing with him at a joke I’m not close enough to hear.
If I had to put an age on her, I’d guess maybe twenty-eight. Hard to tell these days with women getting so much cosmetic work done. Mind you, if she’s working here she probably can’t afford the types of treatments Eddie’s wife Emma offers in one of her fancy spas. Maybe I should get her a voucher?
Holy fuck. Where did that thought come from? Apart from the fact it would be really inappropriate, Shelly would kill me if she found out I was buying presents for another woman, especially one years younger than her. She’s got a complex about men running off with younger women, because that’s what her father did to her mother.
I don’t know Maddy at all. Yet, gazing at her from a distance, I can’t shake the familiarity. I knock back the Jack Daniels and she returns to fill it.
‘So, how long have you been in Ireland?’ What is it about this woman that makes me curious enough to rise from my wallowing bout of self-pity enough to care about her answer?
‘I told you Irish people are nosy! Next you’ll be asking who I’m married too, where his family live, and if I’m going to have any more children.’ She cackles and slaps the side of the bar, clutching her tummy as she roars at her own joke. I can’t help but snort. She’s right. We’re all the same.
‘Sorry.’ That’s my fourth apology now, and the one I’m least sincere about. I’m dying to know where she’s from, what she’s doing here. At the very least, it’s providing a great distraction from the memory of Ben’s hands sliding all over my wife.
‘Don’t sweat it.’ She places my refill down in front of me. ‘I have no secrets.’ She drops her elbows to lean on the bar, putting herself directly in my line of sight. ‘I arrived two months ago, hoping to settle Zoe into Dublin before the new school year started. We rent a flat just around the corner from here. It’s the cheapest place I could find. It’s not exactly five-star accommodation, but it’s clean and warm and safe.
‘Zoe is a really smart kid. She has a crazy high IQ and the sporting ability of a girl twice her age. Man, she’s fast. I used to hope she’d make track, but I’d say she’ll be able to make anything she likes once she sets her mind to it. She’s so mature and determined for a six-year-old. Then she gets tired and has a meltdown like her peers and I’m reminded no matter how clever she is, she’s still my baby girl.’ Maddy’s eyes drift off, as though she’s seeing her daughter in front of her instead of me.
A glance at my watch tells me school is out for the weekend. A ripple of guilt flashes through me, until I remember they’d way rather be with Nadine this afternoon than me. She is the textbook fairy godmother; I don’t doubt they’re being spoilt rotten as we speak.
‘Where’s Zoe now? With your husband?’
‘Ha.’ Maddy snorts. ‘No. I’m a single mother. Zoe is with our elderly neighbour. Thank god for her. If I had to pay a childminder as well there’d be absolutely no point being here at all. Mrs McAndrew is a lovely neighbour. She’s a widow and has no children of her own. She happily takes Zoe for me most weekends so I can earn a few bucks. Hard to find something suitable round the school run and all the damn after-school activities. Still, I didn’t get any of it growing up, so I want her to experience as much as possible.’
At the risk of reaffirming the Irish stereotype again, I ask one final question, ‘Why Dublin? Why Ireland? Could you not apply for a scholarship in the States?’
‘Probably, but I came here to look for someone. Probably a stupid notion, but I had nothing better to do at the same time.’
The front door opens again and three men stride in, ending that particular line of conversation. I can only imagine it’s a man Maddy is looking for. Perhaps the father of her child? It really is none of my business. I’m going to stop asking questions now.
Besides, the three new arrivals have slipped into stools only a couple of metres along the bar from me, and their conversation is much more interesting.
‘There won’t be any objections at this late stage,’ one man, with suspiciously jet-black hair for his age, says.
A second guy nods and flashes a crooked grin. ‘It’s pretty much a done deal. This time next week, we’ll have it across the line. That’s the beauty of building “affordable housing” – the council don’t stipulate how much of it has to be affordable. Ten per cent of forty-five new apartments is what, four council flats? We’ll make sure they’re studio apartments on the ground floor. No one paying Dublin prices would opt to buy ground floor anyway, not with the crime rate in this neck of the woods.’
The third guy chortles and nods in agreement. Maddy shoots them a filthy look as she places their pints on the bar in front of them.
After taking their payment, she gravitates towards me again.
