Need someone to talk to?
He heard footsteps behind him and he turned to see Kate walking towards him, holding a bottle of wine and two glasses. ‘Ah, there you are! I wondered where you had disappeared to. I thought, don’t tell me Patrick is having a secret romance with someone.’ She laughed, sitting down beside him, and nearly toppling over. ‘But didn’t I say, you’re a silent type?’
Appropriately, he didn’t know how to answer that, so didn’t.
She poured out two glasses of wine. ‘This is delishuss,’ she slurred slightly. ‘Like alcoholic fruit juice. Like, really nice. I love wine, don’t you?’
‘Depends on the wine. I prefer a decent pint, to be honest.’
She laughed. ‘Oh, you’re so funny. Like, hilarious. My last boyfriend wasn’t hilarious. Was so serious,’ Kate went on. ‘Didn’t shut up. Had an opinion about everything. He was a consultant cardiac thoracic surgeon so was used to people listening to what he had to say. He could never understand why I didn’t hang on to his every word.’ She picked up Patrick’s whiskey and sipped it. ‘You have the wine, and I have the whiskey.’ She leaned against him as she sipped his drink. ‘God, that’s… disgusssting. I mean, delishuss.’ She smiled at him. ‘You don’t mind, do you?’
‘Not at all…’
What he wouldn’t mind was heading to bed, he thought. Make a cup of tea in the room and hope he got a decent night’s sleep. He had been awake at 4.35a.m. every morning, ready for the day, like a toddler.
‘You know how boring consultant cardiac thoracic surgeons are…’ Kate was saying. ‘Like so incredibly boring. I mean, it’s technically a very interesting job, but God, they don’t make it sound like that…’
About fifty metres away, a door at the side of the hotel opened, and out walked Rosie and Grace and a man in chef’s whites. A couple of others too. They had mugs of tea and were eating out of bowls, perhaps some of the desserts, and were talking and laughing. Rosie used to make him laugh a lot. Never took herself too seriously, always up for doing things, such as sea swimming on Sandymount Strand or out for a late-evening long walk and an ice cream.
‘Who are you looking at?’ asked Kate, following his gaze.
‘No one.’
‘Which one? The woman? The owner of the hotel? It’s a bit shabby, isn’t it? I mean, it’s clean, but it’s not exactly five-star.’
‘I like it. It’s got character.’ He’d dragged his eyes away from the scene at the door. ‘So, your last boyfriend was a thoracic surgeon…?’
‘Oh, let’s not talk about him,’ said Kate, drinking her wine. ‘Let’s talk about you. So Boston. I’ve always wanted to give the States a go, work in their healthcare system. Perhaps one of the teaching hospitals. There’s a lot to learn. What’s the city like?’
‘Huge. Some of it is nice, some not so nice.’
‘Is your restaurant in a nice part or horrible part?’
He laughed. ‘Nice. It’s called Fitzgerald’s. Named after my mother’s maiden name.’
‘I googled it. Looks very nice. Good menu. Impressive wine list.’
‘Thanks.’ He stood up, yawning. ‘I’m a bit jet-lagged. Can’t seem to shake it. I’m going to go to bed.’
She met his eyes and hung on for a while. ‘What star sign are you?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘You must know!’ She slapped his arm, surprisingly hard. ‘Everyone knows their star sign.’
‘Um…’ He tried to think. ‘My birthday’s October.’
‘A Libra?’ Her eyes widened, pleased. ‘Really? Well, well, well…’
‘Is that good?’
‘Let’s just say that Librans and Capricorns are good together.’ She smiled at him, her eyes slightly crossed, as though she was trying to see a spot on her nose.
‘I need a cup of tea.’ He managed to wrench his eyes back. ‘I’m wrecked. You coming back in?’
‘Pull me up?’ she said, holding out her hand.
He helped her to her feet and she gave a little jump as though to prove her athleticism.
