Holly kissed him on the head as she walked in. ‘Hey honey, what’s up?’
He motioned to the couch, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. ‘Dump City,’ he muttered, before going back to his big comfy armchair and his Nintendo DS.
Kate, brown hair newly styled and dressed to the nines, was on the couch, weeping over a cup of tea and a box of Kleenex. Holly sat down next to her and handed her another tissue.
‘I’m sorry,’ she sniffed. ‘Danny’s fine. He made me tea.’
Good boy,Holly thought proudly. With his father in and out of his life so much, and Holly never going on dates, she always worried that he had no good male role models, but it seemed like he knew what to do in a crisis.
‘What happened?’ She turned her attention back to Kate.
‘Tim called just a few minutes ago, he said he couldn’t make it, and had to stay home with his … ‘ She started to sob again.
‘Stay home with what – his dog?’ Holly ventured.
Kate shook her head.
‘Mother?’
She shook her head again and finally took a deep breath. ‘Wife!’ she exclaimed, before collapsing into tears again. ‘Why can’t I ever meet anyone?’
Danny duly turned up the volume on his DS.
‘Danny, please – the headphones?’ Holly chided. ‘Maybe,’ she said gently to Kate, ‘it’s because you meeteveryone,and that’s why you are not meetingtheone.’
Kate stopped crying and sat up to blow her nose. ‘You think so?’
‘Yeah, I think so. I mean, where did you pick up this one?’
Kate giggled ashamedly. ‘The crosstown bus.’
Holly nodded. ‘The crosstown bus. At least next time try and aim for a guy who’s hailing a cab?’
Kate laughed this time and Holly felt relieved.
‘Look, why don’t you stay on here for a while and let’s order pizza or something.’
As if on cue, Danny jumped out of his chair ‘Pizza? Yes!’
Holly smiled indulgently. Of course he could hear that through the headphones.
Kate gave a weak smile. ‘Thanks, that sounds great. I’m sorry for dumping on you again.’ She sniffed. ‘I’m going to get cleaned up.’ She stood up and headed for the bathroom.
Holly walked over to Danny and gave him a hug. ‘That was so nice of you to make Kate tea – someday you are going to make a girl very happy.’
‘Girls? Gross, Mom!’ Danny pulled away from her and flopped back on the chair.
Holly gave him a look that told him she knew better, and went into the kitchen to search for the pizza menu. She rummaged through the drawers, pawing through used candles from Danny’s birthday and old wine corks. She couldn’t remember why she’d kept them (perhaps she’d liked the bottle?). She pulled one out and gave it a sniff. It smelled like nothing more than the inside of her kitchen drawer now. She sighed as she tossed it back in; maybe Danny might need it for a school project sometime? Then she stumbled across some bits of random bakery string, and one of Danny’s baby soothers. Her heart melted as she picked it up and she shook her head. Why she was keeping a ten-year-old soother was beyond her. But her father had been the very same way, sentimental to the last. Probably the Irish blood – or the upbringing, at least.
It was her mother whose favourite motto was, ‘When in doubt, throw it out.’
Eileen and Seamus used to argue over the value of oddly shaped cardboard boxes that her father claimed were hard to find, the guitar with no strings, and a number of various mismatched blue willow plates that had belonged to his mother back in Dublin.
‘But where am I supposed to put all this stuff?’ her mother would demand.
‘In the attic,’ he would answer. ‘You never know, Holly might need them someday, right Holly?’
And as a girl Holly would nod, excited at the prospect of setting up her own house with a random set of blue willow from Ireland, not understanding that as she became older, she wouldn’t want them, would never learn guitar and she would have her own taste and her own money to spend, not to mention her own plates to buy and break.
