“Can you see any sign of the lads?” Karen shouted now, craning her head to see past the dance-floor, as the three made their way through to the crowded bar.
“If they’re here, the dance floor is the last place they’ll be,” Tessa joked.
Drinks in hand, the trio then moved through the crowds.
“Looks like it’s turned into a girls’ night,” Tessa commented after searching for their partners to no avail. “Oooh I love this song– come on.” Setting her drink on the bar, she grabbed at Karen and Jenny, trying to drag them onto the dance floor.
“I’ll just stay here with the drinks,” Jenny murmured, and the others looked at her in amazement.
“But you love this song!”
“No, you two go on ahead – seriously.”
Jenny numbly watched her friends strut their stuff in the overcrowded club. She didn’t want to be here at all. The crowds and the noise were getting to her. In truth, the whole night was beginning to get to her. She just couldn’t get into the spirit of things, and was feeling oddly removed from it all.
When the girls returned, damp with sweat from their exertions, they seemed to be giggling and whispering amongst themselves and she felt a fresh wave of irritation. She was just about to tell them she was leaving when she heard a familiar song start up.
“Your favourite!” Karen exclaimed, grinning. “We asked the DJ to play it. Come on – youhaveto come out now.” It was a boppy tune that always made her smile, so despite herself, Jenny had little choice but to follow the others onto the dance floor.
Little by little she started to get into the swing of things, letting loose and beginning to enjoy herself for the first time all evening, until a familiar face at the edge of the crowd caught her eye.
And all of a sudden, Jenny stopped dancing.
26
Roan couldn’t believe his luck. The Ice Maiden had finally cracked.
Everyone in the office had been surprised when their gorgeous new line manager had joined them for afterwork drinks. Normally, Cara never deigned to go out with colleagues on Friday – she always made it seem as though she had something better to do.
He’d noticed her from the very beginning – any red-blooded male would – but the fact that she was cool, distant and completely uninterested in him intrigued him all the more.
Roan wasn’t used to not being noticed.
Admittedly she had been a little wary when they’d started chatting in the pub. He’d started out using tried and trusted lines that made most birds weak at the knees. Not her, though.
But little by little, as the evening wore on and thedrinks kept flowing, his efforts finally began to hit the spot.
“Do you want to go somewhere quieter?” he heard Cara ask him now over the loud music. “It’s too crowded in here.”
He studied her face for a moment, trying to read it. It would be the easiest thing in the world to go somewhere with this girl, have mind-blowing sex and then home to Jenny, who’d be fast asleep and wouldn’t suspect a thing.
Impatient at his hesitation, Cara promptly cupped his jaw and brought his mouth to hers, intending to make up his mind.
For some reason, Roan pulled back. He was just about to tell her that he was going home – without her - when he got the sense that he was being watched.
Then turned to see Jenny watching motionless and horrified from the dance floor.
27
SIX MONTHS LATER
Jenny checked the time. She and Karen had arranged to meet for lunch by Dun Laoghaire seafront. She didn’t see her friend as often as she’d have liked since moving out to the coast.
She knew Karen still thought she was crazy to just pack up and leave the area. “You need friends around you more than ever.”
But Jenny had been insistent. She didn’t want to remain in the home she had shared with Roan, nor the same locality; there were just too many painful memories.
The spacious harbourside one-bed rental she lived in now was calming and restful, plus it was walking distance to work. In the immediate aftermath of the breakup, she’d spent evenings on her balcony looking out over the sea, watching the sailboats and ferries coming in and out of the harbour, and going over everyword Roan had said, every last thing he’d done, every lie he’d told.
