“Oh, how’s the building going?”
“Not too bad. Just waiting on the plasterer to come now.”
Once they were married Tessa and Gerry planned to move to the pretty West Coark village where she was from. Her dad was overseeing the construction of their new build. Gerry, who worked as a website designer, was planning to set up on his own and work from there, while Tessa hoped to secure a nursing position at a hospital close by.
Karen was going to miss her. With Jenny shutting herself away out in Dun Laoghaire and Tessa leaving for Cork, all her friends seemed to be disappearing.
“Oh, I met Jenny yesterday,” she said, changing the subject.
Tessa smiled. “Ah, how is she these days?”
“Much improved, but I think it got to her a little when she heard about your man’s impending departure.”
“So he hasn’t been in touch then.”
Karen shook her head. “Maybe he’s developed a conscience and decided to let her get on with her life? Or more likely he hasn’t even given her a second thought. Prick.”
“I met him one day in town,” Tessa said. “And he seemed miserable to be fair.”
“So he should be. She’s been miserable for long enough.” She harrumphed. “Probably just feeling sorry for himself because he was caught out in his true colours.”
Tessa paused. “Don’t you think that sometimes you might have been a little bit too hard on the guy?”
“You can’t be serious. You were there that night; you saw what happened – what he was up to. And how devastated Jenny was too – what do you mean I might have been too hard on him? Roan is an ass, always was.”
“Calm down, that’s not what I meant. But for what it’s worth, I do think he cared about her.”
Karen set her glass down on the table and folded her arms across her chest. “You’re as bad as Shane. Tell me this, would you be as forgiving towards Gerry?”
Knowing she was fighting a losing battle, Tessa gave up. “You’re probably right. It’s just he seemed genuinely sorry for what had happened and when I spoke to him he was keen to find out how Jenny was doing.”
Karen sniffed. “Probably wondering if she had calmed down enough for him to weasel his way back into her affections.”
Tessa had to laugh. “Karen, do something for me, will you? Keep reminding me for the rest of my life that I should never,evermake an enemy out of you.”
She giggled. “Maybe. But you didn’t see half of what I saw throughout that relationship. When Jenny came back from Oz, she was so bubbly, happy, andconfident. When I saw her yesterday …” She shook her head. “I don’t know – it was hard to believe I was talking to the same person. He wore her down, eroded her confidence, took all her money … crushed her, even.”
“Do you think she’ll be OK – eventually, I mean?” Tessa asked.
Karen gave a firm nod of the head. “Jen will be fine – once Roan Williams stays well enough away.”
30
“What the hell’s got into you?” Jenny’s manager paced up and down his office in front of her, first thing Monday morning. “A trainee wouldn’t do something as stupid.”
Mortified, she stared at her lap. She had never seen Barry so annoyed and it was not a pretty sight. His face was bright red, screwed up in anger and his eyes flashed dangerously.
For her part, she still couldn’t believe what she had done either. Friday afternoon after her lunch with Karen, she’d been asked to step in and cover Commercial Cash when another employee had gone home sick. Jenny remembered that they had been especially busy that afternoon and that she had been rapidly doling out more cash than she was taking in.
She also remembered finding it difficult to concentrate after learning that Roan was leaving the countryand didn’t know how to feel about the likelihood of never seeing him again.
A director from a local firm had come up in a terrible rush, looking to withdraw a large sum from his business account. Jenny had been so harassed and harried by his impatience that she had absent-mindedly included a wad of dummy notes in the cash pile. A security precaution to be given out in the event of a hold-up, when triggered the fake bundle of notes exploded coloured dye onto any would-be thief’s hands, clothes, or other stolen cash, tainting it.
And Jenny had mistakenly given this ‘bomb’ to a corporate client.
“How am I supposed to pacify a man who had one of his Armani suits dyed pink?” Barry raged. “And his hands are still covered. He was on his way to an important meeting and had to cancel it. Sure he couldn’t face anyone in that state. He was raging.”
“Barry, I don’t know what to say. It was a mistake – I truly am very, very sorry.”
