‘Big night, is it?’
She shakes her head with a laugh. ‘Any news on your visa?’
‘Nope. Not a thing.’ I’d told her about Kai’s explanation; the supposed error in administration orchestrated, though not the bit about his dad. I repeat the notion that this was complicated, or eased, depending on your perspective, by our marriage.Without being married, you’d have been on the first flight back.
‘And your job?’
‘Had to find someone else, didn’t they? Couldn’t wait for me.’
‘That sucks.’ We’re each silent for a moment, before Niamh speaks again. ‘Hey, but at least you’re not skint!’
‘There is that,’ I say sighing.
‘What?’ Her expression twists. ‘You’re not still moaning about it, are you?’
‘I haven’t complained!’
‘Hmph. I can read between the lines of any email. It’s what you didn’t say that concerns me.’
‘Meaning?’
‘You’re not happy being wealthy.’ She picks up her glass, tipping the rim towards me. ‘Do you know how mental that sounds?’
Swallowing a mouthful of my own drink, I give an apathetic shrug.
‘And the second wedding plans?’
‘All under control.’
‘Is that so?’ she asks sceptically. ‘And something else, while we’re on the subject of secrets, what the hell did you go back to Aus for?’
‘I haven’t got any—’
‘Don’t even,’ she says, cutting me off. ‘Heturned up on my doorstep, banging on my door like theGarda—the feckin’ police! Distraught, so he was.’ I’m momentarily taken back by her faintly dirty stare. ‘Something made you run away again, didn’t it? ‘Cos I don’t for one minute believe your “family emergency” shite.’
Hell. I’d forgotten about that, not that it stops me from biting. ‘When did I last run away?’
‘When Shane tripped, dipping his dick in someone else. You ran to me, so why didn’t you trust me this time?’
God, she’s right. I’ve kept her out of so much of this, worried she wouldn’t understand. That she’d blame Kai. That I’d lose my friend.
‘What’s so awful that you can’t bring yourself to say it? Why did that man turn up on my doorstep in bits?’
‘What did he say?’ I ask quietly.
‘He told me he’d offered you an apartment.’
My head jerks up, her expression less than impressed.
‘I nearly kneed him in the nuts, but gave him a chance to explain. He didn’t mean it like that, like Sarah, I mean.’ The girl Kai’s cousin, Essam, dated.Or more like he screwed. He set her up in a flat, persuaded her to give up her job, told her that he loved her and wanted to look after her... forgetting to mention his wife and child. ‘Then he told me about his dad.’ Her eyes meet mine and it’s all written there: the hurt that I didn’t tell her myself. ‘Why didn’t you say?’
‘I’m sorry.’ Tears quietly escape as she throws her arm around me in a one shouldered hug.
‘The poor fella was lost, begged me to help. Said he loved you. So I told him about your text, and off he went.’
‘It wasn’t the flat,’ I answer quietly.
‘I didn’t think so, given that you’ve married him.’
