‘Then you moved to the wrong place, didn’t you?’ She makes a shooing motion with her fingers. ‘Come on, dig your swim suit out of your case.’
‘Why?’ I ask suspiciously. ‘I’ve just gotten here. I want to unpack and chill out, not swim.’
‘Because your neighbours are dying to meet you.’
‘No—no,’ I repeat more firmly. ‘No meddling and no men.’Not even my ladder rescuer?my mind whispers.No, not even him. ‘I mean it, Niamh.’
‘I didn’t say anything about men. I saidneighbours.’
‘So they aren’t men?’ I ask, my eyes narrowed.
‘They are, but that’s beside the point.’
‘No, Niamh, that’s exactly the point! I’ve told you—’
‘Do it for me, Kitty,’ she says suddenly.
‘No! If it means so much to you, you go meet them.’
‘I’ve already met them,’ she retorts. ‘Now I want you to meet them for my piece of mind. So that I know if you need anything, if you’re ever stuck and for some reason you can’t reach me, you’ll have a secondary contact in this brand-new country of yours.’
‘Oh. Well.’ That makes sense, I suppose. And don’t I feel like a bitch. Though not for long, as it happens.
‘They’re good lads,’ she adds, though a little more smugly. ‘Friendly and reliable, and totes willing to be crash test dummies.’
‘Dummies?’
‘Grand,’ she replies, ignoring my questioning.
So, ‘Dummies?’ I repeat.
‘Aye. A chance to practice your social skills.’
‘Oh.’
‘And absolutely up for a nice hard bang should you fancy.’Urgh.
The latter she mutters in an undertone which I pretend not to hear.Banging dummies.I’d best not build my hopestoo high—for intelligent conversation, I mean. Yes, that’s what I mean, because the image of Kai hammering me into my headboarddid notjust flash through my mind.
‘It’s called a break-up not a break-down,’ I retort, flopping into a chair. ‘My conversational skills remain unaffected.’ Libido not so much, but I won’t tell her about what happened in the classroom. The less she knows, the better. She’d probably take an ad out in the local paper.
Desperate in Dubai Seeks a Second Saving!
‘Look, Dubai isn’t some po-dunk woop-woop town out near bush.’
‘It’sthebush,’ I correct, in reference to outback Australia. ‘Not near one and before you say it, I know it makes it sound like we’ve only got one.’
‘Yeah, well,the bushis out andthe Hollywoodis in, and I’ve seen the spider-legs hanging out your knicker elastic.’
‘Maybe it’s a statement.’
‘Maybe you need to cop on.’
‘All right, I get the point! Dubai’s sophisticated, and I’m not.’
‘Babe, you’re totallymissingthe point.’ With a sudden gleam, she grabs my hands, pulling me up from the chair. ‘All I’m saying is you need to prepare yourself for a bit of fun.’ And with that, she leaves me standing in my very plain apartment, the sticky imprint of her lips plastered against my cheek.
I spend the next twenty minutes unpacking my case, trying to ignore the fact that I’m officially alone and destined to be so from now on. I’ve never lived by myself and as much as I hate to admit it, I’m lonely, which is ridiculous, considering I have enough fingers and toes to count the minutes since Niamh left. As sadness creeps into my throat, I can’t help but feel sorry for myself, sad for the loss of my relationship, filed now underwhat could’ve been. For a mad moment I think about calling Shane, even going as far as pulling out my phone, the chasm between us suddenly filled with nostalgia and memories. Well, at least those not involving his gland-to-gland contact with someone whose work uniform covers as much as a couple of Band-Aids and a bit of string. I don’t call, of course, because that would be mad. Instead, I wander around the small rooms, heavy with a sense of loss and feeling absolutely bereft. Eventually, I give into a cathartic sob on the bed.
