Chapter Twenty-Eight
‘Here’s to seeing double, living single and testing negative!’ With an impish grin, Niamh tips the liquid down the back of her throat.
‘Amen to that.’ I sip the froth from my own freshly poured glass, bubbles tickling the inside of my nose.
I’m in the mood to get absolutely hammered after the day I’ve had. Schools are always a hotbed of gossip, but it’s no fun when you’re the topic. Hushed voices as I’d passed in the corridor, funny looks and words whispered behind hands. Yep, I’m glad today is done. Plus, a bit of Dutch courage might also aid my resolve to keep ignoring Kai’s calls. I have no desire to repeat to him my earlier words to Rashid.Collect me in the morning? Fuck that.
My iPod plays an eclectic mix as Niamh lowers herself across my bed. She’d arrived earlier toting a bottle of bubbles, almost as though possessing a sixth sense. The bottle, now nearly empty, stands on the dresser as she rummages through a pile of clean laundry dumped on the bed.
‘Do you fancy a drink down at the marina?’
‘One drink, bucket-sized, please.’
‘Like that, is it? You didn’t happen to find my purple top, did you? Take it by accident when you were staying at mine?’
‘Purple brings out the veins in my eyes.’
‘Only when you’ve been drinking,’ she quips. ‘What thefeckare these?’
With an expression best described as devilish and not at all confused, she holds up my satin bow-peeping bra, the slightly kinky gift from Kai. I make to grab it from her as she jumps from the bed, holding it against her chest as she begins mouthing a cheesy porn-style soundtrack while gyrating her hips.
‘You little fecking deviant! What happened to knickers with Monday through Sunday printed on the front?’ Flicking the bra onto the bed, she throws her arms around my shoulders. ‘I’m guessing a certain tall, dark and smokin’ bought you these?’ Grabbing the matching knickers from the pile, she begins to turn them in the air above my head in an attempt to make sense of the design. ‘Where the feck do you put your legs?’
‘How about I pour you a nice glass ofpiss off?’ Lifting the near empty bottle, I top up her glass and hand it to her.
She drops the underwear back to the bed with a snigger. ‘You’re so easy to wind up. In knickers, too, by the look of things.’ Transferring her attention to the hair straighteners on my nightstand, she touches the end tentatively. ‘Ow, shit! Do I sense trouble in paradise?’
‘Hello? Heating for a half hour? And we had a bit of a row.’ I mutter the latter, embarrassment retracting from my cheeks as I shove the offending underwear under a pile of t-shirts. ‘The woman at brunch I told you about? I met her. Seems they had a... thing.’
One hand on her hip, the other jabs the straighteners in my direction. ‘That’s brutal, babes. You think he’s been stringing you along? He’d better not have, or I’ll—’
‘No.’ I sigh, discerning at this moment that’s exactly what I think. So far I haven’t proved myself to be a great judge of character, but I can’t believe that he’s had the time, let alone the desire, to screw someone else. But I’ve been wrong before. ‘Not really,’ I add, ‘but I’m still pretty pissed off. She said I wasvanilla. D’you suppose she meant tasteless?’ I flip my hand, making light of the comment. ‘I mean, it was definitely an insult, but I think I’m probably something more with nuts.’
Niamh’s mouth drops open before she closes it with a snap, her neck flushing red.
‘What did Kai say?’
‘I’m pretty surehedoesn’t think I’m bland. He seemed cut-up about it all, but not like he’d been caught out or anything. And to guild my day, someone at work seems to have found out. About Kai, I mean. I was hauled into the office. It felt like I’d been caught pashing behind the bike sheds.’
‘Pashing?’ she asks, momentarily confused. ‘Oh, you mean snogging. Yeah, they’re funny like that out here. Big on morality. No nooky before marriage and all that.’
‘Can we not talk about it for at least, I don’t know, say several more drinks?’
‘Sure, but just give me the word and I’ll go stamp on his head if need be.’
I smile half-heartedly and reach for my glass. ‘And in other developments . . .’
‘Christ, what else?’
‘My mum called to pass on Shane’s profuse apology a few days ago.’
Releasing the section of hair in her fingers, she lays the straighteners down, coming to sit next to me on the bed. ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’
I knew that’d get her attention.
‘She apologized for him. Said he’s only human.’
‘Sub-human, you mean. What kind of fucker cheats on the woman he’s supposed to be marrying? Of all the... he got your ma to call with an apology?’
