Kerrie debated going to Gemma and Paul’s house-warming party. On Tuesday they had invited everyone round to their new flat.
‘If you are free on Saturday night we are having a bit of a party, as we’ve just moved into the garden flat in an old house on Booterstown Avenue. It’s quite close to the pub, so if we run out of drink we can get fresh supplies there,’ Paul had joked.
‘I’m going to cook some tasty nibbles,’ tempted Gemma. ‘And we really mean it. We’d love you all to come along.’
‘Count us in,’ said Rachel and Leah.
‘But can we bring our husbands, Nick and Pete?’ asked Rachel. ‘We’d like everyone to meet them!’
‘Of course you can! The more the merrier!’
‘Finn and I’ll be along too.’ Lucy smiled. ‘I’m dying for you all to meet him.’
‘My boyfriend’s off at a football weekend in Barcelona with some clients,’ explained Kerrie, relieved that Matt was not around to meet her friends from the cookery school. ‘But if you don’t mind I’ll come along on my own.’
With Matt out of the way for two days, Kerrie had the opportunity to spend most of the day cleaning and tidying the apartment. Matt was so messy compared to her, and she had sorted out his sock drawer, his underwear drawer and his sportswear drawer. She had stripped and remade their bed. Cleaned out the fridge, washed the floor and polished the windows. Looking at their expensive grey leather couches and polished wooden floor and display of Mark Trubridge’s simple black and white prints, she thought the living room looked so perfect with nothing out of place, just the way she liked it. The kitchen was absolutely spotless, as was their bathroom, and the whole place looked like a show apartment now that she had jettisoned all Matt’s old newspapers and magazines and put all his DVDs and messy games into a black storage box which fitted behind the plasma TV.
Pleased with herself, she hopped in the shower and then blow-dried her hair.
Unsure of what to wear, Kerrie opted for black leggings and boots and a floaty pale-green tunic that she had barely worn. Gemma and Paul were hardly stylish dressers, and probably their friends were the same. She grabbed two bottles of Prosecco in the off-licence and got a taxi to their new address.
A good crowd was already there, and Gemma gave her a quick tour of the place. They had a massive sitting room which opened off the hallway. There were three different couches in the room, one red, one black and a kind of black and white big daisy print one. There were candles and snacks laid out on a collection of small tables, and on one wall there was a display of charcoal sketches and some paintings and wonderfully decorated plates.
‘They’re mine,’ said Gemma modestly. ‘I just love working with ceramics and paints and seeing what happens.’
On the other side of the hallway Gemma showed her their bedrooms.
‘We get all the morning sun in here,’ she said. ‘It’s such a relaxing room.’
There was an enormous brass bed with a colourful throw, and a big wardrobe, a writing desk and a wickerwork chair, along with a range of blown-up photographs of Paul and Gemma on their travels.
‘That’s in Goa, it’s really tranquil and beautiful there, that’s Brazil … spectacular country, and that’s us diving in the barrier reef in Australia.’
‘Wow, you two sure have seen the world!’ said Kerrie.
‘We took two years out and explored. We wanted to do it before we settled and got married and started having babies!’ Gemma giggled. ‘Though we’re still working on the last bit at the moment. We got the bedspread in Indonesia, and that carving is from Peru, and that old saggy baggy elephant is Barnaby, and I’ve had him for ever.’
‘Kerrie, you can leave your coat in here,’ Gemma offered, opening the door of another room.
The bed was already covered with a pile of coats, and two of the walls were stacked with bookshelves and bric-a-brac.
‘Come on, and I’ll get you a drink!’
‘I’ve brought some Prosecco.’ Kerrie grinned.
‘Well, let’s get it open then!’
Paul was being barman in the kitchen, which was a big long room with windows and a door out to the garden. Gemma had something cooking in a pot on the cooker, and the kitchen table had been turned into a bar with a range of glasses and drinks. The units were ancient, but they had been painted a dusky blue and it was a lovely bright room.
‘Hey, Kerrie!’ yelled Rachel, introducing her to her husband Pete. ‘Leah should be here soon – their little boy Sam had a bit of an earache, so she wanted to get him asleep herself before they left.’
Kerrie helped herself from one of the bottles of Prosecco and popped the rest into the fridge. The kitchen was pretty crowded, and Paul introduced her to a few of his friends.
‘This is another one from my cookery-class gang,’ he said.
The party began to swell and swell as more people arrived, and some of the group spilled out on to the patio, where Chinese lanterns and fairy lights had been strung up.
‘Great house!’ said Emmet, who had brought along his friend Steven.
‘What kind of a cook is he in class?’ asked Steven.
‘Great! Why?’
‘I’d always figured him for an instant quick-frozen pizza and frozen-lasagne type, and now when I call over he wants to make three-course fancy dinners! He seems to have chilled out a bit, which I suppose is a good thing.’
‘We all have,’ Kerrie admitted.
She smiled when she saw Tessa had arrived. Tessa was wearing jeans and boots and a pretty pink shirt and looked younger. She had brought along some food.
‘They’re spicy meatballs, and there’s a yogurt dip to go with them!’
‘Great,’ said Gemma, giving her a big hug.
‘Is everyone else here?’ Tessa asked, looking around.
‘There’s a few more to come, but it’s pretty crowded,’ said Gemma, passing her a large glass of red wine and steering her to the rest of the gang.
‘Hi, everyone!’
‘Wine’s good,’ said Rob. ‘Very good.’
Kerrie left Tessa and Kitty chatting with Rob, who was busy explaining to them about how to tell a good red wine from a bad.
She escaped back outside to Emmet and Paul, who were comparing the merits of the Xbox and the Playstation; it was a debate she’d heard Matt regularly discuss, and was happy to join in even if she was crap at playing both of them.
‘Hey, here’s Lucy and her new boyfriend!’
Lucy looked amazing in a long maxi dress, and Finn was wearing a ‘Busy’ T-shirt under his combat jacket.
‘What does it say?’ asked Paul.
‘“Busy Partying”! What else?’ joked Finn, downing a can of beer.
‘I want one of them,’ said Emmet.
‘Me too!’ said Steven.
‘That’s brilliant,’ said Kerrie. ‘Nearly every guy in Dublin is going to want one!’
‘That’s what we’re hoping,’ admitted Lucy, her eyes shining.
‘He’s so cool and so nice,’ Kerrie whispered under her breath to Lucy as the guys went to get more beers from the big plastic basin filled with ice on the patio.
‘I know,’ said Lucy. ‘He just makes me so happy!’
Twenty minutes later Gemma announced that there was some food in the kitchen, and everyone thronged in as Leah helped her to serve plates of chilli and rice. There was also a selection of salads and breads, meatballs, chicken and vegetable kebabs.
‘Where’s Alice?’ asked Kerrie, surprised that she wasn’t there.
‘It’s her dad’s birthday so she couldn’t make it,’ confided Kitty, who had, as usual, come on her own.
Once the plates and bowls were put away, Paul turned up the music volume and everything seemed to get louder. Salsa music pumped through the flat.
‘Won’t your neighbours mind?’ asked Kerrie.
‘No.’ Paul laughed. ‘Because they are all here! See that gang over there in a huddle knocking back all our wine? That’s them … and that tall grey-haired man with the lady with the big earrings – they live upstairs. Tom and Rowena had us up for supper a few days after we moved in. They’re great. Why, what are your neighbours like when you have parties?’
Kerrie knew hardly any of their neighbours. Because they were on the eighth floor of their building, they only really saw people getting in and out of the lift or in the car park. Besides, Matt and herself had never had a party! They’d had friends for dinner a few times, and once Matt had organized to have some people for drinks before they went to a concert in the O2. But she would hate to have people in messing up their place and spilling wine and beer everywhere!
‘It’s a bit different than this,’ she said, slightly envious.
About midnight everyone got up dancing, and Kerrie found herself swinging around between Emmet and Steven and wishing that Matt was here with her.
Tessa and Rob were up dancing, and Finn had Kitty in his arms, with Lucy taking photos on her phone camera.
‘You will send them to me, Lucy love?’ shouted Kitty.
‘Of course,’ said Lucy.
‘She wanted her husband Larry to come,’ confided Gemma, ‘but he’s such an old stick-in-the-mud he just wanted them to go to his local as usual, so Kitty dressed herself up and came on her own.’
‘She’s such a character!’ said Kerrie, who had found Kitty very helpful the past few weeks in class.
At two o’clock the party was beginning to thin out, and Kerrie decided to leave. She’d drunk far too much, and was ready to go home and collapse into bed. Tessa was a bit drunk, too, and she and Rob were sharing a taxi home. As Emmet and Steven were heading into a nightclub in town they agreed to drop Kerrie off en route.
Gemma and Paul were still going strong when they said their goodbyes, with Paul and his brother Dave playing their guitars and singing with a crowd in the kitchen.
At home Kerrie fell into bed. She was too exhausted to think about anything, and just wished that Matt was home with her. When she woke she felt awful, dehydrated and nauseated, but didn’t have the strength to get herself a cup of tea or a mug of coffee.
She had dozed off again and was drifting in and out of sleep when she realized that there was a warm body in the bed with her.
‘Mmm.’ She sighed, curling in against Matt, enjoying the feel of his naked skin against hers.
‘I missed you,’ Matt said, kissing her.
‘I missed you, too,’ she said. ‘What time is it?
‘How did the match go?’
‘Brilliant, Barcelona was great. Everyone enjoyed it.’
‘Good,’ she said snuggling against him.
‘Where did you go last night?’
‘Just out with the girls, we ended up at a bit of a party. But it wasn’t the same without you.’
‘Well, I’m here now,’ he said, Kerrie feeling his arms wrap around her. She pulled the duvet up over the two of them.