Rob Flanagan hadn’t been sure what type of gift to bring along as a house-warming present to Paul and Gemma, and had gone into Brown Thomas and bought them an expensive casserole set like the ones Alice used, as he knew they hadn’t anything like that.
‘Oh, Rob, that is so kind of you, so generous.’ Gemma hugged him when she opened the box. ‘It’s just what we need.’
He hadn’t been at all sure about coming along to this house-warming party in Booterstown; he was a different generation after all, but Paul Elliot had been very persuasive. And he had come along a little in trepidation as to what Alice’s reaction might be, but hoping that meeting in the relaxed atmosphere of a party might be just the thing.
It was a fine old house, but a bit gone to rack and ruin, and Paul and Gemma had the total run of the ground floor and also the use of the garden.
‘I’ve been clearing it a bit, and I’m just starting to plant some things,’ confided Paul. ‘And we hope to have some of our own vegetables by the summer.’
Rob looked at the cans of cheap beer on the table and in the fridge, and opted to drink wine for the night.
‘Would you like a glass of wine?’ he offered Kitty, who was slightly upset that her husband Larry hadn’t come along. To Rob, Larry Connolly sounded a bore of a man, stuck in front of the TV all day and night, and he wondered how such a nice woman as Kitty stuck him.
‘What about you, Tessa? What would you like?’
‘I could murder a double vodka … but I’ll have a glass of white wine instead.’ She laughed. Tessa looked good. Different … She’d changed her hair, and instead of her usual black or grey trousers was wearing jeans which showed off her long legs.
Rob asked where Alice was, and was a bit disappointed when Gemma told him that she wasn’t coming because she had a previous dinner arrangement.
He hoped that she wasn’t trying to avoid him. He realized that he had tried to rush things too much … made too many assumptions … putting two and two together and getting it totally wrong. Just because they were both of a similar age, and both on their own, and shared a lot of common interests, that didn’t mean he had the right to a relationship other than friendship with her. He’d been talking to Bill Deering about it, and Bill had reminded him that sometimes it was much harder for those that had lost their partners through unfaithfulness and deceit and disloyalty than those who had lost their partners through death.
‘They often have more baggage of anger and hurt than we have,’ he explained. ‘Our loved ones are gone from us, whereas their loved ones may be only living half a mile away and with someone new!’
Rob spent a while talking to Paul’s neighbours, discovering that one of them was Frank Gallagher, who had been in school with him since he was twelve. It was nice to reminisce.
Gemma served up a great chilli and Rob had two portions of it, and also some of the lovely meatballs that Tessa had brought along.
‘Really tasty,’ he said, paying Tessa a compliment. Afterwards when the dancing started, Gemma pulled him up on the floor. Then he danced with Kitty and Leah and Lucy and Rachel, and eventually managed to persuade Tessa to get up.
He ended up dancing with her and chatting to her for most of the rest of the night, surprised by how easy she was to talk to. Like him, her background was in business, and she had her own theories about the current economic climate and the way various governments were handling it. She had worked in Bridgetown & Murrow for many years in London, and when he mentioned he was friendly with one of the partners there he could see she was a bit uncomfortable and changed the subject.
They danced a bit more and joined a few people out on the patio chatting, moving inside into the big sitting room where they talked to Leah and Rachel and their husbands.
‘God, look at the time! We’d better go as we’ve both got babysitters in,’ Leah said suddenly.
Rob hadn’t realized the time either, and decided to get a taxi home. The young crowd were singing in the kitchen, and he offered Tessa a lift as he knew she was living fairly close by in Mount Merrion. The two of them had definitely had enough to drink and said their goodbyes to their hosts.
‘Lovely party,’ he said, as he helped Tessa into the back of the cab.
They were almost there when he realized Tessa had gone asleep, her head against his shoulder. He wasn’t exactly sure which road her house was on, but luckily she woke.
‘Sycamore Grove. Here it is, Rob,’ she said, waving madly and pointing out the white pebble-dashed 1950s-style house with the neat garden.
‘Will you be OK going in?’ Rob asked. ‘You do have your key?’
‘I’ll be fine.’ She giggled.
The taxi man threw his eyes to heaven.
‘Do you want to come in?’ she asked, hiccupping.
As she got out of the cab she nearly stumbled and Rob jumped out and grabbed her arm, paying the taxi driver. She was just like Kate, couldn’t hold her drink. He didn’t want to frighten poor Florence. So he’d make sure Tessa got in safe and then walk back down to the main road and grab another taxi.
He put on the kettle and made Tessa coffee, two big cups of it, and then settled her nicely on the couch in the sitting room with some cushions and a rug over her. Tessa would be fine in the morning, right as rain. It really had been rather a good party, he thought, as he closed out the door gently behind him and went home.