‘Are you sure you two will be OK?’ Alice asked, unable to disguise her anxiety at leaving her youngest son for the night.
‘Mum, stop fussing!’ Sean replied stubbornly. She knew he’d endured more motherly fussing than most twenty-year-olds over the past few weeks, but she couldn’t help it!
‘You know I have my phone with me, and I will leave it on silent just in case you need to contact me.’
‘Mum, for heaven’s sake.’ Conor laughed. ‘We are only going down the road to the pub for a curry and a few pints! I think the two of us will be safe!’
‘I know.’ She sighed. ‘I know!’
Alice grabbed her black jacket and glanced quickly at the mirror in the hall. Sally and Hugh would be here to collect her in a few minutes. Sally had insisted she come along and join them on their table at ‘The Innovation Ireland Dinner’ in the Four Seasons Hotel. ‘It will be fun!’ Sally had promised, refusing to accept Alice’s various attempts at declining the invitation. ‘I don’t care what you say, Alice, you are coming and having a night out!’
Conor was staying for two nights at home as Lisa was away at a hen weekend in Kilkenny with some of her hospital friends. Conor had decided it was high time he and Sean went for a few pints, and that his kid brother began to take steps back to a normal life.
The Four Seasons Hotel was packed, the crystal chandeliers sparkling, a pianist welcoming them as the waiters passed around glasses of champagne. Alice was glad that she had worn the simple fitted black satin dress, with the scoop neck. She felt elegant and classic, and that she was not competing with some of the younger women, who were wearing a stunning array of halter-neck multicoloured chiffons and thigh-high cocktail dresses.
‘Wow!’ said Hugh, as he surveyed the crowds. ‘The women get prettier and the dresses get shorter every year.’
Alice helped herself to the champagne, and began to feel the tension ease. She relaxed. She was with Sally and Hugh, and Trish and Brendan were also on their table, so it was definitely going to be a fun night. The noise level grew and grew as everyone chatted and mingled, and she couldn’t believe it when she met Rachel, who was wearing a stunning purple sheath dress, her dark hair up in an almost beehive style.
‘You look gorgeous, Rachel!’
‘I think we all look a bit better without our aprons.’ Rachel giggled, introducing Alice to her husband, Pete.
‘Pete, this is Alice Kinsella, the lady who changed our lives and got me cooking!’
‘You certainly have,’ he joked. ‘Rachel and Leah are gone mad at it now; instead of spaghetti and pasta we are trying out all kinds of things. Rachel’s even getting me into it.’
‘Rachel is an amazing cook.’ Alice smiled. ‘And I’m sure she’d love to have you try out some of the recipes, too.’
‘I’m working on it!’ Pete admitted sheepishly.
‘What a lovely couple,’ remarked Sally. ‘You must have some fun in your class!’
‘We do.’ Alice laughed. ‘And now I have a new crowd that has just started, and one of them speaks hardly any English, which is causing even more chaos!’
After a few more drinks they left the reception area and began to file into the large ornate ballroom. The tables were all beautifully adorned with candles and stunning pink and purple lily arrangements.
‘This way, Alice,’ called Sally, showing her where their table was. Alice, spotting her name card, was relieved to see that she was sitting beside Hugh, who was always brilliant company, with Brendan and Trish down the other end from her.
They were just settling themselves at the table when Alex Ronan appeared and slid into the seat on the other side of her.
‘Sorry, I got delayed a bit, Hugh, but I had to drop Aisling somewhere,’ he apologized.
Alice blushed. She hadn’t seen Alex since she’d left Ronan, Ryan & Lewis last year, and she was sure the senior partner was hardly expecting himself to be landed sitting beside her. She glanced over at Sally to see if she understood the situation, but Sally was deliberately ignoring her and chatting away to a small balding man and his wife.
‘Nice to meet you again, Alice,’ said Alex, as he began to study the menu. ‘We still miss you at the office.’
Alice blazed. Was he being sarcastic or polite? She couldn’t really figure it out. She would kill Sally for putting him beside her … kill her!
She watched the wine waiter top up her glass with white wine. It was going to be a long night, she thought, sitting here beside Alex.
‘What have you been doing since you left us?’ he asked politely. ‘Hugh mentioned you were setting up some type of business from home.’
Alice found herself telling him about The Martello Cookery School and her group of students, and how much she enjoyed passing on her culinary knowledge and skills to others.
‘I love food and am pretty passionate about it.’
‘Passion is a pretty rare commodity these days,’ he mused, ‘so I’d imagine you are a very good teacher!’
‘Thank you,’ she said, surprised by the compliment.
‘I always suspected from the minute I met you that your talents were wasted in our office,’ he added.
Alice could see the twinkle in his blue-grey eyes, and was unsure if he was teasing her or being sincere. She found herself laughing, remembering the disasters she had inflicted on the accountancy office, and the consternation she had caused.
‘I don’t know how I would have survived without Kelly to keep an eye on me,’ she admitted.
‘Kelly keeps an eye on us all!’ he agreed.
The food was delicious, the service impeccable, and Alice found she was really enjoying the meal as Alex encouraged her to try the red wine with her beef.
‘Hugh really knows his stuff,’ he whispered. ‘I wouldn’t dare order wine if he’s around.’
Alice told him about all the bottles of Hugh’s wine she had enjoyed at dinners together over the years.
Hugh entertained them with a story about a trip to a vineyard in France with Sally. ‘It was meant to be the most exclusive wine, a rare vintage they produced there from a blend of local grapes. Sally and I had to make a special arrangement to visit the château and to be able to have a tour around. At the end we were treated to a sample of the wine, and it was all we had expected, it was heavenly … probably one of the best wines I have ever had the good fortune to have encountered in my life. I wouldn’t dare tell how much it cost, but we decided to order a case and have it shipped back home here. It was the perfect end to a perfect trip to Bordeaux touring around the vineyards.’ Hugh continued, ‘Anyway, a few weeks later the case arrived, and we were patting ourselves on the back, as the next night we were having Sally’s brother and his wife and our next-door neighbours for dinner. I decided to open two bottles of our special vintage to let it breathe.
‘The dinner was great, and when we sat at the table I was telling everyone about this new wine we’d discovered and poured a glass for them all. I could see by their faces that they were tasting it and not liking it! The stupid thing was that I hadn’t tried it myself, and when I did it was vile … pure plonk. We opened the second bottle, the third bottle … each one was viler than the last!’
‘What did you do?’ asked Alex.
‘Fortunately I usually have a few good bottles on hand, and we opened them. Sally and I checked out the rest of the crate afterwards and every single bottle was awful. What an expensive lesson to learn!’
‘I think they saw you coming, Hugh!’ joked Alex.
Alice was surprised to find Alex such good company. She knew that like herself he was separated. In the office the gossip had always been that he was a bit of a player, and everyone assumed that he’d been unfaithful to his wife and left her, but as they both had an Irish coffee he told her about raising his son Niall and daughter Aisling, mostly on his own.
‘We got married in Washington. Sarah’s from there, but decided to come back here to live and have a family. I was busy building up the accountancy practice with Hugh and Emer, and I guess Sarah found it really difficult to settle in Dublin. She was constantly back and forth to the States to see her family. Eventually the trips got longer and longer, and then I discovered she had met someone else. Talk about a kick in the teeth! She got herself involved with some guy there and moved back, and that’s where she is now. They got married eventually ten years ago, and have another son. The kids still see her and visit her. However, Dublin is home for them. It isn’t an ideal situation, but it’s the best we can all do.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Alice said.
‘Don’t be! I have two great kids, and I wouldn’t change that for the world,’ he confided. ‘You know marriage. It’s a lot like Hugh and his wine: there are no guarantees … no guarantees that it’s all going to work out.’
As the meal finished the music started, and Alice soon found herself dancing around the floor with Hugh as the band got everyone up. Trish was in great form, and dragged Alice off to the loo for a chat about men.
‘Give that lovely man beside you a chance,’ she urged. ‘Just give him a chance!’
‘Shut up, Trish!’ Alice protested. ‘He’s my old boss!’
Brendan then had her up dancing and swinging around the floor to some Abba classics. Exhausted, she retreated to the table to sit for a few minutes, watching the other dancers as she sipped a long cool glass of iced water.
Alex returned to the seat beside her.
She felt embarrassed. He’d clearly disappeared to the bar to escape her. They sat in silence watching the others dancing, Sally out on the floor hanging on to Hugh as they did some weird version of the twist.
She’d slip away to the loo again in a few minutes, she decided. Let him go back to the bar.
As the music ended she reached for her bag, and was about to stand up when the band began to change tempo and play Sinatra. Alex touched her hand, asking her if she would like to dance.
‘Alice, this is one of my all-time favourite songs,’ he explained as he led her on to the dance floor.
For the rest of the night they danced and laughed and chatted, and she felt so at ease with him. Maybe he did this with every woman he came across, but Alice felt pretty and attractive and interesting when she was with him, and had to admit she found him attractive, too. For a big man he was unexpectedly light on his feet, and was a bit of a music buff, which surprised her.
When the music ended and everyone began to file out to collect their coats and jackets she felt strangely reluctant to go.
Sally and Hugh offered her a ride home in their taxi, but as she felt the pressure of Alex’s hand in hers she turned them down.
‘Hugh, I’m taking this young lady to the Residence for a last nightcap,’ Alex explained. ‘But I promise I’ll look after her.’
‘You’d better!’ warned Sally drunkenly from their taxi.
Alice found herself ten minutes later in the Residence, the exclusive private members’ club on St Stephen’s Green, with Alex ordering some more drinks for them. They found a quiet corner to relax and talk. They danced a little more to some soul and jazz, and Alice felt like she was young again as they talked and laughed. It was well after 4 a.m. when they finally left and got a taxi home, Alex’s arms around her as they stopped at Martello Avenue.
‘Thanks for a wonderful night,’ she said, giving him a quick hug as she got out of the car.
‘I’ll be in touch, Alice,’ he promised, and somehow Alice knew that he meant it.