Michael Browne.”
As abrupt as ever. Snapped out, as if Audrey was interrupting something important.
“It’s Audrey Matthews,” she said.
“Who?”
“You were asking me about playschools,” she said briskly. Really, you’d think at this stage he’d recognize her voice. “I met you in the park. On Sunday. You sold me my dog.”
“Oh…yes,” he said.
“You asked me about playschools,” she repeated.
“Yes?”
Was that a note of impatience in his voice? When she was doing him the favor, he had the gall to sound impatient? What was it about this man that he could make her feel so cross so easily?
“Hello?”
“I’m still here,” she said stiffly. “I got you a number.” She could just picture him standing behind his counter, as grumpy as ever. Easy to be polite and pleasant when you were looking for something.
“Her name is Meg Curran.” She recited the number.
“Many thanks,” he said.
“Good-bye then,” she said shortly and hung up without giving him a chance to say any more. She walked off in the direction of her class, feeling prickly.
—————
Zarek cleared the table of crumbs and cardboard cartons and cups and scattered salt packets, and wiped the surface with his cloth. So many people eating such unhealthy food, filling their bodies with fat and salt and sugar. Not for the first time, he wished he worked in a shop that sold nothing edible. Art supplies maybe, or musical instruments. Or sports equipment, like the shop Anton worked in.
The café door opened and Pilar walked in. It was the first time they’d met since the previous evening, Pilar having gone to her room before Zarek had returned from the art class, and not yet up by the time he’d left the apartment to come to work.
“Hello,” he said. “I have good news.”
Pilar’s eyes widened. “You say your boss I look for work, your boss say for me to come?”
“No,” he said, “my boss not here yet.”
Her face fell.
“No, no,” Zarek said, “I have better news, about better job for you. Lady in my life drawing class looking for new au pair, she ask everybody.”
Her hopeful expression returned. “Lady in your class?”
“Yes—I give her your number. She no call you this morning?”
“No.” Pilar took out her phone and inspected it. “Nothing. She nice lady?”
“Very nice. She make the jokes, she is funny.”
“She have many childrens?”
“I don’t know.”
“What her name?”
“Irene.”
Pilar’s smile faded. “Irene? Irene what? What her last name?”
“I don’t know last name.”
“What she look like?” Pilar demanded. “She short hair, white hair?”
Zarek nodded. “Yes, she very pretty.”
“She wear the short skirt, the high shoe?”
“Yes; but she—”
“Aaiiie!” she cried, throwing her arms up to clutch at her chest, causing a few heads to turn in her direction. “She Mrs. Dillon! She my old boss! She Irene Dillon, she mother of Emily! Zarek, what you do? You give my number to my old boss? Aaiiie!”
Zarek regarded her in alarm. “Pilar, please no shouting. How you be sure she same person?”
“She same, she same,” Pilar hissed. “I know she same. She Mrs. Dillon, with the white hair and the pretty face and the short skirt. She look for new au pair now, because I leave. Why she not call me, if she not Irene Dillon?”
Zarek had to acknowledge the logic of that. He felt his hopes slowly dissipating.
Pilar thrust a hand towards him. “You give me form for job in café now. My God,” she added vehemently, “I not believe you give my number to Mrs. Dillon. You try to give me old job back. You try to kill me.”
“But work is hard here,” Zarek said desperately. “Lots of drunk peoples at night, lots of fighting. Maybe other ladies look for au pair—”
“Give me form,” Pilar demanded. “Job is job. If other ladies look for au pair, I go for job. If no other ladies, I take job here. If work okay for you, work okay for me.”
Zarek reached under the counter and took out a form, his excuses exhausted.
—————
As she left the boutique, Jackie’s phone beeped. She took it from her bag and looked at the screen. Charlie, it read.
Charlie, which of course was James. Her heart skipped. She pressed open and his message popped up:
Taking Charlie to the cinema on Fri, wondering if you and Eoin would like to join us—J
She read it through three times. He was inviting them to the cinema. She should wait before replying, not seem too eager. She replaced her phone and walked to the end of the street. She pressed the button to summon the green man on the opposite side and stood waiting at the edge of the pavement.
It wouldn’t seem eager if she replied. It was a play date for their kids, that was all. The green man lit up. She pulled her phone out and typed Sounds good. What time? She signed it J, the same as his. She pressed send and off it flew to him, as the green man turned red again.
She liked the way they were both J. She liked that he hadn’t made it sound all about the kids—although of course that was why they were meeting. She pressed the traffic signal button again.
Wasn’t it?
She wished she knew for sure that his wife was dead. She wished he’d say something, make it clear what the situation was.
Her phone beeped again as the green man reappeared.
7:00. We’ll bring the popcorn. See you then.
No J this time. You didn’t need to put your name if you knew the person well enough. She dropped her phone back into her bag and hurried across the road as the green man disappeared for the second time. She walked the half block to the coffee shop where she normally got her lunchtime sandwich, listening to the Lady Gaga song that had been playing in her head all day.
Love, love, love, I want your love, she heard.
—————
Carmel turned as quietly as she could, pulling her pillow farther under her head and nestling into it. The novelty of lying in a clean, comfortable bed hadn’t worn off; she didn’t think it ever would. She stretched her legs, enjoying the crisp, smooth feel of the sheets that he’d changed over the weekend, even though they’d only been sleeping in them a little over a week.
In the squat they’d had no sheets at all, and she had no idea how long the blankets had been on the bed that she and Ethan, and later Barry, had slept in. Here they had hot showers every evening, and still he changed the sheets.
But that was the trouble, wasn’t it? It was so good here, so much better than anyplace she’d been, even her own home. Especially her own home, with every night full of menace, never knowing when her bedroom door was going to open. This was so different, they were so safe here.
And she knew it couldn’t last, nothing like this lasted. And then what? Where could they possibly go from here? Whenever she thought about leaving this house, it felt like someone was shoving a fist into her stomach.
She’d spent the morning dropping back the job application forms, and everywhere she’d gone she’d gotten the same reaction. Nobody had said anything, but their faces had said enough. Their faces had said Is that it?
“We’ll let you know if something comes up,” they’d told her, and it had sounded, each time, like a thing they said to make her go away.
Was it a week since they’d done the test to see if she was telling the truth about Ethan? She couldn’t remember what day that had been, but it felt like a week ago. Ethan’s father had said the results would take a week to ten days. That meant they could come any day. Maybe tomorrow.
She knew what the results should show, but maybe they weren’t always right, maybe they got it wrong sometimes. And even if they got it right, how did she know what he’d do when he read them? Even though she did everything she could think of not to make him sorry he’d taken them in, he might still be tired of having them living in his house. He might give her some money for Barry and then throw them out. She turned over again and closed her eyes and tried to stop tossing it all around in her head, but it was impossible.
—————
It was for Charlie, he was just doing it for his daughter’s sake. He was responsible for her happiness, and meeting her friend in the cinema would make her happy. And he and Charlie went to see a film most Fridays, it wasn’t as if he was arranging a special trip. He was just inviting the other two along to join them, that was all.
It was for Charlie.