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Dorothy knew from the twins’ frequent texts the duo were diligently making preparations for their upcoming trip to the Glastonbury music festival. Regardless of how busy they were, she was determined to see them in the flesh before they set off.
Notwithstanding the fact they had their own celebrations lined up with friends, she ruthlessly pinned them down and insisted on taking them out to dinner to mark the occasion of their twentieth birthday. The restaurant she chose was one she and Bel liked to frequent whenever they were in town, and she noticed the twins eyeing the plush surroundings with a hint of awe.
‘It seems like only yesterday I was potty training you, and now here you are, twenty years of age,’ she regarded them mistily over her drink.
The twins stopped staring at the décor and rolled their eyes at the reference to potty training. Desperate to distract her, they cast about in their minds for news of any description.
‘Dad gave us each a camera,’ Diane grasped at this piece of intelligence, terrified her mother would suddenly produce a selection of baby photos from her bag and force the other diners to admire them. Her strategy worked.
‘Did you have a good time last weekend?’ Dorothy was successfully diverted. ‘Did you give him the update as we discussed? About the lottery I mean, and your cars and all that.’
‘We broke the news gently,’ Josh grinned impishly.
‘At first he was totally gobsmacked,’ Diane added. ‘It took him about five minutes to get used to the idea.’
‘After that, he was grand,’ Josh chuckled.
Dorothy scanned the menu and did her best to sound nonchalant. ‘Did he ask if I had given you much money?’
‘Yep,’ Josh replied cheerfully. ‘We told him about having to wait until we’re twenty-four before we get a big chunk of the loot.’
‘And how did he react to that?’ his mother enquired softly.
‘He seemed a tad disappointed,’ Diane was one who answered the question.
‘He was disappointed on our behalf,’ Josh jumped to his father’s defence. ‘He thinks it’s a shame we have to wait four more years before we can start making investments.’
‘If you say so,’ Diane shrugged. ‘I got the impression there was something else on his mind, but I expect you’re right. You know him better than anyone.’
This gambit successfully pacified her brother and he visibly relaxed. Given how magnanimous Diane was being, Josh felt it only right to concede on something and said, ‘When we were alone, he dropped a few hints about how the construction business ain’t what it used to be, and moaned about how investors are thin on the ground. I told him it wasn’t in our power to help him at the moment, but we would be happy to discuss the situation when we’re older.’
‘Was he angry?’ Dorothy probed.
‘Yes, although he pretended not to be,’ Josh shrugged ruefully. ‘He wouldn’t win any prizes for acting. Good thing he’s a builder and not a thespian.’ He uttered a little derisory snort and then, feeling disloyal, turned it into a cough.
‘It sounds as if you’ve made him fully aware of how things stand for the foreseeable future,’ Dorothy’s voice was ripe with satisfaction. ‘You have four years breathing space before you have to make any big decisions regarding investments, or anything else for that matter. Job well done my children.’
‘Is that why you decided to do it this way, Mum?’ Diane probed curiously. ‘So Dad wouldn’t be able to tap us for cash?’
Her mother hesitated and pretended to check her phone in order to buy a little time before she answered. Seeing neither of her children was fooled by these stall tactics, and seemed set to wait patiently for a response, she dropped the phone back into her bag and prepared to assuage their curiosity with something at least akin to the truth.
‘Last year,’ she began to speak slowly. ‘A few weeks before I won the money, I was having a Christmas drink with your uncle Gordon. He told me he had heard on the grapevine that Declan’s business was in trouble, and urgently needed a cash injection. It didn’t seem especially important at the time. It’s not as if we were relying on him for monthly maintenance or anything of that nature. Two weeks later, when I had that massive cheque in my hand, the news suddenly assumed a very different significance.
‘I spent an entire weekend trying to decide how much I was going to give each person. I was so tempted to give each of you one million euro on the spot, but I knew I would be taking a huge chance if I did so. I couldn’t run the risk of Declan trying to emotionally blackmail you into letting him borrow it. Needless to say, that wasn’t the only reason. I want you to finish your education before you have the dosh in your sticky little paws. There will be time enough to be millionaires in a few years. You have the rest of your lives to be rich. Enjoy your youth while you can. Money is a huge responsibility.’
The twins listened carefully to this little speech, then turned their heads and stared at each other. A silent communication seemed to pass between them. Josh shoved his hand into the pocket of his trousers and extracted a rather crumpled ten-euro note, which he passed to his sister. She accepted it without hesitation and quickly rammed it into the outside pocket of her bag.
‘I won the bet,’ she explained to her mother. ‘I told Josh Dad was at least part of the reason, but until last weekend he didn’t believe me. When he saw Dad’s face after we told him about having to wait, he came around to my way of thinking pretty sharpish. Didn’t you, Joshie?’
‘Yep,’ her brother admitted sulkily. ‘To be honest, I felt a bit let down by his reaction. Miserable cunt.’
‘Josh!’ his mother exclaimed in shocked accents and slapped the hand resting on the table in front of her. The twins chortled with glee.
‘You don’t get out enough, Mother,’ Diane giggled.
Dorothy was positive some of the other diners were earwigging their conversation. She hastened to move the subject on to something slightly more palatable than Declan O’Keefe’s failings as a human being.
‘Your father’s still in business anyway, despite the trouble he was in last year. I expect him and your uncle Liam pulled a rabbit out of a hat. How did Lelia take the news?’
‘Better than Dad,’ Diane answered the question. ‘She said she was envious, but pleased for us. She told us not to feel obliged to spoil Roger with any expensive presents.’
‘And did you? Spoil Roger, I mean?’
‘We couldn’t help ourselves,’ Josh grinned. He’s one of those kids who have a way of making you smile.’
‘He’s barely five years younger than you,’ his mother protested.
‘It’s a long road between fifteen and twenty,’ Josh replied wisely.
Dorothy was forced to agree he made a fair point.
‘We decided to take him out and buy him the particular guitar his heart was set on,’ Diane took up the story. ‘Things are much tighter in the O’Keefe household than they were a few years ago. At first we thought Lelia might be pissed at us for buying it.’
‘But she wasn’t,’ Josh jumped in, ‘she was relieved. Rog has been nagging her about the guitar for months. She can’t seem to get through to him there isn’t much cash about.’
‘They might be asset rich,’ his sister cut across him, ‘but nearly every penny they own is either tied up in property or otherwise spoken for. I took it upon myself to explain the situation to Rog because I could see they hadn’t bothered. Maybe they thought he was too young to understand. It’s not that he’s a spoiled brat. It’s just he’s never had to wait for anything before.’
‘After Di gave him a sound grounding in basic family economics, we had a serious chat with him on the subject of delayed gratification,’ Josh jumped back in. ‘It was like something from Doctor Phil. You would have been proud of us, Mum.’
‘I’m always proud of you,’ their mother told them firmly. ‘I hope your father and stepmother are suitably grateful to the pair of you for taking the time and trouble to do all that. There’s a part of me that can’t help feeling surprised Lelia stayed with Declan all these years. I expect she can’t bear the idea of being a lone parent. A lot of women are like that. More than you might expect considering how modern and liberated we’re all supposed to be. Although I guess it’s always possible she’s still in love with him.’
The twins chuckled into the starters that had just arrived.
‘She doesn’t love him,’ Diane said, ‘but you’re right. She’s one of those women who think the family should be kept together at all costs. I have a feeling her parents split up when she was young, and she hates the idea of Roger having to go through the same thing. She doesn’t talk about her family much.’
‘It sounds as if those two will be together until your half-brother is all grown up and living in his own apartment with his wife and children,’ Dorothy smiled, and resisted the urge to rub her tingling chest. Don’t even think about playing up today. It’s my children’s birthday and we’re here to enjoy ourselves.
‘That reminds me.’ Oblivious to her mother’s internal scolding, Diane took up her bag and extracted a business card. She passed it across the table saying, ‘Lelia says if you’re thinking of buying us some investment property in London, now is the time to act. She owns a couple of flats herself. That’s the name of the company that manages them for her. She says they’re fantastic.’
Dorothy accepted the card and thoughtfully slipped it into the outside pocket of her bag. ‘I wonder why Claudia hasn’t mentioned London property,’ she spoke under her breath.
‘Mum,’ Josh said patiently. ‘It’s not quite six months since you won. I Googled the last lady who hit the jackpot big time. Do you know what she did with the dosh?’
‘Nope. What did she do?’ Dorothy smiled at him tenderly.
‘Nothing. She put it in a fixed term deposit account and didn’t touch it for six months.’
‘No shit!’ Diane appeared appalled to hear this nugget of gossip.
Josh pointed his fork at his mother. ‘You spent one million euro on Falcon before the cheque had even cleared. Ten minutes later, you bought the site. You gave away millions of euro weeks before you had your first meeting with Claudia. The reason she hasn’t mentioned London real estate is very likely because she’s trying to slow you down a bit. Or maybe she’s trying to give you a chance to catch up with yourself.’
‘It’s a shame you weren’t this wise the other night when you were making an utter tool of yourself over that girl in the club,’ his sister remarked coolly.
‘That might very well be true,’ Dorothy ignored the comment about the nightclub, ‘but I’m still a little surprised she hasn’t mentioned London property as a possible investment. Perhaps she thinks the bargains are to be had over here at the moment. London is notoriously expensive even during a downturn. I don’t know much, but I know that.’
‘I like the idea of student pods,’ Josh told her, as he shoved an overflowing forkful of beef into his mouth. ‘There are dozens of universities and colleges in the UK, and the students have to live somewhere. There are thousands of apartments and flats for sale all around the colleges, but they’re expensive. I’m thinking of a block that could accommodate up to three hundred students in pods. If I could get my hands on one that’s being sold off by a receiver, it would be ideal. I’d have to employ a management company to run it for me in the early stages, although in the long-term there’s no reason I couldn’t be more hands-on.’
He raised his eyes from his plate and found his mother and sister regarding him in something close to awe.
‘It’s just a thought,’ he informed them calmly, his brown eyes softening ever further in amusement. ‘Something that crossed my mind while I was in London. Pity Deco wasn’t with me. We might have blagged our way inside and checked out a couple of the buildings. Deco may not be pretty, but the lad can talk his way into anything.’
‘Diane,’ with some difficulty, Dorothy pulled her gaze away from her son’s face and transferred it to her daughter. ‘Did you have any similar thoughts while you were in London?’
‘Nope,’ Diane looked embarrassed by this omission. ‘I went online and checked out two or three residential properties in the Oxford Street area. I even looked at the outside of a couple of buildings when I was shopping. I was trying to work out how much rent I could charge for an apartment in the area. I was tempted to go into one of the estate agents and ask, but I was too chicken. I didn’t want to admit to a hotshot salesman I was only window shopping. I certainly never thought of student pods or anything commercial like that.’
‘I’m actually quite relieved to hear you say that,’ her mother smiled faintly. ‘I must say, you kids are impressive. When I was your age, I’m sure I wouldn’t have given any thought to property even if I had possessed money, which needless to say I didn’t. Let’s talk about something else before you make me feel totally inadequate.’
‘No problem. So did you bring us a birthday present or what?’ Diane grinned at her. ‘We’re on tenterhooks here, woman. Don’t think we’re not fully aware you’ve been teasing us.’
Dorothy leaned down and removed two gift-wrapped packages from her tote. ‘Something to open,’ she smiled, as she passed them over.
The packages contained a Concord watch for each of her offspring. They happily removed the stainless steel ones they had owned since they were sixteen, and tried on the new ones. After they spent five minutes admiring them and the waiter removed their plates and brought the next course, they once more looked at their mother expectantly.
She smiled slyly and reached into her bag again. This time, she produced two envelopes literally brimming with cash. The majority was in euro, although there was also a considerable amount in sterling she had withdrawn with an eye to their trip to England. The twins almost bounced in their seats as they peeked into the packets with expression of glee on their faces.
‘Glastonbury here we come,’ Josh elbowed his sister in delight, and she grinned back at him, clearly in a state of high excitement.
Dorothy begged them on at least four occasions to be ultra-careful. To watch their drinks in case they were spiked; to bring plenty of tissues, wet wipes and anti-bacterial gel. Not to become intimate with members of the opposite sex without taking the necessary precautions; and so on and so forth.
The twins chuckled and thanked her for the money. They told her they still loved her, but on no account to slacken off with the cash gifts. When the meal was over and the bill settled, they kissed her goodbye and went off to finish their packing for the festival without a care in the world. They assured their mother they would bring literally dozens of condoms and wet wipes with them, and begged her not to worry.
‘Take care of your sister,’ Dorothy blurted out the words to Josh before she could help herself.
‘Alternatively, I could take care of him,’ Diane grinned affectionately. ‘The big dopey brown eyed eejit.’
‘Nothing is going to happen to either of us,’ Josh dug his sister in the ribs. ‘We know how to stay safe.’
Dorothy had to be content with that, and reluctantly let them go. She tried not to dwell too much on the condoms, and whether or not they had been serious or joking. It was not easy to be a twenty-first century parent, not even a rich one. No amount of money could protect your offspring from themselves and the crazy modern world they inhabited.
