‘Engaged?’ Jessica Kilroy screamed. ‘You and Dan got engaged!’
She couldn’t believe it. Her best friend Amy had woken her in the middle of the night, phoning from Venice to tell her that she had just got engaged to her boyfriend.
‘The wedding’s going to be next summer, Jess, and I really want you to be my chief bridesmaid. Say yes, please!’ insisted Amy, all excited.
‘What about Ciara?’
‘Of course Ciara’s going to be a bridesmaid, too, she’s my sister. But I want you to be chief bridesmaid, Jess. Will you do it?’
‘Of course I will,’ Jess agreed immediately, knowing that no one in their right mind would have a flaky weirdo like Ciara O’Connor as their chief bridesmaid, sister or not.
‘Then that’s settled,’ said Amy, happily. ‘Jess, I’m so glad that you’ll be there when I’m walking up the aisle.’
Jess smiled. She had always been right beside Amy, ever since their first day at St Teresa’s School. Both terrified and missing their mammies, they’d struck up an immediate friendship, clinging on to each other as they braved the class of twenty-five boys and girls. All through school they had been there for each other: like two little angels dressed in white frilly dresses on their First Communion day; or trying to control their giggles during numerous school plays, which involved dressing up as everything from shepherds to pirates and dancing fish. They’d shared years of birthday parties, and school outings, and tours! They’d both got lost on their transition year trip in Paris. They’d been seasick together on the car-ferry to Holyhead, en route to Stratford-on-Avon, and both frozen to the marrow up in Mayo on a class outdoor-pursuits weekend which involved bogs and mountains and abseiling – and far too much cold water for their liking. They’d cheered each other on, playing hockey and basketball, both relegated to their school’s worst teams. One year they’d worked on a joint science project which got them a place in the Young Scientist of the Year exhibition – much to the surprise of their science teacher, Miss Heaney.
They’d both got drunk for the first time together, followed by a night spent secretly puking in Amy’s house, and deep, deep regret – with vows to become teetotallers, which they had promptly both broken at the following weekend’s disco in the rugby club. They’d fallen in love in the same week at Irish college, and had bawled like two red-faced babies the whole way home on the bus from Donegal with their young hearts broken. They’d gone to the same university and backpacked around Europe together, got burnt to a crisp in various holiday resorts from Marbella to Crete in their skimpy bikinis, and bailed each other out more times than they cared to remember. Their friendship had spanned almost their whole lives, and Jess knew that she wouldn’t have missed being part of Amy’s wedding for the world.
‘Listen, Jess, Dan says I’ve to get off the phone or we’ll be rabbiting on for the night and it’ll cost a fortune.’
‘Tell him to shut up.’ Jess laughed. ‘It’s not every day my best friend gets engaged.’
‘No, I’d better go.’ Amy sighed happily. ‘Anyway, I’ll see you the minute we get home. There’s so much to talk about.’
Jess sat on the side of her bed in her pyjamas. She really was happy for Amy, delighted for her. Daniel Quinn was drop-dead lovely, the ideal boyfriend, and would make a perfect husband. Amy was so lucky to have met him. They were a perfect pair and were meant for each other. Being Amy’s bridesmaid was an honour, and one that she would take seriously. She’d have to organize Amy’s hen weekend! Help with the wedding! She wanted everything to go smoothly for her best friend.
Looking out at the dark street Jess thought just how differently their lives were running now, both going in different directions: Amy getting married and settling down with Daniel, while she was resolutely single. She could hardly remember the last time she had gone on a decent date, let alone had a romance with someone. She met guys all right, in bars and discos, and they seemed interested in her, but usually she never heard from them again. In teacher training college she’d dated a guy called Brian Carson for a year, trying to convince herself that he was special, but she hadn’t been surprised when he’d told her that he had met someone else, a girl from Cork, and had got a job in a school down there. There had been a been a few guys that she had seen briefly since then, but nobody special, and her heart ached to meet someone and love them just the way Amy loved Daniel.
She glanced at herself in the bedroom mirror, seeing a broad face with brown eyes, framed by wavy fair hair. She was wearing an old Mr Men T-shirt and red and black doggy print bottoms. Hardly attractive! Who’d love someone who looked like she did? Guys only wanted to date girls who were anorexic and thin! This wedding was a wake-up call . . . time for her to be not only a bridesmaid but to get herself in order, get focused on finding her own Mr Right. She would lose weight, at least a stone! There was no way she was walking up any aisle the size she was now. She had no intention of looking like an elephant dressed in a bridesmaid dress beside skinny Ciara O’Connor, who hadn’t a pick on her. She would get fit. Go for long walks every weekend. Let her nails and hair grow. Set up a file on her laptop immediately called ‘Amy’s Wedding’. This would be her bible, with lists and plans of all kind. She was a good organizer, all her friends knew that, and first thing in the morning she would text them all and tell them the good news.