Jess Kilroy’s New Year’s resolution was to get fit and healthy and be happy. She had exactly twenty-two weeks to go before she was a bridesmaid at Amy’s wedding, and she had set herself a realistic weight-loss goal and was determined to reach her target.
Amy had asked her to come looking for her wedding dress, and Jess knew that once Amy found her own outfit her attention would immediately turn to getting the bridesmaids’ dresses, something she was dreading.
Christmas had been lovely, but a calorie disaster! Why her family had each given her a large chocolate selection box was beyond her! Grainne Kilroy, her mother, was far too good a cook, and got insulted if you refused second helpings of anything at her table. She had slaved for weeks making Christmas puddings, pies and a cake, and Jess found it hard to resist the traditional treats. Then there was the constant round of drinks parties and family meals, and there was only so much Ballygowan water a person could drink without spending much of the night in the bathroom.
Her sister Deirdre had announced she was pregnant again, which had thrown her other sister, Ava, into hysterics on Christmas Day as she and her husband Finn had been trying to have a baby for years and were going to have another round of IVF. Jess’s dad had sloped over to the neighbours to get away from it all.
She had bumped into Liam Flynn with a crowd out in Kehoe’s pub on South Anne Street on Christmas Eve. He’d been drinking in the pub since lunchtime and had been polite, kissing her and wishing her Merry Christmas, chatting to her for a few minutes before rejoining his friends. He made no mention of seeing her again or asking her out. She hadn’t meant to spy on him, but later on could see him engrossed in chatting up a small blonde who was all over him.
Feck him! she thought angrily.
Amy and Dan and the crowd were going away for the New Year to Donegal.
‘Go on, Jess, come away, too,’ begged Amy. ‘It’s all organized and we’ve booked three cottages in Bundoran, and there’s plenty of space. It’ll be fun, a great laugh, and you know nearly everyone going.’
Liam Flynn was going, and although Jess was sorely tempted to take Amy up on her offer the thought of the sheer hell and embarrassment of spending a few days around him was too much. Anyhow, New Year was usually totally overrated, and she decided to forsake driving to Donegal, and opted to ring in the New Year babysitting for her sister Deirdre instead.
At midnight, sitting alone in her sister’s house in Castleknock watching TV with a glass of wine, a single packet of Tayto, and two-year-old Adam asleep on her lap, she hoped that this year would be a very good one!