Chapter 27
‘Did I tell you Quinn has been making noises about us buying a house as an investment?’ Aisling dabbed up the pastry flakes on her plate as she waited for her friend to reply.
‘No, you didn’t.’
‘His idea is that we’ll pick up a doer upper, that doesn’t need too much doing up and rent it out. We’ll pay it off that way.’
‘Not a silly idea,’ Leila said, sipping her drink and looking over the rim at Aisling.
‘It’s not, I agree, and I love the way he’s thinking about our future but you have to admit his timing is shite.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean the wedding obviously. It’s all I can think about and there’s no room for big decisions like enormous loans and the like. It’s not fair of him to add all this pressure to the mix now.’
‘You shouldn’t be feeling pressured. I have everything in hand. It’s my job and I’m good at it.’ She was wasting her breath, Leila thought as Aisling ploughed on.
‘Then today he insisted we go and see a house on the Crumlin Road. He said it looked like a good buy and got himself all excited, more excited than I’ve seen him in weeks. I don’t think he even got that worked up when I bought a suspender belt and stockings that time. Sod of a thing they were, kept pinging off.’ She shook her head at the memory. ‘Anyway, he was like a child exploring Disneyland and, Leila, his face has not once been as animated over our wedding as it was when he was looking around that run-down old terrace today. Not once.’ It was true, Aisling thought, reliving the memories of his face closing up every time she mentioned something to do with the wedding.
‘I wouldn’t be reading anything into that, Aisling. You know how it goes, “Men are from Mars, women are from Venus.”. Well, it’s true. I have yet to see a groom who is wrapped up in the details of his wedding to the same degree as his bride. They don’t understand the importance of the small details.’ She shrugged. ‘All they want is their stag night to be unforgettable, then to front up on the day and have it all to run smoothly. That’s it. They are simple creatures.’
Aisling was almost mollified but instinct told her it was more than a lack of interest it was almost as if he wanted to bury his head in the sand over the whole thing.
‘He’s doing his part isn’t he? Organising his and his brothers’ suits and the wedding rings.’
It was Aisling’s turn to shrug. ‘I don’t know. Every time I broach the subject, he changes it. Look what he did today. Why did we need to buy a house right now?’
Leila nearly slopped her coffee. ‘You bought it?’
‘We made an offer on it and it was accepted.’
‘Congratulations! That’s fantastic, Ash. What’s it like?’
‘A standard terrace house that has been let go.’
Leila frowned. She could see she wasn’t going to get much more from her friend. ‘Well, I think it’s a fantastic start to your married life.’
‘We’re not married yet.’
‘You will be in just over a week.’
‘If Quinn doesn’t call the whole thing off.’
Leila had had enough. ‘For feck’s sake, Aisling!’ She banged her cup down on the table startling her friend who was slumping further down the couch the more she wallowed. ‘Snap out of it. This has got to stop. You are a woman on the edge of a nervous breakdown.’
Aisling made to protest and defend her corner, but she’d pushed Leila too far.
‘It’s ridiculous. You’re behaving like a complete and utter eejit over this wedding.’
Hot tears burned in Aisling’s green eyes and the hives heated up. This wasn’t Leila’s job. Leila’s job as her best friend was to listen and agree with her while simultaneously making murmuring noises of support. Moira and Mammy were the only ones in their pecking order allowed to speak to her this way.
‘Why won’t you accept Quinn loves you?’
Aisling sniffed and Leila passed her the tissues kept on the table for those emotional moments. Aisling pulled one from the box and dabbed her eyes.
‘In ten days, Aisling, you two are going to be married but your insecurity is spoiling what should be a happy time for you both!’
Aisling blew her nose. Leila was right. It was her ruining everything but now she had good reason to be insecure. ‘Leila,’ she managed to get a word in before she could head off on another tangent. ‘You don’t understand.’
‘Help me understand then because I thought you’d finally got it through that head of yours, things not working out once before doesn’t mean history will repeat itself.’ Leila looked at her expectantly.
Aisling took a shuddering breath and her voice wavered a little as she began to speak. ‘There’s been this fear from the moment I accepted Quinn’s proposal something would go wrong before we could head down the aisle.’ Aisling twisted the edge of her sweater. ‘And now it has.’ A sob caught at the back of her throat.
Leila passed her the tissue box once more. ‘Here, take one.’
She helped herself giving her nose another quick blow. ‘We have to have our loan to buy the house approved by Mr Cleary at the bank. He was working out our borrowings based on the deposit we agreed to come up with for whatever we decided to buy.’
Leila nodded. ‘That’s standard.’
‘Yes, but when Quinn first broached this with me not long
