‘You’re perfectly capable of doing your own cooking and cleaning, Mammy,’ Rosi retorted. ‘We’ve no desire to take away your independence. What did he do? Assuming he’s retired.’
‘Semi-retired and he’s an electrician. He owns his own home in case you were wondering whether it’s my money he’s after.’
‘No, Mammy, we’ve Patrick for that.’ It slipped out.
Maureen glanced in the rear-view mirror once more but it was too dark for her to make out Rosi’s expression. She glossed over the remark, not wanting to get into it with her daughter tonight. ‘And he’s kind, he makes me laugh and treats me very well. So, there you have it.’
‘I should think so.’
‘Think so, what?’
‘That he treats you well, of course.’
Maureen smiled at Rosi’s indignant tone.
‘Any man who didn’t would have me, Ash, Moira and Patrick to answer to.’
‘You sounded like me then, fierce.’
‘Well I get it from somewhere,’ Rosi said.
‘Thank you for not jumping down my throat about him like the other two,’ Maureen said.
Rosi enjoyed the mammy, daughter solidarity for a moment and then said, ‘Well, Mammy, I know all about second chances and you’ve every right to one too. Speaking of which I’m going to stay at Shay’s tonight and tomorrow.’ Her hand shot out and grabbed the front seat headrest as Mammy braked with more force than was necessary at the first set of red lights.
‘You’ve no time for shenanigans when we’ve a party to be getting organised for. Sure, I’ll not be carrying on with Donal either. It’s the price a fledgling business has to pay.’
Jaysus wept, her mammy didn’t need to be so graphic. Just because they’d had a moment of being on the same page when it came to men didn’t mean she had to take it a step further. She was with Moira, it wasn’t right!
Chapter 20
Roisin and Maureen hauled the suitcases across the deserted car park beneath the apartment building Maureen called home and waited for the lift to take them to her level. Pooh was panting at their side. The door slid open and they shuffled inside, Roisin hoping it wouldn’t jam between floors on account of their being over the weight limit. She couldn’t imagine being stuck in an elevator with her mammy and a poodle for hours on end. It was the stuff of horror films. ‘If these don’t sell, Mammy, you’ll be reimbursing me, you know,’ she said as the lift groaned and creaked its ascent.
‘Have a little faith, Rosi,’ Maureen muttered as she put the case she was holding down.
‘How many have you got coming?’
‘Around thirty-five or so. Mostly women from my line dancing classes, a handful from golf and watercolour class. The bowls ladies weren’t interested because the pants don’t come in white and then of course our foreign friends from the airport are likely bets. I put a sign up at the local library too so we may get a few extras.’
The doors pinged open and they dragged the cases on their final leg to Maureen’s door where there was a momentary panic she’d lost her house keys. She patted down her pockets locating them in the inside pocket of her coat and finally, they were in.
‘We’re conference calling your sisters in twenty minutes,’ Maureen announced, gesturing for Roisin to leave the case alongside where she’d left the other, over by the wall so as they wouldn’t trip over them. She shrugged out of her coat and went to hang it up.
Roisin could detect the familiar scent of Arpège on the air and it made a pleasant change from the poodle smell of the car. She gave the place the once-over looking for evidence of Donal, the man friend as she thought of him, having made himself at home. There were no men’s shoes tucked away on the floor beside the sofa, no discarded jumpers, nothing she could see but, and she shuddered, she hadn’t checked Mammy’s bedroom yet. At least out here though everything was as it had been the last time she’d been over. She saw the wood carved canoe was still in pride of place and shook her head. How her mammy could not see it looked like an ethnic fertility symbol or to put it plainly, a willy, was beyond her. She discarded her coat, rolling her eyes at the thought of the impending phone call. Moira and Aisling’s idea of a conference call would be the pair of them leaning into the phone talking over top of one another as Mammy overrode them both.
‘Don’t leave your coat there, you know where to hang it up,’ Maureen said, reappearing in time to see Roisin tossing it over the back of the sofa. She went and did as she was told before leaning against the worktop to watch as her mammy bustled about the kitchen. While she warmed the dinner she’d put in the microwave for Roisin, Rosi took a moment to observe her. She’d lost weight; the yoga pants had been fit to burst, indecently so the last time she’d seen her. Now, she didn’t feel like screaming, ‘Watch out, Mammy, you’ll have the arse out of those,’ each time she bent over. There was a glow about her too and a lightness to her step. She knew exactly what it was because people had pass-remarked to her how well she was looking since she’d met Shay. They’d even done so when her fringe had been halfway up her forehead after being butchered by her so-called hairdresser friend. It was called being in love. She couldn’t begrudge her mam those happy, warm feelings, she decided but she could begrudge her not letting her go and see the man she’d fallen in love while she was in Dublin.
She pulled her mobile phone out and moved over
