‘Shay. And it’s only a drink we’re going for.’ She explained how they’d come to meet.
‘Do you think you’ll do the wild thing?’
‘No! Sure, I hardly know the fella. And it’s not a date or anything it’s just a...’ What was it?
‘Don’t move!’ Jenny chided. ‘It’s a date, and hardly knowing a fella never stopped you in the past.’
‘I was young and wild then.’
‘Tell me about it, and I’m only asking because I live vicariously through other people’s sex lives these days. Eoin and I were at it like rabbits when we first got married, we even did it on the kitchen worktop once.’
Roisin’s eyes slid to the worktop and she decided that if, per chance, a cuppa and biscuit were offered after the haircut she’d decline.
‘The last time we got jiggy, Oscar waltzed in right in the middle of it and Eoin had to pretend he was doing press-ups. By the time he’d finished explaining why he was doing them over Mammy neither of us were in the mood anymore. It’s not funny!’ she protested as Roisin laughed. ‘Now with his mammy and daddy coming to stay there’ll be no show of him practising his press-ups, not while they’re in the room next door. He said it makes him feel peculiar knowing they’re under the same roof.’
‘Catholic guilt,’ Roisin said knowingly. They all had it.
‘It’s that alright. What are you going to wear?’
Roisin shrugged, getting told off again for the sudden movement. ‘I haven’t a clue. Not that I have a lot of choice, just what I stuffed in my suitcase.’
‘So, you’ll try on everything you have with you, make a big mess, and then wear the first thing you tossed on.’
‘Probably,’ Roisin laughed.
‘Have you done all your Christmas shopping?’
‘I finished the last of it yesterday afternoon. Moira, Aisling and I tackled the shops. I was dead on my feet by the end of it.’ Roisin closed her eyes for a moment recalling the elbow room only of most of the stores they’d visited. Unlike when the sales were on though and it was every man for himself, people were good natured and smiley. She’d enjoyed the atmosphere as they’d made their way down Grafton Street, pausing to listen to a group of young children singing carols. Seeing the Euros piling up in the upside-down hat in front of them she’d been tempted to go and fetch Noah back from his nana’s and get him joining in on the Jingle Bells.
‘Yes, thank God for catalogues. I did most of mine months ago from the comfort of my sofa. I’ve only the food to sort out now.’
‘Aisling put her hand up to do our shop because with Quinn being in the restaurant business, he knows where all the best deals are to be found.’
‘Lucky you lot. Now then, we’re nearly done. Sit up straight.’ She came and stood in front of Roisin pulling two bits of hair down either side of her face and comparing them. ‘That’s going to feel a lot better. I haven’t taken much off just half an inch or so but it will get rid of those chewed up ends and the layers have gotten rid of all that bulk. Did you want a little bit taken off your fringe?’
‘Just a teensy bit, please, Jenny.’ She held up her thumb and index finger to demonstrate the quarter centimetre she wanted nipping off.
Snip, snip, snippity snip, ‘Feck, Roisin, why did you jump!’
Roisin’s eyes were bulbous with horror and Jenny who was looking horrified at what had just happened to Roisin’s fringe spun around. She let out a scream that made Oscar’s siren seem like a whispered sentiment. Standing in the kitchen doorway, not sure what all the fuss was about, was Ophelia. Her halo of curls, the curls Roisin had been admiring under half an hour ago were a memory. She looked like a little orphan girl whose head had been dealt with for the lice. ‘Oscar and me played hairdressers,’ she lisped.
Chapter 16
‘I can’t go out, not like this,’ Roisin cried from the bathroom. ‘I’m not coming out.’
‘Rosi, sweetheart, it suits you. It shows off your pretty face,’ Maureen shouted through the door but despite the fact she was shouting she still had that slightly high-pitched tone that told Roisin she was fibbing. ‘Sure, it’s the shock of a change that’s all. Remember me with my braids? The way you all carried on? Well, that was just because you weren’t used to it. A fringe like yours is what we would have called the gamin look in my day. You know like your woman, Audrey Hepburn.’ Maureen paused waiting for a reply and when none was forthcoming, she urged, ‘Come on out now, your sisters have just arrived. They’ll sort you out. Aisling’s bought cake.’ She added. ‘It’s chocolate with a cream filling.’
Roisin was not in the least bit comforted by Mammy bringing up the Bo Derek braids she’d sported during and post her Vietnam trip. It hadn’t been the change they’d all struggled with. It had been the fact that their mammy was getting about looking like an aging one-hit wonder movie star who belonged on a beach, and Howth harbour did not count. As for gamin she might as well have said gamey. She heard frantic whispering on the other side of the door as her sisters and Mammy compared notes. It seemed Mammy had brought out the big guns, insisting Moira and Aisling drop everything to come around and try and bribe Roisin from the bathroom with cake. Well, she was definitely not coming out now.
Roisin stared in the mirror. She’d tried wetting the bangs and smoothing them straight to try and add length but like a tennis ball they bounced right on up again to sit smack back in the middle of her forehead. She looked, what did she look like? She bit her bottom lip as it came to
