‘Exactly.’
They smiled at each other in mutual understanding and a current flickered between them. It unsettled Roisin and she looked away, scooping up a mouthful of her chili.
‘Jaysus!’ She flapped her hand in front of her mouth and Shay slid the water across the table. She gulped at it gratefully, hoping her face hadn’t turned the colour of the chili she’d just been assaulted by. She could feel the beads of sweat popping on her forehead and wished with all her might she’d asked for flipping nachos and not chili. She must look like such a prize. Her eyes were streaming.
‘Are you okay?’
‘I will be,’ she rasped, wondering how she’d get the rest of her meal down her without looking like she’d just emerged from a Swedish sauna.
Somehow, she managed it. The key, Roisin told herself, was little mouthfuls washed down with plenty of beer. Shay who wasn’t bothered in the slightest by the heat was telling her about the festival he’d organised in Cancun on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula a few years back. It had cemented his love of the food. The hotter and spicier the better! His life, she thought, listening to his funny stories about some of the prima donna musos he’d encountered through his work as a creative producer, was fun. How many people got to do what they loved for a living? She watched his animated expression, feeling inspired.
‘I want to open a yoga school, and one day I’d like to visit India,’ she blurted, not knowing if the sudden revelation of her hopes and dreams was down to the beer, or whether hearing him speak with so much enthusiasm about what he did for a crust, made her want to inform him that she didn’t plan on being a not very good secretary forever.
‘Really?’
She nodded. ‘I’m doing my training for my teaching certificate but I’ll need a bit behind me before I can set up on my own. I’ll get there though. I love it. Yoga makes me feel whole and I want to help other people feel like that too. When life gets tough, it’s an outlet for the soul.’ She might be waxing a bit too lyrically with that last bit, she thought, but it was too late to take it back and she thought she saw a spark of amusement in his eyes.
‘I’ve never tried it but I’d like to. Things can sail close to the wind in my business and it would be good to have a stress outlet other than the pub.’
‘I could show you some of the basic positions and some simple breathing exercises. They really do help to calm and focus the mind.’ Oh lordy, she had some positions she’d like to show him alright.
‘Yeah, I’d like that, thanks, and you know I don’t know you all that well, Roisin, but you strike me as the sorta woman who, once she sets her mind to something, can achieve anything. I think you’ll have that school of yours up and running sooner than you think.’
Oh, how she wished Mammy and her sisters were here right now to hear him say that. Actually she didn’t but nobody had ever seen her as a kind of warrior woman before and she liked it. She liked it a lot.
‘Another beer?’
‘Yes, please.’ She felt like living a little dangerously.
She decided against dessert, opting instead for a tequila sunrise from the cocktail menu. Shay went for a margarita. It had been a long time since she’d had a night out. There wasn’t much in the way of spare cash for hitting the nightspots in her London life and, truth be told she didn’t want to. Shay made her feel carefree, like the girl she used to be. She tossed her head back and laughed at the tale of a well-known heavy metal performer’s toddler-like meltdown upon finding the wrong brand of Earl Grey teabags had been put in his dressing room.
‘You’ve ruined him for me forever now. What happened to hard living?’
Shay wasn’t apologetic.
Nature called and Roisin excused herself, getting up and making her way over to the ladies. She fanned her face, it was hot in here and her legs felt a little unsteady, but then that’s what you got when you wore strappy six-inch heels. It was as she was washing her hands that she looked in the mirror and gave a small yelp at the reflection staring back at her. Christ on a bike, she’d forgotten all about the fringe. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to it, or by the time she had it would have grown back to a respectable length. Still, she thought, drying her hands, Shay hadn’t done that thing where he kept glancing up at it and then, realising he was staring, made himself look away. Colin had been a right gem for doing that. She never needed to look in the mirror to know she had a spot, not when Colin was on the scene.
She’d have liked to have splashed cold water on her face but didn’t want to ruin Moira’s efforts, besides she thought, with one last glance in the mirror, it’d be her luck the mascara she’d used wouldn’t be waterproof and she’d re-emerge looking like Alice Cooper. The buzz of the restaurant washed over her as she opened the door to the Ladies and weaving her way back to their table, she saw a woman was crouching down at their table chatting animatedly with Shay. She immediately took in the fact she looked to be in her early twenties, a lithely-framed model type, all cheekbones and peachy skin. The sort of woman whose hair did what it was supposed to effortlessly, and whose fringe would never
