Page 86 of Don't You Forget About Me

M

… They all have actresses in?

G

No I meant ABOUT an actress. Oh and I meant to ask, how are you finding it at The Wicker? Mainly dealt with Devlin, seemed a very decent sort of chap. Got to know a fella here when he needed someone in the city to do the accounts.

He’s great and the pub is great! Thanks again x

It did make me laugh when he and his brother came in, I think we were expecting some magnates in pinstripes and the look was very off-duty rock star. But that’s the difference when you’ve made your money in the pubs and clubs trade I guess. Most of our clients are a lot greyer. Ooops, shouldn’t be typing this on company email. Deleted in 3, 2, 1 …

Magnates? They just own a couple of pubs in Dublin, don’t they?

I chew my slice of granary with Marmite contemplatively and hope Mark enlightens me, and doesn’t mean by deleting he’ll be deleting any replies.

Oh my dear sweet unmaterialistic sister-in-law! They ‘just’ own three places in central Dublin, outright, not leased – do you know how much property is worth there? – and a place a few miles outside, in an area called Dun Laoghaire. Which to give you an idea, is the kind of postcode where Bono has a pad. Portfolio of millions. Took over the family business from the dad I think, a little dynasty. Right, annual review meeting beckons – SUCH JOY. Thanks for being a mensch as always. Mx

I close the laptop and turn this over, adjusting my view of the McCarthys. I knew they were men of decent means, but seriously rich? That had flown over my head. As he said, they don’t dress like it.

It’s a bit ungenerous of me, but I wonder if their unusual easy-going fairness is borne of always setting the pace themselves, not being in any stress over cash flow or under the cosh from someone further up the chain of command. That could as easily make you a tinpot Hitler, if you were that way inclined, I remonstrate with myself.

Through my morning shower, getting dressed and made up, I can’t stop thinking about this latest twist. Had the cool cabal at sixth form known this, I have a feeling Lucas would’ve been reassessed and promoted. It’s to his credit that he never dropped a word of this, not even to me.

To think I was supposedly the greater catch at school. Ha. Supposed by who, though.

With a deep breath, wishing I still smoked, I call Mum on my way into work. Like Esther, I think a conversation with a neutrally imposed time limit is a good thing. Unlike with Esther, I quickly glean it’s not going to be very amicable.

‘At last! I wondered if we were ever to speak again,’ Mum says.

‘Oh, as if,’ I say, immediately returned to being fourteen years old by the parental dynamic. A worn groove.

‘You could’ve handled this with a little more grace, Georgina, than to simply start stonewalling me.’

‘I was busy and I didn’t want to get into an argument.’

‘There will be no need for that if you simply apologise to Geoffrey. He’s being very level headed about it, now he’s simmered down. We’re very fortunate to have him.’

I stop dead in the middle of Northfield Road, mouth agape.

‘What?He should be saying sorry to me!’

‘What on earth for?’

‘Uhm … let’s see, saying my life was a mess, calling me selfish, implying I’m a bit of a slapper, laughing at my job. Calling my life a disaster. Saying Dad was an arsehole.’

Mum’s quiet for a few seconds and I know full well that Geoffrey has not provided these details.

‘Funnily enough, he said you were the one who was aggressive. You threw his very generous offer of a job back in his face, made jokes about how you’d rather go into prostitution instead and got very rude and sarcastic at the notion you’d even consider working for a central heating firm. I’m not sure where you get the superiority from, young lady, as from where I’m standing you have nothing to lose from accepting.’

How do I say: your husband is a malicious liar?

Mum isn’t only sticking up for him as he’s her pay cheque and Lord Protector, I sense. The overselling of Geoffrey’s tale clearly shows that she’s decided she desperately wants me to take a nice safe position in an office, overseen by him, beholden to him. She wants me to be like her. How long before some twitchy chinless son of an MD would be pointed in my direction, too. (‘He’s flying up the corporate ladder and a very smartly turned out young man. At your age, you could do a lot worse.’)

‘I already have a job I like a lot and after the way I was treated by Geoffrey I wouldn’t want to owe him anything, thanks.’

A pause where I gather Mum is tutting.

‘It’s a mystery to myself and Geoff why you are so unwilling to let us help you.’

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