Page 71 of Between Us

Roisin blew air out of her mouth. So it was a colourful ten per cent. ‘He’d originally been a customer?’

‘Yup, she said so. His job was in the military police. Hesaid his secrecy protocols were so strict, he couldn’t be in any house with an Alexa.’

‘An Alexa? Who’s she?’

‘AnAlexa. You know, your speaker that’s a virtual assistant-cum-listening device that you pay Amazon to install in your home.’

‘Oh!Alexa, Play Cher!Right. That much doesn’t sound like Joe.’ Roisin’s nerves started climbing down from the roof.

‘Nope, it doesn’t. Anyway, Sesso finally let her go after she went for a smoking break during a closing up and didn’t return until her shift the following day. That was high summer, he remembered. I asked what she looked like. He found an old photo of a staff night out on his phone. She had bobbed hair. She looked reasonably like the actress.’

‘Right,’ Roisin said dully. Her nerves, currently shinning down the drainpipe, hesitated.

‘There’s no getting in touch with Petra, either. She used a fake surname on her payslips. I quote Rick:the type of girl who’s a tax ghost, a social media ghost, the lot. Probably has different-coloured hair now, working a bar in Dubrovnik and dating Jason Bourne.’

‘Hah.’

‘All we have is the coincidence of a popular haircut and a shady private life, which is many waitresses I’ve met. I wouldn’t convict on this much evidence.’

In the absence of anything conclusive, he was patching this up, making it right. Given there was no love lost between him and Joe, it was honourable. It put Roisin first.

‘I wondered if I could ask you a favour of sorts in return,’ Matt said. ‘I have nothing to do, and I can’t get a job yet. I took a real shine to your mum’s pub and you say she’s short-handed. Could I help out?’

‘Oh NO!’ Roisin squealed in self-consciousness and genuine amusement. ‘Seriously? You want to pull Carlsbergs at The Mall? It’s a village. There’s nothing here for a gentleman like you. Apart from the hen dos, I suppose …’

Matt laughed. ‘I won’t push if you’d find it weird. I’m longing to feel like I’m any good for anybody or anything at the moment, that’s all.’

There was such a note of authentic sadness in that statement that Roisin couldn’t possibly refuse.

‘Alright. Thank you. My mum will flirt with you relentlessly. Please bear it with good humour but absolutely DO NOT succumb and sleep with her. I don’t want my stepdad coming this much out of left field.’

‘Roisin!’ Matt exclaimed, in an un-Mattlike way, genuinely shocked. ‘What on EARTH? How much of an Uncle Disgusting do you seriously think I am?’

Roisin laughed and felt a little grief-stricken that she couldn’t confidently answer that.

45

‘Get out!’ Lorraine cried, at the sight of Roisin and Matt in the doorway on Saturday afternoon.

‘Wobbly start,’ Matt said.

‘Sorry, not you, Matthew – that stray,’ Lorraine said, pointing in the area of their ankles. ‘MEATBALL, GEDDOUT!’

They glanced down to see that a cat had taken advantage of their entering the pub to ‘plus one’ himself onto the premises.

‘Aw, hello, Meatball,’ Matt said, stooping to pet the black and white animal of considerable circumference. His facial markings gave him a pleasing look of a piebald highway bandit.

‘Meatball?’ Roisin said.

‘That’s his name, I’m told,’ Lorraine said. ‘You can see why. Loafs around the place uninvited and bothers people for their chips.’

‘A cat that eats chips?!’ Matt said.

‘Oh, a cat that eats anything he can hoodwink people into giving him. Shoo!’ Lorraine said, as Meatball steadfastly ignored her.

‘Is he really a stray?’ Roisin said, joining in the fussing, noticing how she and Matt could brush hands and it not be odd. She was lucky to have a male friend like this. She trusted him to spend time here and not use any information he gleaned to embarrass her. Matt was a man absent of spite.

‘Well, he’s strayed from somewhere ’cos he’s in here all the time,’ Lorraine said, snapping her fingers and pointing at an indifferent Meatball, who waddled off in the direction of the saloon bar.

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