Page 14 of One Midnight With You
Ailish made a mental note to check out the anti-wrinkle devices on the home shopping channels, before getting right to the heart of her concerns. ‘Okay, I’m just going to put this out there. I still think going out tonight is a bad idea. Gwen?—’
‘Nope, I’m not listening,’ Gwen cut her off. ‘And besides, you promised in the hospital.’
‘I didn’t exactly promise. I nodded my head.’
‘That was a promise. I saw it,’ Rhonda interjected. There was still no doubt which side of the fence that one was inhabiting. Apparently, Ralph the body builder had taken the news of his rejection well and decided that he’d go to the gym instead.
Deciding to regroup, Ailish went for a different approach. ‘How about we have a cosy night in instead? You must be exhausted and it’s freezing out there. We could order food in, open some champagne and chocolates, find a good movie?—’
‘Nope,’ Gwen answered, dismissing it without consideration.
Ailish wasn’t quite ready to concede. Perhaps she could talk them out of it on practical or logistical grounds. But first, she needed all the facts.
She tried again. ‘Okay, so say, hypothetically, that I did agree.’
‘You did.’ Both Rhonda and Gwen said that at exactly the same time, but Ailish refused to be intimidated. Someone had to be the adult in the room here. She ploughed on… ‘Then where do you want to go? It’ll be impossible to get a reservation anywhere tonight at this late notice, and anywhere that doesn’t require a booking will be absolutely packed.’
She caught the glance that passed between Rhonda and Gwen and suddenly the worry wrinkles on her forehead were back.
‘What? What are you not telling me?’
Gwen tried to go for nonchalance, mumbling, ‘I want to go to Gino’s,’ then immediately popping a baby tomato from the salad into her mouth, as if the words had never been spoken.
Someone switched on a spin cycle in Ailish’s stomach.
‘Gwen, no… I can’t…’ Abject horror blocked any more words.
Gino’s. There was a time when she couldn’t have fathomed spending New Year’s Eve anywhere else. But that was before… She couldn’t even bear to finish that thought. All that mattered was that last year had been the first year in decades that she hadn’t gone, and she had absolutely no desire to start up that tradition again. She took a breath. Then another. Tried to react calmly.
‘Gwen, I can’t go there. Not after what happened.’
‘Yes, you can. Because we’ll be with you.’
‘No. If Eric is there?—’
‘Who cares? Not that I think for a second he will be?—’
‘I don’t want to take the risk. That place is in the past for me.’
‘But the thing is, it isn’t for me,’ Gwen countered gently. ‘We’ve gone there on Hogmanay our whole adult lives, had some of our best moments there and I want to feel that again, even if it’s just once more. And yes, I’m using my cancer to emotionally blackmail you. Don’t judge me. Look, last year, we didn’t go because it was all too raw for you, and we understood. But whatit really boils down to now is that I’m not going to let your arse of a husband take away our traditions.’
‘Ex,’ Ailish blurted.
Her friends looked at her quizzically.
‘Ex-husband,’ she explained, all the fight going out of her. ‘The divorce papers came through this morning. He’s my ex-husband now.’
To her fury, she felt a tear slide down her face and she chided herself. She had no right to be crying, not when Gwen was going through so much worse. She brushed it away.
Gwen reached over and took her hand. ‘Oh hon, I’m so sorry.’
‘But you’re well shot of him,’ were Rhonda’s words of consolation.
‘I do know that,’ Ailish admitted, ‘but I think I’m just finding it hard to see where to go from here. Urgh, listen to me. Honestly, I’m sick of hearing myself being so pathetic. I need to pull my bloody big woman pants on and get a grip.’
‘And the best place to wear those big woman pants is Gino’s tonight,’ Rhonda assured her. ‘So come on. You know that no matter how busy they are, they’ll find us a table. Dario has always had a soft spot for you, so he’ll make it work.’
Ailish felt a jolt of something she couldn’t put her finger on. Dario. Her first ever crush. She occasionally wondered what would have happened on a night long ago if she’d made a different decision.
