Page 59 of Chaos Theory
‘Thanks. It was nearly three years ago now. And I’m sorry for your’ – I glance at Lizzie but she’s chatting away to Kobi – ‘loss. You must be still in shock.’
Matthew also looks at his daughter. ‘She misses him dreadful. They were the best of pals.’
‘If we’re imposing on you in any way, please tell us,’ I say. ‘We can easily go back to the hotel tonight.’
‘No, no. To be honest with you, work is the only thing keeping us going. That’s what my father used to say – work cures all ills.’ Matthew accepts Claire’s hand, holds it for a moment. ‘You know, even if you know it’s coming, it’s still a shock. I keep forgetting he’s gone, to be honest.’
I smile a little at that. ‘I know exactly what you mean. I got sick of moving around and came back to Dublin to go to college, so I haven’t lived in the same country as my parents for a few years now. So I keep thinking Dad is still around. I can go days without thinking about him, then it shocks me all over again when I realise that he’s not here orthere or, well, anywhere.’
Shane touches my shoulder. ‘I’m sorry, Maeve. You never really talk about your parents.’
Claire smiles upon us, offers up a bowl of finely grated Parmesan. ‘And how long have you two been together?’
Shane withdraws his hand. I laugh, glad of the subject change. He can answer this one though.
‘Um,’ he says. ‘We’re’ – he looks at me but I’m not helping him out – ‘not’ –nope, still not helping you– ‘currently…?’ – this word goes up like a question – ‘together.’Painful. He swirls pasta onto his fork. A fleck of sauce flies off and lands on the tablecloth, right in the centre of a white square.
‘We just work together,’ I clarify. Time for another pivot. ‘This seems like such an idyllic life you have here. Sorry, I hope that’s not patronising. I’m sure it’s really hard work too. Much harder than what we do, right, Shane?’
‘I don’t know,’ he says through a mouthful of food. ‘They don’t have to sit through the Monday morning meetings.’
‘We do have a lot of meetings,’ I smile. ‘A lot. Shane has a system for classifying them. He decides within the first minute what kind of meeting it is so he can calculate how much attention he needs to pay. How does it work again?’
‘I’m glad you asked.’ He puts down his fork. ‘It’s your classic traffic light system, really. Red means mission critical – basically means I’m being fired. That almost never happens. Although, there was one time recently…’ He glances at me. I shake my head. ‘Never mind. Amber is my default setting – all I have to do is listen for my name and be able to respond to any questions that come immediately after it. The best kind of meeting is green – when they say at the start they’re going to email a summary or a document or whatever afterwards. Then you can completely relax and spend the next forty-five minutes thinking about whatever you like. You just have to remember to nod occasionally. I usually pretend to take notes; then I don’t even have to make eye contact with anyone.’
‘Impressive,’ says Claire.
‘Thank you.’ Shane shakes cheese off a spoon until it rains down on his plate.
‘I mean it’s impressive that you trust us enough to tell us all this. What would your boss think of this traffic light system?’
Shane’s mouth drops open.
‘I’m only messing.’ Claire winks at me.
‘Ah, go on out of that,’ says Matthew, laughing. He throws a crust in his wife’s direction. ‘Leave the poor lad alone, Claire. They’re not here for our entertainment. It’s supposed to be the other way around, actually.’
‘Sorry, sorry,’ says Claire. ‘I just get excited when we have visitors. I love hearing about office life. I miss it sometimes.’ She smiles at her daughter. ‘I mean, no regrets obviously. We’re giving her a great life, I think.’
‘What do you miss?’ Shane asks. ‘Genuinely curious.’
‘Oh, you know – the banter, the social life, the clothes…’ She nods at the rack of raincoats and muddy wellington boots by the door.
‘What did you work at before?’ I ask.
‘Project management,’ says Claire. ‘In the same place as Matthew. That’s how we got together, in fact.’
‘That’s where you met?’ I reach for another slice of bread.
‘Not exactly. We actually knew each other from college already. We were part of an extended group of friends. But we didn’t really get to know each other properly until we started working together.’
‘That’s right,’ says Matthew. ‘Seeing each other every day, for months. It wasn’t exactly a whirlwind. More like tectonic plates shifting deep beneath the surface.’
‘Doesn’t that cause earthquakes?’ I ask with a grin.
Matthew laughs. ‘Yes! You could say there was an earthquake in the end. One day Claire didn’t come in to work. She hadn’t called in sick and she wasn’t answering the phone. After about an hour of texting all our mutual friends, I couldn’t stand the suspense any more. I went to her house to check on her.’
Claire takes up the story. ‘Would you believe I had got locked in the bathroom? I’d no phone on me, of course. I was actually leaning out the bathroom window, contemplating my options for escape, when Matthew appeared in the backyard. I was never so happy to see him in my life.’
