Page 33 of Merrily Ever After
Christian. “I’m calling in that favor,” he says when I answer.
“I don’t owe you a favor.”
“All right, then I’m asking for a favor.”
“All right, then no.”
“We’re going down to Cork first thing in the morning,” he continues, ignoring me. “Going to try and beat the traffic.”
“You want me to come wave you off?”
“Megan’s mother asked her to pick up one of the raffle prizes for her Christmas gala. It’s all ordered, just needs collecting.”
“This sounds like a rich people problem.”
“It’s for charity,” he says. “But Megan asked me to get it and—”
“You forgot,” I finish for him.
“I’m doing a site visit all day and we’ve got the awards dinner tonight. Look, I didn’t want to ask because of the accident but on the off chance you’re feeling okay—”
“I’ll do it.”
“Really?” He sounds suspicious, which is fair.
“I’m going into town anyway to pick up something for my mam. It’s fine. I need a new side quest. My main quest sucks right now.”
“You’re a lifesaver,” he says, sounding genuinely relieved. “I’ll send you the details. We’ll swing by after the dinner and pick it up.”
We say goodbye and I mentally run through a list of people who could look after Tiernan, but I dismiss the thought as soon as I think it. I can handle a bit of shopping. I’m great at shopping. And it’s an excuse to get out of the apartment.Get some fresh air. See the Christmas sights. Do some family bonding. My mood lifts the more I imagine it. This.Thisis what I needed. A life purpose in the form of small achievable tasks.
I decide to use the pram because it’s too much walking for Tiernan and, obviously, there will be no carrying him with my tragic, dramatic injury. It takes some cajoling to get him to leave his dinosaur behind and even more to get his shoes on, but eventually we manage to get out. We even get the bus with minimal wait time. And there’s space! The driver says hello! And I’m thinking this might end up being a pretty great day, a real core memory for both of us, when our luck abruptly runs out.
Turns out Dublin gets really,reallybusy on the last Friday before Christmas.
It’s something I never had to deal with much before now. Christmas wasn’t really a thing in my house growing up, so beyond a few presents, the consumerism rush has been lost on me. That’s not to say I’ve never fought through a crowd for some discounted Jimmy Choos, but I had never had to do it with a sprained elbow before.
The glares I get as soon as I reach the city are something else. I mean, the pram isn’t even that big. It’s a normal-sized pram. It’s smaller than some of the shopping bags people have, but you’d swear I was driving a car through the street.
Inside the fancy shopping center for Megan, the first thing I notice is that the heating is blaring. And there’s me in my massive, still kind of soup-stained coat.
Tiernan starts fidgeting immediately, so I disrobe him, but the best I can do for me is unzip myself even though I’m already starting to sweat.
“We’ll be in and out,” I say, already getting the feeling that I’m lying to both of us.
Probably because I am.
It takes me ten minutes just to get into the elevator. Seven more minutes to find what I’m looking for and thenfifteen minutesin the queue.
My arm aches. My head aches. I really need to pee. But I stand. I stay still and I stand because if I don’t, I will lose my place in the line, and we will have to wait all over again.
By the time we get to the front, I’m sweating under both arms and both boobs, and the blister on my left foot that I’d forgotten about is making sure I remember it.
The girl behind the counter smiles at me in an automatic, I’ve been-here-since-six-in-the-morning way and asks how she can help.
“I’m here to pick up an order,” I say before reading out the number. Tiernan stares longingly at the chocolate display beside us.
“We’ll go to the Christmas crib after this,” I tell him as the shop assistant goes off to find it. “And see the animals.”
