Page 20 of A Merry Irish Christmas
‘The doorman?’
‘Yes. His wife’s taking the children to Houston to spend the holidays with her family. Her mother isn’t well. Arnold has Christmas Day off, but he has to be back at work the next day, so it’s too far for him to go with them. Max and his husband – that’s Evan’s assistant – are going to friends for dinner, but they’re calling over for a drink in the morning.’
‘Wow, sounds like you’re going to be busy. It’s not much of a holiday for you, cooking Christmas dinner for half of New York.’
‘Ah, it’s no bother,’ her mother said with a casual wave of her hand. ‘The more, the merrier. It wouldn’t feel like Christmas if we didn’t have a crowd. But now, what about you? What will you do?’ She chewed her lower lip, thinking. ‘I mean, there’s plenty of food there for the two of you, but Evan wasn’t going to bother with a turkey and you’ll have been looking forward to a proper Christmas dinner. Let me think.’
‘Don’t worry about that. I’ll be fine. You don’t have to organise dinner for me as well as everyone else. And I don’t mind about not having turkey.’
‘I know! You can go to the O’Sullivans. I’m sure Carmel and Sean would love to have you.’
‘Mum! It’s only a couple of days to Christmas. I can’t impose on them at this stage. They’re not expecting me.’
Her mother made a dismissive sound. ‘You know what Carmel’s like. She always caters as if she’s expecting the entire population of Kerry to descend on her.’
That was true. Carmel was cut from the same cloth as her mother. It was no wonder they were best friends.
‘The twins are on a gap year in Australia and won’t make ithome, so she’ll only have Hilary and James and Charlie. She’ll be only delighted to have two extra to make up the numbers.’
‘Two? What do you mean two? It would just be me.’
‘What about Evan? You’re not planning to abandon him on Christmas Day, are you?’
‘He’s the one abandoning me, remember? But even if he does let me stay, I wouldn’t be bringing him to the O’Sullivans’. I don’t know him from Adam.’
‘Well, now’s your chance. You’re practically neighbours here in New York, you know. It’s only a short walk from here to your apartment. It’d be nice for you to have a new friend when you get back.’
‘He came here to get away from people, Mum. He was expecting to have the house all to himself, and I pretty much promised I’d leave him alone. He’s kind of private and… reserved.’ Not to mention grumpy and downright hostile.
‘Don’t worry about that. Carmel will soon bring him out of his shell.’
Oh God. Mary had a vision of a very put-out Evan joining in enforced festivities at the O’Sullivans. ‘We could have dinner here, just the two of us,’ she said tentatively.
‘It’d be a bit of a half-arsed Christmas with just the two of you. And it’d be a lot of work for you. You must be tired after all that travelling, and you need a bit of TLC. You don’t want to turn around and start cooking Christmas dinner.’
‘It wouldn’t have to be a roast. We could have something simple.’
‘Like what?’
‘I don’t know… pasta?’
‘Pasta! On Christmas Day?’ her mother gasped as if Mary had taken leave of her senses. ‘Look, don’t worry about it. Leave it with me. I’ll give Carmel a call and book the pair of you inprovisionally for Christmas Day, and you can firm up with her once you’ve got the okay from Evan.’
‘Right,’ Mary said weakly, knowing there was no point in trying to convince her mother that there was no way Evan would give this plan the thumbs up.
‘You can take the rest from there. I’ve stocked up for Evan, but there should be plenty for the two of you. There’s a fish pie in the freezer, so you can have that tomorrow night. It’s a big one, so it’ll stretch if you want to have anyone over. Why don’t you invite a few friends round? I’m sure Evan would like to meet more of the local people while he’s there.’
‘I really don’t think so.’
‘There’s plenty of mince pies and Christmas cake, and anything else you can get in the shops tomorrow or one of the neighbours would help you out. Now, what about presents?’
Mary felt a pang of self-pity at the thought of all the brightly wrapped parcels in her suitcase that she wouldn’t get to open with her family. ‘I brought yours with me. I presume you did the same?’
‘Yes, we brought yours to New York – we thought we’d be opening them together. Why don’t we have a Zoom call on Christmas morning and open our presents together then?’
‘That’s a great idea!’ Mary said, brightening. At least she’d get to spend some of the day with her family, if only virtually. It was better than nothing.
‘You can go into Dingle tomorrow and get Evan something, so he’s not left out. You’ll need to go shopping anyway to get some things to bring to Carmel’s. You can take my car or your dad’s – we left Evan the keys.’
