Page 55 of A Merry Irish Christmas
‘Irish, though. So you’d have that in common.’
‘We’d have lots to talk about definitely.’
‘Tayto crisps. Soda bread. Chocolate Kimberley biscuits.’
She sniffed. ‘It wasn’t our song. It was all about her. His ex.’
‘Ah! Let me guess. She had brown eyes?’
Mary nodded. ‘She was from El Salvador. Very dark. Beautiful.’
Evan pointed the remote at the TV to pause the movie.
‘The thing is, he never made me feel like I was “the one”, or even like I was in with a shot. I knew he wasn’t over her. He didn’t even pretend to be. He made it very clear over and over again that he was still hung up on her.’
When he’d heard that Juanita was getting engaged, Greg had even had the gall to come crying toherabout it. She’d been such a chump. She’d actually felt sorry for him and gave him a shoulder to cry on. But she’d thought that was it, that he was having a cathartic experience and then he’d get over it and move on – with her. She’d told herself it was closure. But deep down, she’d always known that Greg had never committed fully to their relationship. He’d always kept one eye on the door, hoping his ex would come back to him. Then she did, and that was that.
‘He sounds like a jerk, if you ask me.’
‘Yeah. He was kind of a jerk.’
‘So what happened?’
‘His ex decided she wanted him back. So she came and got him.’
‘Just like that?’
‘She made this big romantic gesture. She left her fiancé, turned up at Greg’s door and made this speech about howbreaking up with him was the worst mistake she’d ever made. He was the love of her life and she didn’t want to waste another minute not being with him.’ She huffed a bitter laugh. ‘She didn’t even make it up herself. It was cobbled together from various romcom movies. I recognised lines fromWhen Harry Met SallyandMoonstruck. I’ll never forgive her for that. She ruined some of my favourite movies for me.’
‘What do you mean you recognised the lines? Your boyfriend relayed the whole speech to you?’ he asked, aghast.
‘No. I was there, in his apartment when she turned up. I heard the whole thing as it happened.’
‘Wow! That sucks.’
‘Tell me about it. There was alsoactualsucking when they started making out.’
‘They could at least have had the decency to wait until you’d left.’
‘What killed me about it,’ she told Evan, ‘was that it happened so close to Christmas, I thought I’d have no chance of getting home for the holidays. I was gutted that I’d given up Christmas with my family for nothing.’
‘But you managed to get a flight home.’
‘Yeah.’ She gave a bitter little laugh. ‘And look how that turned out. I needn’t have bothered.’ She gasped, realising how rude that sounded. ‘No offence.’
‘None taken. I get that this isn’t your ideal Christmas.’
‘Or yours.’
He shrugged. ‘I’ve had a lot worse.’
‘Anyway, it’s not turning out so bad,’ she said with a small smile, laying her head on his shoulder. ‘I’m glad you’re here.’
‘Me too.’ He pulled her closer. ‘Your hair smells nice,’ he murmured, leaning in and inhaling the scent of her shampoo.
‘Why are you smelling my hair?’ she gasped.
‘You said I could do whatever I wanted, remember? Do I need to put it on the chart?’
