Page 33 of A Merry Irish Christmas
‘Not at all. I’m delighted you’re coming.’
‘There’s just one thing. About Evan…’
‘We haven’t seen hide nor hair of him since he’s been here. It’ll be nice to get a look at him up close. It’s quite exciting, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah, about that. He’s a very private person, and he’s kind of… hiding out here. He wants to be incognito and he thinks he’s got away with it.’ She explained what she’d told Evan about the O’Sullivans not watching TV and that they wouldn’t recognise him.
‘I’m sorry. If you’d rather we didn’t come, I totally understand.’
‘No, of course not! It’ll be a bit of a laugh. I’ve honestly onlyseen thatSpider-Mana couple of times when Charlie’s been here. He’s a huge fan.’
‘He won’t be a problem, will he?’
‘Don’t worry, leave it to me. I’ll make something up, turn it into a bit of a game for him.’
‘Thanks so much, Carmel. See you tomorrow.’
When she’d hung up, she grabbed an A4 notepad and pen from her bag to make a shopping list over breakfast. She ate at the kitchen table and when she’d finished her list, she started working on some kind of plan to make sharing the house with Evan more harmonious. She didn’t want to have the same tussle with him every day any more than he did. It would be easier to get through the rest of their time together if they both knew where they stood. She tore off a new page and drew a table with a column for each of the remaining days they were here.
When she’d cleared up after breakfast, she found Evan in the living room, hunched over his laptop. He was wearing his glasses again. Why did he have to look so damn cute?
‘What now?’ He straightened up as she approached him, eyeballing her with a put-upon expression.
‘You wanted it in writing, so here it is,’ she said, placing the chart she’d made on the table in front of him. ‘What do you think?’
‘What’s all this?’ He scanned the page quickly. ‘I didn’t agree to any of this – shopping in Dingle, pub,swim,’ he read, his eyes bugging out. ‘Apart from this.’ He pointed to ‘dinner at the O’Sullivans’’ in the Christmas Day column.
‘That’s why it’s the only thing I’ve put in your half,’ she said, pulling out a chair and sitting beside him. ‘I’ve divided each day in two, see?’ She pointed to the side of the chart where she’d written ‘M’ beside the top row and ‘E’ beside the bottom. ‘All the other stuff is mine.’
‘Oh, okay.’ He nodded.
‘So you’ll know where to avoid if you don’t want to bump into me. You’re welcome to join me on any of this if you want to. But it’s completely up to you.’
He looked at the chart again. ‘You have aswimon Christmas morning?’ He screwed up his face. ‘Where would you go swimming around here?’
‘Uh, where do you think?’ She waved to the windows and the wraparound views of the sea.
‘In theocean?’
‘Yeah. It’s a Christmas tradition. Though, to be honest, it’s not so much a swim. It’s more charging into the sea and running back out again as fast as you can.’
‘No wonder your family wanted to escape to New York this Christmas.’
‘It’s not just our family. It’s an Irish thing and loads of people from around here will be doing it.’
‘I thought your traditions would be more alcohol and music based.’
‘Well, now’s your chance to bust those stereotypes and experience the real Ireland. It’s not all twinkly eyed leprechauns dancing jigs and having drunken brawls, you know.’
‘Next you’ll be telling me there’s no Santa Claus.’
Mary laughed, surprised he’d momentarily abandoned his grumpy demeanour and actually made a joke. Maybe there was hope for him yet. ‘It’s a good laugh – and it’s for charity. You should come.’ She had no idea why she was trying to persuade him. But she couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for Evan. He couldn’t really be happy spending Christmas sulking all alone. Maybe her mother was right, and she was here for a reason. Perhaps she was meant to be his Christmas angel, bringing somejoy back into his life and showing him the true meaning of Christmas, like in a cheesy festive movie.
‘I bet you’d enjoy it.’
‘No thanks. You can count me out.’ He turned back to his laptop.
‘Fine. As for meals, you can have the sunroom and I’ll eat in the kitchen. So now you just have to fill in your half with whatever you’ll be doing. Moody walk on the beach, slob out on the sofa or whatever.’ She handed him a pen.
