Something You Should Know

by Melissa Hill

  *****

  The following week, the girls collected the keys from the landlord, and Jenny’s mother helped move her things from home.

  “Now remember, madam,” lectured Eileen Hamilton, “you were very lucky that the Bank was generous enough to take you back on. You’ve been given a second chance, so make the most of it and don’t be gallivanting out on the town every night.”

  “Mam, I’m twenty-eight years old and I’m not stupid. Naturally we won’t be out every night – just most nights.” Jenny grinned, her blue eyes glowing with mischief.

  “Don’t worry, Mrs Hamilton, I’ll make sure she keeps her feet on the ground. It’ll be fine, I’ll look after her,” Karen soothed, with an almost imperceptible wink at Jenny.

  “I know, Karen, I’m glad it’s yourself she’ll be living with. You were always great at calming her down. She can be a bit – excitable, to say the least.”

  “Mam, I’m not a child. I do have some sense, you know.” Jenny said incredulously.

  “I know you do, love, that’s why you left a perfectly good job and went gadding off to Australia after that Lyons eejit.” She sniffed disapprovingly.

  Jenny looked at Karen and rolled her eyes in frustration.

  Karen smiled at her friend but felt a faint ache inside. At least Jenny could say that her parents cared about what happened to her. Her own parents, Clara and Jonathan, lived in Tenerife where they ran a business organising corporate golf tours. While they retained their home in Kilkenny, they rarely came back to Ireland, and Karen only saw them when she took it upon herself to visit them at their villa over Christmas, and maybe once or twice during the summer. As an only child, and with a life of her own in Dublin, the Cassidys had been long since released from their parental obligations towards Karen.

  “Do you need to go for a shower before we go out?” Karen asked, as she brushed her long dark hair in front of the mirror over the mantelpiece. Jenny’s mother had left for home a few hours earlier, and most of the girl’s belongings were put away.

  “You mean go out – tonight?” Jenny replied.

  “Well, it’s our first night here, and Shane is coming over soon. We have to go out and celebrate.”

  Half an hour later and right on time, Shane arrived at the flat.

  “Very nice,” he said, taking a good look around the comfy living-room, which the girls planned to decorate over the coming days. “It’s quite roomy, isn’t it?” He took in the large three-seater couch and armchair in front of the fireplace. A long breakfast bar divided the kitchen area from the rest of the room. The landlord had replaced some of the existing appliances and the girls now had a brand-new fridge and a silver chrome kettle. A row of formica cupboards lined the wall above the cooker.

  “I take it that these are souvenirs from Oz?” Shane indicated the Kangaroos Crossing - Next 200km sign hanging on the wall and Jenny’s Ayers Rock print.

  Karen nodded. “Jenny loves that one. It reminds her of her backpacking days. She’s not long out of the shower – she should be ready soon.”

  “I’m looking forward to meeting her –” Then he frowned. “What is that racket coming from next door?”

  Karen giggled. “That racket is Jenny playing her Disco Hits CD while she’s getting ready to go out.”

  Shane rolled his eyes. “Oh no – not another disco freak. I’ll bet she and Tessa will get on like a house on fire.”

  Karen finished applying her lipstick in front of the mirror.

  “Hey, you look nice,” Shane said approvingly, noticing Karen’s appearance for the first time. She was wearing black leather trousers with a deep-red slash-neck top. A pair of small silver hoop earrings completed the outfit and, set against Karen’s shoulder-length dark hair, the effect was casual but sexy.

  “Going clubbing tonight, are we?” Shane teased, pulling her close to him.

  “I hope so,” she said, giving him a quick kiss. “I know Jenny will be expecting a good time on her first Saturday night in Dublin.”

  “Ah, speak of the devil,” Shane said, as Jenny entered the room wearing an outfit that immediately made Karen feel frumpy and boring.

  Jenny’s blonde tresses were piled high above her head with a few tendrils framing her strikingly pretty face, and emphasising her full lips and large almond-shaped eyes. She wore a purple shirt with an intertwined cerise and gold pattern along the front, over a pair of rich black satin trousers. A pair of gold drop-earrings dangled attractively from each ear. Karen thought her friend looked sensational – effortlessly exotic. Jenny had a definite knack for wearing clothes that made people look twice at her.

  Shane extended a hand. “How are you Jen? I’m Shane Quinn, the hunk that I’m sure Karen has been raving about.”

  “Pleased to meet you.” Jenny laughed as they shook hands. It was obvious that Shane was a lovely guy, but he was far from a hunk. Dressed in combats and a baggy striped rugby top, his lanky frame towered over Karen, and his dark hair was tightly cropped, ostensibly to disguise a slightly thinning hairline on his forehead.

  But Jenny could easily understand why Karen had been attracted to him. For some reason the sprinkling of freckles across his cheeks, sharp green eyes and devilish grin made him terribly appealing.

  The night was great craic.

  Karen, Jenny and Shane had met Tessa and Gerry in Rody Boland’s and Shane’s friend and housemate, Aidan, joined them later that evening. Karen was afraid that Jenny might find the group quite daunting but she had chatted happily with everyone and had won them over with her bubbly and infectious chit-chat. It was good to see Jenny out and about and enjoying herself. Her confidence must surely have taken a battering after the break-up with Paul.

  Karen had discovered quite by accident the reason Jenny had split from her ex. Her friend had hardly mentioned him since her return, and considering that Jenny and Paul had been a couple for some time, Karen had naturally been curious. She had mentioned it in passing one afternoon and Jenny had been quite frank about it.

  “He wanted to stay and I wanted to leave – simple as that,” she had said. “We had a big bust-up during a trip to Cairns, and I decided to head back to Sydney before returning home.”

  “Didn’t Tasha visit you in Cairns?” Karen said, referring to a mutual friend from their hometown who had met up with Jenny earlier that same year.

  Jenny nodded, but didn’t elaborate.

  “So, she went back to Sydney with you then?”

  “No, she stayed with Paul,” Jenny said flatly.

  “What? Why would she stay with Paul?”

  Jenny smiled. “I mean she stayed with Paul.”

  Karen sat upright in her chair. “I was wondering why I hadn’t heard a thing from her. Who does she think she is? And as for Paul Lyons – well, he’d better not come near me in a hurry, or he’ll be half a man by the time I’ve finished with him.”

  Jenny chuckled at her friend’s reaction. “Thanks, but it’s OK –I don’t really mind, actually. Paul and I were growing apart long before then, and Tasha was the final nail in the coffin, so to speak. Anyway, it gave me the incentive to stop drifting, so I came back to Dublin to ‘think about my future’ as Mam would say.”

  “So, you’re not bothered about Paul at all then?”

  “Nope. Anyway, I went to my fortune-teller not long after I came home – you know, just to see what life had in store for me, and all that. Karen, she was just brilliant. She knew all about Paul and the break-up, and she knew that I had been away and –”

  “Let me guess – she told you that you had experienced a tough time recently, but that things would improve and you’d be going on a journey,” Karen said sardonically. She could never understand how Jenny, a supposedly intelligent twenty-something was always so gullible when it came to these fortune-tellers. Then again, she had always been the same – over the years the same fortune-teller had supposedly predicted Jenny’s Leaving Cert results, her mother’s shingles and her dog Lucy’s pregnancy. The fact that t
his so-called fortune-teller lived in the same town, and was well aware of Jenny’s studious tendencies, her mother’s repeated public discussions on her health and Lucy’s (a pedigree King Charles) unmitigated escape from the Hamilton household one weekend, hadn’t at all tarnished Jenny’s high opinion of Mrs Crowley’s so-called ‘predictions’.

  Jenny made a face. “It’s not like that. She was very particular this time, strangely so.”

  “Jenny, she knew you had gone backpacking with Paul and had come home without him. It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together and come up with a ‘surprising revelation’.”

  Jenny folded her arms sulkily across her chest. “Just because you have a naturally cynical and suspicious nature doesn’t mean that the rest of us shouldn’t have faith in her.”

  Karen sighed and put both hands up in defeat. “OK then, tell me about Madam Crowley’s amazing predictions this time.”

  “Well, OK, she wasn’t that specific but – ”

  There’s a surprise.

  “She told me that I will meet someone special before the end of the year, and this guy – she said he had hair of ‘a similar colour to my own’– would be the one. Can you believe it? She actually said he would be The One.”

  “Really?” Karen drawled.

  “This is exactly how she put it. She said that I will meet him after ‘a moment of lapsed concentration’ and we will have ‘upheavals’ throughout the relationship, but we’ll be able to fend off everything that gets thrown at us, until eventually nothing will keep us apart.”

  Karen couldn’t help but snigger.

  “Think about it, what if it really happens?” Jenny asked, her blue eyes widening with excitement. “What if he’s here now – in Dublin? And it’s heading towards the end of the year, so I must be about to meet him soon.”

  Chapter 5

  “Are you nervous?” Karen asked, watching Jenny try to smooth down her unruly curls for about the tenth time that morning. She had to admit, her friend looked very smart, dressed in a mulberry-coloured jacket and matching ankle-length skirt, the rich colour setting off Jenny’s features beautifully.

  “I suppose I am a little bit,” Jenny said, deciding finally to clip her hair back from her face. She frowned at her reflection. “I don’t know – do I look a bit untidy? Oh, I wish I had straight hair.”

  Karen laughed through a mouthful of cornflakes. “Do you realise that women all over the world pay a fortune getting in curls like that on a regular basis? Seriously, Jenny, I’ve never seen you look like that before. I love that suit – the executive look is really you, you know.”

  So it should be, Jenny thought. It had cost an absolute fortune in Jigsaw. But while she might look it, she certainly didn’t feel professional. The butterflies in her stomach would start pouring out of her mouth soon – there were so many of them. She wished she could just get the first day over with, and then hopefully things would be easier. Jenny knew that the Dun Laoghaire branch of Alliance Trust Bank was very big and very busy. Hopefully, her future colleagues wouldn’t be too busy to get to know the newest member of staff. She took a deep breath.

  “Right then, I’m off. Wish me luck!”

  Karen got up from her chair and gave her a reassuring hug.

  “You’ll be fine, Jen. It’s not as though you haven’t done the work before, and I’m sure it’ll all come back to you once you get going.”

  “I know, I know, but I’m just dying to get the first day over with, then I’m sure I’ll be fine.” She picked up her handbag, and took one last look in the mirror, before leaving to catch a bus into the city centre. From there she would get a DART train out to Dun Laoghaire.

  Karen left the flat about twenty minutes later and set off on the short walk to the Acorn Fidelity building.

  She hugged her trench coat tightly around her midriff, as the chilly morning breeze blustered against her. It was early September, but Karen could already feel the weather getting colder with each passing day. She’d have to start taking the bus to work soon. That would give Shane a laugh. He worked for Viking Engineering, a Civil Engineering company located on the northside, and had to take two buses a day to get to work, whereas Acorn Fidelity was luckily within walking distance for her. She wished he’d hurry up and get that car he was always talking about. It would make getting around Dublin much easier, but then again – Karen thought, reminding herself of the merciless city traffic – maybe not.

  Karen reached for her identity card, which gave her access to her building, and walked through the plush reception of Acorn Fidelity.

  Pamela, the receptionist waylaid her as she walked past. “Catherine Mitchell is out sick today. She’s got three interviews this morning, so you’ll have to take them. The first one is waiting for you outside your office.”

  Great, Karen thought to herself. So much for an easy Monday morning at the office.

  She shouldn’t have to take the Personnel Manager’s candidates – she had enough work of her own to do and those interviews should have been rearranged. But obviously Little Miss Efficiency had it all worked out. She and Pamela had detested one another since Karen’s first day at Acorn Fidelity nearly three years before, and for no discernible reason. Catherine Mitchell, Karen’s boss, called it ‘a distinct clash of all too similar personalities’.

  Karen didn’t agree.

  “Fine,” she said to Pamela. “Anything else, while you’re at it?”

  “Why, yes actually,” Pamela beamed. “I have eight telephone messages for you, and another thirteen for Catherine. I suppose you can deal with those when you’re finished with the interviewees?”

  “Yes,” Karen said, through gritted teeth, “I suppose I can.”

  Later back at the flat, Jenny blustered in the door with such commotion that Karen looked up in bewilderment.

  “What happened?” she said, taking in her friend’s wretched appearance. “You look awful.” Jenny was drenched in sweat, her hair had spilled loose from its clip and her curls were matted against her forehead. She looked completely different to the supposedly calm professional that had left the flat earlier that morning.

  “She’s just been mugged.”

  It was only then that Karen noticed the broad, attractive guy standing behind Jenny. He wore a dark pinstripe suit, and was carrying a nylon laptop-holder under his left arm. His dark hair was short and tightly-cropped and his eyes were also dark, a deep chocolate brown – striking against his honey-coloured complexion. There was a hint of dark stubble on his chin – he seemed to Karen like the kind of man who always had stubble, no matter how often he shaved.

  “She got off at the bus stop in front of the shopping centre, when a gang of gurriers grabbed her bag and ran off,” said the Attractive One. “I saw it happen, and we both ran after them, but it was too late. I nearly caught them, but they hid in the flats up the road – she’s very upset.” He regarded Jenny with a concerned look.

  “Jen, you poor thing,” Karen said, absorbing what he had said. “Did they get that much money? Have you cancelled your credit cards?”

  “I didn’t take any cards with me, and there wasn’t that much cash in my purse. But that new cherry lipstick I bought last week – you know the one that’s supposed to stay on for ages, even if you do nothing but drink coffee all day? Well, that was in my handbag and it cost me a fortune.” She added glumly, “So did the bag.”

  “Look, sit down there on the couch and relax. Will you both have tea? I’ve just made a fresh pot.”

  They both nodded and Karen poured mugs of strong tea for Jenny and her saviour. As she handed them the tea, she shook her head in disgust. “Maybe you should ring the gardai – they might be able to at least get the bag back.”

  “It would probably be a waste of time,” Jenny said despondently. “The gardai won’t be able to do anything. I’m sure it’s a regular occurrence, and as there wasn’t much in the bag, they won’t really bother.”

  The so-far anonymous one chuckled. �
�I doubt the gardai would grasp the importance of stay-on lipstick either.”

  Jenny flashed him a bashful smile.

  She took a sip from her tea and then suddenly remembered her manners.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry – I forgot to introduce you two,” she spluttered, waving an arm in the air. “Karen, meet Roan Williams – Sir Galahad in disguise.”

  Roan flashed her a brilliant white smile and as they shook hands, Karen noticed that his front teeth were slightly crooked.

  Jenny gazed at Roan. “I really appreciate you helping me out like that,” she said sweetly. “You didn’t have to get involved at all.”

  “Of course I had to get involved,” he said with a smile. “I think it’s terrible that no one seems to bat an eyelid when these things happen any more.”

  Karen watched the exchange between the two of them with interest. It was obvious that, saviour or no saviour, her friend was smitten with this guy.

  Roan took a gulp of tea from his mug and looked around the room. “This is a nice flat, much nicer than where I’m living now.”

  “And where might that be?” Karen enquired, for Jenny’s benefit.

  “Along the canal, near Ranelagh. I share a house with three guys that tell me they’re from Monaghan somewhere, but with the way they carry on you’d think they were raised in the orang-utan’s enclosure at Dublin zoo. Last week I found a plate of something resembling spaghetti bolognese under one of the armchairs. I’d say it must have been there for weeks.”

  “I’m trying to place your accent,” Jenny said thoughtfully. “You’re not from Dublin, are you?”

  Roan laughed. “No, but you’re not far off. I’m actually from Kildare, but I’ve been living in Dublin for a long time now, what with college and work.” He pointed towards the laptop, which lay at his feet.

  “Roan, will you have another cuppa?” Karen asked, refilling the kettle.

  “I won’t thanks. I was actually on my way to get a takeaway, when I was waylaid by this damsel in distress.” He winked at Jenny. “Are you sure you’re alright now?”