No Ordinary Love

by Anita Notaro

  ‘Well, I’m hopeful he’s willing to change,’ I said. ‘But you have to encourage him. I’ve suggested that you be the one to feed Pedro for the next week, so no messing, OK?’

  ‘What, you mean no sweet-and-sour chicken balls when I run out of dog food?’ He dodged another blow. ‘I know, I know. I forgot that Louis doesn’t like him to have stodgy batter, the stuff with beer that he makes himself is much lighter.’ Mike grabbed Pete’s lead and ran on ahead laughing. ‘Come on, boy, let’s have a run, these dog shrinks will drive us to drink.’ Pete kept looking back at me, a bit frightened in case I disapproved, I think, so I ran and caught up with them, and he bounded along, ears back, with the biggest grin I’ve ever seen on a dog’s face, until both Mike and I ran out of steam.

  ‘Christ, I’m so unfit it’s lethal,’ he panted. ‘But at least I’m warm. Fancy a drink before we head home?’

  ‘I’m wrecked.’ I hesitated, still nervous of him for some reason. ‘I really should get off to bed . . .’

  ‘Well, I’m driving, so I’m only having one. Go on, you know you want to.’

  ‘What about the dog?’

  ‘Say nothing, leave it to me.’ He broke into a fast stride, so that Pete and I had no choice but to jog behind him to catch up.

  ‘My friend here is short-sighted, so the dog is her guide, is that OK?’ I nearly choked as Mike helped me into a seat.

  ‘Certainly, sir. What can I get you?’ The barman was over to us in a second.

  ‘Eh, pint of Guinness for me. Lulu?’

  ‘Glass of dry white wine please.’ My face was beetroot as I tried to look just past his face, the way I’d seen it done on the movies. Mike noticed and nearly corpsed.

  ‘What are you like, you eejit? Sure he doesn’t give a toss, any mention of a disability and they fall over themselves to accommodate you these days, EU rules and all that.’

  ‘You are the biggest chancer I’ve ever met in my life,’ I whispered, completely mortified. Pete had once again wedged himself under the banquette seating, as if he knew that he too was chancing his arm. ‘He doesn’t even look like a guide dog, they’re normally Labradors.’ I grinned.

  ‘Relax, you’re with your uncle Mike.’ He stood up and paid for the drinks as soon as they arrived.

  ‘Sorry I couldn’t treat you, but with my eyesight I wouldn’t have been able to find the correct money.’ I took a gulp just as the nice barman came back with a dish of water for Pete. ‘There you go, boy.’ He stroked the tiny bit of head that was visible. ‘Any time you know you’re coming in, give us a ring and we’ll keep an eye on the door. My name is Alan, by the way.’ He smiled and handed Mike a card as he left our table.

  ‘Do you know, people down here are so nice.’ I told Mike about the guy in the pet shop making up the carrier for Pete, and he laughed at the idea of me zipping along the dual carriageway with a dog on a bike. ‘Is it because strictly speaking Bray is in County Wicklow and therefore in the country, even if we are less than an hour from the centre of Dublin?’ I wondered.

  ‘Yeah, I guess so.’ He took a slug of his pint straightaway. ‘You can’t beat the old community spirit. It’s fairly gone by the wayside in über-trendy Dublin, that’s for sure.’

  ‘Well, I’d say your business is fairly cut-throat.’ I was interested to hear more about his life. All I really knew was that he was in the music industry.

  ‘Sure is. But I love music, always have, so I go into work with a smile on my face most mornings.’

  ‘How come you’re so laidback about everything?’

  ‘Not everything, but most things aren’t worth worrying about.’

  ‘God, I was so not like that in my last job – mostly the smile had been wiped away by the time I got out of the shower and my phone was already beeping with messages,’ I told him.

  ‘Big mistake. I leave my work mobile in the office, and only one person in the company – Marisa, my assistant – has my personal one, and she never rings me unless it’s a dire emergency. And so far I’ve resisted a BlackBerry. Sure, like everywhere else, there is a lot of politics in my game, but I usually manage to slip in the odd gig, like tonight, where I just head off and listen to some raw talent.’

  ‘And were they good?’

  ‘They were, yeah. One of our A&R guys, Ritchie, picked up on them from a demo and he asked me to have a listen. They’ve got a different sound, so hopefully we’ll be working with them. Mind you, I wanted to be up on stage instead of the head honcho from the record company sitting in the front row in a jacket, I have to tell you.’

  ‘You love it that much, huh?’

  ‘Pretty much. And you? Do you love what you do now?’

  ‘Yeah, actually, I do. I think I’ve been searching most of my life, chasing something, running round in circles because I didn’t really know what I was looking for and everyone else seemed to have found. For the first time in my life I’m content.’ I sipped my drink. ‘Happy in the now, as all the experts tell you to be.’

  ‘And tell me, Lulu, were you always . . . eh, how can I put this diplomatically . . . as barking mad as you are now?’

  ‘Do you think I am, really?’ I was delighted.

  ‘I do.’ He looked puzzled. ‘Is that not a hanging-offence kind of thing to say to a woman, or am I losing my touch?’

  ‘No, it’s fine by me,’ I told him. ‘I love being called mad. I honestly believe “sensible” must have been the first word I learned.’

  ‘Good for you, I think.’ He grinned as he swallowed the last of his pint, but he seemed in no hurry to leave. ‘And the dog? Is he for keeps?’

  ‘I’ve no idea,’ I told him the story, and he ended up down on his knees in what looked like a very good black jacket, lolling about on a dirty carpet talking to a scruffy dog and telling him what a great boy he was.

  ‘He’s got the oddest eyes,’ he told me when he sat back down again. ‘He sort of looks at you as if he understands what you’re saying.’

  ‘Tell me about it, those eyes are what got me in the first place.’

  We left shortly after, and Mike insisted on dropping me off, even though I protested when I saw his shiny 09 black car with the cream-leather seats.

  ‘Honestly, Pete is rotten, and I don’t understand why but it seems to be getting worse,’ I told him, but he insisted that it was too late and too dark for me to walk home. The only good thing was that we weren’t in his car long enough to leave any permanent reminder – I hoped.

  ‘You’re a funny girl, I can’t figure you out,’ he told me as he deposited the pair of us at the gate. ‘Living in a trailer in Bray, driving a bike and sharing your space with a mutt no one wants.’

  ‘And happy with my lot, thank you very much.’ I waved him off, and he promised to text me progress reports on Pedro and Louis.

  I woke early next morning and decided I could no longer stand the smell of Pete, so I turned on the shower full blast and he trotted straight in, which surprised me. Normally you had to coax animals under water, but he seemed to know what was required of him. Once I started soaping his belly, I found the culprit. What looked like the remains of part of a dead bird were caught in the knots of hair in his belly. It was small, and I was completely guessing that it might have once been a bird because of what looked like a tiny mass of feathers. But the stink on my hands told me this was what was causing people to recoil in horror. It was so embedded I had to cut it out, which explains why I hadn’t felt or seen it before. And as soon as I sniffed the thing I gagged.

  ‘Oh my God, that is absolutely putrid, how on earth did you get it in there?’ I asked Pete, whose tail immediately went down, as if sensing he’d done something wrong. ‘It’s OK; it’s not as if you went walking in the woods every day, that’s for sure.’ I gave him a hug. ‘Stay, good boy,’ I commanded as I went to fetch a plastic bag and knotted it tightly so that it wouldn’t stink out my bin. The clean, shiny dog that emerged from the shower bore no resemblance to the one that had gone in. I’d combed hi
m first, but I knew he needed proper grooming by an expert one of these days. Still, it was a vast improvement and I was looking forward to the reaction in the office. Shame Mike hadn’t seen him like this.

  ‘You are so gorgeous,’ I told him as I turned my hairdryer on low and dried his coat, and he positively glowed, licking my face at every opportunity as if to say, ‘Thanks, I didn’t like the smell either.’ I knew that was just a fanciful notion on my part, though. As a rule, dogs love rolling in anything they can find, and the smellier the better had been my experience.

  Still, he positively preened on the journey to the office, and it seemed as if every schoolchild laughed and pointed out their car windows as we whizzed past.

  If ever he’d doubted his attractiveness, he knew he was on to a winner, I reckon, when Mary clocked him.

  ‘Oh my God, what have they done to you? You are such a beautiful doggie.’ She hugged him to bits, and he licked her back with just as much passion, all the time keeping one ear cocked in my direction to make sure I wasn’t going anywhere. It made me smile to see how much she’d lightened up since Pete had arrived on the scene.

  ‘Ah, Pete, I reckon you have it sussed now,’ I told him, as Mary gave him a lamb bone she’d saved from her dinner the night before and he toddled into my office and placed it carefully on his bed, where he proceeded to sniff it and lick it for hours before he even tasted the meat. It was definitely our biggest success yet as far as he was concerned. I got a text from Mike that read:

  can’t understand it, u seem 2 leave ur mark everywhere, my car stil smells of rotten fish dis morn. Had 2 leve roof down even though freezing!

  Oops. I decided it would not endear either of us to him if I explained further.

  Emily was back, this time on her own. ‘How’re things?’ I asked as I went to meet her at the door.

  ‘Fine.’ She looked nervous, but not as deflated as she’d been looking recently.

  ‘And Rover?’

  ‘Actually, I think my mother might be finally coming to terms with him. Mind you, he sits – and stays – no idea how, but she’s delighted, so I’m happy too,’ she told me.

  ‘Great.’ I waited, but she said nothing. ‘And are you and your mother getting on OK?’ I asked. ‘Have you talked at all since the last time you were here?’

  ‘Yes, we have. Only because I sort of pushed it, really, which is not like me at all, as you know.’

  ‘In what way did you push?’

  ‘Well, I asked her more about Kitten.’ We broke into smiles all over again at the name.

  ‘And?’

  ‘Well, reluctantly, she showed me the file.’ Emily got a bit animated all of a sudden. ‘It was so strange, seeing her name, it made her seem much more real somehow. You know, an official document connecting me to a stranger.’

  ‘And how is Julia about it?’

  ‘She’s OK, I suppose. For the first time in my life I’ve asked for what I want, without always worrying about what the other person will think. It’s quite, I dunno, liberating, I suppose.’

  ‘Good for you.’ I meant it.

  ‘The thing is, Lulu, I want to pursue this. I want to find my real mother, and I’d like you to help me. Will you?’

  22

  MADDY RANG, SUGGESTING A DRINK ON MY WAY HOME AFTER WORK. I’d told her about Pete, and she was dying to see him.

  ‘It’s just, I’ve nowhere to leave him,’ I explained. It was going to be a bigger problem than I’d originally thought, I knew. I couldn’t go out after work, and in some cases I couldn’t see people on my way to or from the office, because leaving him in a box on a bike wasn’t an option and, in the case of some of my newer clients, it would be counterproductive to introduce another dog at an early stage. Besides, even though most owners loved animals, they didn’t always want someone else’s dog messing up their carpet. I knew I’d have to think seriously about getting a car. I dreaded the idea, in spite of the wind and rain and the ruined shoes. At least in a car I could leave the dog happily for an hour on a blanket on the passenger seat while I went about my business. I told Maddy of my dilemma.

  ‘Well, not a problem tonight, babe. We can meet in the Happy Hound, if you’ll pardon the pun.’ She laughed. ‘And yours will be delirious, I promise.’

  ‘Will they let him in? The other night Mike pretended I was blind in a pub in Bray. I was mortified,’ I told her.

  ‘Stop right there and rewind,’ she demanded. ‘On second thoughts, don’t. Hold it for later. Jesus Christ, girl, what are you like? I have to beat everything out of you. You know by now that you have to ring Madeleine and tell all as soon as it happens.’

  ‘Nothing happened, it was busi—’

  ‘I want a blow-by-blow, no details spared. I have great hopes for this relationship. If he can survive your vomit, he’s one to be chased,’ she declared emphatically. ‘And don’t worry about the mutt being allowed into the pub, most of their female customers are dogs themselves. Besides, I know the manager, Paul. Had a snog with him once. Be warned, though, it’s a rough joint, but it’s on your way home and I have a casting session nearby – can you believe it? I’m so excited! It’s at three thirty, so I’ll be waiting with a large G&T in my hand, whatever the outcome.’

  Smiling, I hung up. I loved Maddy to pieces, she was better than any vitamin intake. As soon as I finished with my next client – a Chihuahua called Fred who chased cars and hated tyres so he tried to bite them; not conducive to a long life on a number of levels, his owner had decided – I rang Clodagh to see if she’d join us.

  ‘Sorry, I’m snowed under,’ she told me. ‘Things are really moving rapidly with the new venture and I have a meeting with a prospective client this evening.’ She was well on the way to setting up on her own, having had it with big corporate companies who think they own their employees.

  ‘No problem, I’m just so happy for you.’

  ‘Well, you can take some of the credit, you know. You were the inspiration.’

  ‘You know me, I’ll take half the credit for anything pretty much. But this has been all up to you. You’re a powerball.’

  ‘Thanks. I just wish I had a bit more energy. I could do with getting up a bit earlier in the mornings, say five instead of six,’ she said, deadpan.

  ‘Clodagh’ – I choked on my coffee at the very notion of getting up voluntarily before eight – ‘you have so much energy that when you die they’ll probably blitz you and sell you as a super-duper multivitamin. How about meeting this weekend, instead? You could come and stay and meet my new dog?’

  ‘I’d love that. By the way, don’t go on about my new job to Maddy, I think she’s feeling a bit cheesed off with her lot at the moment, and you and I changing our lives isn’t helping, I suspect.’

  ‘Thanks for the tip-off, I’ll be careful. But she’s going for an audition this afternoon, so she’s very upbeat.’

  ‘Brilliant. Oops, gotta go, there’s my other phone, text you later.’ She was gone so fast I could almost feel the rush of wind.

  The rest of the day was unusually quiet. In recent weeks, thankfully, days like this had been rare, so I took immediate advantage and left Pete asleep under Mary’s desk while I went and did a bit of shopping, picking up a few trinkets for my office, such as a really nice doggie calendar and a cushion that boldly proclaimed DOGS DON’T DO ANYTHING FOR POLITICAL REASONS. I loved it, so it got pride of place on my couch. On the way back I went for a coffee on the spur of the moment and thought once again how much I loved my new life. When my mobile stayed silent it was the icing on the cake.

  I’d hoped to get a walk in before I met Maddy that evening, but she sent me a message at four thirty to say she was there already, not a good sign as far as the casting was concerned.

  Can I bring P in or shud I ask 1st? I texted as soon as I pulled up at the pub, where a large group of weatherbeaten men stood at the main door, huddled together under the canopy, smoking.

  Immediately a message came back that simply read sorted
so I manoeuvred my way through the crowd.

  ‘How’ya love, nice bruiser ye got there,’ a gravelly voice said.

  ‘I’m ringin’ Health and Safety, this place is bad enough without findin’ dog hairs in the oul pint,’ a wizened face added, the toothless grin taking away the implied threat.

  ‘Don’t mind them, love, they’re only teasing. Come in quick outta the cold,’ said another one straightaway.

  ‘Thanks a million.’ I smiled at them all and headed in the door, where Maddy waved to me from a quiet corner.

  ‘This place is buzzing,’ I told her, as Pete took up his usual position under my feet. ‘The recession hasn’t hit Sallynoggin then?’

  ‘Cheapest pint in south-county Dublin here, as well as cheapest petrol down the road, so they’re always busy.’ She gestured to a barman and I ordered a white wine. ‘What wines do you have by the glass?’ I asked, expecting a couple of choices.

  ‘Eh’ – he scratched his head – ‘I’ll show you.’ He disappeared and emerged thirty seconds later with a half-open bottle of something I didn’t recognize.

  ‘Just Chardonnay, love. That OK?’

  ‘Em, maybe—’

  He came a bit closer. ‘To be honest, it’s been open for a while. Not much call for white wine around here. At least a fortnight, I’d say.’

  ‘Thanks for telling me.’ I grinned. ‘I’d love a glass of Heineken so.’

  ‘Good choice. Comin’ up.’ He was off again. ‘How do you know this place?’ I laughed as I settled myself in.

  ‘Real Dublin pub, I used to come here years ago when I hadn’t a bean. Not much different now.’ She grinned as she wrestled with Pete, trying to get him to play with one of her gloves. He wasn’t having any of it, not with all these men around. ‘He’s a great dog. Bit quiet though, isn’t he?’

  ‘I think he’s wary around men, to be honest. Wait and see after he’s been here for a bit.’

  ‘Well, you’ve joined the right gang so, Pete,’ she told him. ‘None of us have had a man in ages.’