Alberta Clipper (25 page)

“Yeah well, it doesn't look good.”  The danger seemed to have passed, and Emily brought her hand down from her face.  “Did I tell you I met one of the Dads out in town a week ago?” she said.  “I was with the book club girls. 
He was at his office Christmas party. 
He was so plastered I'm surprised he recognised me.”  Christine laughed.  “And on the school run the next day he was green.  Actually green.  I was sure he was going to puke in the playground.  And when he saw me I could tell he remembered meeting me
the previous night
, but not much more.  He looked really guilty and embarrassed.  Hilarious.”

“You're mean.”

“Oh yeah.  I even winked at him, so I'm sure he thinks he did something to be embarrassed about.”

“How come you were able to remember it all so well?”

“Ah, I had a tame enough night.”

“I don't know how you can socialise with that group.  They're all so boring.”

“Ah now, Chris, you never gave it a chance.”

“I did too.  But that one – Caitriona, Carmina
-”

“Carina,” Emily corrected her.

“Carina.  She was a total bossy cow.”

“Who was a bossy cow?” 
Gavan
appeared beside her, carrying one pint and one hot port.

“Oh, no one important.  Thanks.”

A group of girls walked past at that moment, and one of them
, a tall girl with a head of auburn corkscrew curls,
said hello to Jack. 
She cast her eyes over Emily and Christine, before noticing Gavan. 
Gavan
raised his pint to her and she smiled at him, but
after hesitating a moment,
she
kept on walking.

“Who was that?”  Emily asked.

“Oh, just a girl from work.”  Jack looked at the screen above their heads.  “Come on Titus May.”

“Did you place a bet?  I thought you went to the bar?” 

Emily was already starting to sound like a nagging wife, Christine thought
,
amused.

“There's a
cashier
at the bar,” Jack said out of the corner of his mouth.  “C'mon Titus May.”  They all turned to the screen.

“Go on.  He might just do it, Jack,”
Gavan
said.

“Come on Titus May.”  Jack handed his glass to Emily who threw her eyes to heaven.  He stood, neck craned, slapping his hands together, willing the jockey on.

“He's got fifty quid on it,”
Gavan
whispered to Christine.  “He got a tip from a mate in work.”

“Jaysus, come on Titus May,” Christine said.

Jack froze in mid-clap.  “Come on Titus May,” and a huge cheer went up as Titus May edged in front of his nearest competitor and crossed the line first. 

“Woo hoo!”  Jack spun around and high-fived
Gavan
, before lifting Emily off her stool in a bear-hug.  

“That's two hundred and fifty for me, thank you very much.”

“What?  How much did you bet?”  Emily looked horrified.

“Don't ask,” Christine said.

“Dinner's on me tonight guys.  Courtesy of Titus May.”

“To Titus.” 
Gavan
lifted his glass to the screen.

Emily shrugged her shoulders at Christine.  “To Titus.”  They clinked glasses laughing. 

“Skaal.”

~

“I'm really sorry.  I know we had a big night planned, but I just feel awful.  I couldn't face going out.”

Christine looked at her watch.  It was only six-thirty.  She had just left Emily after the last race had finished at four.  She had been in great form then, all excited about the night ahead.  “Did you eat anything weird?  It must be a twenty-four hour bug or something.  Have you been sick?”

“No,” Emily didn't sound weak.  “But I might yet.  Look I'm really sorry Chris.  Will you and
Gavan
just do your own thing?  I'd really like Jack to stay with me.”

“Sure, of course, but do you want me to come over to you?  I could mind you for the night.  Jack and
Gavan
can go out by themselves.”

“No.”  Emily sounded insistent.  “You guys go ahead.  I'll see you tomorrow.  I promise.”  She paused.  “Or phone me later if you need me, okay?”

“Eh, okay.  I'll be fine.  You're the one who's sick.”  Christine started to wonder if Emily wasn't hiding something.  Surely she wouldn't drop her best friend for a romantic night with Jack?  That wasn't her style. 

“I know.  Look, we'll text later, or whatever, okay?  I'm gonna go.  I need to lie down.”

“Okay
,
sweet
ie
.  Mind yourself.  I'll see you tomorrow for sure.”

~

Christine met
Gavan
outside the restaurant as planned.  He walked right up to where she was standing and kissed her cheek. 

“Sorry I'm late.  Are you cold?  Will we go in?”

The waiter rushed over as they walked in and he closed the door quickly behind them.  “Only two of you tonight, isn't that right?” he smiled at
Gavan
.  The four of them were regular patrons of the place since
Gavan
and Christine had met there for the first time nearly six months previously.

“That's right,”
Gavan
nodded.

The waiter led them to a table set for two in the middle of the restaurant.  It was busier than usual, being one of the few restaurants open for the holiday.  Most of the other tables were already occupied.  Christine hung her coat and scarf on the back of her chair.  “So what did Jack say to you?  Was Emily okay on the way home from the races?”

“Eh, she went back to her parents' place actually.  It was just Jack and me back at their apartment.”

“Really?”  Christine was puzzled.  “That's strange.  I thought she was dying to get back to their place having spent a full twenty-four hours with her parents yesterday.  Did she say why?” 

Gavan
took the menu handed to him by the over-burdened waiter, who proceeded to plonk two empty glasses and a carafe of water down on their table.

“So Jack went back to their apartment with you then?
”  Christine shook her head.
 
“
I thought she said that he was taking care of her at their place.”

Gavan
studied the familiar menu.  “Eh, maybe you picked her up wrong.  I don't know.  Or maybe he's planning to go over to her parents' place later.”

“But did he not tell you what he was doing?”  She poured them both some water and took a sip.  “This is all very weird.  Don't you think this is very weird?”

“Can we have another minute please, mate?” 
Gavan
looked up at the waiter who seemed relieved to be discharged for the moment.

“Don't you know what you want?” Christine smiled at him.  “You always get the same thing.  You've ordered the same thing almost every time we've been here.”

Gavan
put the menu down and looked straight at her.  “Look Chris.  I have to tell you something.  It's nothing.  But I just want to tell you.  So you know.”

“Yeah?”  Christine felt instantaneously sick in her stomach.  Maybe she had Emily's bug.  “What?”

Gavan
shook his head at the waiter who was coming in for a second attempt.  “Look,” he leaned forward and reached for her hand across the table.  “It was nothing.  At the, at my office Christmas party.  I kissed someone.  It meant nothing.  I was drunk.  It was just a snog.  It meant nothing.”

Christine didn't hear the last few excuses
Gavan
made.  Her mind had suddenly stopped functioning normally, as if no longer a speedy processor but a slow, clunking machine, trying unsuccessfully to make sense of the words she was hearing.

“What?” was all she could muster.

Gavan
lurched over with his other hand, but she pulled her own back onto her lap.  “It was nothing, Christine.  It was a Christmas party.  It meant nothing.”

“Did you sleep with her?”

“No!”

Christine wasn't sure if she actually believed him, but she found it didn't matter either way.  Shag, snog, it all meant the same thing.
 
Gavan
was a l
ying, cheating, bastard.

The evening started to make sense to her.  “Did Emily find out?  Is that why she's not here?”

Gavan
shifted in his seat.  “Yes.  She told me that if I didn't tell you tonight, that she would.”

“How long has she known?”

Gavan
massaged his forehead with his hands, leaving red marks behind.  “Jack told her today.”  He paused.  “She's pretty mad with him.”

Christine looked at him in disgust.  Was he trying to be funny?  And so typical of Jack to know and not to rat his pal out.  Typical
, stupid
boys. 

“Why today?  Why did he tell her today?”

Gavan
was looking increasingly like someone who knew he was losing a battle, but had no escape route planned.  “That was her.  The girl we saw today in the bar.  At the races.”

Christine tried to get her brain to bring up a picture of the girl.  She hadn't really noticed her.  She wished she had paid more attention.  But then she hadn't had any reason to.  She knew
Gavan
worked with lots of women, just like she worked with lots of men.  It was the twenty-first century.  You couldn't spend your time regarding every colleague of your partner as a potential threat.  Although maybe she should have been less trusting.  Well, obviously she should have been less trusting.

“Emily thought Jack looked guilty about something, she thought he had been with someone else.  So he had to tell her.” 
Gavan
sounded like he was trying very hard to convince himself not to punch Jack later.

“What a great mate,” Christine said.

“Oh look, Chris, it meant nothing.  Maybe I should have told you, but it meant nothing.  That's why I didn't say anything.  For all I knew, you were snogging someone at your office do.  It's not exactly unheard of.  We're not married.”

“Thank God.”

“Aw, Christine.”

“And I didn't.”

“What?”

“Kiss anyone at my Christmas party.  I thought I had a boyfriend.  A serious boyfriend.  Why would I have kissed anyone?”  Christine took some small pleasure in the fact that
Gavan
now looked scared.  She could tell he didn't want to lose her.  It made it more satisfying for her as she stood and wrapped her scarf around her neck.  “I'm going now.  Don't follow me.”  Her own calmness surprised herself.  “Why would you have risked this?  I really thought it was worth something.”  For a second she thought she might cry, but then thought the better of it.  “Bye
,
Gavan
.” 

Without looking at any of the diners who were almost all staring at this forsaken blonde, Christine stalked to the door, held open for her by a shocked looking waitress.  Afraid that
Gavan
might try and follow her, she walked as quickly as she could until she got far enough away from the restaurant that she felt safe to stop.  She checked behind her.  There was no sign of him through the throngs of people out celebrating.  Their collective breath mixed with the smoke exhaled by coatless cigarette puffers, huddled outside the bars lining the street.  Christine looked up at the gaudy
Christmas
lights strung along the buildings.  She suddenly felt very alone.  She stood in a shop doorway, and pulled her phone from her pocket.  It answered after one ring.

“Christine?”

“Well, I didn't see that coming,” she said.

“I'm coming to get you.  Where are you now?”

“I don't know Ems,” she said, the tears starting to flow down her freezing cheeks.  “I don't know.”

Standing on the street, in a doorway, waiting for Emily to come for her, Christine could see the depressing truth of her words.  Where was she?  And where was she going? 
Most twenty-nine-year-
olds had plans, even vague ones.  A general idea of the life they would like to have.  And most of them had made some headway in their chosen direction.

Christine
felt like she was
stuck on a treadmill. 
She
was movi
ng alright, but getting nowhere,
making
no
progress. 
For a moment she had thought
that
Gavan
might be the way off.  She had really begun to consider opening up to him, holding out her arms and jumping, hoping he might catch her, hoping that she wouldn’t be thrown off in a heap on the floor. 
But clearly, she had been wrong about him.