The Heartbreak Cafe (12 page)

‘
So, Ruth, welcome back. It’s wonderful to have you home.
Although after all this time in LA, do you even still consider the
‘oul sod your home?’

‘
Of course I do, Eamonn,’ she smiled. ‘Ireland will always be
my home. I’m delighted to be back and over the moon to be
here.’

‘
Tell us about Glamazons. As you know the series hasn’t
appeared on Irish screens just yet, but they’re really raving about
it in the States.’

Ruth
beamed. Yes, this was exactly how it was supposed to be, lots of
praise and talk about the show, her amazing achievements, the
triumphant return of one of Ireland’s success stories.

‘
Well, I’m very fortunate to be involved with the project.
Glamazons is a great show, the US ratings have been just amazing,
and we’re all really looking forward to filming the next
season.’

‘
Yes, and such a great cast too.’

OK, this
was potentially tricky, she thought, but trying her utmost to
remain professional, she made sure to keep her winning smile in
place. ‘Absolutely, we have a very talented cast and everyone is a
pleasure to work with.’

Eamonn’s
eyes sparkled in such a way that too late; Ruth knew she’d walked
right into a trap. ‘Hmm, I’d imagine some of your co-stars are more
pleasurable to work with than others,’ he joked and the audience
laughed.

Out of
the corner of her eye, Ruth saw on the monitor that the cameras had
moved in for a close-up of her face, and she tried her utmost not
to betray her reaction.

‘
Well, of course everyone has their own individual strengths,
but what we all have to remember is that we act as a team and
everyone plays an equal part in our success.’

Eamonn
smiled. ‘Yes, that’s all important, but I think what I’m referring
to here is your “teaming up” with Troy Valentine, who plays your
husband on the show. You two looked em …awfully comfortable at a
party in Hollywood the other night. Is this a case of true life
imitating art?’ he joked and the audience clapped, as if in
agreement.

Ruth’s
smile was plastered on.

‘
Yes Troy and I have worked together for a while and are of
course good friends– ’

‘
Good friends? I wish I had more “good friends” like you,
Ruth,’ he said boorishly and Ruth wanted to die. So the shock-jock
hadn’t changed his stripes after all, despite the fact that this
was supposed to be a family show.

‘
Now really, you should know better than to believe the rubbish
that the tabloids are printing, we all know how ridiculous
–’

‘
Are you telling us that nothing happened?’ Eamonn interrupted.
‘After all, what about this?’ To Ruth’s horror, that horrible
security still flashed up on the monitor and onward to the TV
screens of the nation. ‘This doesn’t look like tabloid rubbish to
me.’

Damn that
photo! Ruth’s heart was in her stomach and despite herself she felt
her top lip start to tremble.

‘
Now Eamonn, I’m really not going to dignify any of that with
an answer.’ High level, Ruth reminded herself, keep it high
level.

Eamonn
was like a cat ready to pounce. ‘Hmm, sounds like somebody has a
secret.’ The audience cheered loudly and Ruth could feel her face
flush. Despite going over the questions pre-show he clearly wasn’t
going to stick to the script.

‘
I’m sorry, but I’m here to talk about the show not my personal
life.’ The smile was starting to slip from her face and she felt as
if she’d been sabotaged. ‘I’m here to talk about my show and to
spend the summer with my family.’ She was hoping to remind him that
her family were in fact in the audience in the hope he’d have the
decency to lay off.

But
incredibly this seemed to make him even more determined.

‘
Yes, yes, of course you are. And speaking of which what does
your family think about this, about your fame? Or perhaps I should
say your infamy? Are your parents proud of your success?’ Every
word was laced with acid and Eamonn looked like he was really
enjoying this ‘interview’. ‘Mr & Mrs Seymour, can you tell us
how you feel about your daughter stepping out with one of
Hollywood’s most notorious playboys?’

The
cameras duly panned to the audience, and to her parents’ anxious
faces, and it was nothing, nothing like Ruth had imagined. And
whatever about trying to humiliate her on live TV, he had no right
to do this to her parents.

A calm
faced Breda spoke to the camera. ‘We’ve always been proud of Ruth
in everything she does.’

Ruth’s
bottom lip started to throb at the sight of her kind, ordinary
mother standing up for her and trying to defend the indefensible,
while Ollie sat stony-faced alongside her.

She
looked off set, to where the production team stood, scrambling to
find a sympathetic face, to find someone, anyone who could help
her. Once again she missed Chloe; her assistant would have swept
her from this situation in a heartbeat, promising legal action in
their wake.

However
Chloe wasn’t there and Ruth had to do something before this
horrible talk show host did something worse, like ask what
positions they did it in or if Troy was well endowed.

‘
You know Eamonn, I’ve been a fan of this show since I was a
little girl and I’ve always admired its presenters,’ Ruth spat as
she stood up. To try to save face she added, ‘But you’ve gone too
far dragging my parents into this and you really should be ashamed
of yourself.’ She felt her pulse racing as she ran off
camera.

Embarrassed and close to tears, she rushed off the set, past
all the cameras, producers and handlers. And as she raced to the
bathroom for some privacy, she realised how ironic it was, her
telling Eamonn he should be ashamed of himself.

Because
if anyone should be ashamed Ruth decided, it was her.

The
doorbell rang and Nina rushed to answer it, feeling like a teenager
all over again for not wanting her father to get there first in
case he would do or say something weird to embarrass her in front
of her friends.

However,
she was too late. Trish was standing in the middle of the living
room; trying her utmost to make small talk with Patrick.

‘
So I bet you are just loving having Nina back?’ she heard her
say.

‘
I suppose so,’ Patrick replied, with his typical lack of
enthusiasm. ‘It’s a bit of an adjustment, having her things all
over the place.’

Nina felt
hurt; the way he was talking you’d swear she was a teenager
scattering things around left right and centre. As it was there was
nothing that belonged to her downstairs, and what little she’d
brought with her was neatly put away in her bedroom. And it was a
bit rich of him to complain about her things when he was the one
who clogged up the place with his half-mended
electronics!

From
Trish’s carefully composed expression, Nina guessed she was
thinking the same thing and she decided to change to
subject.

‘
Hi Trish, thanks for calling for me. Are you ready to
go?’

‘
Oh hey Nina, yeah, I was actually just telling your father
about my charity book and all that’s going on tonight. I was
wondering if he’d like to come along to Ruth Seymour’s party…’ She
smiled at Patrick.

‘
Well, I’m not really sure it would be your kind of thing,
Dad,’ Nina interrupted. She smoothed down the hem of her floral
summer dress, deliberately avoiding his gaze.

‘
No, no, not so much,’ Patrick replied with a blank
face.

‘
Are you sure? Because –’

‘
Honestly Trish, we’d better get going,’ Nina interjected
hurriedly grabbing her arm and shuttling her to the door. The last
thing she wanted was Patrick dragging out of them all night. ‘See
you later Dad, don’t wait up!’ she added lightly, knowing there
wasn’t a snowball chance in hell of this happening in any case.
Most of the time she was lucky if he even remembered she was
there.

Once they
were outside, Trish eyed Nina sceptically, ‘Hmm, not exactly the
behaviour of a daughter who’s been missing her father – could you
have got me out the door any faster?’

‘
Ah come on, did you really think he’d want to go to a local
do?’ Nina replied, trying to deflect the question. ‘Anyway,
speaking of running out the door, why did you leave the café in
such a rush yesterday morning?’ Nina still was confused by Trish’s
speedy exit following Emer and Deirdre’s appearance.

‘
What?’ Trish looked bemused. ‘I was late for work and had a
bit of a headache coming on too, so I just couldn’t face those
screaming kids, that’s all.’

‘
Oh.’ Nina didn’t remember any of the kids crying when they
entered, but decided to let it go. ‘Well tonight should be good fun
shouldn’t it?’

Trish
raised an eyebrow. ‘Unless Ruth runs out on us the way she did on
the Late Tonight interview last night.’

Nina
grimaced; she had seen the horrible interview and while she felt
sorry for Ruth and particularly her parents, she felt that it was
Eamonn Kennedy who came away looking the worst of it.

‘
Wasn’t it just awful?’ she said. ‘I thought your man Kennedy
was a terrible weasel putting her parents on the spot like that.
John Monroe would never have done anything like that. Eamonn’s a
nasty so-and-so and I’d say she’s sorry she ever agreed to go
on.’

‘
Yes, but her walking off like that didn’t help either. If
anything it gave the scandal ever more legs.’ She was referring to
one of the tabloid Sunday papers which today carried an ‘interview’
with one of Ruth’s ex-boyfriends. ‘Ten years later and he can
supposedly still remember every last detail?’ Trish shook her head.
‘I’m ashamed of my own profession sometimes.’

‘
Yeah but you don’t go in for that kind of thing, do you?’ Nina
said, hoping this was the case, although somehow she couldn’t see
the Lakeview News being a hotbed of kiss’n tell.

‘
Nah, of course not. Although I’m sure those kind of stories
must be marginally more interesting than ‘Local man steals Crème
Egg’,’ she said wryly.

‘
I hope poor Ruth is holding up OK though,’ Nina ventured.
‘Granted I didn’t know her that well back when we were teenagers
but I don’t envy anyone having to put up with that kind of
smut.’

‘
I suppose she should have thought of that before she decided
to get bladdered and have it off with her co-star, shouldn’t she?’
Trish wasn’t so sympathetic. ‘Someone like her really should know
better, especially at this stage in the game.’

‘
I get what you’re saying but don’t we all have things we’d
rather not be public knowledge and if it is true, that Ruth had a
drunken one night stand it’s still her own business, isn’t
it?’

Trish
gave her a sideways look and Nina worried that she might have said
too much, but then her friend grinned. ‘OK, OK, I hear ya – sorry
Mum.’

Nina
gulped and tried to compose her expression. Did she really sound
like a nagging mother? Although it was no doubt a throwaway remark,
Trish wouldn’t have had a clue of the irony.

They soon
arrived at Clancy’s hotel, and made their way through to the
ballroom where the party was being held.

Nina
scanned the crowd, realising that there were many faces she
recognized and many she did not, but of course, Lakeview had
changed considerably since she was young.

Trish was
working the crowd as they made their way to the bar and Nina found
herself being introduced to loads of people, and many names that
she knew she wouldn’t remember. They sidled up to the drinks table,
upon which sat trays of wine and champagne. Trish looked at Nina,
‘Champagne I think, don’t you?’

‘
Um yes, I suppose so,’ Nina mumbled automatically. Blast it,
how she would get by not drinking under Trish’s watchful gaze? The
young waiter handed them each a champagne flute. Nina took hers and
Trish offered up a toast. ‘To homecomings!’

‘
Yes, to homecomings,’ she said, and the two women clinked
glasses.

Nina was
just about to take a small sip of her drink, (a sip couldn’t hurt,
could it?), when a man walked up beside them. Seeing him approach,
Trish smiled broadly.

‘
Dave how are things?’ she said to the tall, rather attractive
man. Very well built, he had dark eyes, closely cropped chestnut
hair and an air about him that suggested he was important in some
way. ‘Nina, this is Dave Kellerman,’ she said, introducing them and
Nina looked at him, wondering if she knew him from previous visits;
the last name certainly rang a bell. But then again he would surely
have mentioned this, and he didn’t. ‘This is my friend Nina Hughes.
She just recently moved back to Lakeview.’

‘
For a little while,’ Nina added quickly, although she still
wasn’t sure why she’d felt the need to specify.

‘
Moved back?’ Dave queried with a smile. ‘So you’re not a
blow-in like myself, then.’ He went on to explain how he’d moved
from Dublin a couple of years ago to work for the local
brewery.

‘
We’re sponsoring this little soirée, actually, although of
course the local brew wouldn’t do for a Hollywood star so we had to
call on the rivals,’ he said, indicating the champagne tray.
‘Nearly killed us,’ he added amiably and Nina decided that she
liked this guy with his easy smile and chatty manner. She looked
around the ballroom at the various decorations that had been put up
for the occasion. The white and red roses gracing the tables were
quite pretty and while she was sure the decor would be nowhere near
as elaborate as what Ruth would be used to in LA, it was impressive
just the same.