‘I know you are. But you could be even happier.’
Aidan shrugged. ‘Maybe. But I have the restaurant and Bo. They make me happy.’Two out of three ain’t bad, he thought,but didn’t say. ‘They take up all my time and headspace, and I can’t see many women being happy playing third fiddle to those two. I don’t have room in my life for anything else.’
‘Well, you should make room.’
Thankfully, Bo chose that moment to burst back into the room already fully kitted out in swimsuit, flippers and goggles, declaring she was ‘ready for the beach’, so Aidan was spared having to continue the conversation as he and Sheena collapsed in giggles.
But later as he drove to Inch, he wondered if his mother was right. Maybe he should make an effort to meet someone, to have a relationship. He was so busy between the restaurant and Bo, he hardly had time to consider whether something was missing. They took up all his time and energy. The trouble was, most of the women he met these days were the mums of Bo’s friends and already partnered up one way or another. Or they were holidaymakers who were just passing through – he’d had flings with several of those over the years but his mother didn’t have to know that. Maybe he should broaden his field and start acting like the single person he was.
‘That was just what I needed,’ Aidan told his friend Owen later that afternoon. They were sitting on the beach at Inch, watching Bo playing in the sand with a bucket and spade. Aidan had splashed around in the water with Bo, then Owen had watched her so he could have a proper swim. He felt energised and invigorated after an injection of salt water and sea air, and ready for the busy evening service ahead. Owen sat with him and chatted in between serving customers at his surf shop.
‘There’s nothing like it,’ Owen said. Owen practically lived on the beach, running a surf school as well as the hire shop.
‘So, Mum wants me to start having sex,’ Aidan told him.
‘What?’ Owen’s head spun in his direction.
‘Yep.’
‘You’ve been discussing your sex life with your mum?’ Owen screwed up his face.
‘Not my choice,’ Aidan said wryly. ‘But it came up.’
‘How does that come up?’
‘Well… not organically, obviously. It’d probably be more accurate to say she shoehorned it into the conversation. I guess it’s been preying on her mind for a while. She offered to babysit if I wanted to start dating.’
‘And how do you feel about that?’
‘Weird.’ Aidan picked up a handful of sand and sifted it through his fingers. ‘I mean… I sort of feel I’m past all that, you know. I’m a dad. I feel like my life should have moved on by now. Except it hasn’t.’
‘But you do have sex?’
Aidan shrugged. ‘Sometimes, sure. But just casual stuff. One-night stands. The odd weekend fling. I haven’t been in a proper relationship since Astrid.’
‘Hmm. I can see how she might put you off.’
Aidan smiled. Owen had never said anything when they were together, but Aidan had always known he didn’t like Astrid. With the benefit of hindsight, he wasn’t sure what he’d ever liked about her himself. She’d been kind of uptight and they hadn’t had much in common apart from being young, single and fancying the pants off each other. But wasn’t that how most relationships started off? Then they were supposed to mellow and develop into something more meaningful. But Astrid hadn’t stuck around for that part.
Originally from Uppsala in Sweden, Astrid had been travelling the world non-stop for five years when they met at a Michelin-starred restaurant in London where she was working as a hostess and Aidan was sous-chef. The attraction between them had been instant and they’d quickly become a couple and moved in together. Aidan had spent the previous ten years working his way up through increasingly prestigious kitchens in the UK and France, and was keen to open his own place. An inheritance from his grandmother provided the perfect opportunity. Free-spirited and footloose, Astrid hadn’t hesitated to go with him when he decided to return to Dingle. But he’d been planning to settle down, not realising that for her it was just another stop on her travels.
They’d moved into a little flat over a shop on Green Street and he’d taken a job as a chef at a small hotel while he arranged funding for the restaurant and looked around for a premises. He’d obtained a bank loan to supplement his inheritance and had sunk the lot into buying and renovating Coast. The plan was for him and Astrid to run the restaurant together and live in the apartment above it. But they’d only been back in Dingle a couple of months when she discovered she was pregnant, and the project was barely underway when Bo was born. Astrid left eight months later and had never seen her daughter or Aidan since.
‘So, do you think she’s right?’ Owen asked, breaking into his thoughts.
‘Huh?’
‘Sheena – do you think she’s right you should be dating?’
‘Maybe. I mean, I act like I’m an established family man, like the other parents. But I’m not. And I guess it’d be nice for Bo to have a maternal figure in her life. Sometimes I think maybe I’ve been lazy about it because my family’s so great. It’s never just been the two of us. Bo and I always have backup and I don’t haveto feel we’re missing out on family life.’ Bo was surrounded and cocooned by devoted aunts, uncles and grandparents who all doted on her. Meeting Lou this morning had reminded him how lucky he was to have the safety net of his big, supportive family. ‘But I guess it would be nice to be with someone. I’m not lonely per se…’
Owen nodded. ‘But it’s different.’
‘Yeah. Maybe I’m lonely for that kind of relationship – the closeness, you know?’
‘Yeah. So do you want to—’ Owen broke off, standing as a customer approached his hire shop. ‘Hold that thought.’ He strode off and Aidan watched as he sorted out a young couple with surf boards and they ran towards the water.
‘So, do you want to do something about it?’ Owen asked, resuming their conversation as he sank to the sand beside Aidan.
