* **
‘Do you think one of us should tell him his invisibility’s wearing off?’ Lorcan said, staring stonily at Brian, who was giving it loads on the dance floor, engaged in some extremely dirty dancing with a very buxom girl.
Freddie, also glaring at Brian, felt unaccountably miffed that the Tree-shagger was withhisbuxom girl – Ms F Cup no less.Fickle tart!he thought huffily.
‘Doesn’t he realise,’ Lorcan ranted, ‘that all Kate’s family and friends canseehim?’
‘He doesn’t think he has anything to feel guilty about. He fancies himself a free spirit.’
‘Huh!’ Jack grunted. ‘Anything as long as it’s free, that’s him. Free spirits, free beer, free wine.’
‘Free lurve and all,’ Freddie whispered to Lorcan so that only he would hear. He didn’t want to upset Jack.
‘You reckon?’ Lorcan asked worriedly.
‘Wouldn’t be surprised.’ Freddie sighed. ‘Like your father said, anything as long as it’s free.’
Lorcan watched Brian’s partner gyrating maniacally before him, her comedy boobs spilling out over her skimpy top, and thought longingly of Carmen. He knew that, as a bloke, his stance on boobs was supposed to be the bigger the better, but he found the kind of industrial rigging they required extremely unsexy. That and the way their owners were always shoving them in your face, he thought, watching Brian’s partner arch her back and thrust out her chest to give Brian a better view of her undulating cleavage.
Still, Brian seemed to be enjoying it, Lorcan thought morosely, and turned to scan the room for Carmen. She was taking anunconscionably long time in the loo. Just as he was wondering if she had left, he saw her coming through the room towards him and relaxed again, a slow smile spreading across his face as their eyes met. All he wanted to do was take her upstairs and spend the rest of the night making love to her. But, at the same time, he really liked her; he didn’t want to rush things and risk scaring her off. When she reached him, he pressed a chaste kiss to her forehead.
Carmen smiled. ‘You promised me three things if I came to this wedding with you today,’ she reminded him, eyes twinkling. ‘I’ve had the cake and the champagne…’ She let the rest of the sentence hang in the air suggestively.
Lorcan could hardly believe they were both so much on the same wavelength. ‘I’ll get us a room,’ he said, tense with excitement, but hoping he hadn’t misunderstood.
Carmen put his fears to rest. She held up her hand. A room key dangled from one finger.
Lorcan’s face lit up like a child’s on Christmas Day. ‘Never let it be said I don’t deliver on my promises.’ His heart was pounding as he took Carmen’s hand and practically ran out of the ballroom with her.
3
‘Home, sweet home.’ It was the next morning and Kate sighed with relief as she kicked open the door of the top-floor apartment she shared with Freddie in the trendy Temple Bar area of Dublin. She was in a lather having hauled her bags up the four flights of stairs but was greeted ecstatically by Didi and Gogo (formally Vladimir and Estragon), their two cats, who wound in and out of her legs, purring. ‘Hi, guys.’ She bent to stroke them. ‘I missed you too.’
They were really Freddie’s cats (‘The only kind of pussy I’ll ever have,’ as he was fond of introducing them). He had found them as stray kittens and brought them home, naming them after the two tramps fromWaiting for Godot, which he had been working on at the time.
‘Freddie!’ Kate called. ‘Are you home?’
‘We’re in here,’ Freddie called from the sitting room.
Who’swe? Kate wondered.
Before she had time to investigate, Freddie bounded out to her.
‘Your sister-in-law’s a genius!’ he whispered excitedly, casting his eyes towards the sitting room.
‘Helen?’ She looked askance at him, but he merely nodded. She glanced warily in the direction of the sitting room. ‘Is she giving you a master class in napkin-folding or something?’ Admittedly, Helen’s swan napkin was pretty impressive, but it was hardly the sort of thing that would have Freddie wetting his kecks.
‘No.’ Freddie laughed, then mouthed, ‘She fixed me up.’
‘Oh! Well done you!’ Kate clapped him on the shoulder.
‘Well done, Helen!’
‘So when did this happen?’
‘Well, you know I was supposed to be on the table that was taken over by Walking Wounded?’
‘Yes.’
