Page 48 of A Second Chance Summer in Dublin

‘I do.’ I smile back. It feels so good.

‘Really?’ Confusion appears across his body language as his eyes narrow and his head moves from side to side in his cupped hands.

‘Really! Now, eat!’ I tip my chopsticks off his bowl. ‘This is your favourite!’

‘I will .?.?. I will. It’s just it’s so nice to hear, because you know I think you’re .?.?.’ He bites his bottom lip. ‘Careful, Donal,’ he checks himself, closes his elbows in tightly around his ears.

‘What?’ I say. I really want to know.

He inhales deeply. Drops his arms now. ‘Ahhh, I think you’re amazing, Grace, honestly, it’s been such a long time since I’ve felt this comfortable with a woman. Look .?.?. I know you don’t fancy me and that you want Logan back, and as much as I’d love to continue this –’ he throws a hand in the air above us, points his index finger and makes circles with it ‘– I think it would be fake on my part because I fancy you like crazy and I don’t want to be that guy.’ He exhales deeply through his open mouth.

I swallow hard. ‘What guy?’

‘The one who pretends friendship is enough, in the hope that one day you’ll see me in a different light. I’m too straight for that. I’m too honest.’

My stomach flips. ‘I understand,’ I say, but I want to saymore.

‘It’s been forever, ya know, since I had these .?.?.feels.’ An effusion of warmth and honesty. ‘But this is good!’ He sees my face. ‘I’m delighted I’m feeling this way, I didn’t know if I could again, after Ella. Obviously you are stunning, but I genuinely don’t care about looks. I just want a connection with someone, to share my life with someone, same sense of humour, similar interests, share a laugh, eat great food, travel, watch movies in the darkness of a cinema .?.?. And you’ve made me realise that is possible again. It’s why I asked Emmanuela for a second date .?.?. she is really nice .?.?. she isn’t you, but let’s see if it can grow.’ He says all this matter of fact. He’s not looking for a response from me, I realise, as he bends over his Beef Ramen bowl hungrily.

And I look at the top of his red hair feeling like I’ve just had a punch to my stomach.

Chapter Twenty-Four

It must be the thoughts of seeing Logan again that has my stomach like this? Then out of the blue it performs a triple-somersault-back-flip-round-off. Of course it is!

‘Grace? You okay?’ Donal sees me again.

‘Fine.’

I smile and nod and we finish our food, polish off our cold beers in easy silence before I start talking again.

‘So Ella was your ex? The cause of the heartbreak you mentioned?’ I have to ask, because her name and Emmanuela’s are ringing in my head and my stomach is still swirling.

‘Yeah. The ex.’ He crosses both hands across one another. ‘Ella dumped me, too. Took me a long time to recover, so I do get it.’ Donal wipes his mouth with the purple napkin. ‘I also had to have that first time seeing her afterwards – but with me, I bumped into her and her new boyfriend.’ He pushes his bowl aside, sips some water.

I’m insanely interested. ‘Ouch. How long were you together?’

‘Ten years.’ He drops the words heavily.

‘Oh, Donal! Sorry.’ I wince.

A high rise of his shoulders. ‘There’s a pair of us in it, it seems.’

I roll my eyes dramatically. ‘Pair of eejits!’

‘She dumped me at that table right there, actually.’ Donal lifts his glass and waves his almost empty beer at the table beside us, drains it and puts it back down.

‘Oh shit, no! I’m horrified I asked you to come here.’

‘It’s fine. I’ve been back many times since – you know it’s my “bury-me-with” food? The scene of the crime has been cleared up and the yellow tape removed. I’m no longer the white outline of a dead body, I’m over it, Grace.’ Donal links his long fingers together. ‘I’m all good.’ A smile that grows.

‘Good,’ I echo. Crazily, I dislike Ella intensely.

‘I’m not saying it wasn’t horrendous, it was. I was crazy about her. My heart broke into pieces and I hadn’t seen it coming. That made me feel foolish, too. I pride myself on being a good listener, ya know? But like I said, I’m well over her now, I promise you that, I wouldn’t be out dating if I wasn’t.’ He elongates his neck, tellingly.

‘What was the reason?’ I have to ask. I feel so bad for him, that it takes all my strength not to hop up and wrap my arms around his neck.

‘You wanna hear the break-up story?’ He delivers the line in the booming voice of a cinema-trailer voiceover announcer, or more like Alec Baldwin.