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‘Well, if you’re paying for breakfast?’ he checked crankily.
‘Of course,’ she said.
‘Fine. Not that I’m hungry, but I probably need something to line my stomach. I told the lads I’d meet them for the hair of the dog later.’
*
Diane’s was busy. Mainly the local old dears on their way from mass, with nothing else to do but sit and drink tea or increasingly sweet variations of coffee for an hour before their next planned activity. Eddie ordered the full Irish breakfast with a large mug of tea on the side, which he took outside while he smoked his (she guessed) third cigarette of the morning. She’d given up telling him how bad cigarettes were for him after he’d told her once she sounded like his mother nagging on and on about them. But she still hated that he smoked, even if she didn’t say it anymore.
‘It’s flipping freezing out there,’ he said when he sat at their table again and she could feel the iciness from his clothes as he took off his jacket.
‘So, what did I miss last night?’ She knew it wouldn’t be a lot, but felt compelled to make small talk all the same.
‘It was quiet. Just a few pints, the usual crew, minus Mick,’ he said as Diane’s daughter delivered his breakfast to the table.
‘Has there been any word on his shoulder?’ Mick Divine had been taken off with a suspected fractured collarbone halfway through the match.
‘Broken shoulder. He’ll be off work for a couple of weeks.’
‘That’s a pity. Poor Mick,’ Liv said automatically, although it was hard to figure how he couldn’t still teach in the secondary school in the next town. You hardly needed to put your back into standing up in front of a dozen kids and going through the course curriculum for Irish. ‘Anyone I’d know call in?’ she asked, wondering about Pete, although it was unlikely he’d turned up – he wasn’t exactly a pub man.
‘Yeah, Anya came in for a while. We had a drink together. She’s taking it all very badly, about the coffee shop, you know.’
‘Did she mention Pete at all?’ Because it seemed to Liv that losing a man like Pete should cause her much more pain than losing her business.
‘Haven’t seen sight nor light of him, but then, that’s Pete, isn’t it?’ Eddie mopped up some runny egg with black pudding before eating it.
‘Isn’t she cut up about the relationship ending though?’ Honestly, men, they could be so obtuse sometimes.
‘Yeah, well, I suppose she is, too, but you know…’
‘No, go on tell me.’
‘Well, when it’s over, it’s over, isn’t it?’
‘So, she’s not eager to get back together then?’
‘I… I’m not sure. I suppose so, I mean, look at the pair of them; it’s unlikely Pete’s going to find another Anya, isn’t it?’
‘He seemed to be crazy about her all right.’ Liv sipped her coffee, but still, she couldn’t imagine ending a relationship with someone and not feeling something more than just worry about their shared financial commitments – surely there had to be more to love than that.
‘I think he was a bit of a shit to her to be honest,’ Eddie said.
‘How do you mean?’ The comment caught her off guard. Okay, so she knew Pete could be hard to get to know, but he was a good bloke. Liv asked, mainly because it was so unlike Eddie to offer any information beyond the bare essentials.
‘Oh, I don’t know, apparently, he could be very possessive, not letting her meet up with friends, accusing her of seeing people behind his back.’
‘Well, apparently he had good cause,’ Liv said softly. ‘She was having a fling with someone else after all.’
‘You see, that’s it exactly. A girl like Anya, as soon as she talks to another bloke, it’s like she wants to fall into bed with them. It’s not right judging her just because she’s prettier than most.’
‘I don’t think Pete would ever do that,’ Liv murmured, but his words stung, as if he was admitting that Anya was so much more striking than anyone else.
But that was silly of her. Eddie loved her; what was she doing feeling jealous of Anya?
‘Humph,’ he said as he put his cup down. ‘Well, from what she said last night, it sounds as if he’s just being small-minded, going after the shop, throwing her out of the flat. It’s as if he’s trying to get back at her for something she didn’t do to begin with.’
‘I’m sure Pete has given her plenty of time to find somewhere else.’
