Better Together (18 page)

‘How did you run the story?’ asked Sheridan, mentally filing away the thought that if her investigations into Paudie didn’t come to anything, perhaps Sean would be a good alternative.

‘We put up something about it,’ acknowledged DJ. ‘But we didn’t sensationalise it. Not like the
City Scope
did.’

Sheridan paused before speaking. ‘I don’t think it was particularly sensationalised,’ she told them. ‘It was a human-interest story. Sean is a well-known personality.’

‘And I wouldn’t give a shit about him,’ said DJ. ‘But it was horrible for poor Nina. She still hasn’t got over it.’

‘Is it true that after he left her she flung all his stuff out of their bedroom window?’ That story had been run by one of the tabloids, much to the disgust of the
Scope
staffers.

‘Not that I know of,’ said DJ.

‘Or that she siphoned petrol out of his car to make him stay?’ asked Sheridan. ‘Having met Nina, I can’t help thinking that she’s not the sort of woman who’d do that type of thing. She’s very quiet and gentle.’

DJ grinned. ‘Don’t let that fool you. Or the fact that she’s been knocked back a bit by this business with Sean. Nina’s a strong woman. She built up that guesthouse herself. Plus she’s a contributor to the paper. She sends in recipes for Cook’s Corner.’

‘Ah.’ Now Sheridan understood why the
Central News
had gone easy on her.

‘She’s a great woman,’ DJ said. ‘Hopefully now that Paudie’s involved with the
City Scope
it’ll stop those intrusive stories about her life with Sean.’

Sheridan wished DJ had told her all this before she’d turned up on Nina’s doorstep. It would’ve been helpful to know in advance that her ex-paper had apparently made the woman’s life a misery. But the big lump probably hadn’t even thought about it. Or maybe he had and didn’t care.

‘You’ve got to print the truth,’ she reminded him, thinking that she sounded a bit sanctimonious.

‘Yeah, we did.’ It was Shimmy who spoke this time. ‘We said that there were rumours about Sean and Lulu Adams, and then when he left Nina we printed that too. But we didn’t splash it all across the front page with a picture of him making a grab for Lulu’s assets.’

Shimmy’s words had heightened the atmosphere and Sheridan could feel herself growing tense. She didn’t want to argue with everyone on her very first day.

‘Ah, now, none of that was Sheridan’s fault,’ said DJ, giving Shimmy a warning look. ‘She was a sports reporter on the
City Scope
, after all. The day they printed that stuff about Sean, she was writing about Arsenal v Chelsea.’

‘Really?’ She looked at him quizzically.

‘Probably.’ He grinned at her. ‘You always did good reports on the footie. And since I’m an Arsenal fan and young Shimmy here supports Chelsea, we always read them with great interest.’

Sheridan smiled. ‘Thanks.’

‘So what d’you think about the Gunners’ chances in our next Champions League match?’ DJ asked. ‘Any chance of us finally showing our worth and leaving the rest of them eating dust?’

Sheridan happily talked football with DJ for a while, and then Myra reminded them both that working at the
Central
News
wasn’t all about jabbering on and that they had a paper to get out by the end of the week and it was time to get cracking.

‘The real boss has spoken,’ said DJ. ‘We’d better do as she says.’

He turned back to his computer and Sheridan returned to her desk. She wondered if she’d manage to gain the same sort of respect Myra clearly had. She certainly hoped so.

Nina was sitting in the residents’ lounge. When there was nobody else in the house she often sat there instead of in her own private living room because of its stunning views towards the river. Sean had occasionally joined the guests there in the evenings but she only sat in it when it was empty. It had been a family room when she was a child, but when the renovations were being done, Sean had decided that it would be more suitable for the guests. He’d been right, but she still liked to sit in it and remember how it once was. She wasn’t trawling through her memories right now, though, simply revelling in the stillness of the house. Two couples who’d come down for a wedding were now at the reception in the Riverside Hotel and the fisherman who was staying in the studio was in Ardbawn town. She wasn’t sure where Sheridan Gray was tonight; she didn’t know what she did in the evenings because since the journalist’s arrival a week earlier she simply hadn’t seen her.

She’d gone into Sheridan’s studio that morning with fresh bedlinen, and had been surprised at how impersonal it looked. Given that the girl was staying for an extended period, she’d expected to see more of her possessions there, but apart from
cosmetics in the bathroom, a few books in the living area and a pink teddy bear on the bed there was very little to show that someone was staying there at all. (By contrast the other studio was a mess of angling gear, magazines and clothes. Paul Proctor, the fisherman, was only staying for a week, but, unlike Sheridan, he’d made the place his own.)

Nina was taken aback at the neatness of Sheridan’s studio. She’d always imagined that journalists were untidy creatures, who’d have papers and overflowing ashtrays all over the place. She realised that her expectations had been based solely on a few movies she’d seen, but the fact that Sheridan specialised in sports had coloured her views too. Nina had never met a tidy sportsperson in her entire life. Her son, Alan, who’d played soccer when he was younger, had always driven her crazy whenever he marched into the house with muddy boots and then proceeded to leave shin pads and the rest of his gear in the middle of his bedroom floor. Chrissie, who didn’t play any sport competitively but who liked to swim, was notorious for leaving her wet things in her bag so that Nina would often be confronted by damp, mouldy towels and togs. But Sheridan didn’t leave anything around. Of course writing about sport didn’t have to mean she participated herself, but the array of trainers lined up beside the chest of drawers had led Nina to assume that she was a fitness freak. Though clearly a tidy fitness freak.

Anyway, she thought now as she watched the large TV from the comfort of one of the wide armchairs, if the rest of Sheridan’s stay turned out like the first week, she wouldn’t regret having her here. In fact she was feeling a little guilty at having been somewhat distant towards the younger woman when she’d first arrived. She’d been totally taken aback by
Sheridan’s disclosure that she’d worked for that awful rag the
City Scope
and had been utterly unable to look the girl in the eye because of it.

She’d googled Sheridan’s name afterwards and realised that she’d only reported on sporting stories and not on Sean’s affair. She wondered if Sheridan knew Elise Comerford, whose name had appeared under most of the stories about him. She was the entertainment correspondent, apparently. Nina supposed she’d been well entertained by Sean and Lulu’s behaviour.

She pressed the button on the TV’s remote control.
Chandler’s Park
was just starting. She hadn’t watched it in weeks. When Sean had first got the part she watched it every single day, even though seeing him in the soap was like looking at a different person. Sean was able to do that, Nina realised, become someone else completely. He spoke differently, walked differently, everything about him screamed that he was someone else. It was only occasionally, in the way he turned his head or shrugged his shoulders, that she could see her Sean.

Is he still my Sean? she asked herself now. Was he ever? Didn’t I learn before that he was good at acting a part? So what does this reconciliation request mean? That he really wants to come home? Or is it all about his share in the guesthouse? The guesthouse that his father helped me to modernise because I was going out with his son. Does Sean think I owe him? Doesn’t he know that I already paid him back a hundredfold?

She didn’t want to think that Sean could be so mercenary about the house. He’d never been, in the past. In that respect he was very unlike his father, who’d been known as a shrewd
money-manager. But the solicitor’s letter had made it clear. If he wasn’t going to get his marriage back, he felt entitled to something from his life with her.

She could understand his motives but she found it hard to accept them. He’d been the one to mess it up, after all. She was the one picking up the pieces. All over again. She closed her eyes and tried not to think of how loving Sean made her want to forgive him. How she was always so ready to forgive him, no matter what the situation.

She opened her eyes again. Sean, as Christopher Hart, was currently dating a glamorous businesswoman. Nina watched him put his arm around her and draw her close to him for a kiss. She picked up the paper to consult the summary of the plot. He was kissing Melanie Blake, the actress playing Carmella Boyd, the businesswoman.

It must be difficult to live like that, thought Nina. Being more than one person at a time. Blurring the lines between reality and make-believe. But he was good at it. Just as he was good at being a fool. ‘A damn stupid cheating fool!’ she shouted at the character in front of her. ‘And I hate you!’

She felt better for having shouted. She’d kept herself too quiet, too tight for too long. Shouting was a release. ‘Fool!’ she yelled again, and then whirled around as she heard the sound of someone shifting uncomfortably in the doorway behind her.

‘Sorry if I’m disturbing you.’ Sheridan looked apologetically at Nina. ‘The front door was open. I wanted to use my laptop so I had to come to the house to get the Wi-Fi connection.’

‘Of course, that’s fine.’ Nina tried to sound composed, but she knew her voice was shaky.

‘If you’re sure . . .’

‘Absolutely.’

‘Great.’ Sheridan hesitated, then sat down in the armchair nearest the screen.

‘How was your first week?’ asked Nina while Sheridan waited for her laptop to connect to the network.

‘Not bad,’ she replied, still looking at the computer. ‘More to learn than I expected, but they seem like a nice bunch.’

‘Better than the
City Scope
?’ asked Nina.

‘Different.’

‘I suppose it seems very tame by comparison.’

‘To be honest, I think I’m going to be run off my feet.’ Although she was now logged on to the guesthouse network, Sheridan wanted to break the ice with Nina, so she didn’t open her email program. She looked up at the other woman. ‘Myra seems to do everything! She’s an expert multitasker and I’m woefully underskilled in terms of replacing her.’

Nina smiled slightly. ‘I doubt that.’

‘It’s true,’ said Sheridan. ‘I took the job thinking I could do it in my sleep and that I’d have plenty of time to do other things for myself, but when I see all the stuff she does, I start to panic. There’s heaps of admin as well as the writing and the editing of the pieces that people send in. You wouldn’t believe how . . .’ She broke off, not wanting Nina to think that she was criticising the way she presented her recipes. Not that anyone could go too far wrong with a list of instructions anyway, but Nina’s were very clear and precise. ‘How much work is involved,’ she amended.

‘It’s a good paper, the
Central News
,’ said Nina. ‘Ethical.’

‘The
City Scope
was ethical too,’ said Sheridan, wondering why she was springing to the defence of her former employer
when she was still hurt and angry about what they’d done to her.

‘Hmm.’

‘I realise that we – it – broke the story of your husband’s affair,’ Sheridan said, deciding that they needed to clear the air about it. ‘But it was a reasonable human-interest story.’ She knew that was what Elise would have said, although she herself thought that there was a fine line between public interest and private lives.

‘I don’t agree.’ Nina’s eyes were bright and her voice sounded forced. ‘I can’t believe it’s ethical to poke around in other people’s private lives just because they’re also in the public eye. It’s none of the public’s damn business. Besides, it’s not as though Sean was someone with moral authority who was telling other people how to behave and not sticking to it himself.’

‘That’s true.’

‘So you could’ve left well enough alone.’

‘I’m really sorry if something my old employers did messed up your life.’

Nina sighed in sudden resignation. ‘I guess it wasn’t anything they did that messed up my life,’ she conceded. ‘It was something Sean did. They just told me about it. The only thing is . . .’ she shook her head slowly. ‘I can’t help feeling that if it hadn’t all come out into the open it probably would’ve blown over.’

Was Nina right? Sheridan wondered. Had Elise’s story actually wrecked the other woman’s marriage? But Sean had left her, hadn’t he? That had nothing to do with the
City Scope
.

‘I threw him out,’ Nina replied when Sheridan put the question tentatively to her.

‘Hey, good for you!’ Sheridan was truly pleased that Nina had given Sean his marching orders. It was better than her being the woman who had been left.

Nina gave her the ghost of a smile. ‘I don’t know if it’s good for me or not.’

Sheridan was dying to ask her why, but she didn’t want to appear to be interviewing her.

‘I find it hard by myself,’ added Nina.

‘Well of course,’ Sheridan agreed. ‘You’re running a business and everything. While he’s living the high life. Sorry,’ she added. ‘I don’t know what kind of life he’s living. I don’t keep track of that sort of stuff.’

‘The
City Scope
keeps me in touch,’ said Nina wryly. ‘I don’t suppose it’s the high life exactly, but it’s probably better fun than being here with me.’

Sheridan looked embarrassed.

‘It’s both good and bad to hear about your husband’s activities through the paper,’ Nina said. ‘I know what he’s doing but I’m not sure if I want to know.’

‘I can understand that.’

‘It’s weird seeing stories about someone you know,’ Nina told her. ‘I don’t know how properly high-profile people don’t crack up.’

‘Is it making you crack up?’ asked Sheridan sympathetically.

‘To be fair, it’s not the paper’s fault that Sean couldn’t keep it in his pants,’ said Nina. ‘So, no, the
City Scope
isn’t making me crack up. But my damn husband is.’