The Domville 6 (The Domville #6) (2 page)

‘You haven’t heard?’ she gasped.

‘Heard what?’

‘He’s only back. He’s set up a firm in London and he’s
coming to the reunion.’

‘Who, Alexis?’

‘Only Finian bloody Delany,’ she retorted, with a
so
there
sass to her voice. I swallowed hard, trying not to react to the
surprise news that he was back in London, let alone getting confirmation he’d
be at the reunion.

‘Really? That’s nice for him,’ I replied after a
considered pause. ‘Well, you’ll have to say hello from me if you see him.’

‘What do you mean, say hello? You’re not going?’

‘No, I have something on that night.’

‘What? What’s so important that you can’t get out of?’
she demanded. I grinned, I could imagine her with her ear piece in at work,
hands on her hips as she scowled.

‘You know weekends are my busiest with work.’

‘Please, did you have a lobotomy overnight and forget
that not only am I your best friend, but I’m also your assistant? I’m looking
at the diary right now and the only events you have that weekend are regular
clients with their annual birthday celebrations. Everything will be organised
and in place well before the day. Besides, if there’s a crisis at the time,
then one of the team can handle it. Don’t tell me you’re scared of seeing him
again?’

‘I’m not scared,’ I retorted. ‘I just don’t want to go. I
wasn’t sure I wanted to go even before you just told me he might be there. It
will be a snooze fest. None of us have kept in touch with each other, so going
to a reunion is just an exercise in one upmanship. Showing off as to who did
better than who, who earns more, drives the nicest car, has aged the least.
Well thanks, but no thanks. It’s not my idea of fun. You’re the only person I
kept in contact with and we either see each other, or speak to each other,
every day anyway.’

‘Come on, Toni. I totally agree with your assessment, but
don’t you want to gloat? To see how the bimbos have had to resort to plastic
surgery to keep their fake looks? To rub their faces in it that you’ve got a successful
business?’

‘No, I don’t,’ I retorted. I shook my head as I saw the
traffic up ahead.

‘You’re telling me you’re not even a teeny bit curious to
see Finian? I bet he looks even better with age. His body back then was … phew!
And he’ll have filled out in all his manly glory now. Can you imagine how good
he must look?’

‘When did you see his body?’ I asked, a twinge of
jealousy running through me. Don’t tell me he’d fucked my best friend as well?
That really would be the icing on the bloody cake.

‘When I had that pregnancy scare and rushed into your
room for a shoulder to cry on. He was coming out of the en-suite with that
small white towel draped around his waist.’ Both of us let out an audible sigh
at the visual of his six pack coated in a sheen of water droplets. ‘Christ, how
you had the will power to resist fucking him is beyond me,’ she uttered. I
rolled my eyes. I’d never confessed that he’d never once tried it on with me. I
was too ashamed to think that other than Alexis, it appeared that I was the one
girl in the world he wasn’t attracted to.

‘You know me,’ I reminded her. ‘One night stands have
never been my thing. Besides, other than Amy De Lucca, I’ve never known Finian to
get serious with anyone. I’m a relationship sort of girl, not a friends with
benefits one.’

‘Well, I think you made a mistake and if you don’t go to
the reunion, I think you’ll be making another. I know he still holds a piece of
your heart, Toni. You can deny it all you want, but it’s written all over your
face whenever his name comes up. I know he hurt you when he moved away, but you
never had closure. This could be your chance to hash it out, to draw a line in
the sand and move on.’

‘I have moved on, Alexis. It was a decade ago. Finian is
a long distant memory.’

‘Right, and I’m a bloody leprechaun. You’re in denial and
until you get him out of your system, you’ll never have a successful
relationship. Well, I’m going whether you come or not, but I have a few months
to work on you anyway.’

‘Hmmm, so Frasier Covington’s going to be there too,
huh?’ I teased, glad of the chance to change topics. He’d been Alexis’s friends
with benefits guy at uni, the one who she thought had knocked her up. If I
hadn’t got over Finian, Alexis had never got over Frasier.

‘Might be,’ she giggled. ‘And I will neither confirm nor
deny that I have a slender tone belt on right now, thus ensuring my stomach is
as flat as possible for the big day.’

‘You’ll be telling me next you have Kegel eggs in too,’ I
laughed, imagining her face screwing up every few seconds as the belt jolted
her body with electric charges.

‘Now there’s a good idea,’ she exclaimed. ‘Pick me some
up on your way back to the office. Better get me a vagina stretcher as well,
it’s been a while since I had a cock as big as his.’

‘What the hell is a vagina stretcher?’ I asked, my mind
boggling.

‘You know, different sized dildos, to work your way up
from tiny cock to ginormous cock. And I need to work my way up after six months
with Larry and his chipolata.’

‘Frasier was a bratwurst, was he?’ I grinned, suddenly
pulling left to take a short cut around the traffic.

‘He was off the sausage scale. He was an anaconda,’ she
corrected breathlessly. ‘One I’d be more than willing to manhandle. O, please
come, Toni.’

‘The only person I’d want to spend time with there is
you, and you’ll be too busy python wrestling. Thanks, but no thanks. I can have
you all to myself any night I want.’

‘Got to go, potential new client just walked in. This
conversation’s not over,’ she warned.

‘Play a new tune. I’ll be in when I’m done with this
meeting, if I ever get there.’

‘Want me to call and advise them you’re running late?’
she offered.

‘No, it’s ok thanks. I should just make it. See you
later.’

‘Bye and good luck,’ she called. I terminated the call
and cursed as the traffic lights ahead turned red and ground me to a halt. I
pulled out the invite and dialled the RSVP number and informed the organiser
that I wouldn’t be attending. If Finian hadn’t contacted me in ten years, let
alone when he was back in London, we had nothing left to say to each other. Why
would I want to open that can of worms again?

Saturday

I bit a piece of my buttered toast as I bent down to
scoop the mail off my doormat and headed back to the dining room. I sat on my
favourite chair, pulling up one knee as I finished my toast, took a glug of
coffee and started to open the few envelopes. I jumped when the doorbell rang
and shoved my chair back as I headed back down the hall to answer the door,
quickly checking my appearance in the hall mirror.

‘Miss Bradbury?’ asked the guy holding a long box in his
hands.

 ‘That’s me,’ I confirmed.

‘I have a delivery for you. Sign here please.’ He thrust
an electronic signature device at me and I grabbed the stylus dangling from it,
scrawling my initials on the screen. ‘Cheers,’ he announced, whipping it off me
and thrusting the box into my hands. I didn’t even have time to say thanks
before he’d turned and headed off back down my path. I turned to find Charlie
standing behind me with a curious look on his face.

‘It’s as much a mystery to me, too,’ I confirmed. I
couldn’t remember ordering anything. I shut the door and headed back to the
dining room with Charlie following closely behind, looking desperate to know
what I had. I opened the box to find the most perfect white rose, nestled in a
bed of red silk. I opened up the card that it had come with and took a shocked
gasp.

Freckles.
No one had called me that in years. It
had been his nickname for me from the start, from the moment he’d crouched in
front of me in the library and handed me back some of my books. I had the weird
simultaneous feeling of my heart racing to have heard from him, to be told he’d
missed me, as well as of my blood starting to boil.
It’s been a while!
Understatement of the bloody century. Ten years with no contact and I suddenly
get a rose and a request for a fresh start? A start at what? If he thought he
could just breeze back into my life and pick up our friendship where he left
it, he had another think coming. Well, he couldn’t have missed me that much if
it took him this long to get in touch with me. Fired up with anger, I pulled
the invitation out of my bag and grabbed my mobile. I was going to this damn
reunion now. I was going to confront him and get the truth as to why I’d not
heard from him in all this time, as well as give him a piece of my mind. And
how the hell had he got a hold of my address?

Saturday
~ Four months later

‘Brenda, have you got
the plans for Regents Road,’ I called to my PA, tearing my desk apart as I
tried to find them. I was feeling on edge. I had one meeting lined up for this
afternoon, then I was heading over to The Domville to get ready for the reunion
tonight. I’d never felt nerves in my life, but today they were swirling around
in the pit of my stomach. It was worse than one of the rough ferry crossings
over to Dublin, before I could afford to fly home during the breaks from uni.
Toni
Bradbury
. I wasn’t sure if she was going to kiss me or slap me, if she even
came tonight. I groaned and scrubbed my hands over my face as I realised the
slap was the likely possibility. We’d been inseparable for five years until I’d
moved over to Dubai and never contacted her again. She’d be well within her
rights to do more than slap me, after I’d cut her out of my life with no
explanation.

‘They’re here,’ Brenda advised as she walked in, heading
over to my drawing board and scooping them up.

‘Jaysis, you eejit. I’ve been tearing my hair out looking
for them.’

‘They’re right where you left them, after warning me this
morning not to move them,’ she retorted with a raised eyebrow as she handed
them over. ‘And you’re not in Ireland now. When are you going to learn to speak
English? How those Arabs understood you, I’ll never know.’

‘Feck off,’ I laughed, giving her shoulder a playful
shove, before grabbing the designs off her to put in my portfolio case. ‘You
can always look for another job if you don’t like working for me.’

‘Who else would put up with you telling them to
feck
off
multiple times a day?’ she questioned, folding her arms tightly across
her chest.

‘I told you, it’s not your British “fuck off.” It’s an
affectionate way of saying get lost, but you never listen. Where’s my dictaphone?’

‘Top right hand drawer, where it always is. Honestly, it
was in the top right hand drawer in Dubai, it’s in the top right hand drawer in
England. The only thing that’s changed is the country we’re in. You really
thought I’d agree to come back here with you and change all of the routines that
I’d carefully perfected over the years? What’s got you all riled up?’

‘Nothing, it’s just a big contract today, is all,’ I
shrugged, retrieving the dictaphone from exactly where she said it would be.

‘Big night more like.’

‘Meaning?’

‘Whatever had you run from England to Dubai is the reason
you’re suddenly back, and I’ll bet my next six pay cheques on it being a
woman.’

‘Don’t be an eejit,’ I scoffed, filling my messenger bag
with all of my essentials for my meeting.

‘I told you, I don’t like being called an idiot,
affectionate or not,’ she scolded. ‘Keep doing it and you’ll be getting your
own coffee from now on. I gave up lovely weather to come back here to work for
you and that was one of my conditions.’

‘I’m sorry, you’re an angel,’ I grinned, grabbing her and
kissing her cheek. She giggled and blushed. I loved her, she was like a mother
figure to me, as well as the most efficient assistant I’d ever had. I’d got
through a few in Dubai, mainly temps, until I found the right fit, primarily
one I didn’t want to fuck, as well as having the usual skills to carry out the
job in hand. Brenda had been a sure thing. Twenty years older than me, she was
experienced, not afraid to put me in my place, and there was no fear of me
causing problems by not keeping my dick under control around her. An express
line of erections around women had got me into trouble many times over the
years. Even when I didn’t use it, like with Toni. I was used to handling women
who were pissed off with me because we’d fucked and I’d not wanted more. I
wasn’t used to women who might be pissed off with me because we’d never actually
fucked.

‘So, what woman has you all worked up like this?’

‘Who said it was a woman?’

‘Call it women’s intuition. You’ve changed, Finian
Delany. It’s been a long time since I had to screen calls from girlfriends
you’d left broken hearted. When was the last time you had a relationship?’

‘I don’t have relationships, that’s why you had to screen
my calls,’ I reminded her, quickly finishing my coffee.

‘Exactly,
had to
. Why would you go from sleeping
with anything that moved, to suddenly not having sex at all? From being happy
as Larry in Dubai, to suddenly announcing you wanted to return here. It has to
be a woman. I figured you were running from one over in Dubai, but then why
would you come back to London and not go home to Ireland? I realised that it
made more sense that you’d run from here to Dubai and that you were returning to
England to deal with unfinished business.’

‘Are we really discussing my sex life? Do you even
remember what sex is?’ I chuckled, reaching up to run my hands through my unruly
hair in a futile attempt to tame it.

‘I’m old, I’m not dead,’ Brenda scowled. ‘You don’t
suddenly stop having sex when you hit the big 5-0, you know.’

‘Jaysis, I hope not, or my clock’s ticking.’

‘You have nineteen years before you hit that milestone.
Besides, I think you’ve had more than the average lifetime’s share,’ she
scoffed with a roll of her eyes. ‘So, are you going to tell me, or am I going
to have to torture it out of you?’

‘It’s just this reunion tonight. You know what reunions
are like, it’s all feckin’ posturing and ego stroking and I’m not into it.’

‘Hmmm, try pulling the other one, Fin. Is she going?’

‘Who?’ I asked, quickly shuffling some papers on my desk
to avoid looking at her. She had a way of pulling information out of anyone she
looked at directly. It was a seriously scary ability she had there.

‘Toni, the girl you didn’t stop talking about for the
first few years.’

‘You have the memory of an elephant,’ I chuckled with a
shake of my head.

‘Never heard you talk about a woman the way you did her.
It was obvious she was special to you. Old girlfriend?’

‘No!’ I shot back. ‘We were never anything, just
friends.’

‘Hmmm. I think you’re lying to yourself. I think she was
much more than a friend and you just don’t want to admit it.’

‘Are we done here with the girly gassing, or can I get to
my appointment?’ I asked, giving her my best irritated look. She just pursed
her lips to stifle a smile.

‘We’re done, but I want to hear all about it on Monday.
This girl has you rattled, Finian Delany, and I’ve never seen you rattled
before. I’d like to meet this Toni of yours one day.’

‘She’s not mine,’ I muttered, striding around my desk and
kissing Brenda on the cheek again. ‘Besides, I never said it was her that had
me rattled. Be off with you, it’s Saturday. Go and have a great weekend, you’ve
earned it.’

‘I always earn it working for you,
ye Irish eejit
,’
she called over her shoulder with her best Irish accent, as I made my way out
to the lobby. I laughed as I pressed the button for the lift. I loved that
woman, almost as much as I’d loved my ma, who had died in January.

It had been one hell of a shock to get that call. I’d
only just spent Christmas with my family over in Dublin before returning to
Dubai. She’d been the picture of health. So happy to have all six of her kids
and eleven of her grandkids over for the festive season. Pa had rung and told
me it was a heart attack. That she was gone, just like that. I’d never seen or
heard my pa cry until I took that phone call from him. Fifty years they’d been
together and he told me it was like he’d lost a part of himself, that he didn’t
feel whole anymore. I’d felt some of that when I’d left Toni behind, but that
was only a five year friendship, not a fifty year relationship. I just couldn’t
imagine what he was going through. I’d obviously gone straight home and offered
to stay, but my five sisters had it all under control. One of them only lived
down the road from him and said she was happy to keep tabs on him, as long as I
kept in touch with him as often as I could.  I guess it had been a wakeup call
to see how miserable he was without her. He’d given me a stern lecture, telling
me how my ma had worried about me, that she’d wanted to see me settle down with
the love of my life and have kids of my own, to be as happy as her and my pa
had been.

Much to his mortification, I was the only son in the
family. Ma had five girls before me, and they’d decided not to have any more
kids, until she found herself pregnant at forty with me. Much as Pa loved the
girls, he’d been over the moon when I’d been born and Ma always told me I was
his favourite. I was the only unmarried one of the six of us. All of my sisters
had got married young, wanting families of their own. I was the only one who
wanted to go to college, then uni, and London had seemed the best place for me
to study. I’d wanted to be an architect for as long as I could remember. I was
fascinated with angles and design. So they’d reluctantly agreed for me to move
in with my Aunt, who’d moved to London with her English husband. It had taken
some adjusting to being here, the language for starters. I’d tried hard to fit
in, but while some of my slang had been left behind years ago, my accent
hadn’t. I missed Ireland, I missed my pa and my sisters. Part of the reason for
coming to London was to be closer to pop over and spend time with them, or have
them come visit me, to go sightseeing. My nieces would love London and I
couldn’t wait to show them around.

I chuckled as I remembered the first day I saw Toni in
the library. I’d been tucked up against the stone mullion window of the
library, on a comfortable padded seat, reading about Gaudi’s inspiration for
his Barcelona designs, when a God almighty clatter made me look up from my
book. I’d locked eyes with a really pretty brunette, with bright green eyes and
more freckles than I’d ever seen. Her cheeks had gone red as she’d quickly bent
over to try and pick up all of her books. Weirdly, I’d found myself going to
help her, without using any of my chat up lines on her. I usually only
approached girls if they gave me an instant hard on and I wanted to fuck them,
but while I was sexually attracted to her, the overriding feeling I had was one
of recognising a kindred spirit. Somehow I’d just felt drawn to her. It had
been the start of my longest relationship ever, if you could call it a
relationship when we’d never actually fucked. We just got each other, we made
each other laugh and bounced off each other so easily. Everything with her just
felt so natural and comfortable that my friendship with her seemed more
important than my sexual urges, which I’d fought to suppress. At least
everything with her had felt natural and comfortable until that damned night, uni
results night. I gritted my teeth as it all came back to me, and had to crick
my neck to ease out some of the sudden tension I was feeling. I wondered if she
knew she was the reason I’d disappeared that morning before she woke up? She
was supposed to have taken me to the airport to see me off, but I’d gone
without her. She probably had no idea that it was her fault we hadn’t spoken in
nearly ten years. Then again, she’d been so feckin’ drunk, I doubted she’d
remember any of what led to my sudden change of heart.

I made my way from the lift to the underground car park.
This would be my biggest contract in London to date, I needed to get my head in
the game. I could reminisce all I liked with a few drinks tonight, if Toni
didn’t kill me before I made it to the bar. I grinned as I thought of her fiery
temper and wondered if the passing years had dampened it at all. I tried to
imagine how much she’d have changed since I’d last seen her.

Jaysis, I really had missed that girl.