Holly rolled her eyes. “They were just so rude to poor Daniel.”
“I’m sorry I was asleep. I’m sure if John had known that’s what it was about he would have woken me,” Sharon apologized.
“Oh, don’t be silly, it wasn’t a really big deal. It just felt like it at the time.”
“Too right. They can’t tell you who to see and who not to see,” Sharon gave out.
“Sharon, I’m not seeing him.” Holly tried to get the record straight. “I have no intentions of seeing anyone for at least another twenty years. We were just having a business dinner.”
“Oooh, a business dinner!” Sharon and Denise giggled.
“Well, it was that and it was also nice to have a bit of company.” Holly smiled. “And I’m not bitching about you two,” she said quickly before they had a chance to defend themselves. “All I’m saying is that when everyone else is busy it’s nice to have someone else to chat to. Especially male company, you know? And he’s easy to get along with and he makes me feel very comfortable. That’s all.”
“Yeah, I understand,” Sharon nodded. “It’s good for you to get out and meet new people anyway.”
“So did you find out anything else about him?” Denise leaned forward, her eyes sparkling as she dug for gossip. “He’s a bit of a dark horse, that Daniel. Maybe he’s hiding some huge secret. Maybe the ghosts of his army past are coming back to torment him,” Denise joked.
“Eh … no, Denise, I don’t think so,” Holly laughed. “Unless cleaning his boots in training camp was a traumatizing event. He didn’t last much longer than that,” she explained.
“I love yummy army men,” Denise drooled.
“And DJs,” Sharon added.
“Oh, and DJs of course,” Denise replied, laughing.
“Well, I told him my view about the army anyway,” Holly smiled.
“Oh no, you didn’t!” Sharon laughed.
“What’s this?” Denise asked.
“So what did he say?” Sharon ignored Denise.
“He just laughed.”
“What’s this?” Denise asked again.
“Holly’s theory about the army,” Sharon explained.
“And what is it?” Denise asked, intrigued.
“Oh, that fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.”
The girls burst out laughing.
“Yeah, but you can have hours of endless fun trying,” Denise quipped.
“So you haven’t mastered it yet?” Sharon asked.
“No, but at every available chance, we try, you know?” Denise replied, and the girls all giggled. “Well, Holly, I’m glad you get along with him, because you’re going to have to dance with him at the wedding.”
“Why?” She looked at Denise confused.
“Because it’s tradition for the best man to dance with the maid of honor at the wedding,” her eyes sparkled.
Holly gasped, “You want me to be your maid of honor?”
Denise nodded, full of excitement. “Don’t worry, I already asked Sharon and she doesn’t mind,” she assured Holly.
“Oh, I would love to!” Holly said happily. “But Sharon, are you sure you don’t mind?”
“Oh, don’t worry about me, I’m happy just being a blown-up bridesmaid.”
“You won’t be blown up!” Holly laughed.
“Yes I will, I’ll be eight months pregnant. I’ll need to borrow Denise’s marquee to wear as a dress!”
“Oh, I hope you don’t go into labor at the wedding.” Denise’s eyes widened.
“Don’t worry, Denise, I won’t steal the limelight from you on your day.” Sharon smiled, “I won’t be due till the end of January so that’ll be weeks later.”
Denise looked relieved.
“Oh, by the way, I forgot to show you the photograph of the baby!” Sharon said excitedly, rooting through her bag. Finally she pulled out a small photograph of the scan.
“Where is it?” Denise asked, frowning.
“There.” Sharon pointed out the area.
“Whoa! That’s one big boy,” Denise exclaimed, moving the picture closer to her face.
Sharon rolled her eyes. “Denise, that’s a leg, you fool, we still don’t know the sex yet.”
“Oh,” Denise blushed. “Well congratulations, Sharon, it looks like you’re having a little alien.”
“Oh stop it, Denise,” Holly laughed. “I think it’s a beautiful picture.”
“Good.” Sharon smiled and looked at Denise and Denise nodded at her, “Because I wanted to ask you something.”
“What?” Holly looked worried.
“Well, John and I would love it if you would be our baby’s godmother.”
Holly gasped with shock for the second time and tears filled her eyes.
“Hey, you didn’t cry when I asked you to be maid of honor,” Denise huffed.
“Oh Sharon, I would be honored!” Holly said, giving her friend a big hug. “Thank you for asking!”
“Thank you for saying yes! John will be so delighted!”
“Oh, don’t you two start crying,” Denise moaned, but Sharon and Holly ignored her and continued hugging.
“Hey!” Denise yelled, causing them to jump from their embrace.
“What?!”
Denise pointed out the window: “I can’t believe I never noticed that wedding shop over there! Drink up quick and we’ll go there next,” she said excitedly as her eyes darted from dress to dress.
Sharon sighed and pretended to pass out. “I can’t, Denise, I’m pregnant …”
Forty-two
“HEY HOLLY, I WAS JUST thinking,” Alice said to Holly as they were reapplying their makeup in the toilets at work before leaving for the day.
“Oh no, did it hurt?” Holly teased.
“Ha-ha,” she said dryly. “No, honestly, I was thinking about the horoscope in this month’s magazine and I think Tracey may have got it eerily right.”
Holly threw her eyes up to heaven. “How?”
Alice put down her lipstick and turned away from the mirror to face Holly. “Well, first there was the thing about the tall, dark, handsome man who you are now seeing …”
“I’m not seeing him, we’re just friends,” Holly explained for the millionth time.
Alice rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say. Anyway, then there was the thing …”
“I’m not,” Holly repeated.
“Yeah, yeah,” Alice said, disbelieving her. “Well then, there’s the …”
Holly slammed down her makeup bag. “Alice, I am not seeing Daniel.”
“OK, OK.” She held up her hands defensively, “I get it! You’re not seeing him, but please stop interrupting me and listen!” She waited for Holly to calm down and listen. “OK, so the other thing she said was that your lucky day is Tuesday, which is today …”
“Wow, Alice, I think you’re on to something here,” Holly said sarcastically, applying her lip liner.
“Listen!” Alice said impatiently and Holly shut up. “So she also said that blue was your lucky color. So today being Tuesday you have been invited by a tall, dark, handsome man to the launch of Blue Rock.” Alice looked pleased with herself as she summed it all up.
“So what?” Holly said, unimpressed.
“So it’s a sign.”
“A sign that the color shirt I happened to be wearing that day was blue, which was why Tracey chose that particular color, which I happened to be wearing because everything else I owned was dirty. And she just picked the day off the top of her head. It means nothing, Alice.”
Alice sighed, “Oh ye of little faith.”
Holly laughed. “Well, if I am to believe your little theory, as screwed up as it is, then that also means that Brian is going to win the lotto and he will also become the object of every woman’s affections.”
Alice bit her lip and looked sheepish.
“What?” Holly asked, knowing something was going through her bizarre little mind.
“Well, Brian won
four euro on the scratch card today.”
“Whoopdeedoo,” Holly laughed. “Well, there’s still the problem of at least one human being finding him attractive.”
Alice remained silent.
“What now?” Holly demanded.
“Nothing,” Alice shrugged and smiled.
“You don’t!” Holly said, shocked.
“I don’t what?” Her face lit up.
“You don’t fancy him, do you? You couldn’t possibly!”
Alice shrugged. “He’s nice, that’s all.”
“Oh no!” Holly covered her face with her hands. “You’re taking this way too far just to try to prove a point to me.”
“I’m not trying to prove anything to you,” she laughed.
“Well then, I can’t believe you fancy him!”
“Who fancies who?” Tracey asked, walking into the toilet.
Alice shook her head wildly at Holly, begging her not to tell.
“Oh nobody,” Holly muttered, staring at Alice in shock. How could Alice fancy the slimeball of all slimeballs?
“Hey, did you hear Brian won money on the lotto scratch card today?” Tracey asked them from the cubicle.
“We were just talking about that,” Alice laughed.
“I just might have psychic powers after all, Holly,” Tracey giggled and flushed the toilet.
Alice winked at Holly in the mirror and Holly headed out of the bathroom. “Come on, Alice, we better get going to this thing or the photographer will go mad.”
“The photographer’s already here,” Alice explained, applying some mascara.
“Where is he?”
“She.”
“Well then, where is she?”
“Ta-da!” Alice announced, taking a camera out of her bag.
“You’re the photographer?” Holly laughed. “Well, at least we can both lose our jobs together when this article is published,” she called over her shoulder as she headed back to her office.
Holly and Alice pushed their way through the crowds in Hogan’s pub and made their way upstairs to Club Diva. Holly gasped as they approached the door. A group of young muscular males dressed in swimwear were banging out some Hawaiian drumbeats to welcome all the guests. Some very skinny female models also dressed in skimpy bikinis greeted the girls at the door by wrapping beautiful multicolored lei around their necks.
“I feel like I’m in Hawaii,” Alice giggled, snapping away with her camera. “Oh my God,” she exclaimed as they entered the club.
Holly could barely recognize the club; it had been completely transformed. A huge water feature greeted them as they entered. Aqua blue water cascaded down from some rocks, and it looked like a miniature waterfall.
“Oh look, Blue Rock!” Alice laughed. “Very clever.”
Holly smiled; so much for her wonderful powers of journalistic observation, she hadn’t even copped that the water was actually the drink itself. Then she panicked; Daniel hadn’t told her anything about this, which meant she would have to adjust the article so she could hand it in to Chris tomorrow. She looked around the club for Denise and Tom and saw her friend being photographed as she held her hand up to the camera to show off her sparkly engagement ring. Holly laughed at the big celebrity couple.
The bar staff were dressed in their bikinis and swimwear and they lined the entrance with trays of blue drinks in their hands. Holly lifted a drink from the tray and took a sip, trying not to make a face from its overly sweet taste as a photographer snapped her sipping the hot new drink for winter. As Daniel had said, the floors were scattered with sand, making it appear as if they were at a beach party. Each table was sheltered by a huge bamboo umbrella, the bar stools were all big kettle drums and there was a wonderful barbecue smell in the air. Holly’s mouth watered as she spotted the waiters carrying trays of barbecued food to the tables. She darted to the nearest table, helped herself to a kebab and took a big bite.
“Oh, so you do eat.” Holly found herself facing Daniel. Chewing valiantly, she swallowed her food.
“Em, hello. I haven’t had a thing to eat all day so I am absolutely starving. The place looks great,” she said, looking around, keen to distract him from the sight of her with a mouthful of kebab.
“Yeah, it worked well all right.” He looked pleased. Daniel was slightly more dressed than his staff members; he wore faded blue jeans and a blue Hawaiian shirt with big pink and yellow flowers. He still hadn’t shaved and Holly wondered how painful it would be to kiss him with that sharp stubble. Not for her to kiss him, of course. Somebody else … and why she was even wondering about it annoyed her.
“Hey Holly! Let me get a photo of you and tall, dark, handsome man,” Alice yelled, rushing over with her camera.
Holly was mortified.
Daniel laughed. “You should bring your friends here more often.”
“She’s not my friend,” Holly said through gritted teeth and posed beside Daniel for the photo.
“Hold on a second,” Daniel said, covering the camera lens with his hand. He took a napkin from the table and wiped the grease and barbecue sauce from Holly’s face. Holly’s skin tingled and warmth rushed through her body. She convinced herself it was from her face blushing so much.
“Now it’s gone,” he said, smiling at her, wrapping his arm around her and facing the camera.
Alice skipped away again and continued to snap all around her. Holly turned to Daniel. “Daniel, once again I’m really sorry about the other night. Gerry’s parents were so rude to you, and I’m sorry if you felt uncomfortable.”
“Oh, there’s no need to apologize again, Holly. In fact, there’s no need to apologize at all. I only felt uncomfortable for you. They shouldn’t be able to tell you who to see and who not to see. Anyway, if you’re worried about me then there’s no need.” He smiled and placed his hands on her shoulders as though he were going to say something more, but someone called him from the bar and he rushed over to sort the problem out.
“But I am not seeing you,” Holly muttered to herself. If she had to convince even Daniel of that then they certainly had a problem. She hoped he didn’t think there was more to the dinner than there really was. He had called her almost every day since that episode. She realized that she looked forward to his calls. There was that niggling thing at the back of her mind again. Holly wandered over to Denise and joined her on the sun bed where she was sipping on the blue concoction.
“Hey Holly, I saved this for you.” She pointed to the raft in the corner of the room and the two girls giggled, remembering their big adventure out in the sea while on holiday.
“So what do you think of the hot new drink for winter?” Holly indicated the bottle.
Denise rolled her eyes. “Tacky. I’ve only had a few and my head is spinning already.”
Alice ran over to Holly dragging an enormously muscular man dressed in tiny little shorts. One of his biceps was the size of Alice’s waist. She handed the camera to Holly. “Take a picture of the two of us, will you?”
Holly didn’t think that these were the kind of photographs Chris was hoping for, but she obliged Alice.
“It’s for the screen saver on my computer at work,” Alice explained to Denise.
Holly enjoyed herself that evening, laughing and chatting with Denise and Tom while Alice ran around taking photographs of all the half-naked male models. Holly felt guilty for ever being annoyed by Tom all those months ago at the karaoke competition; he was a sweet guy and he and Denise made a lovely couple. Holly barely got to speak to Daniel, as he was too busy running around being the responsible manager. She watched as he gave orders to his staff and they immediately got to work. It was obvious that his staff had great respect for him. He got things done. Every time she spotted him heading over to her group, somebody stopped him in his tracks for an interview or just for a chat. Most of the time, he was stopped by skinny young girls in bikinis. They annoyed Holly, so she looked away.
“I don’t know how I’m going to write this article,?
?? Holly moaned to Alice as they made their way outside into the cold air.
“Don’t worry, Holly, you’ll be fine; it’s only eight hundred words, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, only,” she said sarcastically. “You see, I already wrote a draft article a few days ago because Daniel gave me all the information. But after seeing all that, I’ll have to change it extensively. It already almost killed me trying to get this version done in the first place.”
“You’re really worried about this, aren’t you?”
Holly sighed. “I just can’t write, Alice. I was never any good at putting things into words and describing exactly how things are.”
Alice looked thoughtful. “Have you got the article in the office?”
Holly nodded.
“Why don’t we go over there now? I’ll look over it, and maybe I’ll make a few changes if it needs it.”
“Oh Alice, thank you so much!” Holly said, hugging her with relief.
The following day Holly sat nervously before Chris and watched him read the article. His face remained grumpy as he turned the page. Alice hadn’t just made a few changes to the article, she had completely rewritten it, and Holly thought it was incredible. It was funny yet informative and she explained the night exactly as it had been, which Holly was unable to do. Alice was an extremely talented writer and Holly couldn’t understand why she was working at reception in a magazine office instead of writing for them.
Finally, Chris finished reading and he slowly took off his reading glasses and looked up at Holly. Holly’s hands fidgeted on her lap and she felt like she had just cheated on a school exam.
“Holly, I don’t know what you’re doing in ad sales,” Chris finally said. “You are a fantastic writer, I love it! It’s cheeky and funny yet it gets the point across. It’s fabulous.”
Holly smiled weakly. “Eh … thanks.”
“You have such a wonderful talent; I can’t believe you tried to hide it from me.”
Holly’s smile stayed glued onto her face.
“How would you feel about writing every now and again?”
Holly’s face froze. “Well, Chris, I’m really much more interested in the advertising side of things.”
“Oh, of course, and I will pay you more for this too. But if we are ever stuck again, at least I know I have another talented writer on the team. Well done, Holly.” He grinned at her and held out his hand.