flute what age she was, glanced over at her and laughed, ‘Sure, you’re only a young one still, Holly,’ his voice low and gravelly. The camera zoomed in on Holly’s face and she cringed at the sight of herself. She looked so drunk, so sad.
‘But what am I gonna do, Nick?’ she whinged. ‘I’m thirty! I have no job, no husband, no children and I’m thirty! Did I tell you that?’ she asked him, leaning towards him.
Beside her in the club, Sharon giggled. Holly thumped her.
In the background the girls were all chattering excitedly to one another. It sounded as if they were talking over one another; it was hard to see how any type of conversation was going on.
‘Ah, enjoy yourself tonight, Holly. Don’t get caught up in silly emotions on your birthday. Worry about all that shite tomorrow, love.’ Nick sounded so caring, and Holly made a mental note to call him and thank him.
The camera stayed with Holly as she leaned her head against the window and remained silent, lost in thought for the rest of the journey. Holly couldn’t get over how lonely she looked. She didn’t like it. She looked around the room in embarrassment and caught Daniel’s eye. He winked at her in encouragement. She smiled weakly and turned back to face the screen in time to see herself screaming to the girls on O’Connell Street.
‘OK, girls. We are going to Boudoir tonight and no one is going to stop us from getting in, especially not any silly bouncers who think they own the place.’ And she marched off in what she’d thought at the time was a straight line. All the girls cheered and followed after her.
The scene immediately jumped to the two bouncers outside Boudoir shaking their heads. ‘Not tonight, girls, sorry.’
Holly’s family howled with laughter.
‘But you don’t understand,’ Denise said calmly to the bouncers. ‘Do you not know who we are?’
‘No,’ they both said, and stared over their heads, ignoring them.
‘Huh!’ Denise put her hands on her hips and pointed to Holly. ‘But this is the very, very extremely famous … em … Princess Holly from the royal family of … Finland.’
On camera Holly frowned at Denise.
Her family once again howled with laughter. ‘You couldn’t write a script better than this,’ Declan laughed.
‘Oh, she’s royalty, is she?’ the bouncer with a moustache smirked.
‘Indeed she is,’ Denise said seriously.
‘Finland got a royal family, Paul?’ moustache man turned to his colleague.
‘Don’t think so, boss.’
Holly fixed the crooked tiara on her head and gave them both a royal wave.
‘You see?’ Denise said, satisfied. ‘You men will be very embarrassed if you don’t let her in.’
‘Supposing we let her in, then you’ll have to stay outside,’ moustache man said, and motioned for the people behind them in the queue to pass them and enter the club. Holly gave them a royal wave as they passed.
‘Oh, no, no, no, no,’ Denise protested. ‘You don’t understand. I am her … lady-in-waiting so I need to be with her at all times.’
‘Well then, you won’t mind waiting till she comes out at closing time,’ Paul smirked.
Tom, Jack and John all started laughing, and Denise slithered down even further in her seat.
Finally Holly spoke, ‘Oh, one must have a drink. One is dreadfully thirsty.’
Paul and moustache man snorted and tried to keep straight faces while still staring over the girl’s heads.
‘No, honestly, girls, not tonight. You need to be a member.’
‘But I am a member, of the royal family!’ Holly said sternly. ‘Off with your heads!’ she commanded, pointing at the both of them.
Denise quickly forced Holly’s arm down. ‘Honestly, the princess and I will be no trouble at all. Just let us in for a few drinks,’ she pleaded.
Moustache man stared down at the two of them, then raised his eyes to the sky. ‘All right then, go on in,’ he said, stepping aside.
‘God bless you,’ Holly said, making the sign of the cross at them as she passed.
‘What is she, a princess or a priest?’ laughed Paul as she entered the club.
‘She’s out of her mind,’ laughed moustache man, ‘but it’s the best excuse I’ve heard while I’ve been on the job,’ and the two of them sniggered. They regained their composure as Ciara and her entourage approached the door.
‘Is it OK if my film crew follow me in?’ Ciara said confidently in a brilliant Australian accent.
‘Hold on while I check with the manager.’ Paul turned his back and spoke into a walkie-talkie. ‘Yeah, that’s no problem, go ahead,’ he said, holding the door open for her.
‘That’s that Australian singer, isn’t it?’ moustache man said to Paul.
‘Yeah. Good song, that.’
‘Tell the boys inside to keep an eye on the princess and her lady,’ said moustache man. ‘We don’t want them bothering that singer with the pink hair.’
Holly’s father choked on his drink from laughing, and Elizabeth rubbed his back for him while chortling herself.
As Holly watched the image of the inside of Boudoir on the screen she remembered being disappointed by the club. There had always been a mystery as to what Boudoir looked like. The girls had read in a magazine that there was a water feature into which Madonna had apparently jumped one night. Holly had imagined a huge waterfall cascading down the wall of the club that continued to flow in little bubbling streams while all the glamorous people sat around it and occasionally dipped their glasses into it to fill them with more champagne. Holly had imagined a champagne waterfall. What she got was an oversized fish bowl in the centre of the circular bar. What that had to do with anything she didn’t know. Her dreams were shattered. The room wasn’t as big as she thought it would be, and was decorated in rich reds and gold. On the far side of the room there was a huge gold curtain acting as a partition, which was blocked by another menacing-looking bouncer.
At the top of the room the main attraction was the massive king-size bed, which was tilted on a platform towards the rest of the club. On top of the gold silk sheets were two skinny models dressed in no more than gold body paint and tiny gold thongs. It was all a bit too tacky.
‘Look at the size of those thongs!’ gasped Denise in disgust. ‘I have a plaster on my baby finger bigger than those.’
Beside her in Club Diva, Tom chuckled and began to nibble on Denise’s baby finger. Holly looked away and returned her gaze to the screen.
‘Good evening and welcome to the twelve o’clock news. I’m Sharon McCarthy.’ Sharon stood in front of the camera with a bottle in her hand
