have gone to the funeral to pay my respects.’ He sat beside her at the bar.
‘Oh no, Gerry died in February, Daniel. He wasn’t here the other night.’
Daniel looked confused. ‘But I thought you told me he was here …’ he trailed off, thinking he had misheard.
‘Oh, yeah,’ Holly looked down at her feet with embarrassment. ‘He wasn’t here,’ she said, looking around the club, ‘but he was here.’ She put her hand on her heart.
‘Ah, I see.’ He finally understood, ‘Then you were even braver the other night than I thought, considering the circumstances,’ he said gently.
Holly was surprised at how at ease he seemed. Usually people stuttered and stammered their way through a sentence and either wandered off or changed the subject. She felt relaxed in his presence, though, as if she could talk openly without fear of crying. Holly smiled and briefly explained the story of the list.
‘So that’s why I ran off after Declan’s gig that time,’ Holly laughed.
‘It wasn’t because they were so terrible, by any chance?’ Daniel joked, then he looked lost in thought. ‘Ah yes, that’s right, that was the thirtieth of April.’
‘Yeah, I couldn’t wait any longer to open the note,’ Holly explained.
‘Hmm … when’s the next one?’
‘July,’ she said excitedly.
‘So I won’t be seeing you on the thirtieth of June then,’ he said drily.
‘Now you’re getting the gist,’ she laughed.
‘I have arrived!’ announced Denise to the empty room as she swanned in, dolled up to the nines in the dress she had worn to the ball last year. Tom strolled in behind her, laughing and refusing to take his eyes off her.
‘God, you’re dressed up,’ Holly remarked, staring her friend up and down. In the end Holly had decided to wear a pair of jeans, black boots and a very simple black top. She hadn’t been in the mood to get all dressed up after all, especially as they were only sitting in an empty club, but Denise hadn’t quite grasped that concept.
Tom and Daniel greeted each other with hugs. ‘Baby, this is Daniel, my best friend,’ Tom said, introducing Daniel to Denise. Daniel and Holly raised their eyebrows at each other and smiled, both registering the use of the word ‘baby’.
‘Hi, Tom.’ Holly shook his hand after Denise had introduced her and he kissed her on the cheek. ‘I’m sorry about the last time I met you. I wasn’t feeling very sane that night.’ Holly blushed at the memory of the karaoke.
‘That’s no problem,’ Tom smiled kindly. ‘If you hadn’t entered then I wouldn’t have met Denise, so I’m glad you did.’
After a while Holly discovered she was enjoying herself; she wasn’t just pretending to laugh or finding things mildly amusing, she was genuinely happy. The thought of that made her even happier, as did the knowledge that Denise had finally found someone she really loved.
Minutes later the rest of the Kennedy family arrived, along with Sharon and John. Holly ran down to greet her friends.
‘Hiya, hon,’ Sharon said, giving her a hug. ‘You here long?’
Holly started laughing. ‘I thought it was on at eight o’clock so I came at half seven.’
‘Oh no.’ Sharon looked anxious.
‘Don’t worry, it was fine. Daniel kept me company,’ Holly said, pointing him out.
‘Him?’ John said angrily. ‘Watch yourself with him, Holly. He’s a bit of an oddball. You should have heard the stuff he was saying to Sharon the other night.’
Holly guessed she’d caused this confusion, and quickly excused herself from their company to join her family.
‘Meredith not with you tonight?’ she asked Richard.
‘No she’s not,’ he snapped back rudely, and headed over to the bar.
‘Why does he bother coming to these things at all?’ she moaned to Jack as he held her head to his chest and rubbed her hair, playfully consoling her.
‘OK everyone!’ Declan was standing on a stool to address the gathering. ‘Because Ciara couldn’t decide what to wear tonight, we’re all late and my documentary is about to start any minute,’ he said proudly, ‘so if you can just all shut up and sit down, that would be great.’
‘Oh, Declan …’ His mother admonished him for his rudeness.
Holly searched the room for Ciara and spotted her glued to Daniel’s side at the bar. She laughed to herself and settled down to watch the documentary. As soon as the announcer introduced it everybody cheered but were quickly hushed by an angry Declan, who didn’t want them to miss a thing.
The title Girls and the City appeared over a beautiful night-time shot of Dublin, and Holly became nervous. The words ‘The Girls’ appeared over a black screen, followed by footage of Sharon, Denise, Abbey and Ciara all squashed up beside each other in the back of a taxi.
Sharon was speaking: ‘Hello! I’m Sharon and this is Abbey, Denise and Ciara.’
Each of the girls posed for her close-up as she was introduced.
‘And we’re heading to our best friend Holly’s house because it’s her birthday …’
The scene changed to the girls surprising Holly with shouts of ‘Happy Birthday’ at her front door. Then the camera returned to Sharon in the taxi. ‘Tonight it’s gonna be just us girls and NO men …’
The scene switched to Holly opening the presents and holding the vibrator up to the camera and saying, ‘Well, I’ll definitely need this,’ before returning to Sharon in the taxi saying: ‘We are gonna do lots and lots of drinking …’
Now Holly was popping open the champagne, then the girls were knocking back shots in Boudoir, and eventually there was Holly with her crooked tiara on her head and drinking out of a champagne bottle with a straw.
‘We are gonna go clubbing …’
There was a shot of the girls in Boudoir, doing some very embarrassing moves on the dance floor.
‘But nothing too mad! We’re gonna be good girls tonight!’ said Sharon sincerely.
The next scene showed the girls, protesting wildly, being escorted out of the club by three bouncers.
Holly’s jaw dropped and she stared in shock at Sharon, who was equally surprised. The men laughed their hearts out and slapped Declan on the back, congratulating him for exposing their partners. Holly, Sharon, Denise, Abbey and even Ciara slithered down in their seats with humiliation.
What on earth had Declan done?
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
There
