Desperately Seeking - By Evelyn Cosgrave Page 0,15

neither of them had had a serious relationship before and both were virgins. He said it was inevitable they would get married. He said they got on really well together, they still did, but there weren’t any sparks. He said there never had been. Naturally I believed everything he said.

She became pregnant almost immediately. It wasn’t exactly planned, Daniel said, but they were both delighted. She didn’t go back to work after the first child, a boy, and they had a second straight away. Another boy. Meanwhile, Daniel was kicking ass at Webster and Jones making tons of lucre for the missus and the sprogs. Somewhere along the line they had two more kids, a third boy and a girl. Four kids! And now she was pregnant again.

When Daniel went back to her he said it was for the family. I hadn’t realized there was to be more family on the way. It’s practically obscene to have five children in this day and age. Five young O’Hanlons running about the place!

He said he would have liked to have a baby with me…

There was no point even thinking about it.

I had already had my cry with Lucy and Marion and I wasn’t going to start again.

And then there was Marion’s marriage. She had been going out with this guy from Dundalk for ever when he broke it off. He never explained why. He just said he didn’t want to marry my lovely Marion. To be honest, the little I knew of him I didn’t like. I think Marion was dying to get married because Jean was married. She’s always looked up to Jean, though I cannot fathom why. She says I don’t understand Jean because I was only a child when she did her growing up. Whatever!

Anyway, as soon as Marion was dumped she started going out with this old boyfriend from school, Nick. They’d never actually broken up, just drifted apart. Within a year they were getting married. Everybody said it was a rebound thing and that Marion was far too eager to walk up that aisle (my mother). But the funny thing is that of all my sisters’ marriages, I think theirs is the happiest.

Suddenly I was roused by Keith charging back into the flat.

‘I’m going to cook you a little something,’ he said, laying a bag of provisions on the table. ‘I think you might be hypoglycaemic – you never eat properly.’

I was tired of telling him that someone the size of me eating properly and someone the size of him eating properly were not the same thing. But he insisted on whipping out his shiitake mushrooms and sautéing them in the pan while mixing in creamy scrambled eggs seasoned with nutmeg. (He had walked an extra block to our new organic deli.) He served me the meal (including a glass of chilled chablis) on a tray so I wouldn’t have to move from the couch. Then he took a small box from his inside pocket and placed it on the tray. ‘It was my grandmother’s. I know why you freaked in the jeweller’s. I was being foolish. This ring is much more you. It’s unique and amazing, like you are.’

The ring was beautiful – a delicate sparkling ruby cluster. He placed it ceremoniously on my finger and I felt a surge of love for him.

‘Oh, Keith…’ I said.

And, even though it was probably far more valuable than some ring from a shop, I accepted his grandmother’s ring, and kissed him.

4

I knew it would only be a short time before Mum told me about the engagement party she was planning. I knew that by the time she told me her guests would be invited and it would be on a night that definitely didn’t suit me. I knew there was no point in arguing, but I did.

‘We’ve already had a party, Mum.’

‘That neither your father nor I was invited to!’

‘It was informal, impromptu. We’re informal people.’

‘An engagement isn’t informal. What would the family think if there was no proper marking of the event?’

‘I really don’t want a party, Mum. And neither does Keith.’

‘Oh yes he does! I was only talking to him about it last weekend when you disappeared for half the afternoon. He thought it would be a nice surprise for you.’

‘Oh, he’s only thinking of you. He doesn’t really want a party.’

‘Kate, thanks to your habit of running away every time a member of the family pays a visit, Keith has hardly met a single one