A Time for Friends (42 page)

Hilary’s mobile vibrated. She had it on silent, but she always kept it close in case her mother-in-law rang. Margaret was recovering from a kidney infection and was finding it hard to
tolerate the antibiotics.

She was surprised to see Sophie’s number come up. ‘Excuse me, I need to take this, it’s Sophie. I just want to make sure everything’s OK.’ Sophie had taken Jasmine
to her youth club’s disco and Hilary was collecting them at 12.30 p.m. ‘Hi, is everything OK?’ she murmured, walking down the garden.

‘Mam, Jazzy’s smashed! She had a bottle of vodka in her bag and she drank it real fast. She’s pukin’ all over the place and she’s being really aggressive to the
bouncers. You’ve got to come and get her. I don’t know what to do with her.’ Her daughter was nearly in tears.

‘For God’s sake! OK, stay calm. I’ll be there shortly. Is Leanne with you?’ Hilary tried to keep the exasperation out of her voice.

‘Yep, she’s holding her head while I’m ringing. It’s gross, Mam! Gross!’

‘Right, I’m on my way.’ Hilary hung up, irritated that she was going to have to drive because she was the only one not drinking and wishing she could get her hands on Jazzy and
wring her neck.

‘What’s up?’ Niall cocked an eyebrow.

‘Sorry to have to tell you this, you guys. Jazzy had a bottle of vodka in her bag and she drank it very fast and she’s pissed and puking and being aggressive. We’d better go
and get her,’ she said crossly.

‘Aw the little bitch,’ Colette exclaimed.

‘For Chrissake, what is it with her?’ Des exploded. ‘Can’t you get her to behave? First the weed affair and now this!’ He glared at his wife.

‘Excuse
me
?’ Colette said icily. ‘Might I remind you that
you
are her father!’ She was furious with him for mentioning the marijuana episode that had
nearly got their daughter expelled from boarding school recently. Only a hefty donation towards upgrading the science lab had sorted that hiccup.

‘Well you’d better go and get her,’ Des snapped.

‘And you’d better come with me,’ she snapped back. ‘Sorry about this, Hilary, can you give us a lift?’

‘Of course, I’ll just get the car keys and a couple of plastic bags.’

‘That’s unfortunate.’ Niall stood up and followed them into the kitchen.

‘Kids, who’d have ‘em!’ Des growled, draining his glass and leaving it on the kitchen counter.

‘I’ll murder her,’ Colette fumed as Hilary grabbed some plastic freezer bags. She didn’t want her car covered in puke.

‘Look, these things happen. I’m never, ever smug about Millie or Sophie, believe me. The things you hear about teenage behaviour would make your hair curl. Come on, at least
it’s not in town, we’ll be there in ten minutes.’

There was no chit-chat in the car. Colette stared out of the passenger window and Des glowered in the back seat, scrolling down through his text messages as Hilary sped towards Raheny along the
Howth Road.

‘You go and get her,’ Colette said tightly to Des when Hilary pulled up outside the youth club. Hilary could see Sophie and Leanne bending over Jazzy who was slumped in a
half-sitting position against a wall. One of the bouncers was standing with them. ‘I’ll come with you,’ she offered. She wanted to make sure Sophie and Leanne were OK.

‘Thank goodness, Mam. She’s not puking any more but she’s passed out.’ Sophie ran towards her.

‘It’s OK.’ Hilary gave her daughter a comforting hug.

‘She just needs to sleep it off. I’ll give you a hand to get her to the car,’ the bouncer said matter-of-factly to Des, who bent down and gave his daughter a rough shake.

Jazzy opened a bleary eye. ‘Uuhhh . . . Hi, Dad,’ she slurred and closed her eyes again.

‘Get her under the arms,’ the bouncer instructed, taking up position on one side. Des took the other and between them they dragged the comatose teenager to the car.

‘I’ll drop them home to Sutton and come back and collect you. Is that OK?’ Hilary asked the two riled teenagers standing in front of her.

‘But you said we could stay until half twelve!’ Sophie exclaimed.

‘I know, I just didn’t want to have to come out again,’ Hilary sighed.

‘I can ask my mam to come and collect us,’ Leanne said helpfully. ‘I’ll ring her.’

‘It’s OK, I’ll come back,’ Hilary said. They had a rota going with other parents and it was her turn to collect the girls and it was just her tough luck that Jazzy had
mucked up her night. ‘See you later, enjoy yourselves, and no drinking!’ she warned. She certainly wasn’t a hundred per cent sure that the pair in front of her hadn’t had a
nip out of Jazzy’s bottle but they were absolutely in control of themselves, and she remembered how when she was in her teens she and her friends had swigged out of a bottle on a few
occasions, in the toilets at the Grove.

Colette looked pinched and miserable and Hilary’s heart went out to her as she got into the car. ‘Chin up, it goes with the territory.’ She reached over and squeezed her
friend’s hand. ‘We had the odd hairy moment ourselves.’

Colette gave her a weak smile. ‘Yeah, we did, I suppose.’

‘No supposing about it – remember the night you barfed into Darina Ryan’s handbag because you didn’t want to ruin the new Calvin Klein one your mother had bought from New
York? Darina was fit to be tied.’

‘Shush, don’t let Jazzy hear you saying that,’ Colette hissed.

‘She’s snoring.’ Hilary glanced over her shoulder to see the unkempt teen lying against the seat, eyes closed, mouth open, out for the count.

‘Thank God the parents are dining out in the Windmill in Skerries. Could you imagine what they’d have to say if they saw this,’ Colette groaned as Hilary reversed out of her
parking space and headed for Sutton.

‘Well that’s a bit of luck. Be thankful for small mercies,’ Hilary soothed, relieved that the traffic was relatively light. The sooner she got Jazzy out of her car the
better.

‘Thanks so much, Hil, and sorry for the way the evening ended. Let’s try and meet up for lunch before I go back to London next week,’ Colette said gratefully when Hilary pulled
up outside the O’Mahonys’ front door.

‘I’ll do my best. I’ll need to check my diary. I’ll call you tomorrow and see how the Sleeping Beauty is. Let me help you get her out. You open the front door.’

‘Right,’ Colette agreed. ‘The sooner she’s in bed the better.’ Between them they managed to get Jazzy upstairs to bed and as she made her way downstairs, Hilary
heard the unmistakable sound of noisy retching and Colette yelling at Des, ‘Get a towel or a basin quick! Mum’s Frette sheets will be ruined.’

And that would be a tragedy
! thought Hilary sarcastically as she pulled the heavy mahogany front door with the two intricate stained-glass side panels closed behind her.

‘What did you make that daft remark about Jonathan to Colette for?’ Hilary said crossly as she and Niall finished stacking the dishwasher and clearing up after
their dinner party. Sophie and Leanne were safely collected from the disco and were upstairs giggling and gossiping over the night they had spent. Millie was staying at a friend’s house, and
Hilary was tired and disgruntled.

‘It was a joke,’ he sighed in exasperation.

‘Yeah, well it was a crap joke and I didn’t appreciate you talking about Jonathan like that, and to her of all people. She never has a good word to say about him and I can tell you
one thing, Niall, Jonathan’s been a better friend to me in the ten years I’ve known him than Colette has been for most of our lives, and you know that,’ Hilary scowled, collapsing
onto the sofa.

‘OK, give it a rest. You’re not serious about going to visit them in New York, are you?’ he said, changing the subject and handing her a glass of red wine.

‘I wouldn’t mind going to Nantucket for a week and staying in a house on the beach with a swimming pool.’ Hilary yawned.

‘Yeah but remember when Rowena and Pete were invited over and because some of Des’s clients flew in from Hong Kong he made Colette bump them out of the house to stay in a hotel?
Trust me, they’d do that to us and it wouldn’t cost them a thought. If you want to go to Nantucket, I’ll bring you to a hotel,’ Niall said firmly. ‘Or we could rent a
place ourselves.’

‘Ha! Don’t be daft. You wouldn’t get a place to rent in Nantucket during the summer, not unless you paid out a lot of lolly, and I’d say we’d want to have booked it
before now.’ Hilary kicked her shoes off and lay back against the cushions.

‘I don’t think I could spend a holiday listening to them boasting and bragging, and being told where to invest our “loot”,’ Niall said emphatically. ‘Not that
he’d be on the island for a week. He’s so important, JPMorgan can’t function without him; he’d be in his corner office on Wall Street dealing with his
billionaires.’

Hilary laughed and began to relax. ‘He’s the pits, isn’t he? He’s got even worse than what he used to be. I’d go mental if I was married to him.’

Niall put an arm around her shoulder. Hilary stiffened for a moment. She was still annoyed at Niall for his smart remark, but at least she’d aired her displeasure and she was too tired to
stay in a snit. ‘Colette couldn’t wait to let us know about hiring the private jet.’ She leaned in against him and took a sip of wine.

‘They’re way out of our league now.’ Niall smiled down at her, relieved that their spat hadn’t developed into a row.

‘You were
bad
when you said about the simulator,’ Hilary grinned.

‘Not half as bad as I’m going to be now,’ Niall murmured, sliding his hand under her floaty top and cupping one of her breasts.

‘Stop! The girls might come down.’

‘No they won’t.’ He nuzzled her ear.

‘No, stop, Niall, I’m tired.’ Hilary sat up. ‘I’m going to bed.’

‘You’re always tired these days,’ he said irritably, taking a slug of wine and switching on the TV. He grunted ‘Goodnight’ when she gave him a chaste kiss on the
cheek.

As she lay in bed listening to the girls giggling upstairs, Hilary felt weary to her bones. It had been a long day and Jazzy’s episode hadn’t helped. There was a time when she would
have enjoyed having some nookie on the sofa, but tonight she wasn’t in the mood for sex and she wasn’t sure if it was because she was annoyed with Niall, or because she was whacked from
work and having to entertain Colette and Des to boot. It was probably a combination of all of them, she sighed. She might have put on an airy façade for Colette about work but the truth was,
even after employing extra staff, she and Jonathan were snowed under with work and she was finding it hard-going. She had tried to ease off after she’d gone to London with the girls but
despite her best intentions and her new assistant, the firm had never been busier and neither had she. She was a successful career woman, certainly, thanks to the Celtic Tiger, but her marriage was
wilting under the pressure. Niall just didn’t seem to get it that she was the one keeping all the balls in the air, the girls, the household stuff, the responsibility for elderly parents,
Hilary thought resentfully, yawning her head off. She was asleep before he came to bed.

Niall poured himself another glass of wine. He was nicely woozy. Unlike Hilary, he’d been able to have a few drinks at dinner and this little nightcap was tipping him
over the edge. Just where he wanted to be right now, he thought gloomily. There was a time when Hilary would have welcomed his advances with a passion that matched his own. But these days she was
too tired, or had too much on the go, and their sex life was suffering. It wasn’t just the sex, it was the intimacy, the cuddles and snuggling, that he was missing.

This was the kind of thing that drove men to having affairs. Colette had been giving him the eye tonight, flirting with him. If he’d made a pass at her he was damn sure he wouldn’t
have been rejected and pushed away like he’d just been by Hilary, Niall thought drunkenly, feeling very sorry for himself while he channel-surfed and polished off the remainder of the
wine.

‘What did you have to mention the weed episode in front of them for?’ Colette glowered at her husband as they undressed for bed in her parents’ guest
room.

‘I was pissed off with Jazzy. I was
enjoying
that meal. Best steak I’ve had in ages and she goes off and pulls one of her stunts! We’ve given her everything, the best
education, homes you or I never dreamed of having, a lifestyle fit for a princess, and she goes and gets tanked and makes a show of us. Thank God it was in some hick little disco and not in front
of any of the City crowd back home. She’s so grounded!’ Des was not in the mood for recriminations from his wife.

‘There was still no need to mention that weed episode,’ Colette snapped, sliding a silk nightdress over her head and shoulders. ‘I was mortified.’

‘Who cares about what they think – we won’t see them again for years,’ Des said dismissively.

‘We invited them to come and stay with us,’ she reminded him irritably.

‘
You
invited them,’ he corrected her. ‘Make sure they don’t come when we’re entertaining. You should have told them to come after Labor Day. Tell them
we’re booked up until then,’ he carped, climbing into bed and pulling the duvet over his shoulder as he turned his back on her.

‘They can’t come in September. Sophie will be back at school,’ Colette pointed out as she cold-creamed her face.

‘Tough, not our problem. Don’t read for long, I’m beat.’

Colette didn’t answer. She had just heard her parents’ taxi pull up. She hoped fervently that Jazzy would stay sleeping. She was snoring her head off in her drunken stupor, but at
least she’d stopped being sick. Colette got into bed and switched off her bedside light. She was beyond stressed. Jazzy’s behaviour was unacceptable, but no matter how much she was
grounded or chastised, it was making no difference. She wasn’t alone in worrying about her child. Several mothers in her set had behavioural problems with their children. Not that they
alluded to it directly. Colette heard these snippets on the grapevine. No doubt the other mothers heard nuggets about Colette on the very same grapevine. There was no one back in New York that she
could confide her worries to. There was no one here either, apart from Hilary, she thought glumly as Des began a crescendo of snores that could be heard in Howth.