Never Say Never (Lakeview Contemporary Romance Book 3) (6 page)

W
hen five thirty
came and went and there was still no sign of Leah, Olivia wasn’t unduly concerned. Her friend was a dreadful timekeeper and it was likely that she’d popped back to check her messages at the office, or Olivia thought smiling, maybe she was wearing a crucifying pair of high heels, which were undoubtedly gorgeous to look at, but by nature of their height prevented the wearer from walking at any great speed. Olivia couldn’t understand her friend’s obsession with her height. Petite and just over five foot tall, Leah never went out in anything less than a four-inch heel, while Olivia never went out in heels full-stop. Looking good in high heels was the last thing you needed when you had to run around after a skittish four-year-old.

Just then Olivia’s mobile beeped.

“Where are you?”
the message read.

“Where? I’ve been here for the last half-hour,”
Olivia replied.
“U r late”

“No, I’m here – waiting for you.”

Olivia looked around. Admittedly the pub was busy, but it would’ve been impossible for the two of them to miss one another. She was sitting near the entrance and facing the door. Unless there was a side entrance she didn’t know about, she thought, craning her neck around – and Leah had come in that way. Still she could see no sign of her.

“Can’t c u – where?”
Olivia replied eventually.

“Bar.”

Olivia looked over and while there were plenty of people standing by the bar, none of them looked anything remotely like her friend, unless Leah had grown several inches and cut her hair since she’d seen her last. Confused, she sent another message. By now, her fingers hurt.

“U r here? In Searson’s?”

“Yes – can’t see u either, busy here. Meet u outside?”

“OK.”

Although Olivia was loath to give up her table, the only one that had been available, she dutifully went outside to wait for Leah. She stood casually against the wall of the popular Dublin pub, trying to assume a disinterested posture amongst the group of ostracized smokers gathered around the doorway. The door opened again, but it wasn’t Leah, rather a tall and dark-suited man – a businessman, Olivia deduced. The man glanced briefly at her, looked left and right and then he too leant against the wall. Where the hell was Leah? Olivia thought, now feeling a little concerned. She stole a quick glance at the man, who looked as though he might be waiting on someone too and was at that moment deftly keying his mobile phone. Then, her own phone beeped again.

“Am waiting outside now – where r u?”

Blast it. Olivia thought. She
definitely
had the wrong place, because wherever Leah was waiting, it definitely wasn’t here. She’d better just ring her, she thought, hitting the dial key. Thinking of it now, Olivia didn’t know why she hadn’t thought about doing that a long time before. Besides her snail-like speed, this was the main reason she hated texts – there was so much ambiguity.

Someone wanting to speak to the other man must have had the same idea, because almost as soon as she dialled Leah’s number, his phone rang.

“Hello?” Olivia heard him say and her blood ran cold when she realised that she could hear his voice not only alongside her, but in the earpiece of her phone.

“
I
can’t understand it
,” she said, reddening, when the realisation of what was happening had dawned on both of them. “I was supposed to meet my friend – we were going to celebrate – she passed her driving test you see and –” She was aware that she was babbling but she couldn’t help it. How embarrassing! But the man in the suit was smiling – in fact, not just smiling but laughing, a big hearty laugh that would normally make Olivia smile too, only she was so mortified. And he was taking it all so well and without embarrassment that she warmed to him immediately.

“I thought I was meeting my business partner,” he said. “I had just clinched a deal and we were supposed to be celebrating but, in my excitement over it all, I think I must have punched in the wrong number. My old phone was stolen and all my pre-programmed numbers are …” He trailed off, laughing again.

“Oh!” Olivia exclaimed, understanding. “You sent a message to me by mistake and I automatically assumed it was my friend and …” She reddened again. “I’m sorry, I should have made sure but –”

“No,
I’m
sorry,” said the man, his greyish blue eyes twinkling. “I would normally ring, but Frank had some kind of family do on today and I knew his wife wouldn’t appreciate the interruption, so I sent him a text. I should have known there was something up when he – or should I say
you
– suggested going for a drink.”

“Oh dear.” Olivia now saw the funny side, and how easily they had both been confused.

“I’m Matt Sheridan,” he said, extending a hand.

“Olivia Gallagher,” she replied, taking in his open friendly face, and deciding that in a way he reminded her of Kate’s husband Michael, but was much better-looking.

“Nice to meet you, Olivia although I think this will probably go down as one of the strangest making of acquaintance I’ve ever experienced.” He chuckled. “And here we both were, thinking we were out for a night of celebration.” He looked at her, and just then and for reasons she couldn’t quite fathom, Olivia almost hoped he would suggest they go inside for a drink anyway.

But Matt obviously wasn’t thinking the same thing. “Oh, well. I suppose it’s a good thing after all,” he said, his mind elsewhere. “For once I’ll have a clear head when I take my son to Saturday morning football practice.”

Olivia smiled. “Ellie, my daughter, plays football too – well, the four-year-old version anyway. She loves it.”

“Adam’s four too, so I doubt he’s much better.” Matt replied. “But I think it’s good to get them into sport at a young age, isn’t it?”

Olivia nodded, and unconsciously repositioned her bag on her shoulder as if to move away.

“Can I give you a lift anywhere?” he asked. “Well, I should say, do you want to share a taxi? I left the car back at the office.”

“No, it’s fine – I don’t live in the city, I’ll just nip home on the train,” she said, realising it would only be a short walk from here to Lansdowne Road station and a forty minute train ride back to Lakeview from there. “Well it was nice to meet you, Matt and sorry again for … well, for the confusion.”

“You too,” he said with a friendly grin, before heading off down the road, and leaving Olivia feeling something akin to disappointment as she walked away in the opposite direction. So much for her girlie night out with Leah, and trying to forget significant anniversary dates.

A
few days later
, having just about got over her embarrassing ‘blind date’, and having received a right telling-off from her mother (despite the fact that she was thirty years old), Olivia received a phone call from Leah.

“Have you seen this?” her friend cried in disbelief. “Please tell me you got one too.”

Olivia laughed, knowing exactly what she was referring to. “Yes, it came in the post this morning.”

“I cannot believe she is doing this. I mean, she made enough fuss about being pregnant but Olivia, have you ever heard of anyone having a ‘
Mum-to-Be
party? Where does she get these ideas?”

Olivia giggled. She had thought the very same thing upon opening the post and finding that she had been invited to their old college friend Amanda Clarke’s Mum-to-Be party. It seemed it wasn’t necessary for the guests to be expecting or mummies, but of course it helped. Andrew and Amanda had defied the critics (namely Kate) and had stayed together throughout university and beyond. They married the previous year, and in true Amanda-style she had gone all out with her wedding preparations for her Big Day. Now, it seemed another, even bigger day was imminent.

“Well, you know Amanda, any excuse for a party.”

“Any excuse to show off, you mean,” Leah said wryly. “And it’s not all that long ago since she went overboard at that wedding. Poor Andrew must be doing his nut with all this fuss. I must arrange to meet up with him and get him out of the house for a while.”

“Ah, don’t be nasty.”

“You think
I’m
bad – what will Kate say once she hears about this?”

Leah and Kate were still great friends, and Kate was now also pregnant with her first child. Olivia could only imagine the nuggets of sarcasm she would come out with about Amanda’s latest attention-seeking exercise. The two girls still disliked one another intensely.

“I spoke to her the other day and she’s still in shock after the fuss and pomp of the Clarke wedding, so goodness knows what she’ll make of this,” Leah said.

Kate, who had been married herself in a small ceremony two years earlier, had spent the entire day open-mouthed in astonishment at the lavishness of Amanda and Andrew’s wedding. Leah had spent the day proclaiming that silver service and personalised dinner plates were all very well and good, but what was the point if you ‘couldn’t feel the love’?

Olivia smiled at the memory.

Leah and Andrew had always been very close, and Olivia knew they had kept in contact through phone and email all the time Leah had been away on her apprenticeship. The two of them had always had a rare friendship, in that there had never ever been an attraction between them – they were just very good friends. Amanda had always been a little jealous of Leah and Andrew’s friendship, probably a little threatened by it, but she need never have worried.

Living in Lakeview, Olivia didn’t see much of the newly-weds these days, but she felt much the same way about Amanda as she had throughout college, and took her attention-seeking with a pinch of salt. The girl was still as spoilt, silly and immature as ever. She would never have been Olivia’s choice for a friend, but because she was Andrew’s girlfriend she had always made the effort. She’d particularly disliked the way Amanda had always been a bit nasty and dismissive of Robin but, as a group, they had little choice but to put up with her.

A faint sadness stirred inside Olivia as she thought of Robin. Her close friend had moved to the States not long after graduation, and it had been ages since they had heard anything from her – or at least it had been ages since
she
had heard anything from her, she thought wryly.

“I still can’t believe Amanda invited
us
to this,” Leah said chuckling. “I mean, I could understand the wedding because, well, she was always great for showing off but –”

“Yes, but you’re still quite close to the two of them, aren’t you?”

“To Andrew, maybe. But, Olivia, you remember what Amanda was like in college, all jealous and spoilt and she could never get Andrew away from us quick enough.”

“Ah, that was just silly immature stuff, Leah – we were all immature back then.” She paused slightly, remembering. “Didn’t we make that silly promise that time? That stupid reunion pact?” Olivia’s stomach twisted when she thought about it now. Kate had been right about their tempting fate.

“I know.” Leah was quiet, probably thinking the same as Olivia – that, despite the fact that the group had kept in touch for the most part, fate had intervened in their great plans for a reunion. “I suppose Kate was right – we were a bit naive really, weren’t we?”

“At the time it was a good idea,” Olivia said, shaking her head at the memory. “Anyway, we see so much of each other now that there’s little point in meeting up to see how we all got on, is there?” she said, trying to keep her voice light. “We all know.”

“Yeah . . .” Leah went uncharacteristically silent.

“So, are we going to this party or what?” Olivia asked, purposefully changing the subject. “I’m very interested in seeing what happens at one of those affairs.”

“Ugh, I don’t know,” Leah replied. “But actually, she’s given me a bit of a brainwave now. Do you think I should think seriously about a new range of chocolates specifically for Mums-to-Be?”

“It’s an idea.” Olivia laughed, feeling a familiar pride in Leah’s achievements. Out of everyone in the group, talented Leah was always the one most likely to succeed. Her gift-chocolate business was doing very well, and having tasted some of her friend’s more recent concoctions, Olivia could see why. Her friend had always been a terrific cook, but no one was more surprised than Leah when she had gone abroad to perfect her pastry-chef skills and returned as a trained chocolatier. “Are things still as busy as ever with you?”

“Yes, but it’s calmed down a little since Mother’s Day, thankfully.”

“You’ll have to think about taking on someone else soon, Leah. You’ll work yourself into the ground otherwise.”

“I wish I could afford to – but I’ll have to do a bit better before I can think about taking on some poor misfortunate that I can boss around.”

“Like you do Josh, you mean?”

“Exactly.” Leah laughed. “Listen, I must go, I want to catch Robin before she heads off for work. It should be around sevenish in New York at the moment, shouldn’t it? I’m dying to find out what she makes of all this.”

“Do you think Robin will be invited to this too?” Olivia asked, suspecting that even if she were invited, Robin would hardly come home for it. She wasn’t so good at keeping in touch, although Leah seemed to know a lot about what was going on with her.

“Hardly, but it’s an excuse to have a good old gossip, isn’t it?” she said wickedly. “No, I was planning to ring her anyway. I haven’t spoken to her in a while, and I’m dying to find out how things are going with this boyfriend of hers.”

“She’s still with him then?” Olivia asked, once again feeling a little hurt that she knew so little about Robin’s life now. “He’s not American, is he?”

“No. All those handsome, loaded New Yorkers, and Robin had to go and find herself a Irishman from the ‘Wesht’.” She laughed. “Listen, I’ll go – I’ll tell her you were asking for her, will I?”

“Do – and tell her to give me a ring sometime.”

As she replaced the receiver, Olivia felt vaguely saddened that she and Robin, having been so close throughout university, were hardly in contact at all these days.

It was a pity really, Olivia thought, going into her living-room and slumping down on her sofa. Back then, the two of them had been friends from the very beginning, right from their rather unusual first meeting, all that time ago.