Page 70 of Our Song

‘Fake it till we make it?’says Katie, putting down the hoover.

‘Something like that,’ I say.

Despite all my advice-giving, I continue to feel antsy as the day goes on.The ragu is still simmering on the stove when we all slip away to get ready, slightly earlier than we usually would when expecting a casual dinner guest.I spend way too long trying on outfits and end up wearing the dress I wore the day I met Tadhg for lunch in the posh restaurant, but I go for slightly bolder make-up, by which I mean I do a cat-eye liner.When I go down to the kitchen, Katie and Jeanne have already opened a bottle of wine.

‘Don’t worry,’ says Jeanne.‘We won’t get very drunk and disgrace you.’

‘I know,’ I say, joining them at the kitchen island.‘Pour me a glass.’

Jeanne, wearing incredible leather leggings, a vest top and an oversized cashmere cardigan, does so.

‘Cheers,’ says Katie, raising her glass.She’s wearing an eighties vintage dress with a floral pattern and an elasticated waist.On me it might look like Rose from theGolden Girls, but Katie can pull it off.

‘Christ,’ she says.‘Jeanne looks like she’s just stepped off a catwalk and the two of us look like we burgled an Oxfam shop.’

‘We look chic!’I say.‘Don’t we?’

Then the doorbell rings.

We all stare at each other.

‘I’ll get it,’ I say.My mouth is suddenly dry.Why am I feeling like this?I was slagging off his headwear to his face yesterday.

But this is different.This is him coming to my home.

I open the door and there, leaning against the red-brick wall of the porch, holding a paper bag from a very posh food-and-drink shop and looking like a tall drink of water, is Tadhg.

‘Hello, ma’am,’ he says.‘Can I talk to you about the gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ?’

‘Did anyone ever tell you that you look like your man who sings ‘Winter Without You’?’I say.

‘Once or twice,’ says Tadhg.‘Hey, Lol.’

‘Hey yourself,’ I say.‘Um, come on in.’

I stand back and he walks into the hall.

‘Can I leave my coat here?’he says.

‘Sure,’ I say.‘How did you get here?Did you walk?’

‘I wish.’Tadhg hangs his coat on the rack.‘No, I’ve got a regular driver called Paul.He’s sound.He dropped me off.’He clears his throat and I realise, with a start, that he’s nervous too.‘Where’s Katie?’

‘Through here,’ I say.

Katie and Jeanne are still standing at the island when we enter the kitchen.

For a second no one says anything.Then Katie smiles, a little hesitantly, and says, ‘Father Timothy.’

And suddenly, they’re in each other’s arms, hugging each other tightly.

‘Shit, Katie,’ says Tadhg into her shoulder.‘It’s beenwaytoo long.’

‘Oh well,’ says Katie, ‘it’s not like anything big has happened in either of our lives since then,’ and Tadhg laughs and they pull apart and smile at each other and suddenly I am very, very glad that I’ve been the means of bringing them together again.Especially as I was, inadvertently, the means of separating them in the first place.

‘This,’ says Katie, reaching her hand out to Jeanne’s and drawing her to her side, ‘is my brilliant wife Jeanne.’

‘Hi, Tadhg,’ says Jeanne.She leans in for the proper Frenchbisous, which took me aback at first when I met her, and fair play to Tadhg, he reacts perfectly andfait des bisesright back.

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