Page 46 of On The First Day Of Christmas

‘Oh, oh, this doesn’t sound good.’

‘It’s… Finn O’Connell.’ Maya passed over her phone. ‘When you went to bed last night, I couldn’t help it. I…’ She pulled the gift that Liv had been supposed to be holding in safe keeping for him from behind her back. ‘Sorry, I had to see for myself.’

‘Oh, Maya, how could you?’ The paper had been ripped off and presumably she’d already looked inside. She should have handed this back to Finn last night, but Liv had forgotten all about it until now.

‘The thing is, Liv, once you stop being mad at me, you might actually thank me.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Or maybe not.’ She bit her lip in that way she always did when she knew she was walking on eggshells, but being Maya, there was no way she wasn’t going to see her footsteps through. ‘The thing is.’ She flipped open the case and Liv gasped.

‘It’s my ring.’ Liv was too shocked to cry, but she knew that the ball of emotion that had lodged in her throat would have its way whether she wanted to cry or not. ‘I don’t understand.’ All this time, she’d been carrying around the ring, she’d believed Eddie had made for her.

‘It’s not for Mena.’ Maya placed it into Liv’s shaking hands.

‘It’s not?’ She was confused; of course it was for Mena. It said M on the ticket.

‘It’s not.’ Maya leant forward, pulled out the ring and held it up before them both. ‘See, there’s an inscription.’

‘Oh, God.’ Liv didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but hysteria probably tipped the balance towards a sound that startled them both. ‘It’s bloody tiny. You can’t make out what it even says.’ She dropped the ring; suddenly, it might as well have been on fire.

‘I’ll show you what it says, shall I?’ She handed Liv the magnifying glass, one of the few remnants of Eddie yet to be dropped off at the workshop.

‘Aww.’ Liv covered her mouth with her hand before she whispered the words.Happy Birthday, Mum.She leant back against the chair, feeling a fizzing mixture of giddy and weak all at once.

‘Exactly. Happy Birthday, Mum.’ Maya stretched out on the chair. ‘So now, who was right?’

‘I can’t believe it. I’ve been such a complete fool.’

‘At every single turn.’ Maya shook her head, but her smile lit up her whole face and it felt as if somehow the whole world had spun half a circle on its axis and they’d landed quite close to where Liv had always hoped she’d be. ‘You should call him.’

‘I should. Although, I have no idea what I’m going to say to him.’

‘Ask him out for a drink; tell him you have something for him.’ She raised her eyebrows as if to insinuate there was more on offer than just the return of his mother’s Christmas gift.

‘You are in so much trouble for opening that box.’ Liv laughed, but how could she be cross with Maya?

Liv decided that a text was best. The truth was, she wasn’t sure she could trust herself to talk to him and not say something stupid.Hi Finn. I just remembered this morning that I still have that gift for M. Would you fancy meeting up? Liv.And that was that – now all she could do was hope she hadn’t completely messed things up.

17

The flat was colder than Liv ever remembered it when she got back to Dublin. It wasn’t the temperature; rather, it was the fact that somehow it seemed to have become unfamiliar. In reality, the place was sweltering. Obviously, Eddie had left the heat on full and now it was stuffy and airless. It was a mess too. Whatever tidying she’d hastily done before she went home for the holidays had been undone when Eddie and Anya had come back here. There were bags and giant boxes everywhere. Anya’s belongings filled every available space; it seemed she and Eddie had just cleared everything from Pete’s and dumped it here.

Liv stood for a moment, surveying the mess her flat had become. To anyone else, she knew, it would look as if the place had been trashed, but beneath the hair crimpers and killer heels and what she estimated to be about a hundred pairs of skinny-leg jeans, she could see all her own familiar belongings. She picked her way through the chaos, towards the kitchen, checking the fridge and switching on the kettle absent-mindedly. Here too, every available surface was covered in the debris of Eddie and Anya’s recent stay. They had obviously had takeaway – Indian and pizza –and the stale remaining food added to the cloying intimidation of them both still hanging in the air.

She filled the sink with hot water and wash-up liquid, dropped in cups and cutlery from the draining board; if she only had this small space cleared off it would be a start. Liv didn’t expect there to be milk in the fridge for a cup of tea; instead, she took down the only clean cup from the cupboard and dropped a camomile teabag into it. She wanted to cry, but somehow the tears just wouldn’t come. Instead, she walked about her little flat that somehow seemed to have been stolen from under her nose, in a complete daze. Her mobile phone ringing out pulled her from the edge of what felt like a huge precipice of wretchedness.

‘Liv,’ Pete said. ‘You okay?’

‘Sure,’ she said, although she knew her voice had come from somewhere outside herself. Maybe, it was a coping mechanism. After all, taking in the fact that her boyfriend and the woman he’d been carrying on with behind her back thought that it was acceptable to come into her flat and dump all their belongings there as if they had the God-given right to move in on top of her, took a bit of getting used to.

‘I just thought I’d let you know Anya seems to have emptied everything from my apartment.’ He sounded relieved and she could imagine it was a major headache sorted; it cut out any need to let her back into his life.

‘I know.’

‘What?’

‘I know. She’s taken all her stuff from your apartment because she and Eddie have just moved them into my flat.’ Now she heard the betraying wobble in her own voice.

‘Oh, come on, seriously? How low can those two be?’ He sounded completely different to the Pete she’d known for so many years. Angry – it wasn’t a word she’d ever have associated with him. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll come back straight away, help you sort it all out,’ he said and she could imagine him, turning on his heels and dropping whatever plans he’d had for his afternoon to help her.

‘No, don’t, please, there’s no point. I’m due in to work in an hour and really, it’s the sort of thing I probably need to do on my own; after all, it’s my mess.’

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