Changing Places

by Colette Caddle

Gary laughed as he set a tray down on the table in front of them. ‘Yeah, he said whenever you arrived home at one in the morning all ready for a heart-to-heart he knew you were drunk.’

  ‘Rubbish,’ Anna said, but accepted the tea. The last thing she needed was another hangover.

  Rachel sighed. ‘I can’t remember the last time I was drunk.’

  ‘Well, we’ll remedy that as soon as the sprog comes out,’ Anna told her.

  Rachel’s expression clouded. ‘I won’t have the time or energy for socializing when I’ve two children to look after.’

  ‘That’s what babysitters are for,’ Gary replied.

  ‘Oh well, that’s easy for you to say.’ Rachel retorted, two angry red spots on her cheeks.

  ‘Why are you attacking me?’ Gary stared at her, mystified.

  ‘Because you don’t understand. You don’t know what it’s like.’

  Anna put down her cup. ‘Maybe I should go.’

  ‘You can’t drive after all that wine,’ Rachel snapped.

  Gary stood up. ‘I’ll take her home.’

  ‘No, really—’ The phone rang and the three of them froze.

  Rachel turned to her husband. ‘Oh Gary, you answer it. Please?’

  Gary grabbed the phone and said, ‘Hello?’

  ‘Hello, Gary love, it’s me.’

  ‘Bridie? How is he?’

  ‘Well, love—’

  ‘What’s she saying? Let me talk to her.’ Rachel snatched the phone off him. ‘Mam, it’s me. How’s Dad?’

  ‘Oh, he’s fine, love. Bloody silly man. I told him often enough, but would he listen?’

  ‘Mam, what is it? What’s wrong with him?’

  ‘He’s got an ulcer.’

  Rachel looked at Gary and Anna’s expectant faces. ‘An ulcer?’

  ‘Yes, so they say, and I don’t doubt it, the way your father eats.’

  Anna and Gary looked at each other and then back at Rachel.

  ‘But what about the chest pain?’ she asked her mother.

  ‘Chest pain? No, love, he had a pain in his stomach.’

  Rachel gritted her teeth. ‘You said it was his chest, Mam.’

  ‘Did I? I was sure I said stomach. Oh well, never mind. Sure, I didn’t know whether I was coming or going. Well, that’s it now, I’ve told him. He’ll have to stop eating all those fry-ups – and as for that beer, I’m going to pour every last drop down the sink!’

  ‘An ulcer?’ Anna was saying. ‘Is that all?’

  Rachel nodded. ‘So what happens now, Mam? Are they going to operate?’

  ‘Operate? No, not at all, love. They’ve just given him a few tablets and a diet sheet.’

  ‘That’s it?’

  ‘Yes, though looking at this diet, I’ll have my work cut out for me, keeping him to it.’

  Anna took the phone from her sister. ‘Mam? It’s Anna.’

  ‘Oh, hello Anna, love! Isn’t it lucky that I should ring when you’re there too.’

  ‘Yes, Mam, very lucky. Look, are you sure that Dad’s okay? I mean, with the language difference and all that . . .’

  ‘Oh, there’s no problem with language. Everyone speaks English and they’re all very nice.’

  ‘And what medicine have they put him on?’

  ‘They’re big white things,’ Bridie said helpfully. ‘He’s going to have great fun swallowing them.’

  Anna suppressed a sigh. ‘And has he to go back and see them again?’

  ‘No, no, they just told him to go to his doctor if he has any problems.’

  ‘But he doesn’t have a doctor, does he?’

  ‘No, of course not, love. We’ll find someone when we get down to Benalmadena.’

  ‘You’re still going?’

  ‘Well, of course we are! We won’t stop off in Barcelona, though. I think that might be too much for him. Now listen, love, I’d better go. There’s a poor man here waiting to use the phone, his wife is having a terrible time with her bowels. I’ll call you tomorrow. Bye, love. Bye.’

  ‘So what’s happening?’ Rachel demanded. ‘Are we flying out there in the morning?’

  Anna shook her head and handed the phone back to Gary. ‘I don’t know about you, but the only place I’m going is home to bed.’

  ‘How’s your dad?’ Liam asked, switching on the lamp as she walked into the bedroom.

  Anna jumped. She hadn’t expected him to be still awake. ‘He’s got an ulcer but they’re just going to treat it with medication and they’ve put him on a diet.’

  ‘I thought it was his chest?’

  Anna sighed. ‘So did we.’ She looked around her, wondering what to do next. She couldn’t bear the thought of getting into that bed but the spare room wasn’t made up. It would have to be the sofa. She fetched her dressing-gown, picked up a pillow and turned to leave.

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘Downstairs.’

  ‘No, wait, we need to talk. You’ve completely jumped to the wrong conclusion. Tara just dropped in.’

  ‘Oh, please.’

  ‘It’s true! I was just getting into the shower and the doorbell went. I let her in and she said she’d make herself some tea while I had my shower. It was completely innocent. God, Anna, how could you think anything else?’

  ‘Maybe it was the guilty look on your face,’ Anna shot back. ‘And what the hell were you doing, coming downstairs in a towel?’

  ‘I didn’t think—’

  ‘You certainly didn’t. God, she loved every second of it.’

  ‘Oh Anna, you’re exaggerating.’

  ‘Don’t tell me I’m exaggerating! That woman deliberately led me to believe there was something going on.’

  Liam looked away. ‘Well, there wasn’t.’

  Anna looked at his downcast expression and felt her heart sink. ‘But if I’d been just a little bit later there could have been.’

  ‘I love you,’ he insisted.

  ‘A denial would have been so much better,’ Anna said with a sad smile and walked out.

  Downstairs she twisted and turned on the small sofa, wishing he’d come down and tell her she was being silly and that it was all a misunderstanding. He didn’t.

  Chapter 21

  Jill sat doodling her name around the edge of the page and wondering what she’d eat for lunch. She’d finally found a diet to suit her and her mouth watered at the thought of having something interesting to eat for a change. Lettuce leaves and celery sticks had never done it for her – she was a meat and potatoes kind of girl and this diet allowed – no, insisted – on plenty of carbohydrates. Yahoo!

  ‘Jill?’

  She looked up to see Sue’s questioning gaze on her. ‘Oh sorry, what was that?’

  Her boss sighed irritably. ‘I was asking about the radio advertising schedule for the Mitchell campaign.’

  ‘Oh.’ Jill flicked through the pages in front of her. ‘They’re here somewhere.’

  ‘Have my copy.’ Vinny produced an A4 page with a flourish and handed it to Sue.

  ‘Thank you, Vinny.’

  Jill glowered at him. She was sure that he’d taken those figures from her file – they couldn’t just have disappeared.

  ‘You seem to have concentrated times around mid-morning and afternoon,’ Sue was saying with a puzzled expression.

  ‘Have I?’ As she didn’t have a copy of the schedule in front of her and she couldn’t recall it off the top of her head, Jill was completely at sea.

  ‘But this is a product targeted at young women,’ Sue reminded her impatiently. ‘You’re putting this ad out when they’re at work or college.’

  ‘That can’t be right,’ Jill said, ignoring the smirk on Vinny’s face. ‘Leave it with me and I’ll check it out, Sue.’

  ‘Do it now, please,’ the woman told her. ‘We can’t afford to screw this up.’

  ‘Sure.’ Mortified, Jill rose to her feet and walked to the door. Flying down the corridor to her office, Jill shrieked at Karen to bring in the Mitchell file.
As she waited, she looked back at the email correspondence from her team about the advertising schedule but could find no copies of the times.

  ‘What’s up?’ Karen appeared in the doorway with the thick green folder.

  Jill took it from her and started to flick frantically through the pages. ‘There’s some mix-up over the radio schedule. Dammit, where the hell is it?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘The original document that RTE sent over.’

  ‘Well, it’s not going to be there, is it? Vinny took it yesterday.’

  Jill stopped in her tracks and stared at her secretary. ‘Vinny took it?’

  ‘Yeah, he was dealing with a query from the customer.’

  ‘But why was he involved? I handle the Mitchell account.’

  Karen reddened. ‘Well, you weren’t around and Vinny was here at the time so he offered to look after it.’

  ‘I’ll bet he did,’ Jill muttered.

  ‘Well, what was I supposed to do?’ Karen demanded.

  ‘Nothing, Karen, it’s okay,’ Jill soothed. ‘You did exactly the right thing.’

  Mollified, Karen turned to go. ‘Do you want me to print off a copy of the schedule you put together?’

  ‘Not much point as it’s completely wrong,’ Jill told her. ‘Although would you check the Word file and see when it was last updated and by whom?’

  ‘Sure.’

  As Jill waited for Karen to return, she sat drumming her fingers on her desk, her mind working overtime. There was no way she’d make such an obvious, stupid mistake with those times so either the radio station had screwed up and she hadn’t noticed – still, not a good thing – or someone had changed the times in order to make her look bad. No prizes for guessing who would do something like that.

  Karen returned with the printed history of the file. ‘Ollie changed the document yesterday.’

  Jill stared at her. ‘Ollie? Weird.’ Taking the sheets she made her way back to the meeting room.

  Sue smiled at her as she rejoined them. ‘Oh Jill, there you are. Mystery solved. Vinny spotted the problem. Ollie was updating the schedule for the Michaels account and went into the Mitchell’s document by mistake.’

  ‘Sorry,’ Ollie said, red-faced.

  ‘I’ve called RTE and asked them to fax over a new copy of the schedule,’ Vinny told her.

  ‘Haven’t you got the old one?’ Jill asked, watching him carefully. ‘Karen said you took it out of the file yesterday.’

  Vinny rolled his eyes. ‘And I gave it straight back to her. Sometimes I wonder about that girl!’

  ‘Let’s move on,’ Sue said impatiently. ‘We’ve wasted enough time.’

  ‘Jill, I’m really sorry about that,’ Ollie hurried after her as the meeting broke up. ‘I don’t know how it happened.’

  Jill turned to face him. ‘Tell me, Ollie, were you called away at all when you were working on the Michaels schedule?’

  ‘No. I had to nip out for a jimmy riddle, but that’s all.’

  ‘I see. Well, don’t worry about it, Ollie, these things happen.’ Heading back to her office, Jill was more convinced than ever that Vinny had deliberately tampered with the Mitchell schedule just to make her look bad. And it had worked. Despite Ollie’s admission, Sue had obviously been unimpressed with her input at the meeting. Or lack of it.

  Jill had to admit that she wasn’t performing very well lately. She just couldn’t get excited about her job the way she once had, and she knew that it was all because of Vinny Gray. Competition was supposed to be healthy but she hated the atmosphere that he created, and there were days when she’d even been tempted to phone in sick, something she would never have dreamed of doing in the past.

  Glancing at her watch she realized she’d be late for her lunch with Anna if she didn’t get her skates on. Imagining a steaming plate of pasta or shepherd’s pie, Jill’s spirits lifted as she left her office. And Anna should be in good form too, now that she knew her dad was okay. Jill chuckled as she imagined Shay’s reaction to being put on a diet. Most of his favourite foods came out of a deep-fat fryer.

  ‘Hi, Jill. Going out for a nice long lunch, are we?’

  Jill stopped in her tracks at the sight of a very smug Vinny, leaning against the reception desk.

  ‘No, actually, I’m off to the gym.’ She reached out and squeezed his large paunch. ‘You should try it.’ And without a backward glance, she went out to her car and drove over to the pub in Clontarf.

  She had read the menu through three times and changed her mind twice before Anna finally arrived. ‘About time, I’m wasting away to nothing here! Quick, look at the menu and I’ll nab a waiter.’

  ‘Just coffee for me,’ Anna said, slipping into the seat opposite.

  Jill lowered her hand as she took in her cousin’s dishevelled appearance. Anna’s hair was scraped back into a ponytail and her pale face was devoid of make-up. ‘God, what’s wrong with you? You look terrible. Oh Jesus, it’s not your dad—’

  Anna shook her head. ‘No, no, he’s fine.’

  ‘Then what? Anna?’

  Anna raised red-rimmed eyes to hers. ‘It’s Liam. And Tara.’

  Jill’s eyes widened. ‘What?’

  ‘What can I get you?’ The waiter stood over them, pad and pen in hand.

  ‘Two coffees and a cheese sandwich,’ Jill told him, closing the menu with a snap and turning her attention back to her cousin. ‘They’re having an affair?’

  Anna shrugged. ‘If they’re not then they’re thinking about it.’

  Jill shook her head. ‘No way! You’ve got it wrong.’

  ‘I walked in on them yesterday, Jill. In my house. Tara was making tea and Liam was wearing a towel.’

  Jill was silent for a moment as she digested this piece of information. ‘Well, it could have been innocent,’ she ventured.

  ‘He said nothing happened but I think that was just because I interrupted them.’ Anna broke off and buried her face in a tissue.

  ‘Oh, love!’ Jill shifted position so that she could put an arm around her cousin.

  ‘I couldn’t sleep with him last night,’ Anna said, her voice shaking. ‘The thought that they might have done it there, in our bed – oh, God! What am I going to do?’

  ‘For now, absolutely nothing,’ Jill told her. ‘Let me think for a minute.’

  The coffee arrived and Anna took a small sip and then pushed it away. ‘She was so pleased with herself, Jill. You know, I think she was delighted that I walked in on them.’

  ‘She’s always had her eye on him,’ Jill agreed. ‘Bitch! What did you say? Did you hit her?’

  Anna shook her head. ‘I just left.’

  ‘And what did Liam do?’

  ‘Well, he couldn’t exactly follow me – not in a towel. He tried to call me but I left the phone off and then he came to the office last night to tell me about Dad. I went straight over to Rachel’s. He wanted to come with me but, to be honest, I couldn’t bear to look at him. Then he waited up for me but though he denied it, I just couldn’t quite believe that it was all as innocent as he makes out.’

  ‘I blame Tara Brady, the conniving little cow. What man is going to refuse when it’s handed to him on a plate? Think about it, Anna. He has all this time on his hands, he’s feeling very low and you are out at work all day. If she’s dropping by from time to time offering a shoulder to cry on, well, he’d be a saint not to be tempted. But I’m sure he’d never actually do it,’ Jill added hurriedly.

  ‘But what if he fancies her? If he does, then he can’t really love me any more.’

  Jill hugged her. ‘Don’t be silly, Anna, couples have come through worse than this. I’m sure this has nothing to do with Tara and everything to do with how crap Liam is feeling at the moment.’

  ‘You think?’ Anna dabbed her eyes as she looked at her cousin.

  ‘I do. But maybe you need some time apart. You could move in with me for a while or . . .’

  ‘Or?’

  ‘You could go
and stay with your folks.’

  Anna shuddered. ‘I’m not sure that’d be a good idea. Three of us cooped up in that camper van? Mam would know something was wrong and she’s got enough problems at the moment.’

  ‘Didn’t you say that they’d rented an apartment in Benalmadena?’

  ‘Oh yeah, you’re right.’

  ‘And you could take Rachel along. Your folks would be thrilled to see her. It would cheer them both up.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ Anna shook her head wearily.

  ‘I’m sure you’d like to see for yourself if your dad’s okay,’ Jill continued, ‘and a change of scene would do Rachel the world of good. I was talking to Gary earlier, and he was saying that she would love to go and see her parents but would be nervous travelling alone.’

  ‘Then why doesn’t he take her?’ Anna retorted.

  ‘Someone has to look after Alex.’

  ‘They could both go and take Alex with them.’

  ‘The point, Anna, is that you and Rachel are the ones that need the break.’

  Anna sighed. ‘Mark would go mad. We’re very busy.’

  ‘I bet if you put in a few extra hours this week he could spare you for one week. Gary says there’s a cheap flight out on Sunday.’

  ‘Sunday? What – this Sunday?’

  ‘Do it, Anna,’ Jill urged. ‘It will give you and Liam time to think. It will be good for Rachel and it would make Bridie and Shay very happy.’

  Anna thought about it. ‘I’ll talk to Mark.’

  ‘Excellent!’

  ‘Don’t you say a word to Rachel until I know for sure,’ Anna warned.

  ‘My lips are sealed,’ Jill promised. ‘Oh, it’s going to be great. Sun, sea, sangria. I almost wish I was coming with you.’

  Anna looked at her. ‘Then why don’t you?’

  Jill laughed. ‘Oh, I couldn’t.’

  ‘Why not?’

  Jill thought about it. She was due some time off. She was totally fed up with ADLI, and Vinny and Sue in particular. There was no attentive lover to leave behind and last, but by no means least, Anna and Rachel would probably need a referee. She smiled slowly. ‘Why not indeed?’

  Anna squealed. ‘Oh Jill, that would be fantastic!’

  Jill’s face clouded. ‘But would there be enough room?’

  ‘Sure. There’s the apartment and the camper van, remember?’