Falling in Love in New York

by HILL, MELISSA

  “So let me get this straight,” Dermot cut in then. “Car, you want each one of us to come up with something memorable for Abby, something we think she’ll like?”

  Caroline nodded vigorously. “And preferably something she hasn’t done before,” she added, and when Abby opened her mouth to say something, she cut her off, “Some of the best experiences are the most unexpected ones, so if we’re going to do this, you have to trust us. Just remember how I so easily cured your so-called fear of flying,” she added with a flourish and Abby grudgingly had to admit she was right. “So,” her sister asked looking around imperiously. “Is everyone game?”

  “Should be fun,” Dermot said with a wicked grin that immediately sent Abby’s neurotic side into overdrive. God, was she crazy getting her family so involved in all of this and essentially throwing herself at their mercy?

  Then again why the hell not, she thought, deciding for once in her life to throw caution to the winds. OK, so this could be a complete disaster and she might very well end up seriously regretting it, but so what? She wanted to shake up her life, so this was a good a way as any to start.

  Caroline rubbed her hands together, a gleeful smile on her face. “Honey, if you’re looking for memorable experiences, then by God, you’ll get them!”

  Chapter 17

  THE LIST

  Take at least one photograph every single day

  Visit the Grand Canyon

  See penguins in their own environment (South Pole?)

  Have an adventure

  Drive a convertible.

  Share a kiss with a stranger

  Watch all my favourite movies in one sitting

  Dance in public like no one’s watching

  Face my fears

  Be more spontaneous

  Hanna read through the list, an enigmatic smile on her face.

  “What?” Abby asked, feeling silly all of a sudden. Making a list of the things she really wanted to do had been a lot harder than she’d anticipated, and while it was easier to come up with things such as places she’d always wanted to visit, like the Grand Canyon, it was much harder to come up with smaller, day- to-day life-affirming experiences.

  Through doing this, Abby wanted to ensure that from now on every single day held something fun or new for her, and she was willing to do whatever it took to make sure that her life would be just too interesting and stimulating for the memories to fade.

  “I like the idea,” the psychologist said, “and I particularly like the notion of your going along with what other people think you should try.”

  Abby still wasn’t sure about that one, which went under the heading ‘Be More Spontaneous’, but she’d agreed to go along with it, so she couldn’t back out now. Since then, Erin too had insisted on coming on board, and had reacted with gusto when Abby had outlined the idea to her in the meantime.

  “I know exactly what we’ll do,” her friend had said without hesitation, causing to Abby to yet again wonder what on earth she was letting herself in for.

  But while she’d been buoyed by the reaction the idea had elicited from friends and family, she was decidedly nervous about Hannah’s opinion on the matter, particularly as the psychologist had spent the last couple of months trying to convince Abby that memory decline was inevitable.

  However, judging by Hannah’s so far reserved, but definitely intrigued reaction to the list and its contents, it seemed Abby might have misjudged her.

  “But do you think it could work?” she urged, sinking back further into the comfy and by now familiar purple armchair in Hannah’s office.

  The other woman paused, and to her immense disappointment, Abby suspected that she was trying to choose her next words carefully.

  “I certainly don’t think that it can hurt. Sensory stimulation of the positive kind is always good for brain activity and function. As to how and if it will impact on your memory, it’s difficult to say.”

  Feeling more that a little deflated, again Abby hated the way Hannah could never give her a straight answer. But at the same time, she couldn’t be too annoyed; as a trained neuroscientist it was only natural that Hannah would only go along with what she knew. She shouldn’t expect her to understand really, nor expect her to be as enthusiastic about the project as the people close to her.

  “Still, I really love the idea of taking a photograph every single day, but I suppose you’ve already realised that that one is more to do with memory preservation than creation don’t you?”

  Abby did. She’d included that one on the list shortly after getting copies of the photographs Zach had taken of them all in New York. Looking through them, and seeing how well they captured the good things about the visit as could be seen from everyone’s happy expressions, she realised that while she used to take reels and reels of photographs in her teenage years, she’d pretty much stopped over the last while. Kieran hated having his photograph taken and when he did, always managed to look sulky and irritated, so after a while, Abby stopped bothering.

  So having decided to take at least one photograph every single day–be it of a person, an object or just something that caught her attention, one of the first things Abby did in the New Year was go out and buy herself a digital camera.

  “It’s one I really want to stick to,” she told Hannah now. “Although I think I might mostly end up using the camera function on my mobile phone.”

  “Good idea, and I’m glad you’ve started keeping the diaries too.”

  Abby had confessed that she’d been pretty haphazard about this up to now, but seeing as her days were about to get a lot more interesting, she’d decided she might as well keep an account of them.

  “So when is all of this happening then?” Hannah asked. “The travel-related stuff will take some planning I’d imagine.”

  “Yes.” Abby hadn’t thought too much about the mechanics of this part yet, she’d merely identified what she wanted to do and see and decided to go from there. But with the insurance money she was due to get soon, at least she’d have the means to pay for another trip to the States, although she wasn’t sure how she’d get to the South Pole. Of course, she had her savings to fall back on too–no point in leaving the cash just sitting there when buying her own home was now well down on her list of priorities. “I’ll check out some dates with a travel agent soon, but the rest of the list I’m going to try and complete as I go.”

  Hannah looked through it again. “Face your Fears?” she read with an inquisitive eyebrow.

  Abby nodded vigorously. “Definitely. I’ve already done part of that one by getting over my fear of flying.” But had this been a genuine fear, she wondered again, or was it more a manifestation of Kieran’s anxiety about flying?

  “Oh? So what’s the other part?”

  “The other part?”

  “You said that by facing your fear of flying you’d completed part of that task. What’s the other part?”

  Abby hesitated a little. “Well, I kind of have this thing about dogs,” she admitted. “I don’t know why but for some reason, I’ve always been terrified of them. It’s hard to explain really, we never had one at home or anything, so I don’t know where it came from, but …”

  “I see. Well, I think that’s certainly a good idea. Dogs are wonderful animals–I have two King Charles spaniels of my own and I wouldn’t be without them.”

  Abby was struck by the fact that in the all the time she’d been seeing Hannah, this was the first time the doctor had offered a piece of information about herself and her own life. But then she worried if this was actually Hannah’s roundabout way of introducing Abby to her dogs, something she wasn’t entirely comfortable with. She wanted to get through the fun things on the list first, only then would she think about the other scarier things!

  So, this coming weekend Erin was calling over, and the two were planning to sit in and watch all of Abby’s favourite movies back-to-back.

  “While I don’t relish the idea of watching three whole hours of blood
y Gladiator, I certainly have no problem with Forrest Gump and Something About Mary,” Erin had said, reading through Abby’s recently composed list of top ten all-time movie favourites. “Oh my God, Con Air?” she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust, while Abby just smiled. She had to include at least one of those cool Nicolas Cage exploding- helicopter movies in there somewhere.

  Erin continued reading. “Hey – why isn’t Dirty Dancing on here?” she asked accusingly.

  Abby cringed. “Because that cheesy mush holds the number one spot on my all-time least favourite movies.”

  “That’s such a great movie–I can’t believe you’re putting Baby in the corner!” Erin gasped theatrically. Then she smiled. “However, by including both Footloose and Pretty Woman I think you’ve just about redeemed yourself.”

  Abby was really looking forward to this, as she hadn’t seen most of the movies on her list in years. Kieran absolutely loathed mainstream Hollywood blockbusters, and much preferred moodier and more ‘arty’ films like Three Colors Red or anything by Ingmar Bergman. So it would be nice to just sit back and howl at side-splitting and just plain silly films like Zoolander without being made feel like a halfwit for doing so.

  She didn’t confess this to Hannah though, instead she merely told her about Erin coming over and how the following weekend, Erin was going to spring on Abby her version of a memorable experience.

  “Well that should be interesting, certainly,” Hannah said. “Any idea what the others have planned for you?”

  She grimaced. “Only Mum so far, as for the rest I haven’t got a clue.”

  Her mother had already asked Abby to accompany her on her upcoming trip to Verona at the end of April. A few days abroad with her worrywart mother wasn’t something Abby was particularly looking forward to (nor was she an opera fan), but at the same time, she suspected it was the only thing Teresa could think of and so was happy enough to go along with it. To her immense disappointment, Abby could also tell that her mother believed that this entire exercise was a complete waste of time. In Teresa’s eyes and much to Abby’s frustration, since that incident with the piano, her memory was well and truly doomed. “I’m pretty sure Dermot’s will be something typically laddish, and as for Caroline, who knows?”

  “Really good of them to get onboard and help with it though, isn’t it?” Hannah said.

  “Oh absolutely yes,” Abby replied with feeling, not wanting Hannah to think she was ungrateful, as she really wasn’t. She was merely wondering what was to come over the next few weeks and what on earth she was letting herself in for.

  But next weekend– when Erin revealed the first of her ‘surprise’ memorable experiences–Abby would find out.

  ****

  In the meantime, the back-to-back movie watching had been a brilliant idea, and as that weekend Erin and Abby laughed, cried and cheered their way through the various movies she’d chosen, she couldn’t recall the last time she and her friend had had such a good time together.

  And although Erin didn’t quite share Abby’s admiration of Russell Crowe in a skirt and sandals or Ben Stiller’s hilarious acting skills, she was still willing to sit through each and every one of Abby’s choices. Then came Thelma & Louise which Erin confessed she’d never seen.

  “Oh my God, we have got to do that!” her friend squealed afterwards, just as the credits began to roll.

  Abby nearly spat out her popcorn. “Well, I know I said I wanted to be more spontaneous and adventuous but there’s no way I’m driving a car off –”

  “No, no I don’t mean that,” Erin drawled, rolling her eyes. “I mean the road trip–just the two of us. Just taking off and seeing where the road takes us.”

  A road trip? Abby considered it. It would be fun, the two of them driving around like the characters in that film. Still, she wouldn’t like to come across any of those sleazy rig drivers, although in Ireland this was unlikely.

  But it seemed Erin had a much grander idea.

  “So seeing as driving a convertible and the Grand Canyon are two of the things on your list, why not do them both at the same time?” her friend suggested. “We could fly to LA, pick up the convertible and drive to the Canyon from there. And even better,” she said excitedly, a plan now well and truly forming in her mind, “we could stop off in Vegas on the way.”

  “Las Vegas?” A slow smile spread across Abby’s face. Sin City–one of the biggest, brashest, and second to New York, possibly the most exciting city in the world! Anyone with a snatch of imagination would probably have put this first on the list–why the hell didn’t she think of that? Thinking back on her list now, Abby felt very dull and boring compared to what Erin was suggesting. Even when including driving a convertible on the list, she’d been thinking about maybe hiring one out for a day here in Ireland. But what better place than America to drive one of those!

  “I love it!”Abby enthused, eager to get going on the plans as soon as possible.

  As she wasn’t yet allowed to drive, and Erin could only get so much time off from work, she knew they couldn’t be away for too long.

  Having decided to add the road trip to the list, she and Erin continued munching through popcorn and Pringles, lots of frozen chocolate, a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Caramel Chew Chew and close to a gallon of Coke.

  But by the end of the weekend, they’d gone some way towards working off all the extra calories by getting up and joining in the final scene of Footloose.

  Dancing around her front room and boogeying deliriously to Kenny Loggins, Abby experienced an amazing sense of joyous abandon, something she hadn’t felt in years. Would Kieran have ever danced around the sofa like this; in fairness, would Kieran have danced anywhere full stop?

  Lately, Abby found she was beginning to distance herself from him more and more, and with this distance came a much greater sense of clarity. Kieran leaving hadn’t been the end of the world, and slowly but surely she was beginning to understand that. But now that she’d begun to recognise that there was lots of living to do, she wanted to throw herself into it whole-heartedly.

  Which was why, the Saturday night after their movie-watching weekend, Abby was in a great frame of mind to put her trust in Erin and was willing go along with whatever her best friend had in mind for that evening.

  “OK,” Erin announced, when she called to Abby’s flat at around seven. As she had no clue what was had planned other than it would be happening tonight, Abby wasn’t sure what to expect, or indeed what to wear. “You’re probably not going to like this but–”

  She looked at Erin, surprised. “What do you mean I’m not going to like this? The whole point of this is to pick something I will like, something I won’t forget in a hurry isn’t it?” she reminded her.

  Erin smiled cryptically. “Yes, well, that’s the intention certainly. But I think that sometimes the most memorable experiences can stem from stepping out of your comfort zone and taking chances, don’t you think?”

  Abby squirmed, not liking the sound of this at all. “What kind of chances?”

  But Erin refused to elaborate. “You’ll see … hopefully,” she added in an aside, as Abby put on her coat and they left the flat.

  “So where are we off to?” she asked as they continued walking down the street towards the city centre.

  “Dame Street direction,” her friend replied, again refusing to be drawn any further.

  “OK.” If they were staying in town they were obviously going out somewhere, Abby mused, faintly disappointed. A night out in Dublin on a Saturday night wasn’t exactly an earth-shattering experience, was it?

  Erin was still chatting away as they walked along, evidently oblivous to Abby’s worries. “So did you talk to the travel agent about our trip?”

  Since that intial discussion, they’d done some more research on the Californian road trip and had decided to book the trip for April. It would give Erin enough notice to organise time off from work. As all this had arisen partly because of her, Abby had insisted on arranging
the booking.

  “Yep, we’re all booked and ready to go. She’ll be sending out the tickets about a week before we go.”

  Erin grinned. “Fantastic, I really can’t wait!”

  Some fifteen minutes later, they reached the centre of town, Abby still in the dark as to what they were doing, until finally Erin stopped outside a popular pizza chain.

  “We’re going for pizza?” Abby asked, puzzled.

  Erin was all innocence. “What, you don’t fancy it?”

  “Well, not particularly.” While pizza was one the few ‘foreign’ foods Abby liked, she’d thought tonight was supposed to be something exciting, something enjoyable. Sharing a margherita pizza over a cheap plastic table wasn’t exactly ground-breaking she thought, sligthtly deflated.

  “Hoping for something more exciting, were you?”

  “Well yes–why did you tell me to dress up if all we were doing was going here?”

  Now, Erin was grinning like the cat that got the cream. “OK, then great, let’s go somewhere else then, somewhere a bit more interesting.”

  “Hold on.” Now Abby was starting to get it. She stood rooted to the spot, refusing to go any further until she had some answers. “What’s all this about?”

  “This is what it’s like for me and everyone else who agrees to eat out with you, Abby. We get our hopes up but instead end up having to eat bland, tasteless mass-produced rubbish. Hey, I’m not saying this to get at you,” Erin said quickly, noticing Abby’s wounded expression. “I’m just trying to make a point. But,” she added with a wicked grin, “now I think it’s time to show you exactly what you’re missing.”