If the Shoes Fit

by Pauline Lawless

  Just then the kids rushed in, all excited because there was a spider in the bath. The girls were squealing but Ian wanted to catch him in a jar.

  “Some things never change,” Eileen laughed, going to get rid of the offender.

  Lesley was in a state. It was Monday afternoon and she hadn’t heard from Pete since the previous Wednesday. She hoped he was okay and that he hadn’t been in an accident or anything. You never knew these days! She couldn’t think of any other reason why he wouldn’t have contacted her. She tried his mobile again – for the umpteenth time. She got his voicemail once again. Damn! Then finally, the long awaited call. She was overjoyed. Pete wanted to meet her that night.

  “Where have you been?” she demanded. “I’ve been worried sick.”

  “Long story, sweetheart,” he replied. “I’ll tell you when we meet.” God, I’d better come up with something, he thought irritably. Why can’t women just be glad when we do ring? He was still smarting from Amber’s rejection.

  Later that evening, as Niamh was sitting watching Coronation Street with Bridget, Sharon rang. Gavin was, of course, out with the lads.

  “Is this going to go on every night?” her mother-in-law demanded, as Niamh left to take the call. The tension in the house was becoming unbearable.

  Sharon sounded really excited. “Niamh, great news! Dean says you can use our garage to store your deliveries. What do you think?”

  What do I think? I think I have to get out of here as soon as possible, Niamh quipped to herself.

  “Are you sure, Sharon?” she asked. “Is Dean really okay with it?”

  “Absolutely!” Sharon sounded very positive. “We have a huge double garage but we never put the cars in it. Oh please say yes, Niamh.”

  Niamh smiled at her friend’s enthusiasm. Obviously, Sharon was really keen for her to accept and it would certainly solve her problem – for the moment anyway.

  “Well, if you’re absolutely sure then I’d be delighted,” she replied.

  Sharon was thrilled. Niamh realised that she was even lonelier than she’d suspected so maybe they would both benefit. In fact, if business continued to grow she would need to enlist help and who better than Sharon? She’d give it some thought.

  Returning to the living-room, she ignored Bridget’s scowl and smiled sweetly at her. Thank God, she’ll see less of us from now on, Niamh thought, and by this time next year we should be in our own place.

  Lesley took extra care getting dressed, hoping that tonight Pete would take her back to his place. She’d told Paul, her husband, that she was going out with Val and would probably spend the night with her. He accepted this information with his usual calm and went back to his golf programme. He’d given up on Lesley years ago. She did exactly as she pleased – and he didn’t have the balls to stop her. His escape was the sports channel on the TV.

  Lesley threw her eyes to heaven as she left the house. Honestly, you’d think he’d show some interest in what she did. But no! All he cared about were the bloody sports, on the bloody television. He’d never played a single sport in his whole life but there he sat, night after night, glued to the damn thing. It didn’t matter which sport: football, rugby, golf, hurling, motor racing, tennis, darts, horse racing – he watched them all, regardless. He even watched the cricket for God’s sake! I mean, who the hell understands cricket? It’s the most boring game in the world – when you’re in, you’re out and when you’re out, you’re in – I mean, I ask you! What kind of idiots play such a stupid game? And what kind of idiots sit watching it on TV? With a toss of her head she turned her thoughts to more pleasant things – Pete Clancy and the fantastic time they would have together.

  She’d always been the cool one when it came to men but Pete was different. He was getting under her skin and besides what a catch! An accountant! She’d had lots of affairs before but none of them had been as exciting as Pete. She had a gut-feeling that he would be the one to help her escape from her hum-drum marriage.

  He’d asked her to meet him in a small pub in Kilmainham. She would love to have gone to one of the big plush hotels in the city but Pete said they had to be careful – because of her husband. Well, she had no intention of spending the rest of her life with Paul so it didn’t worry her too much, one way or the other. She was wearing a low-cut, flimsy top and skin-tight leather jeans and she enjoyed the stir she caused amongst the men who, distracted from their pints, watched her undulate across the room to kiss Pete. She could tell that he was hot for her as she bent down to him. She was pretty turned on herself!

  After two drinks, he suggested they leave and she smiled smugly, thinking he couldn’t wait to have her and was probably taking her to his pad. She was dying to see it. To her surprise, he drove into the Phoenix Park and, parking in a quiet secluded spot, pulled her to him.

  “Hey, what’s all this?” she asked, coquettishly. “Can’t you wait till we get into bed?”

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he said, opening his big blue eyes wide. “I probably should have said something before now, but I’m afraid I have to leave early tonight. I should be at a business dinner right now but I told them I’d be late.” He cupped her face in his hands and slowly ran his tongue over her upper lip.

  Ooooohhhh, she loved the way he did this and she found herself getting aroused. “I thought we’d be spending the night together,” she pouted. “It was so fantastic last Wednesday. Don’t you want another night like that?” She looked at him sexily from under her long black lashes.

  “Of course I do, sweetheart,” he replied silkily, “but I thought having this little time was better than no time at all. Don’t you agree?” He started on her lower lip now.

  “Mmmmm,” she murmured. “I don’t know . . .”

  “I did give up the dinner for you,” he said in a hurt voice. “Come on, baby, I’ll make it up to you,” he said, slipping her top from her shoulders.

  Once again, they had sex in the back of his Beamer.

  Chapter 24

  Carlo arrived in Ireland on Wednesday morning and met up with all seven women over the next two days. He quickly saw who was working and who was not and was pleased to be able to help those who needed his advice. He soon realised that Phoebe was a disaster and wouldn’t last the pace. Val had got off to a very slow start but she seemed to be trying harder now. Lesley was very determined and was doing extremely well – but there was something about her that disturbed him. He saw the way she bullied her reps and treated them with utter disdain. They seemed to take it from her and he had to concede that her sales were terrific. Still, it wasn’t how he liked to do business and he knew Grace would not approve either.

  Lesley had mentioned to him, casually, that she was dating Pete. Was Pete out of his mind? Carlo would have to have a word with him and see if it was true. She was a married woman, for goodness sake. Carlo had no time for infidelity.

  He was delighted to see that business was going great for the other girls. Tessa and Amber had more demand for parties than they could handle and he advised them to delegate these. It would be impossible for them to keep doing it solo, as the demand for these would certainly increase in the run-up to Christmas. Having seen how successful Niamh was at recruiting, he encouraged them to follow her example.

  Niamh was the biggest surprise of them all. She was so young and yet she had a wonderful way of dealing with her reps, who all worked harder than they would have normally, in an effort to please Niamh. This showed in her sales which were way higher than any of the other managers. She was a little champion and justified his faith in her. He remembered that Amber had recognised her potential also.

  Rosie seemed quite happy to have three meetings a week – she didn’t like calling them parties – and she had also recruited ten representatives. Helping her with the paperwork, he advised her that it would save her time and help her business enormously, if she could become computer literate. She agreed with him and enrolled in a computer course that very day. She’d missed the first wee
k but they assured her that she’d have no trouble catching up. She hoped they were right. Am I mad, Jack? she asked him that night. But she knew that he’d want her to go for it.

  Carlo enjoyed being out on the road with the girls. They were all so different. The more he saw of Tessa, the more he liked her. They had a lot in common and she was great fun but, from little things she said, he suspected that she was having marital problems. He didn’t like to pry, of course, and she didn’t volunteer any information.

  Amber was wonderful. He went to one of her parties with her and was very impressed with the way she handled her customers. She was a natural saleswoman and her personality made the evening fun for everyone. She was obviously enjoying the job enormously. She’d been on a high after her party and they’d had a drink together afterwards. She’d been relaxed and happy and he asked her if she’d come out to dinner with him the next time that he was in Dublin. To his surprise, she agreed.

  Rosie was very nervous as she set off for the computer course but she relaxed when she saw that there were a couple of other older students there. Why, some were even in their late fifties and sixties. There was even one old dear who must have been eighty-five if she was a day. Rosie had been afraid that they’d all be kids. She surprised herself by how quickly she picked it up. It wasn’t as difficult as she’d expected. At the coffee break, she sat beside a very nice man who told her he’d been very nervous on his first night too.

  “I know all the kids take to this technology with ease,” he confided to her in a low voice, “but I’m hopeless. I can’t even text.”

  “Me neither,” Rosie confessed. “My late husband, Jack, used a computer all the time for business so I just left everything to him.”

  “Same here. My wife, Marian, who died nine months ago, was a wizard on the computer too so I never bothered,” he said sadly. “My daughter, Ursula, enrolled me on this course, to give me an interest. My kids are worried about me as I’m finding it very difficult to move on since Marian’s death.”

  Rosie heard the pain in his voice and her heart went out to him. She knew exactly how he was feeling.

  “I understand completely,” she told him gently. “Jack died last year and, honestly, I was like a zombie for twelve months. I couldn’t face going back to golf or bridge. I might as well have been dead too.” She gulped, tears not far away. She took a deep breath. “Then my daughter insisted that I apply for this job that I’ve just started and somehow I’m slowly getting my life back together.”

  “Well, that gives me hope. Ursula really had to force me onto this course. I didn’t want to do it and like you, I can’t face going back to bridge either. Marian was my bridge partner and it would feel strange without her.”

  “I know exactly how it is,” Rosie said with feeling.

  “I know this sounds crazy, but I still feel as if she’s there,” he said quietly. “I talk to her every night and I really feel that she can hear me.” He looked a little embarrassed to be admitting this.

  “It’s not crazy. I talk to Jack all the time too,” she smiled gently at him.

  Just then they were called back to the computers.

  “It was nice talking to you,” he said, extending his hand to her. “I’m Hugo, by the way.”

  “Rosie. Nice to meet you too,” she replied, smiling.

  What a sad man, Jack, she told him, as she lay in bed that night.

  I met a really nice woman tonight, Marian, Hugo told his wife, as he had his nightly, one-sided chat with her.

  Chapter 25

  Tessa was determined to make one last effort with George. After her meeting with Carlo, she decided she wouldn’t do any more parties herself but put all her energies into recruiting and getting the reps to hold parties for her. This was the way to go. Since then, she had signed up twelve representatives and four of them were selling really well; six more were doing okay; and the last two were a bit of a disaster. This was exactly as Grace and Carlo had told them it would be.

  As a result of her decision, she stayed in every night with George but they seemed to have practically nothing to say to each other. You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife. She could feel the underlying fury in him and he was still sleeping in the guest room. Eventually, she braved herself to have it out with him.

  “George, I’ve given up working at night to be here with you, but you don’t seem to appreciate that.”

  “Oh, I should be grateful that you deign to stay home with me?” he replied icily.

  “George, I’m making an effort here but you have to meet me halfway,” she pleaded with him. “We both have to compromise.”

  “If you love me, you’d give up this job,” he said, staring at her stonily.

  “And if you loved me, you wouldn’t ask me to do that!” she threw back at him.

  “I’ll ask you one more time, Tessa. Will you marry me and give up this nonsense?”

  Tessa couldn’t believe her ears. Things were so strained between them and he thought marriage was the answer. Did he think that, as her husband, he could forbid her to work? She conceded defeat. In that instant, she knew that it was over between them. It shocked her to realise that what she felt most was relief.

  “You can’t control me, George, which is what you seem to want. That’s no basis for a happy marriage and I realise now that we have no future together. I’m sorry. I’ll go and stay with Kate tonight and tomorrow I’ll arrange to move my things out.”

  George looked at her in shock and without another word left the room.

  Tessa threw a few things into a bag and drove over to Kate’s.

  “Tessa, what are you . . . ?” Kate stopped mid-sentence as she saw the look on her friend’s face.

  “I’ve left him, Kate,” she said dully. “It’s over.”

  Kate poured two large gin and tonics and sat her down to hear what had happened. She didn’t make any effort to persuade her to try again with George, which is what she’d normally have done in this circumstance. She knew that this wasn’t just a lover’s tiff and secretly she thought that Tessa was doing the right thing.

  “You can stay here as long as you like,” Kate told her.

  “Thanks, Kate, but it’s too close to George. Tomorrow I’ll go and stay with Amber till I sort out a place of my own.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Kate agreed. “It’ll give you some breathing space.”

  “You know, it’s crazy, but what I’m more concerned about is missing Kilkenny and Napoleon, not George!” She laughed a little hysterically. “Can you believe it? My horse and dog are actually more important to me than the man I thought I’d spend my life with – the man I thought I loved!”

  Her laughter turned to tears. Kate put her arms around her friend.

  “You’re still in shock,” she said, as she calmed Tessa down. “And don’t worry about them. I’ll take care of them until you get settled and can have them back with you.”

  Tessa smiled through her tears. “Oh Kate, would you? That would be fantastic. I was worried about where I could leave them. That way, I could come down and visit them at weekends.”

  “That’s settled then.” Kate beamed at her. “We can collect them tomorrow when we go for your things.”

  Later, Tessa rang Amber to tell her that she’d left George and was warmed by her friend’s concern and insistence that she come and stay with her.

  She and Kate talked long into the night about men, love, marriage and all those things that women talk about together. It helped Tessa that both Kate and Amber felt she was doing the right thing.

  Amber wasn’t surprised to hear that Tessa had left George. She’d known for a while that he was not the right man for her. She understood Tessa’s feeling of failure, but far better to leave than stay with the wrong person. Amber was sure that had she still been married to Dermot, he would have felt exactly the same as George about her job. Men!

  She was looking forward to having Tessa stay with her although they’d have to organise a war
ehouse somewhere to store the deliveries. Her own garage was too small. She’d been thinking about it anyway, as business was booming and Christmas promised to be huge. Now with Tessa here, it was essential and urgent. She was amazed at how little Tessa actually brought with her. She’d left the bulk of her stuff in the house in Ballyfern until she could find an apartment of her own.

  “Thank God you didn’t bring all your shoes. I can fit what you’ve brought with you on one shelf, so I won’t need to retire any of mine which I’d hate to have to do,” she told Tessa sheepishly. “I’m delighted you’re here and I honestly think you’ve made the right decision.”

  “I think so too. Probably should have done it ages ago but you know how it is. I feel relieved, which is sad, but I can’t wait to get back to the old me.”

  Amber rang Luke to tell him that his shoes had arrived and arranged to deliver them the following night. He suggested that they go out for a bite to eat afterwards and she readily agreed. She was delighted that they’d picked up their friendship again. He was easy and relaxing and she could just be herself with him.

  “A date?” Susie had asked, her eyebrows raised and an impish grin on her face, when Amber told her what a nice evening they’d had.

  “Definitely not a date, it was just pizza with an old friend,” Amber insisted.

  “Well, how about asking your old friend to lunch, on Sunday week,” Susie suggested. “We’re a bit top-heavy with women, what with you and Tessa fancy-free and my sister’s husband away too. Poor Tony will be overwhelmed by all these females,” she laughed. “Will you invite Luke? I’ve always liked him.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Amber agreed. “He was asking about you, actually, and I’m sure he’d love to come, if he’s free.”

  Luke was delighted to accept. He found weekends difficult since Emma had left him and Amber and Susie were great fun. He was looking forward to meeting this Tessa that Amber was so fond of. Yes, he was looking forward to the lunch very much.