The party goes on until the early hours, and people start leaving to go home. I begin to help clean up, but Mary stops me.
‘Stop that now, darling, and go on up to bed. You’ve had a long journey, and this will all still be here in the morning. We can do it then. Aiden will show you to your room. I’ve put her in David’s old room, honey.’
Aiden rolls his eyes, but he kisses his mother goodnight and leads me across the hallway and down a corridor towards the end bedroom. ‘You’re in here,’ he says, opening a door and switching on the light. ‘Mother’s orders.’
‘That’s okay.’
‘Is it?’ He grunts and pulls me into the room, shutting the door behind us. ‘David’s right, you know. I am obsessed with you.’ He strokes my hair back from my face and kisses me, walking me backwards towards the bed.
‘Aiden!’ I start to laugh as he pushes me down onto the mattress then lowers himself on top of me. ‘Your mum!’
‘Oh God, Orla!’ He draws back his head and looks at me in disappointment. ‘I doubt there are any other two words in the universe that can douse the flames of desire faster than your mum!’
‘Good! Get off me. I don’t want her thinking I’m a slut!’
‘She won’t think you’re a slut.’ He starts to kiss my throat, and I close my eyes, laughing as it tickles. ‘She’ll just think I’m a slut.’
There’s a knock on the door, and Aiden gets off me faster than I’ve ever seen him move before. I gasp out a laugh and cover my mouth with my hands as Mary’s voice floats through the door, surprisingly sharp. ‘Aiden? Are you in there?’
‘Yes, I’m just showing Orla where we keep the towels.’
‘Oh, good boy! Go to bed now, there’s a good lad.’
‘You do know I’m 33, right?’ Aiden snatches the door open and disappears into the hallway.
‘I do, as a matter of fact, but while you’re under my roof, you’ll abide by my rules. Now, leave that lovely girl alone and get to your own room. Good night, son.’
‘Good night, Mum.’
I can’t help laughing as I get into my newly purchased pyjamas and go across the hallway to the bathroom to brush my teeth. As much as I’d like to spend the night in Aiden’s arms, I’m happy to be here, meeting his family and friends. He’s waiting for me when I come out of the bathroom.
‘Give them twenty minutes to fall asleep, then I’ll be in,’ he whispers.
‘No, you won’t! You heard what your mum said.’
‘She won’t know.’
I laugh as I slip my arms around his waist. ‘No, Aiden! This is her house. What she says, goes. Besides, I’m exhausted and I bet you are too.’
‘I know but I just want a cuddle.’ He squeezes me tightly, rubbing my back in soothing circles.
‘Huh, likely story.’ I lay my head against his chest before kissing him and letting him go. ‘I’ll see you in the morning. Wake me up when you wake up.’
‘Okay. Good night.’ He steals another kiss before moving aside to let me go into the bedroom.
I fall asleep almost immediately, only waking at nine o’clock the next morning when Aiden brings me breakfast in bed. He’s already dressed in jeans and a black jumper, and from the voices I hear floating from the kitchen, I assume everyone else is up too.
‘I told you to wake me up when you woke up!’ I protest as he carries in the tray and sits down on the end of the bed.
‘No one’s been up that long anyway. Mum’s still in her dressing gown. Did you sleep alright?’
‘Like a log!’ I yawn and take a sip from the mug of tea. ‘Did you?’
‘Yeah. Strange being back in my old bed though.’
‘You weren’t here long ago though, were you?’
‘No, not really. Just a few weeks.’ He shrugs and scratches his arm.
‘It was so sweet last night when they all jumped out. They were all so happy to see you.’
He rolls his eyes. ‘Yeah. They’re a good bunch. And they all loved you.’ Leaning forward, he kisses me as I clutch the tray in case the toast and cereal slide off.
‘Everyone was so nice. It was a really great night.’ I take a bite of the toast. ‘What’s the plan for today then?’
‘I thought we’d go for a walk. There’s something I want to show you.’
‘What’s that then?’
‘It’s a surprise.’
‘What is it? Tell me!’
‘If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it!’ He catches my foot through the duvet and shakes it gently.
‘Okay. Will it be a long walk?’ I look towards the window where the rain clouds hang low and grey.
‘Not really. But you might have to borrow a pair of my mum’s wellies.’
*
After I shower and change, we venture out into the damp morning air and walk down his parent’s driveway and turn left onto a country lane. I couldn’t see much last night because it was so dark, but we’re surrounded by trees and fields and countryside. The weather’s cold and damp, with a thick drizzle that patters on my raincoat and dribbles down my sleeves.
‘I can smell the sea,’ I say, drawing in deep lungfuls of cold damp air. ‘Are we even near the sea?’
‘Yes, not far. You’ll see it when you get to the top of the hill.’
He takes my hand and we walk on. I’m excited to see what he’s got to show me, and I realise I’m perfectly content in this moment, just walking along this lane with Aiden, not worrying about what comes next. I have a vague notion that tomorrow, when it comes to flying back to London and leaving Aiden behind, I’ll feel rather different. But for today, at least, I’m happy.
We reach the top of the hill and through the trees I glimpse the grey sea ahead. We’re quite high up above it, on top of a cliff. ‘There it is!’ I say excitedly. And even though it’s a dull day and the sea looks angry and grey, I’m happy to see it because I can imagine how beautiful this view would be on a lovely sunny day, with a blue sky and sunshine glinting on the waves. ‘Wow! What a place to grow up.’
Aiden looks pleased. ‘Yeah, it’s a great place to grow up. We were forever at the beach or playing in the hills or pond dipping or making dens. It was idyllic really.’
‘It’s a wonder you ever wanted to leave.’
‘Yeah, well … you go where life takes you. Besides, it’s a good job I did or I’d never have met you.’ He wraps an arm around my shoulder and kisses my head. ‘It’s funny though, my desire to keep moving from place to place isn’t as strong as it was. I want a base. Somewhere to call home that isn’t just my parents’ house. And I love it around here, so, I thought …’ He opens a gate into a field bordered by trees and overgrown shrubs. It looks like nature’s trying to reclaim it for its own. ‘I’d buy this.’
‘Oh!’ Blinking in surprise, I step into the field, my wellies squelching in the muddy puddle that’s formed in a rut next to the gate. ‘Are you going to build on this? Please tell me you’re not just going to erect your tent and live in that!’
He laughs. ‘No, no, I am going to build on it.’ He squelches forward in his wellies and stands, looking around him with a satisfied look on his face. ‘But it’s going to be a cob house.’
‘A what?’
‘A cob house. Made from a combination of mud and straw. It’s environmentally friendly and really cheap to make. There are various ones in existence all over the world, and there are eco villages where people live in as eco-friendly and sustainable way as possible. People call them hobbit houses.’
‘Are you serious?’ I’m completely bewildered and just a little bit disappointed. And he had the cheek to moan about my flat when all the time he was planning to build a house from mud! I can just imagine what Belinda will say when I tell her.
‘Sure I am. The documentary team are going to film the building process and hopefully it will inspire lots of other people to build their own eco-friendly homes from recycled and sustainable materials.’
‘So, you’ll get a T
V series out of it?’
‘Yes. I get filmed doing this, and I’ll also be exploring other eco-friendly building projects and houses that are already in existence in and around the UK.’
‘Wow!’ I try to dredge up some enthusiasm as I let this new information sink into my brain. So, this is what he’s going to be doing in Ireland, and when he’s not in Ireland, he’s just going to be in and around the UK. This is good news, I think. No more swimming in alligator-infested rivers or getting too close to forest fires. And like he says, Ireland’s not so far from London. It took little more than an hour to get here. I’d be up for visiting him in his mud hut when it’s done, and his family and friends are lovely so I know they’d make me welcome. It’s not a house in the conventional sense, but at least it’s a house. ‘That’s really cool. Why didn’t you tell me about this before?’
‘I wanted all this to be a surprise.’ He spreads his arms to indicate the dripping greenery.
All this? I turn a slow circle, looking at the trees and the bushes and the long, long grass. There’s literally nothing here. He really is a crazy wild man.
‘But you’ll be living in your parents’ house while you’re building it, won’t you? When do you start it, anyway?’
‘Filming’s scheduled to start early March.’
‘So that’s like four months away?’ I wince. ‘So you’ll be at your parents’ for how long, do you think?’
Aiden shrugs. ‘I don’t know. Not too long really. It probably won’t be as long as you’re thinking.’ He puts an arm around my shoulder. ‘You’ll come and stay with me, won’t you?’
‘Yes!’ I say brightly. There is no question that I won’t. ‘So how big is this cob house going to be? One room? Two rooms?’
‘It needs to be quite an ambitious project for us to make a programme out of it. It’ll be on a scale of a small house, so it’s going to have two rooms downstairs and two rooms upstairs. I’ve still got to finalise the plans with the producers, but that’s what we’re looking at right now.’
‘It’ll have stairs? Will it have windows?’
‘Of course! There are some amazing cob houses out there, you know. You should have a look online at them.’
‘Sounds like it’ll take a while?’
‘Probably not as long as you think.’
I raise my eyebrows, trying to absorb this new information. So, he invited me to come and live over here in Ireland when he knew he only had a field and his parents’ house? I suppose that’s the joy of being someone who lives so utterly in the moment; you forget the practicalities of everyday life. He appears to be completely oblivious to any problems this may present.
‘So, you’ll be living with your parents until then? Oh well, I guess you’ll just have to keep visiting me in London.’
‘Yeah, I suppose.’ He looks crestfallen. ‘Still not tempted to move over here then?’
‘I’ll come and stay in your tent from time to time.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Yeah!’ I smile and slip my arms around his waist. ‘It’ll be like old times.’
He laughs and ducks his head to kiss me. The sound of our anoraks rustling is loud in my ears. ‘Well, we could stay in my tent,’ he says, taking my hand and leading me through a gap in the thicket, ‘or we could stay here.’
I gasp as we push through the shrubbery and find a pretty white cottage with a gabled roof and wisteria clinging to a trellis on the wall next to the doorway.
‘Who does this belong to?’
Aiden laughs and pulls a set of keys from his pocket. ‘Me!’
‘Really?’ I gape at him before playfully smacking him on the arm. ‘Don’t you think you should have shown me this first?’
‘Now where’s the fun in that? Do you want to look inside or shall we stand outside in the rain all day?’
‘Get the door open!’
He unlocks the front door then turns and lifts me off my feet so he can carry me over the threshold. Shrieking with laughter, I say, ‘I think you’re supposed to do this after we’re married?’
Married? Christ, did I just mention the ‘m’ word? My heart jolts and I expect him to drop me in horror, but he just laughs as he steps into the hallway. I expect him to put me straight down, but he keeps holding me for a moment longer as he smiles into my eyes. ‘I’ll do it every day for the rest of our lives, if you’ll let me.’
I want to make a sarcastic comment about him probably being off filming somewhere most days, but it dies on my tongue as I gaze back at him and all I can think is that I’d really like that to be true. Hope and happiness swell inside me as he lowers me gently to the tiled floor.
The cottage smells cold but clean. Its rooms are empty of all furniture and our voices and footsteps echo on the floorboards as we walk from room to room.
‘When did you buy this?’ I ask, as we walk into the kitchen. A large window looks across to cows grazing in a field.
‘A couple of months ago. It went up for auction and my dad put a bid in for me. I came to see it just before the exhibition.’
‘You bought it without seeing it?’
‘Kind of.’ He laughs as he opens a cupboard door and peers inside. ‘I’ve been in here before though. I was friends with the boy that lived here when I was younger. He’ll laugh when he finds out I bought it.’
‘Wow!’ I stand in the kitchen, looking round. It’s quite old-fashioned, with worn farmhouse-style pine units and a peeling Formica worktop with a singed looking blister where someone’s left a hot pan, but it’s a great space with an amazing view across fields to the hills beyond. ‘I’m amazed you stayed in London so long when you had this waiting for you over here.’
‘Ah yes, but I had you in London, so it really wasn’t that difficult at all.’ He crosses to the sink and turns on the tap. Clear water gushes out into the white Belfast sink.
‘When are you going to move in?’
‘Soon. It needs a rewire and some other bits and bobs doing, but that shouldn’t take long. My dad’s been onto an electrician so work should start soon.’
‘Great!’
I can’t believe Aiden’s bought a house. A proper house! This is big news. It means he’s actually planning on staying in one place. I know he’d told me that was what he was planning on doing, but I didn’t completely believe him. Is the wanderer really ready to settle down?
‘My mum’s been in cleaning it all up.’
‘She’s done a great job. The place is spotless.’
‘Yeah. It’s only going to get messed up when the work begins though. Shall we look upstairs?’
The rooms upstairs are big and airy, and there’s a sweeping view of the sea from the master bedroom.
‘I’ve always loved the view from this room,’ Aiden puts his arm around me as we stand looking out towards the sea. Below us, the front garden is full of overgrown vegetation and long grasses that sway in the wind.
‘Wow! It’s amazing!’ I look around the room again. Aiden has plans, real, solid plans that appear to involve him staying in Ireland for the foreseeable future. If this doesn’t make our relationship viable, I don’t know what will. ‘So, I’ll be able to come and stay with you here when it’s done up?’
‘Yep. That’s the plan.’
I beam at him. ‘Brilliant!’
‘You can move in, if you like?’
I laugh, not taking him seriously. ‘Well, we’ll see about that, Aiden. But this is great. I’ll definitely come and visit.’
‘Oh, come on!’ Aiden turns me to face him, his hands on my shoulders. His eyes are almost pleading as they burn into mine. ‘Move in with me. I know I’m asking a lot, and I know your career’s just as important as mine, but you could get a job on a newspaper over here, or even stay on your own paper and work remotely. I know you had your five-year plan, and I understand that’s why you couldn’t come with me last time. But you’ve achieved all that now. You’ve left Hawksley, you’re living in London and you’re working on a big newspaper. W
hat’s next for you? Where do you see yourself in the next five years? What’s your plan for then?’
‘I don’t really have one.’ I feel bewildered by this turn in our conversation and start to feel a bit panicky. He’s right, I should have made another five-year plan by now.
‘Well, do you see yourself with me in those five years? Because I see myself with you, Orla. In fact, I can’t picture a future without you in it.’
‘Really?’ I blink up at him. As his words sink in, joy swells in my heart and I feel it shining from my eyes. Aiden really feels like that? He’s such an ‘in the moment’ kind of guy, it’s quite a shock to hear that he visualises a future with me in it.
‘Of course, Orla. I love you. I’m in love with you and I think I have been since you fell into my life when you came to interview me all those years ago! Come on, make me your five-year plan. In fact, no, make me your forever plan. I want you to be my forever plan, because I can’t see myself with anyone else, ever. There’s no one else like you, Orla.’
I stare at him, completely overwhelmed. I never expected to hear these words from his mouth. It’s like all my dreams have come true, opening up the possibility of a future I’ve never let myself believe in before.
‘And I’m not saying you must move in immediately,’ he continues. ‘You’ll need time to sort out your job and your flat, of course. But when you do, please know I’ll be here, waiting for you, and I always will be.’
‘Aw, Aiden,’ I say, stepping into his embrace. ‘Thank you. That’s so sweet.’
‘You’re all I want, Orla,’ he says. ‘I’ve been all around the world, and I’ve never met anyone like you.’
I can’t speak I’m so choked up. I can’t think of anything I’d like more than to spend the rest of my life living in this gorgeous cottage with Aiden.
‘And if you want kids, we’ll have kids,’ Aiden adds. ‘I’m no longer “I’m never having kids” man, okay?’
The Five-Year Plan: The utterly heart-warming and feel good rom com of 2020 Page 31
