Rainbow’s End was shut on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. Sean had invited me out both Saturday evening and on Sunday. As Oliver was going to be away, I accepted both invitations.
Saturday night we went to the cinema to see ‘Remember Me’. It had had a mixed reception, but Neeta had seen it and said it was brilliant. It was about people who had experienced tragedy in their lives, found love and finally more tragedy, although Neeta hadn’t told me the ending. It was both disturbing and rewarding. Sean and I discussed it until quite late at my place. He wanted to stay the night as it was so late, and we were going out the next day, but I wasn’t ready for a decision like that. He left me protesting that he would stay in the spare room and not enter my room. The memory of Wayne defying my insistence that I would be sleeping alone had determined my resolve that Sean went home.
The following day we went to Alton Towers. The weather was dry although a little chilly. Sean persuaded me to try all the big rides, but I think it was as much as an excuse to put his arms round me and hold me tight or keep me warm as for any other reason. As we sat in the pod waiting for one of the rides to start, he turned towards me and quietly crooned to me:
In Dublin’s fair city
The girls are so pretty
But none of them matches the one I’m with now.
She’s sexy and witty
And it’s such a pity
He stopped abruptly without finishing, leaving me to wonder what he felt was such a pity? “Has anyone told you how beautiful you are?” he asked.
“Has anyone told you you’re an incorrigible, smooth-talking, Irishman?” I laughed in reply. Before he could answer, the ride started and we were suddenly thrust forward and down. He hadn’t even had time to put his arm round me.
It was an enjoyable day and I was exhausted when we returned home. He wanted to come back to my place but as I was seeing Oliver the next day, I decided then was the time to tell him about Oliver and my dilemma. He didn’t take the information as well as Oliver had. What did he have to do to make me choose him, Sean asked? He was determined I should choose him. We’d had fun together, got on well together. He felt there had been chemistry between us since the first day we’d met. What was the problem? I tried to explain that I liked them both. They were different but both had good points. I didn’t know how long it would take me to reach a decision, but I had to make the right one. I’d asked Oliver to be patient. And now I was asking him, too. I didn’t want either of them to try to be something they weren’t. If they tried, I’d know and be disappointed.
I woke early the next morning. I had a lot of work to do. I had already planned the menu: Stilton, pear and walnut salad to start followed by beef wellington, with new potatoes, asparagus that was just coming into season, with a red wine jus. The meal would finish with a tarte tatin. I had decided on a red wine to accompany the beef and a white wine for the desert. I needed to get all the ingredients and make a start. It then struck me that I was cooking essentially the same meal Cynthia had cooked for me. I couldn’t think why I hadn’t thought of it before. If I’d thought about it earlier, would I have changed the menu? I remembered I had really enjoyed Cynthia’s meal, so why shouldn’t I cook it for Oliver? I’d cooked beef wellington on a few occasions and I prepared the starter several time but never together.
Oliver was expected at about 5:00pm and I had the preparation well under way by three o’clock when the phone went. I took the call and was in shock. Oliver would be coming in less than two hours. I had no way of contacting him but I would have to cancel. What could I do? Suddenly I had a thought. I rang Jane. I needed to ask her a big, big favour. I explained the circumstances. Oliver having been mugged and his phone stolen; the meal that was almost ready and Granny Wise having fallen at the home she was in and broken her thigh. I had to be with her. The hospital didn’t know if she was strong enough to recover from the accident. This might be the last opportunity to see her alive. I didn’t want to disappoint him. I wanted to impress him with my cooking ability. Fortunately Jane agreed to come over immediately and stand in for me. She knew him, but not as well as I did. He had acted as her divorce lawyer too.
Granny Wise had been suffering from dementia for a year now and had been in a nursing home because my parents couldn’t cope with her. She had deteriorated rapidly in the last few months but occasionally had lucid days. Although she was on strong pain killers, she was lucid when I arrived and pleased to see me. She quizzed me about my current love life and was concerned when I told her there was no one special. She wanted me to be settled before she shuffled off this mortal life. She said I deserved someone special, someone who would look after me and provide my parents with grandchildren. There were tears in her eyes as she confessed she wouldn’t be alive to see her great-grandchildren. And only minutes later, she was talking to me as if she was talking to my mother, telling her she was lucky to have such a good daughter and to make sure she had a good job when she left school.
Oliver rang me that evening to find out how Granny Wise was and to thank me for the meal, which was delicious. He gave me the number of his new mobile phone. I told him I’d be returning Thursday morning and we arranged to go for a meal on the Friday evening.
On the Tuesday evening I called Jane who repeated what Oliver had said about the meal. She also told me how much he liked and cared for me, really cared. I was thrilled. Then she told me how bad his injuries were. One eye was puffed and almost closed; the other eye was a beautiful (her words) mixture of purple, blue, red and black with a slight yellow tint. He had a couple of stitches in his cheek. He had also told her he had bruising on his ribs and stomach, but she couldn’t confirm that bit. Apparently, he didn’t hurt too much except when he laughed. He hadn’t done much of that. He had told her that he was nervous about Sean. He knew he couldn’t be as flamboyant as Sean was and he doubted he would be successful, but he would remain hopeful and if not successful, hopefully remain a friend. Jane said she’d enjoyed his company.
It was later that evening that I thought more about Sean. He was more exciting than Oliver. I didn’t think Oliver would ever take me somewhere like Alton Towers. Oliver was the steady, reliable type; Sean, the risky, exciting one. Both had advantages. I still couldn’t decide.
Instead of ringing me again on the Thursday evening to confirm arrangements for the following evening, Oliver actually came to my house. He was relieved that I was in as he had a bunch of flowers for me; yellow roses. They were, he told me, a thank you for the wonderful meal he’d had on the previous Friday, and something to show his disappointment that I hadn’t been there to serve it personally.
He also wanted to confirm arrangements for the following evening. He wouldn’t tell me where we were going but he would like me to dress up for the occasion. I was intrigued. Maybe Oliver could be exciting too.
But our bad luck continued. The next day, he phoned me just after lunch. His father had just died – a massive heart attack. He was devastated that he was going to have to cancel. We didn’t seem to be having that much luck, he said. I could only agree. He would be away for the best part of a week, sorting out his father’s affairs and the funeral arrangements.
The following day, when Sean heard about my disappointment, he offered to take me out to try and cheer me up.