LITMIR.BIZ

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      So while Lorna had bagged herself a mid-week ‘dirty weekend’ out of the disaster, Daisy faced seven days of pure misery in her cramped apartment without even her best friend to bitch with. She could always unpack the darned suitcase, she supposed. Or she could go back to work in Super Shoes and save her holidays for later in the month. That would be the sensible thing to do. She could always slice off her sore big toe, for that matter.

      Closing her eyes tightly, she tried to imagine that the limp, bubble-free bath water was the dazzling blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea but despite her most concentrated efforts, it wasn’t working.

      “Saved by the bell,” she mumbled when the phone sang from the hallway. She tugged out the bath plug and wrapped herself in her favourite fluffy red robe. Frantically tying it at the waist, she shuffled along the tiled floor, dodging puddles and trying not to slip under her damp feet.

      “Hello… shit!” said Daisy as the phone bounced off the wall. She picked up the receiver again. “Sorry, sorry,” she said. “I dropped the phone.”

      “Whoops-a-Daisy,” said the voice on the other end, which wasn’t instantly recognisable.

      Not distinctly male or female for that matter.

      “Hello?’ she replied, desperately trying to place the mystery person on the other end. He or she sounded a bit dodgy, or American, or both.

      “It’s me. Like, hello. Jeez, has it been so long that you don’t even recognise my voice?”

      Daisy’s mind was blank. She was stuck. Really stuck. She was useless with names, but normally caught voices straight away. If Lorna had given that freaky Ricardo dude from the video store her number, she was dead meat. It sounded a bit like him, but she was only in there yesterday hiring out Titanic as an excuse to cry her lamps out, so what would he be phoning her for?

      “Of course I do,” she said in her chirpiest voice trying to buy a few more seconds. “What’s the craic…?”

      “Jack?”

      “Jack, of course. Hi Jack. How’s tricks?” she said, pulling her wet hair back and making faces at herself in the mirror.

      She didn’t know any Jacks.

      “We used to say that all the time, remember? What’s the craic, Jack? And then, you’d say, not much…”

      “Not much, Butch!” squealed Daisy. “Omigod is that..?”

      “It’s me, you dimwit.”

      “Gay Eddie? How the hell are you? Wow! This is a blast from the past.”

      The caller didn’t reply and Daisy’s excitement was marred by a two-second pause that seemed to last a lifetime. She could feel her face go hot.

      “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I must have picked you up wrong. I thought you were an old friend of mine, Eddie Eastwood? We used to have this really weird rhyming slang when we were younger and…”

      “It is me, stupid,” he sniffled. “I’m just a bit emotional at hearing your voice. God, Daisy, it’s been way, way too long.”

      Daisy dabbed the black mascara rings under her eyes with a facial wipe from her suitcase and made a mental note to remind Eddie he was from Donegal, not downtown L.A. The wipe smelt funny and she realised it was one for warning off mosquito bites. Chance would be a fine thing.

      “Hey, Ed. Come on. Don’t be like that. We do catch up from time to time. I only emailed you last week, didn’t I?”

      “Forwarding jokes to me in San Francisco doesn’t count for correspondence, Daisy. I haven’t seen you in almost four goddamn years and I desperately need to talk to you. Is it OK if I come over?”

      Daisy plonked herself down on top of the bulky suitcase, ignoring the discomfort of the bulging bag of toiletries she threatened to destroy under her posterior. To give him his dues, Eddie always had amateur dramatics down to a fine art. But Eddie couldn’t just ‘come over’. He lived a million miles away, for goodness sake. This was serious. Or was it? With Eddie, most of the time, it was very hard to tell.

      “Sure. Fly over right away. Ed. I’ll see you in about ten or twenty hours’ time. At least I’ll be dressed by then.”

      Eddie gave out a dramatic deep sigh.

      “Em, well, you see I’m sort of… I’m, I’m actually outside your apartment.”

      “What???!”

      “I’m in the car park. Sorry, Daisy. I can come back later if now doesn’t suit…”

      Daisy raced to the window. She couldn’t see any desperado loners lurking about, and as usual the quiet suburban apartment block was as silent as a graveyard. Everyone else in the world was at work after all.

      Or on holiday.

      “Very funny. You really had me there, Mr America. I am actually standing here like a prat, looking out of my window for you. Good one.”

      “I know you are. I can see you. You’re wearing what looks like a huge red, fuzzy blanket. Look over here. I’m in the yellow car.”

      Daisy gulped. Was he serious? A canary-coloured Mini Cooper convertible shone boldly like a beacon among the scattered vehicles in the cobbled Stranmillis car park. It had to be his.

      Small, brassy and as gay as Christmas.

      A long arm waved out of the driver’s side window, which even from a height and through pouring rain was noticeably perma-tanned and laden with bling.

      “I don’t believe it! When did you get home? Come on, come on up quickly.”

      “You’re a darling, Daisy Anderson,” said Eddie with new rigour. “I’ll be with you in two shakes and all will be revealed.”

      Daisy flicked the switch on the kettle and then immediately changed her mind. This wasn’t a tea or coffee moment. This was an occasion. It wasn’t every day an old friend like Eddie turned up unexpectedly like this. She would treat him to a slap-up brunch at Deane’s Brasserie and pretend she was as lively and sophisticated as the place itself. Plus, she once snogged one of the waiters and she wouldn’t mind another glimpse of him while she was there.

      She quickly grabbed a bottle of sparkling white wine from the fridge and set out two of her finest champagne flutes – her only champagne flutes, and uncorked the bottle with a feeling of teenage rebellion.

      Fumbling through her own and then Lorna’s CD collection, she quickly settled on a George Michael compilation. That should make him feel at home, she thought, congratulating herself at how considerate she’d become in her late twenties.

      The doorbell finally buzzed and Daisy ran towards it, laden with celebratory drinks to welcome her childhood neighbour into her humble abode.

      “Come in if you’re good looking,’” she shouted into the intercom and sat the drinks on the phone table. She then bounded towards the doorway and wrapped her arms and legs around Eddie’s muscular frame as soon as he crossed the threshold.

      “You have been working out, my boy. What an unbelievable hunk!” She smothered his cheek in kisses knowing it would turn his guts. “And a real Californian tan to match. Yum.”

      Eddie almost buckled under Daisy’s tight grasp and lifted a glass of wine from behind her back.

      “You could at least have got dressed,” he said jokingly in a transatlantic drone. “You weren’t going to go on holiday like that, were you?”

      Daisy let go of Eddie’s brown neck and took a gulp of her wine. She tugged him eagerly by his snow-white t-shirt into her living room before answering.

      “Actually, I was due to fly out to Salou today for a week in the sun with my room-mate Lorna, but then the damn holiday company

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