Maeve Binchy - Circle of Friends

The traffic was bad on the Quays. Jack saw Nan but he couldn't attract her attention. She was leaning against the wall, and looking down into the Liffey. She seemed many miles away.

Eventually by hooting and shouting he managed to make her hear him.

She walked threading her way confidently between the parked cars in the traffic jam. He thought again how beautiful she was, and how hard it was to resist these nights with her. However, he would have to resist it tonight. His heart nearly stopped when he realized how near they had been to discovery. In future they would have to check and double check that Eve was not going home mid-week.

It was terrifying enough that time they had seen the man with the dogs, the tall thin fellow that Benny hated so much, the one there had been all the fuss over about getting him to leave.

Nan slipped into the car easily and laid her overnight bag on the back seat.

"Change of plan," he said. "Let's have a drink and discuss it."

It was always something that made Benny smile, that phrase. Nan didn't know it.

"Why?"

"Because we can't go down there. Eve's going home."

"Damn!" She seemed very annoyed.

"Isn't it lucky we discovered?" He wanted to be congratulated on the amazing accident that made Aidan reveal this to him.

"Isn't it unlucky that she chose tonight of all nights to go down there?" Jack noticed that Nan never referred to Eve by name.

"Well, it is her house," he said with a little laugh. Nan didn't seem amused.

"I really wanted to be there tonight," she said. Even frowning she looked beautiful.

Then her face cleared. She suggested this lovely hotel in Wicklow. It was absolutely marvellous. Very quiet and people didn't disturb you.

It was exactly where they could go.

Jack knew the name. It was a place where his parents had dinner sometimes. It was much too expensive. He wouldn't be able to afford it and he told her so.

"Do you have a cheque book?"

"Yes, but not enough money in the bank."

"We'll get the money tomorrow. Or I will. Let's go there."

"And stay the night. Nan, we're not married. We can't." He looked alarmed.

"They don't ask for your wedding certificate." He looked at her.

She changed her voice slightly. "I've heard of people who've been there, and stayed the night. There was no problem."

As they drove out south past Dunlaoghaire they saw the house where Eve lived with Kit Hegarty.

"Why on earth can't she be there tonight?" Nan said.

Jack thought it would certainly be a lot cheaper for everyone if she were.

He dreaded the thought of writing a cheque that bounced in this hotel, and having to face his mother and father when it all came out.

He wished that Nan could just have faced the fact that this was one night they would have to put off. Benny would have been most agreeable and understanding.

He wished he didn't keep thinking of Benny at times like this. It was as hypocritical as hell.

Benny and Eve met in the square next morning. They sat in the shelter and waited for Mikey to arrive with the bus.

"Why do we call this a square?" Eve asked. "It's only a bit of waste ground really."

"That's until the young tigers get their hands on it. It might be a skating rink next week," Benny laughed.

It was true that Clodagh and Fonsie were tireless in their efforts to change Knockglen. They had even frightened other people into improving their businesses.

Fonsie had gone to Flood's and said that if ever he owned a fine frontage like that he'd have the lettering repainted in gold. Mr. Flood, terrified that somehow it would be taken from him unless he lived up to this young man's expectations, had the signwriters in next day. Clodagh had stood in Mrs. Carroll's untidy grocery and chatted about the food inspectors who were closing shops down all over the place. It was amazing what a coat of paint and a spring clean did to fool them. All the time she pretended she was talking in the abstract.

But she could have told Mossy Rooney that he would be called in next day, as indeed he was.

Clodagh told Mossy to put up a fitting for an awning without being asked. Dessie Burns was now stocking various colours of big canvas blinds. Clodagh and Fonsie were going to have their town looking like a rainbow before they finished.

"I suppose they'll get married," Eve said. "Clodagh says never.

There's too many nuptials coming up, she says we'll be sick of weddings. Mrs. Healy and Mr. Walsh, Patsy and Mossy, and Maire Carroll home from Dublin with a fiance already, I gather, unlike the two of us who were very slow off the mark."

They were giggling as usual when they got on the bus. Nothing had changed since they were schoolgirls.

Rosemary was full of smiles. The hair-do had been highly successful, she said. Benny had lent her three shillings. It was counted meticulously back to her. Tom had been very impressed.

"It looks a bit flattened," Benny said, examining the hair-do.

"Yes, I know," Rosemary said delightedly. "I owe Jack a shilling.

Will you give it to him for me?"

Benny said she would. She'd be seeing him in the Annexe anyway.

Sean and Carmel had a table. Benny joined them with Jack's shilling clutched in her hand so that she wouldn't forget to give it to him.

"Jack was looking for you everywhere this morning," Sean said.

Benny was pleased.

"He went and stood outside a Latin lecture, he thought it was yours, but it was Baby Latin."

"Oh, I'm not Baby Latin," Benny said proudly. She was just one step above it. Everyone in First Arts had to do some kind of Latin in their first year. Mother Francis would have killed her if she had gone into the easy option.

Bill Dunne joined them.

"Jack said if I saw you, to say that he'll meet you at one o'clock in the main hall," Bill said. "Though if you want my personal opinion you wouldn't touch him with a bargepole. He hasn't shaved. He's like a bear with a sore head. He's not worthy of you."

Benny laughed. It made her feel as high as a kite when Bill Dunne said things like this in front of everyone. It confirmed somehow that she was Jack's girl.

"He's not coming here now, then." She had been looking at the door.

"Him come anywhere? I asked him about cars and all for the outing to Knockglen after Easter. He said not to talk to him about cars, outings or Knockglen or he'd knock my head off."

Benny knew that Bill was dramatizing it all, so that he could cast himself in the role of the beautifully mannered nice person and Jack the villain.

Since this was different to the way things were, everyone knew it was a joke. She smiled at Bill affectionately. She knew Jack was longing for the great weekend in Knockglen. It would be even better than Christmas.

Everyone had been planning it for ages. Sean had been collecting money from people, a shilling now and a shilling then. The fund was building up.

There would be a gathering in Eve's, in Clodagh's, and very possibly something upstairs in Hogan's. The rooms were so big and with high ceilings they positively called out to have a party.

Benny had been sounding her mother out. And the signs looked good.

She was pleased that Jack was looking for her. For the past few weeks he had never wanted to see her on her own. Benny hoped that he might want them to go off to lunch together, like that time ages ago when they had gone to Carlo's.

Maybe she should take him there for a treat. But she'd wait and see his mood. She didn't want to be too pushy.

Bill was right. Jack did look very badly. Pale and tired as if he hadn't slept all night. He still looked just as handsome, maybe even more so. There was less of the conventional College Hero and more of the lead player in some film or theatre piece.

Yes, Jack Foley looked as if he were in a play. And he spoke as if he were in one too.