Cecelia Ahern: P.S. I Love You

“Terrible.”

“Yeah, you look it.”

“Thanks.”

“Ah well, at least by the time you walk out of here you'll have one thing sorted. I do hair, not hearts.”

Holly smiled gratefully at his odd little way of showing he understood.

“But Jaysus, Holly, when you were coming in the front door did you see the word 'magician' or

'hairdresser' on the front of the salon? You should have seen the state of the woman who came in here today. Mutton dressed as lamb. Not far off sixty, I'd say. Handed me a magazine with Jennifer Aniston on the cover.

“ 'I want to look like that,' she says.”

Holly laughed at his impression. He had the facial expression and the hand movements all going at the same time.

“ 'Jaysus,' I says, 'I'm a hairdresser not a plastic surgeon. The only way you'll look like that is if you cut out the picture and staple it to your head.' ”

“No! Leo, you didn't tell her that!” Holly's mouth dropped in surprise.

“Of course I did! The woman needed to be told, sure wasn't I helping her? Swanning in here dressed like a teenager. The state of her!”

“But what did she say!” Holly wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes. She hadn't laughed like that for months.

“I flicked the pages of the mag for her and came across a lovely picture of Joan Collins. Told her it was right up her street. She seemed happy enough with that.”

“Leo, she was probably too terrified to tell you she hated it!”

“Ah, who cares, I have enough friends.”

“Don't know why,” Holly laughed.

“Don't move,” Leo ordered. Suddenly Leo had become awfully serious, and his lips were pursed together in concentration as he separated Holly's hair to get it ready for coloring. That was enough to send Holly into stitches again.

“Ah, come on, Holly,” Leo said with exasperation.

“I can't help it, Leo, you got me started and now I can't stop!” Leo stopped what he was doing and watched her with amusement.

“I always thought you were for the madhouse. No one ever listens to me.”

She laughed even harder.

“Oh, I'm sorry, Leo. I don't know what's wrong with me, I just can't stop laughing.” Holly's stomach ached from laughing so hard, and she was aware of all the curious glances she was attracting but she just couldn't help it. It was as if all the missed laughs from the past couple of months were tumbling out at once.

Leo stopped working and made his way back round to the mirror, where he propped himself back on the counter and watched her. “You don't need to apologize, Holly, laugh all you like, you know they say laughing is good for the heart.”

“Oh, I haven't laughed like this for ages,” she giggled.

“Well, you haven't had much to laugh about, I suppose,” he smiled sadly. Leo loved Gerry, too.

They had teased each other whenever they met, but they both knew it was all in fun and were very fond of each other. Leo snapped himself out of his thoughts, tousled Holly's hair playfully and planted a kiss on the top of her head. “But you'll be all right, Holly Kennedy,” he assured her.

“Thanks, Leo,” she said, calming herself down, touched by his concern. He went back to work on her hair, putting on his funny little concentrating face. Holly giggled again.

“Oh, you laugh now, Holly, but wait till I accidentally give you a stripy head of color. We'll see who's laughing then.”

“How's Jamie?” Holly asked, keen to change the subject before she embarrassed herself again.

“He dumped me,” Leo said, pushing aggressively with his foot on the chair's pump, sending Holly higher into the air but causing her to jerk wildly in her chair.

“O-oh Le-eo, I-I-I-m soooo sor-reeee. Yo-ooou twooo we-eerree soooo gree-aat togeeeeth-eeer.”

He stopped pumping and paused. “Yeah, well, we're not so gree-aat together now, missy. I think he's seeing someone else. Right. I'm going to put two shades of blond in; a golden color and the blond you had before. Otherwise it'll go that brassy color that's reserved for prostitutes only.”

“Oh Leo, I'm sorry. If he has any sense at all he'll realize what he's missing.”

“He mustn't have any sense; we split up two months ago and he hasn't realized it yet. Or else he has and he's delighted. I'm fed up; I've had enough of men. I'm just going to turn straight.”

“Oh Leo, now that's the most stupid thing I've ever heard . . .”

Holly bounced out of the salon with delight. Without Gerry's presence beside her, a few men looked her way, something that was alien to her and made her feel uncomfortable, so she ran to the safety of her car and prepared herself for her parents' house. So far today was going well. It had been a good move to visit Leo. Even in his heartbreak he worked hard to make her laugh.

Holly took note of it.

She pulled up to the curb outside her parents' house in Portmarnock and took a deep breath. To her mother's surprise Holly had called her first thing in the morning to arrange a time to meet up.

It was three-thirty now, and Holly sat outside in the car with butterflies in her tummy. Apart from the visits her parents had paid to her over the past two months, Holly had barely spent any proper time with her family. She didn't want all the attention directed at her; she didn't want the intrusive questions about how she was feeling and what she was going to do next being fired at her all day. However, it was time to put that fear aside. They were her family.

Her parents' house was situated directly across the road from Portmarnock beach, the blue flag bearing testament to its cleanliness. She parked the car and stared across the road to the sea. She had lived here from the day she was born till the day she moved out to live with Gerry. She had loved waking up to the sound of the sea lapping against the rocks and the excited call of the seagulls. It was wonderful having the beach as your front garden, especially during the summer.

Sharon had lived around the corner, and on the hottest days of the year the girls would venture across the road in their summer's best and keep an eye out for the best-looking boys. Holly and Sharon were the complete opposite of each other. Sharon with her brown hair, fair skin and huge chest. Holly with her blond hair, sallow skin and small chest. Sharon would be loud, shouting to the boys and calling them over. Holly would just stay quiet and flirt with her eyes, fixing them on her favorite boy and not moving them till he noticed. Holly and Sharon really hadn't changed all that much since.

She didn't intend to stay long, just to have a little chat and collect the envelope that she had decided could possibly be from Gerry. She was tired of punishing herself about what could be inside it, so she was determined to end her silent torture of herself. She took a deep breath, rang the doorbell and placed a smile on her face for all to see.

“Hi, love! Come in, come in!” said her mother with the welcoming, loving face that Holly just wanted to kiss every time she saw her.

“Hi, Mum. How are you?” Holly stepped into the house and was comforted by the familiar smell of home. “You on your own?”

“Yes, your father's out with Declan buying paint for his room.”

“Don't tell me you and Dad are still paying for everything for him?”

“Well, your father might be, but I'm certainly not. He's working nights now so at least he has a bit of pocket money these days. Although we don't see a penny of it being spent on anything for here.” She chuckled and brought Holly to the kitchen, where she put the kettle on.

Declan was Holly's youngest brother and the baby of the family, so her mum and dad still felt like they had to spoil him. If you could see their “baby”: Declan was a twenty-two-year-old child studying film production at college and constantly had a video camera in his hand.