CHAPTER 1

Vegetable Stir Fry

Peppers, mushrooms, green beans, carrots, baby corn

Fry briefly in oil over hot flame

Ash was packing five dozen mini-pizzas into foil containers when the buzzer sounded. She swore softly and glanced at her watch. Molly was early. Ash hadn’t bargained on Molly being early when lateness was a family trait – although not one she possessed herself. She covered the remaining pizzas with paper towels and stacked the full boxes on the counter. She’d finish packing them when Molly was gone even though she’d planned to finish everything and tidy herself up before Molly arrived. Ash could hardly believe that Molly had picked today to be early for the first time in her life.

She glanced in the mirror as she walked into the living room. Her pale pink lipstick had faded, there was a smudge of flour across her cheek and a lock of hair was trying to escape from the ribbon which had held it back while she was working. She didn’t bother to retouch her lipstick but she rubbed at the smudge of flour and pulled the thin black ribbon from her hair, allowing it to flow loosely around her shoulders in a sheen of white-gold. She looked OK, she thought. Not hassled which was the main thing. She always felt it was important not to look hassled in front of Molly.

She pressed the intercom.

‘It’s me,’ said Molly. ‘Let me in, Ash.  It’s starting to rain.’

‘Not again.’ Ash had been too busy to notice the change in the weather. ‘This is turning into wettest autumn in living memory.’

She held the door open and waited while her aunt walked up the stairs to the fourth floor of the apartment building. A silver and grey cat streaked past her. He sat by the window, licking his front paw and rubbing it behind his ear accusingly.

‘Sorry, Bagel.’ Ash looked at him apologetically. ‘I would’ve let you in earlier if I’d realised it was raining again.’

‘Hi, Ash.’ Molly gasped as she stopped outside the door. ‘Those stairs get steeper every time!’

‘Give me your bags.’  Ash held out her hand and took some of the carrier bags from her aunt. On her autumn shopping expedition, Molly had hit almost every shop in the Jervis Shopping Centre. Ash couldn’t bear the thought of trudging around so many crowded shops in one day, but Molly enjoyed it. Nevertheless she sighed in relief as she handed over the bags and walked into the apartment.

‘You’ll have to get over this phobia about lifts, Molly,’ said Ash sternly. ‘One day you’ll have a heart attack walking up the stairs. Especially when you go on shopping sprees like this.’

‘It’s a keep fit thing,’ said Molly. ‘Although I think I may have overdone it this time. My feet are killing me, even in my flat shoes.’

‘Never mind,’ said Ash as she placed the bags in a neat row along the wall making sure that they were grouped according to the store. ‘Why don’t you give me your jacket, sit down and I’ll get you a drink.’

Molly took off her jacket and handed it to Ash who hung it on the brushed steel coat rack beside the door. Molly stretched her legs out in front of her and wriggled her toes. ‘You know, I don’t usually feel any older,’ she told Ash, ‘but a day tramping around the shops takes it out of me.’

‘Buying up half of Dublin would take it out of anybody. And you don’t look a day over fifty,’ said Ash loyally.

Molly, who was fifty nine, made a face. ‘Thanks.’

‘I like your hair,’ added Ash. ‘Shorter suits you.’

‘It’s easier to manage,’ said Molly. ‘And grey hair looks better short.’

‘It’s not grey, it’s white,’ objected Ash.

‘I suppose so.’ Molly said. ‘At least it can make me look old and pathetic and sometimes get me a seat in the bus!’

Ash laughed. ‘You could never look pathetic. You’re far too strong a woman to look pathetic.’ She stepped over to the maple sideboard and opened one of the opaque glass doors.  ‘What would you like to drink?’

‘What have you got?’ asked Molly.

‘I’ve got everything.’ Ash told her. ‘Gin, vodka, Bailey’s, Jemmy…’ she looked round at Molly and shrugged.

‘Jameson would be nice,’ said Molly.

‘On the rocks?’ asked Ash.

‘And ruin a good whiskey?’ Molly grinned. ‘Neat is just fine.’

Ash poured the amber liquid into a crystal glass and handed it to Molly. ‘It’s nice to see you again,’ she said.

‘And you,’ Molly replied. She looked around the apartment at the cornflake yellow walls of the apartment. ‘You’ve had this done up since last time I was here.’

The last time Molly had visited, a few months earlier, the walls had been maroon and covered with charcoal drawings of old Dublin.

‘It was too dark before,’ explained Ash as she sat down beside Molly, a glass of white wine in her hand.

‘What about the drawings?’ asked Molly. ‘They were nice.’

‘Oh, I gave them back to Kieran,’ Ash told her. ‘I didn’t want to keep them and I really only bought them as support.’

‘And how is Kieran?’ Molly sipped her whiskey and looked curiously at Ash.

She shrugged. ‘Fine, I guess. I haven’t seen him. Well, I wouldn’t, really, Molly. We don’t tend to go to the same kind of places these days.’

‘You did for nearly six months,’ said Molly tartly.

Ash sipped her wine. ‘Too long,’ she said lightly, after a pause.

They sat in silence for a moment. Ash glanced at Molly who was surveying the apartment. Ash preferred the new décor, she hadn’t really liked it in maroon. It was too old-fashioned for a riverside place that was only a couple of years old but it had suited her mood while she’d been going out with Kieran. He was a dark, brooding kind of man and he’d made her feel dark and brooding too. When they’d split up she immediately redecorated.

‘Why did you break up with Kieran?’ asked Molly.

‘Oh, Molly, he just wasn’t for me.’ Ash sighed. ‘I liked him but not enough for it to go anywhere.’

‘Maybe you didn’t give it a chance,’ suggested Molly.

‘I gave it plenty of chance.’ Ash shook her head. ‘Can you imagine me living in a dark apartment with a man like Kieran for the rest of my life?’

‘There are worse men out there, Ash.’

‘That’s not saying much.’ Ash stood up. ‘Food in ten minutes,’ she told Molly. ‘Salmon cutlets. Stir-fried vegetables and a light sauce. It was my summer special this year. Salmon was such a good price and nobody likes eating heavy food when it’s hot.’

Molly glanced at the window where the rain was running down the floor to ceiling glass in torrents. Ash laughed. ‘Well, it was hot last month.’

She went into the galley kitchen, followed by Bagel, while Molly sat on the sofa and sipped her whiskey.  The cat jumped lightly onto the deep window sill and watched Ash as she slid the cutlets under the grill.

‘How’s Michelle?’ Ash called out to Molly. ‘I keep meaning to ring her but I’ve been so busy lately…’

‘She’s fine.’ Molly pushed herself out of the sofa and padded to the kitchen door. ‘She was complaining that she hasn’t seen much of you since the christening.’

‘It’s my fault,’ admitted Ash. ‘I keep saying that I’ll ring or call out and I just don’t.’

‘You should.’ Molly watched while Ash tipped green beans, slivers of carrots and water chestnuts into a wok. ‘It’s not as though she can drop everything and visit you, Ash.’

‘I know.’ Ash bent down to take plates out of the warm part of the oven. She stood up, pushed her hair out of her eyes and smiled apologetically at Molly.  The older woman bit her lip. The gesture was pure Julia, she thought, as she looked at her niece. Even if Ash’s unusual combination of fair hair and brown eyes suggested somebody else completely.