AUGUST 22ND 2004
AOIFE
MY PARENTS WERE FAR from perfect, but as I sat at the dinner table and watched them embrace Joey, I was glad they were mine.
The only skeptic in the midst was a very wary looking Kev, who seemed to have a nervous disposition around my boyfriend.
I couldn’t blame my brother, not when the same hands that made me feel so good had almost throttled him.
Somehow, through the jigs and the reels, we had managed to broach the subject of what would happen after all three of us finished secondary school next year.
“That sounds lovely,” Mam said after dinner, when we were all in the sitting room, with bowls of Vienetta on our laps. Yeah, Mam had brought out the fancy ice-cream. “And you’re happy with the qualification you’ll get from that course, yeah? You’ll get a good job from it?”
“Absolutely. They also have a fantastic campus, and the curriculum seems solid, which is vastly contradictory to what they have on their pamphlets and website,” my brother continued to drone on, almost boring me to tears, as I sat on the couch between him and Joey.
The same Joey who looked incredibly uncertain, as he looked from one face to another.
Stretching my leg out, I discreetly nudged his foot with mine.
His wild green eyes flashed to mine, and I gave him a reassuring smile.
“So, Joey, love,” Mam said, when Kev finally decided to stop blowing his own trumpet. “Kev’s aiming to get into UCC. Aoife’s hoping for hairdressing. What are you planning to do after sixth year?”
“What do you mean what’s the plan?” Dad interrupted, a spoon full of ice-cream held in the air. “He’ll complete his apprenticeship and come on fulltime with me at the garage.”
“Would you stop, Tony,” Mam admonished, reaching over to slap my father’s leg. “I was asking the young lad what he wanted to do after school, not what you want him to do after school.”
“I, ah…” Roughly clearing his throat, Joey set his bowl on the floor beside him and turned to my mother. “Well, ah, I was hoping that Tony would consider taking me on for an apprenticeship.”
“See now, Trish.” My father beamed like the cat that got the cream. “And there’s no hoping required, son,” he added, this time addressing Joey. “I didn’t spend the last five years training you up for some other fella to swoop in and steal you off me.”
“Holy fuck.” The tension in Joey’s shoulders seemed to melt away as he looked at my father like he just told him he won the lotto. “Are you serious?”
“I am,” Dad replied. “Just finish off this last year of school, do the best you can, keep your head down and out of trouble, and we’ll talk business then.”
“Jesus.” Exhaling a ragged breath, Joey dropped his head and cupped the back of his neck. “Thanks, Tony.”
“Don’t you go scaring him off now, ya hear?” Dad said, eyes on me. “I can’t be losing my apprentice if you two decide to part ways.”
“You won’t,” Joey assured him. “I won’t mess this up.”
“Yes, good lad,” Dad said. “But I was talking to her ladyship alongside you.”
“Me?” I laughed. “How am I responsible for this metaphorical parting of ways?”
“Probably because you’re such a demanding pain in the hole,” Kev offered dryly. “And Dad’s having a hard time understanding why anyone would voluntarily agree to set up house with such a princess.”
“Ha fucking ha,” I shot back, digging both of my couch buddies in the ribs when they erupted with laughter. “Aren’t you all just so hilarious?”
“Don’t worry, Aoife, love,” Mam offered then. “Dad didn’t have to pay Joey too much to go out with you.”
More eruptions of laughter unfolded.
“Ah, don’t you take any notice of them, pet,” Dad crooned, through fits of laughter. “It only cost me a fiver.”
“I hate you all,” I announced dramatically, and then waved a finger in Joey’s amused face. “Especially you, turncoat.”
