登陆注册
10471400000007

第7章

The festival that night was just as loud as the night before. More, in fact, since tonight was the beginning of the organized activities and competitions. The town never seemed to sleep when the Festival of Love was in session.

Keira chose a pub and went inside. It was still early but the place was already packed. She found a table in the corner and settled herself in, taking her notebook and pen out of her purse, then scoured the crowds looking for someone to approach. She wanted all different kinds of people, not just young women like Tessa who were just there for no-strings-attached encounters. What she really wanted was someone who was genuinely there to find love, someone who actually believed that they could be matched at this festival.

Just then, a man at the bar caught her eye. He was older than the average person she'd seen at the festival, with gray hair. She placed him closer to fifty. He was alone, sat on a stool watching the festivities as though he himself weren't really a part of them.

She stood and wended her way through the crowds until she'd reached the man. He looked a bit surprised to be approached by a young woman.

"Can I help you?" he asked in a thick Irish accent that Keira struggled to decipher over the noise.

She explained about who she was, why she was there, and asked whether he'd be willing to speak to her about his experiences of the festival.

"Sure, I've got nothing better to do," he replied. "I'm Patrick."

"Nice to meet you," Keira said. "I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I couldn't help noticing that you're significantly older than the average person here. I was wondering what made you come here today."

Patrick laughed. "You mean I'm an old fart surrounded by beautiful women?"

Keira smiled and gave a shrug. "Your words, not mine."

"You can put that in your piece," Patrick added, tapping where she'd written the word fart in her notebook. He took a swig of his beer. "Okay, so you want my story. Here it goes. I'm older, yes, but it's not because I'm some horrible old pervert looking for a younger wife. There's plenty of men like me who find themselves without a partner at this stage of their life." He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out his wallet, then leafed through before pulling out a photograph. "This here is Susan. My wife of thirty years. Until she divorced me."

Keira wrote quickly, trying to decipher Patrick's accent.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Nothing, to be honest. The kids grew up and moved out. We both got older. I got comfortable, you know, let myself go, took her for granted. Then our business stalled and that meant the life I'd promised her never materialized. So she went off to find someone else who could provide it." He put the picture away.

"So you're here looking for some fun?" Keira asked. "Or some revenge?"

Patrick laughed. "I'm here looking for a wife!"

"You are?" Keira asked, wide-eyed. "You're not, like, over the whole marriage thing? Bitter? Jaded?"

"Of course not!" Patrick said. "I'm not bitter and I'm not over the hill yet. What I had might not have been enough for Susan but there'll be a lass out there who it will be enough for. Probably another divorcee." He laughed. "You get a lot of them coming here. That and widows. They're my best bet."

Keira was surprised. Her parents' own marriage had dissolved when she'd been very young, and her mother had lamented it for years. Watching her mom had meant that certain ideas were drilled into her head, and divorce was pretty much the worst thing she could imagine going through. It was a shock to meet someone who had not only gone through it but survived and come out the other end with their belief in love still intact.

"So you're planning on meeting with the matchmaker?" Keira asked.

Patrick nodded. "I already have. There was a lady in his book that he thought would be perfect for me. Eileen. She's forty-six, I believe, recently divorced also. Which means we've already got tons in common." He grinned.

"Are you going to meet with her?" Keira asked.

"That's why I'm here!" Patrick exclaimed. He smoothed his shirt down and his eyes lit up with excited anticipation. "I got in early so I could save us seats."

For the second time, Keira was shocked. She thought she'd singled out a lonely man in the crowd, watching on but unable to participate. Instead, she'd interrupted a divorced man waiting for a new date! Patrick hadn't been grateful for some company; Keira hadn't saved him from his loneliness. She'd merely been a way for him to pass the time while he waited for his date to begin.

The door opened then, and a woman in a beautiful emerald dress walked in. She was a similar age to Patrick, with gray hair covered up with blond streaks, a body that was bigger than the ideal. But she was glamorous, making the most of what she had, and looking very attractive for her age. She noticed Patrick and smiled.

"I should leave you to it," Keira said, backing off, feeling usurped, for the first time in her life, by an older woman.

Patrick's attention had already shifted to his date. He stood and kissed her on each cheek, then they both settled at the bar, the woman in the stool that Keira had just vacated.

Keira went back to her table and watched Patrick and his date as they chatted and laughed together. She noted the way she touched his hand as she spoke, and the sparkle in his eye as she laughed with abandon at one of his jokes. Once again, Keira felt another crack forming in her cynical wall. Maybe there was something to this. Maybe there were some people it worked for. Not someone like her, obviously, but for the older generation, ones who had already loved and lost and were ready to climb back on the horse again.

She stashed her notebook away realizing none of her interview with Patrick would make it into the final piece. The only way she'd be able to make it fit would be to turn him into a desperate caricature, something she was suddenly unwilling to do.

She would have to find someone else to interview, someone whose story aligned more closely with the cynical tone of the piece she was supposed to be writing. But everywhere she looked she just saw people enjoying themselves, people happy to be in new company, people who looked like they were falling in love. It was hardly the warts and all account that was supposed to be inspiring her. Instead, it left her with the most uncomfortable gooey, warm feeling inside.

Keira stood quickly before rushing out the pub and away from the claustrophobic atmosphere of romance.

*

Later that night, Keira received a welcome phone call from Nina. It was nice to get a taste of home, even if it was strictly on business matters.

"So Elliot loves what you've done so far," Nina told her. "And so do I. Your writing has dramatically improved for this piece. The tone you've taken is perfect. It's very evocative. I feel like I'm really there."

"Thanks," Keira said, smiling to herself.

"There is one thing, though," Nina said. "Joshua is out of the hospital and wants to dive straight back to work. But the doctors have signed him off for the month and he's not really supposed to come into the office. So Elliot thought it made more sense for him-Elliot-to take over the day-to-day Viatorum stuff and for Joshua to oversee the Ireland piece. Since he's on a ton of painkillers that mess up his sleep-wake cycle anyway, it means he can be more available for you. So basically Elliot isn't going to be overseeing the piece anymore."

Keira felt crestfallen. It was Elliot whom she'd wanted to impress, Elliot who held the key to her future career. Joshua would just take his usual approach to her work, of being derisive, dismissive, and critical.

Suddenly Keira felt as if the risk she'd taken in coming here might not actually pay off after all. How likely was it now for her to take that step up the career ladder? What if she ended up losing Zachary for nothing!

She ended the call with Nina and immediately phoned him. This silly game of silent treatment had gone on long enough. They needed to talk things through, properly, like grown-ups.

To Keira's surprise, the time zones must just have worked out because after several rings Zachary actually answered.

"I wondered how long it would take you to call," Zach said.

Keira frowned. "I've been in contact constantly. You're the one ignoring me."

Already she picked up on the combative tone. This was going badly and she'd barely even said anything yet!

Zach scoffed. "I didn't realize that photographs of sheep's butts and inbred soccer teams required responses."

"That's not all I've done," Keira replied cagily, feeling the need to defend herself.

"Oh, I forgot, there was also a drunk tirade. Thanks for reminding me." His tone was sharp, acidic, filled with venom. "You know, that's the sort of crap teenagers do, Keira. Sending drunk messages and stupid pictures. It's childish. This is the first time you've actually attempted to speak to me like a grown-up."

"If speaking was so important to you, why didn't you call me yourself?" Keira replied. She wasn't about to take the rap for their lack of communication over the last few days. At least she'd been trying. And Zach's condescending attitude was rubbing her the wrong way.

"Maybe because I was just having too much fun without you," Zach replied coolly.

A sudden jolt went through Keira. Something in his tone, the way he'd said it, had made her suspicious. "You mean with Julia?"

The other side of the line was silent.

"Zach?"

Keira felt a coldness spread all over her. His silence was speaking volumes.

"Zach, did you sleep with her?"

She heard him sigh. Then, finally, "Yeah."

Keira felt as if she'd been punched in the stomach. She couldn't catch her breath, so winded was she by his admission. She sat back against the bed, needing the support of the mattress beneath her to make it feel like the world wasn't dropping out from under her feet.

"I can't believe you'd do that to me," she stammered.

Zach sighed. "You'd gone and left me. I thought I made it clear that if you went to Ireland then I wasn't going to wait around for you."

"No, you didn't make it clear!" Keira yelled. "We argued, sure. You were pissed off. I get that. But I didn't think you were breaking up with me!"

"I wasn't," Zach replied. "You were breaking up with me. Remember? I said if you left I didn't think we could stay together. And then you left. As far as I was concerned, that was your way of ending it."

Keira fought for breath. Everything she was hearing was insane. Zach was trying to turn this all on her. He was trying to excuse his actions by making it seem as if she'd broken up with him. But as far as she was concerned, the words were never spoken between them to indicate that it was actually over.

"Even if you did think we'd broken up, it's not the classiest thing in the world to jump into bed with the first available woman," Keira hissed. Her voice came out hot, her tone accusatory.

"Do you know what, Keira?" Zach replied, sounding equally furious. "You're right. Julia was available. She was there. And that's a damn sight more than you ever were."

The call went dead.

Keira sat there holding the phone, finding it difficult to breathe. She hated crying but could feel now that there were tears streaming down her cheeks. She swallowed hard and found her throat completely constricted.

Had that really just happened? She'd never thought she'd hear such vitriol come from Zachary's mouth. For it be directed at her cut her to the core.

She realized then that Bryn hadn't been right about her and Zach at all. It wasn't a case of her and Zach being right at the wrong time, they'd just been wrong all along! Zach had just shown her a side of himself that she never knew existed, one that didn't support her achievements. He wasn't rooting for her success, he never had been. He just wanted a girlfriend who was there, putting him first, meeting his needs at the expense of her own.

It dawned on her then that Zach was a jerk. How had she never seen it before?

She crawled into bed and pulled the thin duvet up over her head. Outside in the street she could hear the noises of single people undertaking their continual search for companionship. For the first time in two years, Keira joined their ranks.

同类推荐
  • Elvissey

    Elvissey

    At once a biting satire and a taut, fast-paced thriller, Elvissey is the story of Isabel and John, a troubled couple who voyage from the year 2033 to a strangely altered 1954. They are on a desperate mission to kidnap the young Elvis Presley and bring him back to the present day to serve as a ready-made cult leader. He proves, however, to be a reluctant messiah, and things do not work out quite as planned.
  • Storyteller

    Storyteller

    A visitor from Peru, happening upon an exhibition of photographs from the Amazon jungle in an obscure Florentine picture gallery, finds his attention drawn to a picture of a tribal storyteller seated among a circle of Michiguenga Indians. There is something odd about the storyteller. He is too light-skinned to be an Indian. As the visitor stares at the photograph, it dawns on him that he knows this man. The storyteller is his long-lost friend, Saul Zuratas, his classmate from university who was thought to have disappeared in Israel. The Storyteller is a brilliant and compelling study of the world of the primitive and its place in our own modern lives.
  • Devil and the Bluebird

    Devil and the Bluebird

    Blue Riley has wrestled with her own demons ever since the loss of her mother to cancer. But when she encounters a beautiful devil at her town crossroads, it's her runaway sister's soul she fights to save. The devil steals Blue's voice—inherited from her musically gifted mother—in exchange for a single shot at finding Cass. Armed with her mother's guitar, a knapsack of cherished mementos, and a pair of magical boots, Blue journeys west in search of her sister. When the devil changes the terms of their deal, Blue must reevaluate her understanding of good and evil and open herself up to finding family in unexpected wkkk.net Devil and the Bluebird, Jennifer Mason-Black delivers a captivating depiction of loss and hope.
  • Caretaker

    Caretaker

    It was with this play that Harold Pinter had his first major success, and its production history since it was first performed in 1960 has established the work as a landmark in twentieth-century drama. The obsessive caretaker, Davies, whose papers are in Sidcup, is a classic comic creation, and his uneasy relationship with the enigmatic Aston and Mick established the author's individuality with an international audience.
  • Bad Girl

    Bad Girl

    Ricardo Somocurcio is in love with a bad girl. He loves her as a teenager known as 'Lily' in Lima in 1950, where she claims to be from Chile but vanishes the moment her claim is exposed as fiction. He loves her next in Paris as 'Comrade Arlette', an activist en route to Cuba, an icy, remote lover who denies knowing anything about the Lily of years gone by. Whoever the bad girl turns up as and however poorly she treats him, Ricardo is doomed to worship her. Gifted liar and irresistible, maddening muse-does Ricardo ever know who she really is?
热门推荐
  • 我与地坛

    我与地坛

    要是有些事我没说,地坛,你别以为是我忘了,我什么也没忘;但是有些事只适合收藏,不能说,不能想,却又不能忘。《我与地坛》是史铁生文学作品中,充满哲思又极为人性化的代表作之一。其前两段被纳入人民教育出版社的高一教材中。前两部分注重讲地坛和他与母亲的后悔,对中学生来说,这是一篇令人反思的优秀文章。
  • 爱你情出于蓝

    爱你情出于蓝

    于蓝爱了盛又霆11年,自卑到了骨髓。当她爱不下去将他剔除后,才发现那一场剥离不仅仅是疼,还让她差点丢了性命。原来爱惯了一个人,若停了下来,不成疯便成魔。为了保住孩子,也保住自己,于蓝假死脱身,孤身一人的盛又霆这才意识到自己早已深深爱上了于蓝,他一蹶不振,直到和于蓝重逢,一切都引导着他去探寻当年的真相……
  • 死亡训练

    死亡训练

    既然是第一次在推理类杂志发文,那就让大家推理一下吧。讲个冷笑话先:从前有一只可爱的兔子,它跑到了一个密室里,然后它死了。以此大家可以分析出来作者的特性了吧:好偷懒,没脑子,无耻卖萌……唔,第一次发文,希望大家多多支持,多多指教。城市里好像永远没有危机感的地方,就只有菜市场了。临近傍晚,天光切割着天空,右半边街道就像被夕阳敷了层金色的薄膜,有鸡蛋糕蓬松的香气。阳光下的鲫鱼在塑料盆里打了个挺,刚想游开,却还是被一双手掐住肚皮,从水里捞了起来。
  • 中国城市品牌突围:兼论以人为本的城市品牌观

    中国城市品牌突围:兼论以人为本的城市品牌观

    在全球化、民主化趋势以及城市化进程加速的冲击下,品牌战略已成为中国各城市获得城市竞争力、提升城市价值的一个重要手段,但就目前而言,真正通过品牌运作而获得成功的城市为数不多。城市品牌的问题和出路何在?本书秉承“提出问题”——“分析问题”——“解决问题”的思路,对此进行了探索。
  • THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE

    THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 双节堂庸训

    双节堂庸训

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 水上的声音

    水上的声音

    艾伟,让我们领略到什么是文学的艺术力量:文字的、思想的、想象的、结构的、时间的、命运的、人性的、欲求的、时代的……各种各样杂糅起来的力量,变本加厉,抟捏扭曲,虚构与现实之间的界限任你如何折腾,总是难以廓清,令人徒叹奈何。两性的隐秘、精神与肉体的撕裂、时代变迁与身心伤痛、光辉岁月的记忆与饱受冷落时的幻想等等,不仅仅道出了世态炎凉,更呈现了人性的病灶。他是“新活力”作家中最富现实精神勇气的一个。
  • 善意

    善意

    女儿在一场爆炸案件中意外丧生,命运骤然转折的大学女教师善扬,为求解脱,走向心理援助中心,渐渐成为一名义工。两年后,善扬在帮助另外一个不幸丧子的女保洁工时,意外发现一起隐蔽的谋杀。她作为旁观者,觉察到至深的黑暗,怀着巨大的恐惧和善意,善扬一步一步走向真相,想要帮助丧子的真英。但当她与魔鬼面对面较量时,情势急转直下,地狱之火熊熊燃烧,一切不容逆转,选择即是结局。最大的恶意即是最大的善意。“我与善意,最终齐入地狱。”
  • 沧海遗民剩稿

    沧海遗民剩稿

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 你是我的一厘米阳光

    你是我的一厘米阳光

    [1v1超甜绝宠,傲娇男与戏精女~]“老公,有人欺负我!”“谁敢欺负我老婆?老子端了他!”“老公!他们都说我是狐狸精!”某男阴险一笑,把怀里的小女人搂紧,“那当然,你是我的小妖精。”据知情人士透露,传闻中帝都狂妄不可一世的云家家主金屋藏娇,此新闻在帝都掀起了轩然大波,引得众人纷纷想要探个究竟。