Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy Page B

everything so that he could get this far. But tonight Declan didn't feel able to fill the room with aimless prattle about his day as the white-coated Medicine Man. He answered a few questions and seemed restless.
    “Mush, mush, mush,” his father said unexpectedly.
    “What do you mean, Dad?”
    “I was wondering do you and your team of huskies want to walk over and meet me at the pub later for a pint? That's what you say when you're driving a dog sled.”
    “Aw, Paddy, don't be bringing the boy into awful shabby pubs like that. It's hotel lounges and wine bars for our Declan from now on at least.”
    Declan looked at them helplessly. He could
never
let either of them know that he intended to spend what his father would take nearly a week to earn on one meal in Quentins on Thursday night and that he had been in there examining the native oysters and the Pacific variety so that he would be able to make an informed choice when the time came.
    If he only knew what had happened last Friday. He didn't like to ask either Barbara or Fiona in case it made him sound like an old woman. Maybe Ania would tell him. Or Tim, who had been doing security for the function.
    Ania said she didn't have a good time.
    “Bobby's wife was there, very bad-temper, and I say hello to her by name. So stupid. She was very angry, she said, ‘My goodness, the Poles are everywhere these days, they're taking over the country’”
    “God, what a terrible woman, Ania. I hope you don't meet many like that.” Declan was sympathetic, but he still ached to know more. “Did Fiona and Barbara have a good time?”
    “No, I don't think so. No, I
know
they did not. There was something that was badly understood by two sides. What do you call that?”
    “A misunderstanding?” Declan suggested.
    “Yes, I think that was it. A serious misunderstanding.” But he heard no more.
    When he found Tim, he learned that there was a very snorty crowd there, lots of drugs. He had gone into the gents’ at one stage and saw a whole stack laid out for people to buy as if it was an open market.
    “What did you do? You were meant to be security.” Declan thought that other people had very complicated lives.
    “I went to the top security guy and he told me to shut my face and look the other way. So I did, Declan. I'm not a one-man mission to clean up the country.”
    “And Fiona and Barbara? Did they … I mean, were they …?”
    “No, they hadn't anything to do with anything. They left early. They asked me to get them a taxi, in fact.”
    “Because of the drugs?”
    “No, because the organizer thought they were party girls. That's what he had expected, wanted, ordered when he gave them the tickets. Jesus, what a night.”
    Declan felt insanely cheered by this. It had all been all right. He breathed deeply, and that night the dogs seemed to sense that he was more at peace with himself than he had been before.
    On Thursday, the morning of the date, Declan woke excited. Everything about this day was going to go well. He would be positive and strong from the moment he got up.
    He began at breakfast. “I won't be home for supper tonight, Mam,” he said.
    “Who'll walk those animals, then?” Molly asked to cover her disappointment.
    “Judy Murphy is out of hospital today and Dad can take Dimples to the pub.”
    “And what are
you
doing that means you can't come home for your tea?” Molly wasn't letting it go.
    Declan had thought about this for a while. If he lied and said there was a meeting, he was only putting off the day when he had to tell them that he had found a girl. There was nothing odd or unnatural about it. In fact it had been unnatural for a man of twenty-six
not
to have gone out on dates regularly.
    “I'm meeting a girl from work. We're going out for a meal.”
    “A girl from work,” his mother said grimly.
    “Yes, Fiona Ryan. She's a cardiology nurse in the clinic.”
    “A nurse,” Molly repeated.
    “And is she a nice girl, Declan?” Paddy