Table Of ContentFive Days Apart
Chris Binchy
Contents
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Chris Binchy
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
For Siobhan, Michael, and Marianne
Chapter One
I saw her first. I was in the kitchen getting ice when she arrived. Three of them
came together, all girls, and I could see them in the hall. They were apologizing
for being late and taking off their coats, one of them introducing the others to the
host, Paul. It was all confusion, everybody talking and nobody listening, and
then they came into the kitchen to get a drink. Paul was trying to sort them out,
but he was already drunk, stumbling around the place, and he couldn’t find
glasses or wine or an opener. Picking up empty bottles and shaking them, saying
there definitely was more, I know I had more, and looking in the fridge, then
closing it and opening it again as if something might have changed, as if it might
have replenished itself.
I was leaning against the sink at the edge of the whole exchange. I was
smiling, trying not to laugh at him. I looked away, and when I turned back there
she was, smiling right back at me. I hadn’t noticed her until then. They were all
one noisy entity when they arrived. But I was looking at her now, straight into
her eyes, and it felt like something.
“Oh,” I said out loud.
The other girls stopped talking for a second and looked at me. I turned to the
ground and the conversation resumed. When I looked up again, she was still
watching me. I could feel my mouth curl, the way it does when I don’t know,
when I’m not sure. She smiled and then Paul said that there was drink in the
living room and they were gone. I stood there buzzing, a charge in my stomach
and in my hands, which shook a little as I drank. I had to go after her. I couldn’t
let it end there. But she was with other people and what was I supposed to do?
Go up and say, “Hi, I’m David, I couldn’t help noticing you, you’re very
beautiful”? “You’re a great-looking lady”? “I think we had a real connection”?
I’m not an idiot. I know my limits.
So I stayed standing at the counter and drank and tried to work it out. Get
Alex, I thought. He’ll know what to do. That was exactly how it was. I thought
he would help.
He was out in the conservatory with some guys I didn’t know from his
college.
“Hey,” he said when he saw me.
“Hi,” I said.
“This is David,” he said to the others. “We were in school.” They kind of
nodded up at me and one of them said hello, as if that was funny in itself.
“Hello.”
“Do you want some of this?” Alex asked, waving a joint at me vaguely,
knowing I wouldn’t.
“No,” I said. “Can you come in here for a second?”
“Yeah, sure,” he said. I went back into the kitchen, and he followed me.
“What’s up?”
“There’s a girl that just arrived. I don’t know. Just. Amazing.”
“Where is she?”
“In the living room, I think. Seriously though. Wait till you see.”
“Let’s go.” He was turning away from me. I pulled him back.
“Hang on a second.”
“What?”
“Well, I don’t want to go in there like a pair of idiots. You’re not to be
talking shit and acting the lad.”
“Who, me?”
“Just don’t.”
He smiled at me. He was happy and relaxed, at his most dangerous.
“I will be charm itself.”
“Okay,” I said. “Don’t embarrass me.”
It was a double room with an open partition in the middle. The heat and
smoke and noise hit us as we walked in. A load of people were dancing in the
middle, and others were sitting in groups on the floor around the edges and on
couches that had been pushed back. The music was so loud it was distorting, the
bass pulsing beneath my feet and in my chest.
“That’s her,” I said to Alex, leaning in to shout in his ear.
“What? Where? Which one?”
“Over there. I’m not going to point, for fuck’s sake.”
“So nod.” I nodded in her direction.
“Oh yeah, okay,” he said. “I see her now.”
She was sitting on a couch, talking to one of the girls that she had arrived
with. Alex didn’t say anything else, just walked straight over and sat down
beside her. I stood for a second, watching him, and I knew I had to do the same.
He was shaking her hand when I arrived, up and down, messing around. She was
smiling at him, but I could see she was uncertain.
“This is David,” he said, pointing at me. “David, this is . . . ,” and he said her
name. I didn’t hear it but I couldn’t ask again, the wrong first impression to give,
shouting “What?” like some old fellow, so I just smiled.
“Hi,” she said. Her eyes flashed up at me. Just a quick glance to check, then
she looked back at Alex and said something that I couldn’t make out. The music
was too loud. He was sitting beside her, and I was standing at his shoulder as if I
was his butler. Her friend was on the far side of the couch, staring across the
room at nothing. She seemed bored already. I smiled over at her, but she didn’t
see me. I went and sat beside her anyway and said hello. She was all right
looking.
“How do you know Paul?” I asked her.
“I don’t,” she said.
Behind her I was watching Alex talk to my girl. He was doing his usual
thing, all chat and a little too close. I couldn’t see her face but tried to work out
from the way she was sitting what she thought of him. It was impossible. As I
watched, Alex caught my eye just for a second. He didn’t look over, didn’t stop
talking, but he winked. I couldn’t stop myself from grinning back at him.
“What?” the friend asked.
“Sorry?” I said, looking back at her.
“What’s funny?”
“Nothing,” I said. “Just laughing, you know. So what do you do?” I asked
after a minute.
“I’m in college.”
“Oh, yeah? What are you studying?”
“Not a whole lot.”
I smiled even though it wasn’t funny and the way she’d said it didn’t make it
sound like a joke.
“I mean, what course are you on?”
“Sociology.”
“Great,” I said. “Interesting.”
“Not very.”
“I’m doing computer science,” I said because, really, she deserved it.
“Oh, yeah?” she said, yawning as she spoke.
“Are you tired?” I asked, but she didn’t answer.
So I sat beside her, and we didn’t talk. Every so often I would look over at
Alex, who seemed to be having a great time. After a few minutes I stood up.
“I’m going to the kitchen,” I said to the friend. “Can I get you anything?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. A beer or something.”
“No,” she said. “I don’t drink beer.”
“Okay, so.” I tapped Alex on the shoulder. He looked up at me. “Here, do
you want a drink?”
“I don’t know. Do you want something?” he asked my one. She spoke to me.
“Can I get some wine? White wine?”
“I’ll have the same,” Alex said, and I wandered off.
When I came back in carrying their drinks, there was nobody on the couch. I
looked around and saw the two of them on the far side of the room, dancing
