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managed to buy a small apartment, part of a new development of eight apartments right in the heart of Dalkey village. It was so handy to be able to walk to the village’s fashionable pubs, shops and restaurants. She had gotten so used to being able to walk home that she felt grumpy having to pay for a taxi when she was coming home at night-time!
    The apartment had two bedrooms, and even though Robin had had great plans to turn the spare room into a study where he could do some of his architecture work at home, it was now Ali’s walk-in wardrobe: full of all her clothes, shoes, bags and books. Her parents kept asking when she was going to get married and have a baby, but she kept thinking if they had ababy they would need to buy it its own apartment, as there was no space here! But she knew she shouldn’t complain: she had been so lucky to have met and fallen in love with Robin. For years she had found it hard to connect with the affluent ‘South Dublin’ boys. She had felt most of them were very materialistic and barely knew where Kilkenny was, let alone Castlecomer, the little country town she had grown up in; but Robin was different and understood how even though she loved Dublin, she still savoured a trip home to her family in Kilkenny, and a weekend spent revisiting the Castle and going out for the day on a small boat in Dunmore East. In college she had at first lived in digs, then in various different apartments with other girls studying law, but there was nothing like living with someone you loved, someone who was ‘home’ to you. Living with Robin was like being back living with her family: he was home and love and family all rolled into one.
    Finally she was allowed to enter her own kitchen. Robin had turned off most of the lights, and put candles everywhere, with Norah Jones in the CD player. Two bowls of prawns cooked in wine and garlic lay on the table, and Robin was opening a bottle of white wine. She was overwhelmed. She kissed him long and hard.
    â€˜What is all this for? Is everything OK?’ she asked Robin.
    â€˜Of course.’ He laughed. ‘Like I said, I’m very excited about going away, and want to make sure you are, too. It will be a big trip for us and I wanted to get you in the mood, so I bought some South Africanwine, and I’ve got steaks for our main course – I hear they are huge steak-eaters over there.’
    â€˜All this to get me in a holiday mood? Wow, we should go away more often. You never fail to surprise me.’
    â€˜Well, I was hoping you’d look at those leaflets on shark-diving again. I’d really like you to do it.’
    â€˜I should have known there would be an ulterior motive! But to be honest, with enough wine and steak inside me I’d agree to anything.’
    And as she washed back the prawns with a beautiful Sauvignon Blanc, she thought, Maybe I will go swimming with the great whites. It couldn’t be any scarier than working with Mary every day anyway!

13
    As Sarah sat packing envelopes with the art gallery’s summer exhibition schedule, to be sent to all their biggest customers, she kept her eye firmly on her mobile phone, willing it to ring. Ever since she had met Ross in the bar with her sister last week, she had been dying for him to ring. She just knew he was different to all the rest of the guys who took her number: he had seemed so friendly and chatty that night, and Tom would hardly have been with him if he wasn’t nice. She had actually fancied Tom for a long time. He was good fun, attractive, and unusually tall – which long-legged Sarah needed in a guy. But seeing as he was her sister’s brother-in-law there was not much she could do about it, although she often suspected Mel would have loved her and Tom to have gotten together. Then they could have done plenty of couple things in a group. When Mel and John first got engaged everyone used to joke that as best man and bridesmaid they