Best of Friends. Cathy Kelly
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Название: Best of Friends

Автор: Cathy Kelly

Издательство: HarperCollins

Жанр: Современная зарубежная литература

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isbn: 9780007389315

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СКАЧАТЬ men but he was tall and broad enough to get away with it. His hair was jet black and cut close to his skull. Maybe he was some famous sportsman Martine didn’t recognise – a footballer or something. Those American footballers were all built like tanks. They were certainly Americans, that was for definite. Rich American women had a certain, unmistakable gloss to them, and Martine wondered how you could recreate it back home. All those manicures and visits to get your hair blow-dried every five minutes.

      The queue moved and the couple boarded the plane. As they stepped on, the man smiled at his partner to let her go first, an excited smile that made it entirely clear to Martine that the couple weren’t married at all but were business people going on a trip and they had more than business in mind. The woman’s eyes gleamed as she smiled back at him. Bingo! thought Martine. She imagined dinner in fancy restaurants and then afterwards, the lure of the office romance would be too much for them and they’d end up in one bedroom, drinking champagne and trying not to answer the phone because it would be someone from home calling and the guilt would kill them and…

      ‘Your seat number, please?’ asked the stewardess.

      Martine dragged her eyes back from the business-class section where the couple had just been shown to their seats.

      ‘Fifty-six,’ she said, returning to the real world.

      ‘Right-hand side, down the back,’ smiled the stewardess.

      ‘Down the back,’ repeated Martine. One day, one day, she’d be sitting up the front just like that woman with the gleaming copper hair and the gorgeous companion.

      

      Erin took off her new cashmere coat and stroked it with something approaching awe. It was the most beautiful item of clothing she’d ever owned in her whole life and she still shuddered to think how much it had cost. Greg had arrived home with it the previous night, exquisitely folded in acid-free tissue paper in a huge Bloomingdale’s box.

      ‘A going-away present to say thank you for coming with me to Ireland,’ he said, kissing her.

      ‘This must have cost an arm and several legs,’ Erin breathed as she slipped on the coat. ‘It’s gorgeous, Greg.’ She looked at herself in the mirror of the wardrobe, which, being fitted, was one of the few pieces of furniture now left in the apartment since everything had been shipped the day before. The coat flattered her slim figure, transforming her instantly from an ordinary woman in jeans and a sweatshirt into a lady who looked as if she wore designer labels right down to her underwear.

      ‘It’s beautiful,’ she said again, ‘but we can’t afford it.’

      They weren’t broke but they weren’t far off it. They certainly couldn’t afford cashmere coats. Erin’s two-year-old black wool would have done her fine for a while yet.

      ‘New coat for a new beginning,’ Greg insisted. ‘And you want to wow them at home, don’t you?’

      Now she began to fold the coat carefully so she could stow it on top of her carry-on bag in the overhead locker, but a pretty blonde stewardess appeared and said she’d hang it up.

      ‘It’s too beautiful to get creased,’ the stewardess said.

      ‘Isn’t it?’ agreed Erin ruefully, thinking of their bank balance.

      ‘I recognise that accent. You and your husband are Irish?’ the stewardess asked chattily, her own accent a gentle Northern Irish lilt.

      ‘Yes, we are,’ Erin said.

      ‘Were you on holiday in Chicago? Wasn’t it freezing? Chicago layover is the coldest there is.’ The stewardess shivered in her chic green suit as though she could still feel the wind chill.

      ‘We weren’t on holiday. We lived in Chicago for five years, actually. And I was in Boston for four years before that,’ Erin said, responding to the woman’s friendliness. ‘We’re leaving the States and going back to Ireland because my husband’s starting a new job in Cork.’

      ‘Coming home,’ sighed the stewardess as she turned in the direction of the long locker. ‘Welcome back!’

      ‘Thanks.’ Erin sank down into the seat and stretched out her long legs. Even with her enormous handbag under the seat in front, there was still loads of space – a welcome change from economy class. Greg eased into the seat beside her and grabbed her arm tightly.

      ‘Finally,’ he said, face alight with pleasure, ‘we’re finally going. It all starts here.’

      ‘Champagne or juice?’ asked a different stewardess.

      Greg’s grin widened and he took two glasses of champagne, handing one to Erin.

      ‘Let’s hear it for business class,’ he said appreciatively. ‘Not just room for your legs but free booze too! Let’s hope this is the only way we travel from now on. To our new life.’

      Erin smiled back at him and took a celebratory sip. ‘This certainly is the way to fly,’ she agreed, thinking of their normal vacation flights with Greg’s huge frame squashed into a tiny airline seat. ‘If your new bosses weren’t paying for our tickets, we’d be swimming to Ireland, which would ruin my fabulous new coat.’

      ‘You look like a million dollars in it,’ he said, ‘and I don’t mean all green and crinkly.’

      ‘We still can’t afford it,’ she pointed out, squeezing her husband’s hand.

      ‘Actually we can,’ he admitted. ‘I sold my David Bowie special edition vinyl collection to Josh. He’s lusted after it for years. The Ziggy Stardust album’s one of only five hundred.’

      ‘Oh, Greg,’ sighed Erin, incredibly touched. ‘You shouldn’t have.’ She knew how much he loved his precious record collection.

      ‘What the heck, we’ve got enough stuff.’ Greg took another gulp of his drink. ‘This is good champagne,’ he said. ‘I think I’ll have another glass.’

      Erin fixed him with a faux stern glare. ‘Greg Kennedy, if you get legless and start blowing kisses at the stewardesses so the plane gets diverted to Newfoundland to have you arrested, remember, you’re on your own.’

      ‘Yes, ma’am,’ saluted Greg. ‘Just one more and then I’ll stick to water. I promise not to disgrace you.’

      Erin kissed him impulsively. Greg might look serious and the perfect corporate man, but underneath he was irrepressible. He loved silly jokes, chuckled for hours over Gary Larson cartoon books, adored comedy shows and could recite the Abbott and Costello baseball sketch in his sleep.

      He was also fired up with a boyish excitement over their move. To Greg, this was an adventure, the same way helicopter skiing was an adventure. He loved the fact that usually Erin matched this spirit in him and was always just as eager to try white water rafting or whatever. Only this time, Erin didn’t feel as thrilled about their new move: home to Europe after many years in the US. She was doing it for him.

      She’d been fine about it all at first. This new job was what they’d both been waiting for ever since the shares scandal hit the company they both worked for and the firm’s blue chip status wavered. There was talk of huge job losses and neither Greg, who was rapidly climbing the corporate ladder, nor Erin, who worked in human resources, СКАЧАТЬ