The Men in her Life

had just lost her virginity.

    The ringing woke them both up, but the phone was on Mo’s side of the bed. Eamon grunted, turned over and pulled the sheet over his head.
    ‘I am sorry to disturb you,’ said the weary voice of the receptionist, ‘but I have your daughter on the line...’
    ‘Put her on.’ Mo sat up, trying to find the light-switch to see what the time was. Two thirty. What on earth could be wrong? She didn’t even remember telling Holly where they were staying. Oh yes. Mo’s brain clicked into gear. She remembered now. She had been asleep. Now she was awake and her heart began to thump with fear. Why on earth would Holly be ringing the Shelbourne Hotel at this hour, on this night of all nights?
    ‘Mum!’
    ‘Yes? Are you all right?’
    ‘Mum, I’m with Simon.’
    Holly certainly sounded all right. A bit drunk and overexcited, perhaps.
    ‘Are you OK?’
    ‘I’m fine. We’re fine...’ There was a lot of giggling and shushing in the background, then finally she heard Holly saying, ‘Stop it, I’m trying to tell her... Stop it!’ then into the phone, ‘Mum, Simon has asked me to marry him, and I’ve said yes... Mum?... I just wanted you to know... Mum?’
    It was silly to cry when you were happy. Mo wiped her face on the stiff, clean sheet.
    ‘I’m here,’ she said, ‘oh, Holly, that’s marvellous news. You’ve made my day.’

PART SEVEN
November

Chapter 34

    ‘All men are shits,’ said Ella.
    ‘No, really, they’re not,’ Clare tried to assure her.
    ‘So, name one who isn’t...’
    Clare thought of all the men she had known: Jack, Joss, the other poets...
    ‘Well, Matt’s a nice boy,’ she said eventually, ‘have you heard from him?’
    ‘Yes, he wrote me a letter describing in great detail his fling with an older woman. He said it got me out of his system and he thought we could now be friends...’
    ‘Oh. I see... have you met anyone out there yet?’
    ‘There’s some guys who hang out in the bar we all go to downtown. Some of them are OK. But I’m not about to be a notch on someone’s bedpost. I don’t mind thrashing them at pool though...’ Ella’s voice had already picked up an American twang. Clare was relieved that she sounded so sanguine after all that had happened.
    ‘So, you’ve found some friends anyway... are you having quite a good time?’ she asked hopefully, but knowing what the answer would be.
    ‘Mum, I’m having a desperate time. I’m stuck out here with these spoilt brats all day and when I’m allowed out at night the only people I see are other au pairs. I’m learning more about Scandinavian culture than American. And since the trial, the only thing anyone wants to talk about is Louise Woodward. It’s like “Oh, so you’re an English au pair, so how many babies have you shaken this week?” My kindly hosts leave the paper open on the kitchen table like a kind of warning to me...’
    ‘Oh, Ella...’ Clare bristled at the implied insult to her daughter.
    ‘It’s OK...’
    But Clare could tell by the sudden monosyllables that she was on the verge of tears.
    ‘You know you can always come home?’
    ‘Yes. Don’t want to though. I’d feel I’d failed...’ There was a long transatlantic silence, then Ella sniffed.
    ‘Anyway, the good thing about being bored is that I’m not even spending my wages. When I’m through here, I’m going to put on my Hawaiian shirt and jump on a Greyhound bus and go wherever it takes me...’
    ‘That’s what I’ve always wanted to do,’ said Clare, ‘except I wanted to drive a Chevrolet from coast to coast... hey, you don’t fancy...’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Shall we drive across America together... with Tom of course...’
    ‘In a convertible?’
    ‘Yes!’
    ‘Next summer? Oh Mum, that would be fantastic...’
    ‘D’you mean it?’ Clare asked anxiously, ‘I mean I don’t want to cramp your style...’
    ‘Mum, you’ve never cramped my style. I might cramp yours... but I’d be there to babysit Tom...’
    ‘Oh, don’t be ridiculous.’
    Their laughter echoed across the Atlantic .
    ‘Why next summer?’ Clare suddenly asked, ‘why not now?’
    ‘It’s getting a bit cold for convertibles...’
    ‘Well, we could go south first. I’ve always wanted to see New Orleans . I can’t bear to think of you stuck in some snowbound suburb all winter... listen, I must run. Philippa and I are going to a screening of Jack’s film.’
    ‘Paying for It?'
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘I’ve seen the