Chapter 2
The Interluding Years
Rita and Claire were like chalk and cheese. Rita was a teetotal and Claire loved a drink. Claire smoked, Rita abhorred it. Rita was married to Edward – an electrician and the honeymoon period was clearly over. Being on full pay, Claire supported the house while Rita set up her florist. In the evenings, Claire drank with Edward and over the next few weeks, Ed fell in love with Claire and the atmosphere in the house was unbearable. Claire felt uncomfortable and Rita probably didn’t care as much as she should as she had long fallen out of love with her husband having developed a soft spot for a man who had recently moved to the area. Edward was struggling – he was drinking too much, in love with his sister in law and having periods of manic highs and lows. Ultimately he would be diagnosed with a bipolar disorder and he and Rita would separate and divorce.
One night they went to a Chinese restaurant and Ed opened a cookie announcing ‘it says I am going to run away with my sister in law’ – no one laughed – but they all knew what his feelings for her were.
The florist shop eventually took off and Claire either worked in the florist or ran the house, she drank sneaky bottles of whiskey and started seeing a young lad 10 years her junior locally. That would never work! Digger Dave was his name, a striking red head who could make love for hours and made Claire feel old! Friends visited from London including Sandra and Dave and she drove them around dutifully showing them the sights – she missed her London life. But once she was mobile owning an old Nissan Micra she started to frequent a town on the west coast meeting up with an old college friend. Soon she decided to move down to Limerick and get a job – the first job she took she stayed in going from receptionist to General Manager in the space of 18 years. And all that while often partying hard, going through break up after break up until she met Connor. Connor was a friend of a guy that Claire dated called Karl – Claire and Karl liked to drink and liked to argue – a lot. Connor was dating Margaret and had a son from a previous relationship who was 5. Ironically, Connor and Claire only got together as Claire made a pass at him in the local disco to piss Margaret off who had offended her in some way but that kiss led to moving in, 1 son, a marriage and 2 more sons. They were reasonably happy. Claire was never entirely satisfied as Connor seemed to lack the get up and go that she had. She worked her arse off and studied all the time to improve her prospects. Connor was a labourer – and never seemed to strive for anything more and in Claire eyes he failed to plan for the future. In her heart of hearts she knew it was not forever but went through the motions to the point where she could only sleep with him if she was pissed which was a very sad place to be. She fantasised about other men – but never did anything about it until Dave in September 2022.
They never fought, every now and again Claire would have a melt down due to her husband’s laziness. All you do is sit on the couch while I run the house, go to work and pay the bills and mind my terminally ill mother.
Claire mother was diagnosed with cancer in her lung in April 2015, Claire was there at the appointment when the diagnosis was given – it was heart breaking and the prognosis was not good. With her mother being on the other side of the country, Claire spent a lot of her time on the motorway running from west to east coast to attend appointments with her mother, bring her for treatment and bring her down to Clare for respite. Against all odds, Jane defied her cancer until June 2024. Claire being a saver and an investor decided once all treatment options had been exhausted to buy a property near her house and to move her mother down to be close to her for the end of her days. Patrick Street was a terraced house built in the 60s, in need of renovation but solid and cheap at the 156k she finally bought it at. The achievement of a mortgage was not easy. During the process, Claire found a Revenue bailiffs letter stuffed under the microwave at home. Her dear husband had racked up 30k of debts in unpaid taxes and revenue were sending the bailiffs. Claire was furious and confronted her husband. He pled that he wanted to protect her from the debt and had taken out a loan to pay it off. But that loan was taking cash flow out of the house and caused her to be rejected for her first mortgage on Patrick Street. She nearly left then but stuck it out.
Meanwhile, Sandra and Dave were nomads, they lived in the UK in several different counties, then moved to Ireland – renting a castle in the Southwest and looking at properties to buy. Eventually they moved to Mayo and the four friends occasionally got together – once in the castle in Cork and a few times in Mayo. Dave got gigs in Shannon so every now and again they would see him alone. But that was rare – Sandra liked to keep a very tight leash on Dave.
September 2022
Claire is on a work trip to Paris – 4 days of leadership training and has arranged to go and visit Sandra and Dave in the south of France for two nights. 2 trains and 6 hours of travelling later she arrives to hugs kisses and much catching up as it has been some time since they have seen each other. They drink wine and eat pizza by the pool and Claire even takes a dip after a few beers. Let’s talk about our values – Claire could not be happier, she is here with her two best friends, without her husband and children in tow and felt freer than she had in years. They drink, smoke, eat, sing and cuddle. As the clock passes midnight, Sandra gets amorous – something she had not done in years with Claire and straddles her kissing her full on the lips. Stop Sandra, think it’s time Dave to put her to bed. So Sandra is man handled up the steep steps and into her bedroom sleeping before her head hits the pillow. Not quite ready to call it a night, the two old friends, return to the outside patio and pour another glass of wine. Dave looks at Claire right into her eyes and then she knew – he wanted her. He pulls her in to kiss her and feeling freer than she has in years, Claire responds. She has always loved him and in her heart always wanted him. Both are extremely drunk but both know what they want. Dave in full on OCD mode runs around looking for something to place on the sun lounger to make it more comfortable for Claire to lie on. She lays back looking up at the stars and as she does Dave gently takes one strap of her swim suit and begins to pull it down over her shoulder. He had been watching her all day in her swim suit – there was something different about her – a confidence and something he just couldn’t quite put his finger on that was sending him into a lustful fit. Her dress was gone and Dave lay his full weight on her – curvier than he remembered from years before but my god she was fucking gorgeous in his eyes. God he wanted to fuck her so badly but it would be many months before that would happen as in his own words – his cock needed to get to know her first. And it looked like she wanted the same. The kissing and touching went on for what felt like hours and ultimately Dave felt they might be more comfortable inside and knowing how soundly his wife slept he felt they would be safe from her. They retired to the single bed in the room next door and Dave using his musicians fingers fondled, fingered and sent Claire on a heavenly orbit before they drifted off to sleep. Waking at 5 as usual – Claire panicked as she saw Dave beside her – shaking him and whispering – get up and go to bed, Dave stumbled out and lay down beside his still soundly sleeping wife.
Claire rose the next morning – she felt great – she was very aware of what had happened the night before and couldn’t understand why she wasn’t feeling guilty about the whole thing. As the couple rose from their slumber, Claire was sitting out by the pool and was ready for a day of partying – breakfast was being discussed and Sandra suggested poached eggs but at that point Claire said – let’s just have a beer and that was how the day progressed. Beer for breakfast and later that day Tara and Harold were expected. Late morning and the realisation that the wine cave would soon be closing Dave suggested Claire come along for the experience to see what the cave was like. As they walked up the road, he took her hand and said Claire I love you and Claire felt her heart rate go up – that heightened heart rate was to stay with her for months at the thought of Dave, his loving texts, his phone calls, his photos and eventually when she lay in his arms some weeks later.
Saturday morning – it’s early and Claire has to go – they had a late one last night and Claire’s garmin is going ballistic telling her to take time to relax – she knows she is in for one hell of a journey, two trains to Toulouse, a flight and then a drive across Ireland home to her family. Hugs and kisses ensue and Claire is bundled into a taxi at 8.30 a.m. Successfully boarding her trains Claire arrives at Toulouse airport when her phone pings – Dave ‘I Love You – don’t text me back’ – her pulse quickens – just wow.
Returning to work on the Monday, Claire gets e-mails from Dave – all business discussing Sandra’s upcoming 50th birthday celebrations – they settle on Marseilles and Claire pays for the hotel as a present – it was about two months away. Mild flirting on the e-mail and then suddenly – a short ode from Dave – sweet
You are your own boss
You are a great CEO
You are a beautiful person
You are gorgeous
And I will let you
😘
And there it began – they threw all their energies into declaring their lust and love for each other.