Stand by Me by Sheila O'Flanagan Read Free Book Online Page A

fantastic,’ she said.
     
    ‘Aye.’ He grinned at her. ‘They want a new kitchen added on to the side, which is an easy enough job. Things have been on the up and up for me ever since I met you, Domino. You’re my lucky charm.’
     
    She blushed. ‘You really think so?’
     
    ‘I absolutely know so,’ he said as he waved at the barman and ordered a round of drinks.
     
     
    By the time they left the party in the early hours of the morning, she was feeling woozy. They hadn’t had any West Coast Cooler at the bar, and so she’d drunk Bacardi and Coke instead. She’d grown to like it, but hadn’t realised the effect it was having on her until she got up from the table where she’d been sitting and nearly toppled off her high-heeled shoes. She’d had to blink a few times to focus properly and had walked very carefully to the loos.
     
    ‘I think you’ve had enough,’ Brendan said when she came back. ‘And it’s getting late. Time for us to go.’
     
    She nodded and waited for him while he said goodbye to Peadar and his other friends (she’d liked them; they were all very easy-going) and then, when he came back, she clung to his arm so that she didn’t topple over again.
     
    ‘It’s my fault,’ he said when they were outside. ‘I didn’t realise that the drink would hit you like that.’
     
    ‘I’m fine,’ she told him. ‘Absolutely fine.’
     
    ‘You are that.’ He looked down at her and she looked up at him, and then he kissed her, and she didn’t know whether she was drunk on alcohol or simply intoxicated by him, but she felt as though she was floating on air.
     
    ‘I love you.’ She’d never intended to say that to him. All the advice in the magazines she read warned against girls saying those words first. But she couldn’t help herself. ‘I love you.’
     
    ‘I love you too,’ he said, and she knew that she was the happiest person in the world.
     
    They still hadn’t slept together. There had been kissing, of course, and holding each other close, and Dominique had sometimes felt as though she wanted to rip Brendan’s clothes off and make love to him on the spot. But he hadn’t made any moves to take things further. He’d stop and say that when the time was right . . . and then his voice would trail off. She thought about it all the time, wondering if, when he decided the time was right, he might bring her to a luxury hotel and woo her with champagne and chocolates. Not that he had the money for champagne and chocolates - he earned more than her and might have been OK with taxis, but luxury nights away were asking a bit much. It was a nice dream, though.
     
    As they walked through a nearby housing estate, she wondered what it would be like. And she thought that she should really go to a family planning clinic if she was thinking those kind of thoughts. Sleeping with Brendan would be a major step. But getting pregnant would be a major disaster.
     
    She fell off her shoes again despite his steadying arm. He lifted her up and looked at her.
     
    ‘I think I’m going to have to carry you,’ he said.
     
    ‘You can’t,’ she told him. ‘Your arms will be pulled out of their sockets with the weight of me.’
     
    ‘You’re a little feather.’ He scooped her up into his arms. ‘That’s all. A little feather.’
     
    She was light-headed and giggly. He walked about a hundred yards and then he stopped. They were at the edge of a large field that bordered the estate. Crossing the field, which was dotted with trees and bushes, gave them a short cut to the main road.
     
    ‘You’re right,’ he said breathlessly. ‘My arms are falling out of their sockets. You’re the heaviest little feather I ever knew. I can’t make it across there with you. I’ll end up stuck in the mud!’
     
    ‘I’m so sorry.’ She kissed him as she slid from his arms and stood beside him. ‘I’ll try to be a good girl and stay on my own two feet.’
     
    ‘You’re always a good girl.’