‘Ha!’ Art turns to me. ‘I’m not the only one who’s never heard of her.’
‘Tadhg wasfartoo cool to watchNorthside.’ Laura grins at her husband. ‘Weren’t you?’
Tadhg takes a sip of beer. ‘I wasnottoo cool forNorthside, Lol. I just never got into it. Anyway, who is she?’
‘She’s the legend who’s hopefully going to saveNorthside’s anniversary episode,’ says Art. ‘But Annie’s the expert on all that.’
So I fill Tadhg and Laura in on our visit to Honoria’s house. And Art doesn’t jump in and hold forth, the way he used to in college, the way he did, just a bit, in the IBC canteen. He doesn’t show off. Art sits back and lets me talk.
The conversation becomes more general, and by the time dinner is ready, Tadhg and Art have discovered that Tadhg’s cousin was friends with Art in primary school.
‘Ah, the smallness of the north Dublin suburbs!’ says Laura.
‘It always annoyed me in America when people assumed all Irish people knew each other,’ says Art, ‘but it turns out we kind of do.’
‘Did you have to convince people you didn’t grow up on a farm?’ says Tadhg. ‘Because I’ve had to explain that we actuallyhavesuburbs.’
Art grins. ‘I sometimes tried to push the stereotype to see how far I could go. I once managed to convince an actor we only got electricity in Dublin in the eighties.’
Tadhg laughs, and for the first time, I’m grateful for Art’s easy charm. Sometimes people can be odd with Tadhg – and with Laura, now – when they first meet him. But as Art sits back in his chair, looking totally at home, it hits me that his confidence is something he actually uses to make things easier for other people, not just himself.
I can tell Laura is dying to talk to me about him and after dessert, when we’re all sitting around the table drinking tea and digesting the delicious feast, she turns to Art and says, ‘Would you like to see the studio? It’s at the bottom of the garden.’
‘I’d love to,’ says Art.
‘Can you give him the tour, Tadhg?’ she says. ‘Me and Annie can clean up here. You did most of the cooking after all.’
‘Allof the cooking.’ Tadhg throws her a mock-stern look. ‘You just sat there reading the Sunday papers while I laboured away over a hot stove.’
‘I chopped some stuff!’ protests Laura. ‘But yeah, you did most of it. It’s your own fault for doing that fancy cookery course.’
As soon as Art and Tadhg are out the back door, Laura says, ‘Well, he’s lovely.’
I shrug and pick up some plates. ‘I wouldn’t go that far.’
‘Come on, Annie. He’s brilliant. Why did you tell me he was a total dickhead?’
‘He’s still a bit of a dickhead,’ I say. ‘Sometimes.’
Laura nods towards the garden, where through the glass doors I can see Art saying something that makes Tadhg crack up. ‘He hasn’t been one tonight.’
I look at Art, who’s now laughing himself as he and Tadhg enter the studio.
‘No,’ I say. ‘I suppose he hasn’t.’
In fact, Art hasn’t really been a proper dickhead for a while. And now I come to think of it, over the last couple of weeks he’s apologised for quite a lot of his dickish behaviour. Not in an automatic, meaningless, ‘sorry you were offended’ way. He’s apologised in ways that suggested he’d actually thought about it.
‘I asked you this before,’ says Laura, ‘and now I’m going to ask you again. Do you like him?’
I’m about to say no, of course not.
But I can’t do that. Not now.
Because of course I like Art. I more than like him. He’s arrogant and facetious and he still drives me mad sometimes, but he’s funnyand he’s hardworking and he’s brave. He stood up to a famous, powerful bully even though he must have known he’d be punished for it. And he’s deceptively kind. In fact – I remember my second day atNorthside, when I was too freaked to leave the office, and he manoeuvred me to the canteen by banging on about how much he hated the smell of my vending machine sandwich – he’s been kind to me since the beginning. He’s incredibly good in bed (not that we’ve spent much time in an actual bed). And he’s hot. I can’t deny it anymore. I’ve fancied him despite myself since the first day we went for lunch together. And despite all his teasing, despite how much he’s wilfully irritated me, what he said to Lizzie today …
It showed helistensto me. All this time, he’s been listening to me. I thought he didn’t understand me but maybe he does. He might take the piss and tease me but he takes in what I say and he acts on it and he stood up for me today and that moment was, well, it was …
That moment was one of the best things that’s happened to me in a long time.