No Dress Rehearsal Read Free

She’d given them to Lizzie, who had lit one and then stubbed it out straight away. “Disgusting,” she’d declared. “That’s not tobacco. They must have used tea-leaves! Or worse.”
    In fairness, Ginger paid well. It was probably the one reason why she hadn’t left before now. That and the threats, of course.
    â€œIf you ever leave me, I’ll put a contract out on your life,” he oftenwarned her. This was meant to be a compliment. “If you ever hand in your notice, I’ll kill you and then you’ll be sorry.”
    Sinead half-believed him. There were enough dodgy characters in and out of the office. She was sure he’d be able to lay his lands on a hired killer if he needed one.
    The phone rang once more, and Sinead tensed. Who was it this time?
    â€œIt’s me again,” Ginger bellowed. “Where’s my stomach tablets?”
    Seconds after she hung up, the phone rang
again
. God, it was all go this evening.
    This time it was Shane, an ex-boyfriend. She hadn’t heard from him in about six months.
    â€œCome out for a drink, will you,” he asked.
    â€œAh Shane, I’m knackered tired.”
    â€œHow come?You’re not still working for Ginger Moran, are you?”
    â€œAnd what if I am?” Sinead said, huffily. When she’d been going out with Shane, he’d slagged her constantly about being Ginger’s mammy.
    â€œNo wonder you’re knackered,” he laughed, “being on-call twenty-four hours a day.”
    Well, she had to go for a drink after that. Just to show that she was able.

CHAPTER FOUR
    Half an hour later she met Shane in the pub. He was a normal, nice-looking man. She was surprised by how good it was to see him. She was glad she’d made the effort to come out. She tried to remember why they’d broken up, and couldn’t.
    Sinead had a small stable of ex-boyfriends. For some strange reason she was still on speaking terms with them all. She didn’t know how she’d managed that. Everyone else she knew spat when they mentioned an ex.
    Maybe because none of herboyfriends had mattered that much to her. Oh, she’d liked them and all that. But not one of them had been The One.
    Of course, she’d
thought
some of them were. When she’d first been going out with them. But it had always turned out to be a case of mistaken identity.
    To be honest, Sinead wasn’t even sure if she could be bothered hoping to meet The One any more. She was weary from the whole business. And look at the misery it brought to poor Lizzie, hanging around with that Neil. He was a decent enough man – she wasn’t saying otherwise. But he was also thirty-three going on sixteen and very slow to make a commitment. She couldn’t be doing with that.
    Sinead was a romantic. But not really in the hearts and flowers way. More in the broader sense of the word.She dreamt about travel and adventure. Of freedom and excitement.
    And she had no doubt in her mind that it would happen for her. At some stage. But at the moment her life was more about doing the immediate things. Buying her dad’s birthday present. Washing her clothes. Hiding the grey that had the cheek to start appearing in her hair. These things
had
to be done. And when she was on top of everything, then she could start making her plans.
    Of course, she didn’t go round thinking this. Not out loud, anyway. But humming away at the back of her mind were thoughts of another life.
    Once, a couple of years back, Sinead and Lizzie had gone to get their fortunes told. And the tarot reader had told Sinead that she’d find true love and happiness in a foreign country.Lizzie had got all excited about it. She urged Sinead to jack the job in and go off on an adventure. But Sinead clung to her demanding job and her awful flat with the noisy head-the-ball living upstairs. “You can’t move countries just because some old biddy with a deck of