Free Marian Keyes - Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married by Marian Keyes Page A

dramatically. The way she 64 / marian keyes

    often did. "Thank God you're here. There's something you have to know."

    "What?" I demanded, a thrill of anticipation running through me.

    "Is it you? Did you get lucky with Shane?"

    A brief shadow passed over Meredia's face. "We'll talk about that later," she said. "No, it's something to do with here."

    "Really?" I gasped in excitement. "I thought something must be up. I just passed Poison Ivor in the hall and he was..."

    "Lucy, I think you'd better sit down," Megan interrupted.

    "What is it?" I demanded, absolutely dying to know.

    "Something has happened," said Meredia, in a dramatic whisper, keen to create an atmosphere. "Something that you should know."

    "Well, if I should know it, why won't you bloody well tell me?" I deman- ded.

    "It's Hetty," said Megan solemnly, talking out of the uninjured side of her mouth.

    "Hetty?" I hooted incredulously. "But what's Hetty got to do with Poison Ivor? Or me? Oh God--she's not having an affair with him, is she?"

    "No, no, no," said Meredia, shuddering. "No, it's a good thing. But she won't be in for a couple of days because something has happened to her."

    "Well, would you mind telling me just what that something is," I said querulously. "Or do I have to sit here all day while you draw this out?"

    "Hetty has met the love of her life," Meredia finally intoned.

    A silence followed. You could've heard a tab of acid drop. "Really?" I managed to ask, my voice hoarse. lucy sullivan is getting married / 65

    "You heard me," said Meredia with a smug smile. I looked at Megan. Hoping for a bit of sanity and normality. But she just nodded at me and she had the same smug smile.

    "She's met the love of her life and she's left Dick and she's moving in with Roger immediately.

    "And Poison Ivor's heart is broken," guffawed Megan, slapping her slim, golden thigh.

    "Don't be ridiculous," I said absently. "He hasn't got a heart."

    More chortling from Megan and Meredia but I couldn't bring myself to join in.

    "He must have the hots for Hetty big-time," said Megan. "Yuk, poor Hetty, how awful. Imagine! He must have been going around with a con- stant hard-on."

    "Shut up, Megan!" I begged. "Or I'll throw up."

    "Me too," said Meredia.

    "So, have I got this right?" I asked weakly. "Roger is the other guy?"

    "Yes," smiled Megan.

    "But Hetty doesn't do this sort of thing," I said.

    I was upset and confused. I mean, Hetty really didn't do that sort of thing. Well, at least, she certainly didn't used to. It felt all wrong. Hetty was steady and steadfast and stable and stalwart and all those other words beginning with st. She just didn't go around meeting the love of her life and leaving her husband and that kind of thing. She just didn't.

    I would have felt as upset and disoriented if the earth changed direction and the sun rose in the west instead of the east. Or if I dropped a slice of toast on the floor and it landed with the buttered side facing up. Hetty's leaving Dick contradicted everything that I believed to be true, the very foundations of my universe were shaken. 66 / marian keyes

    "Aren't you happy for her?" asked Meredia.

    "Who is he?" I blurted out. "Who's this love of her life?"

    "Wait till you hear," said Meredia with relish.

    "Yes, get this," interrupted Megan, also with relish.

    "The love of her life is none other than Dick's brother," said Meredia with a flourish.

    "Dick's brother?" I whispered. Things were getting more bizarre by the second. "So what happened? She's known the guy for all these years and she suddenly decides that she loves him?"

    "No, no, no," said Meredia, smiling at me as though I was a naughty child. "It's so romantic. She'd never met him until three days ago and they just clapped eyes on each other and `voil�!' a coup de foudre, l'amour, je t'adore, er...um...la plume de ma tante..." she trailed off, having run out of French phrases to describe Hetty falling in love.

    "How come she'd never