Free Woman to Woman by Cathy Kelly Page B

room.
    “God, it was awful not to have enough money, always scraping by.”
    “I was buying this gorgeous red jacket the other day and I was just at the cash register with my cheque book when I realised that it cost more than two months’ rent in Mount Pleasant Avenue! Isn’t that unbelievable?” Jo took another sip of coffee.
    “I nearly put it back. I mean, two months’ rent! My mother would be horrified if she saw me spending that much money on clothes.”
    “I think, by now, she’s figured out that you’ve expensive tastes in clothes!” laughed Aisling, looking pointedly at the elegant cream
    crepe trouser suit Jo was wearing. And nobody’s likely to think that those shoes were in the 9.99 bargain bin in Penney’s.”
    True.” Jo looked down at the cream-coloured soft leather pumps she was wearing.
    “It’s crazy, really, the money I spend on clothes. But all the fashion correspondents are the same,” she protested.
    “If I turned up at a fashion show in my old grey leggings and a sloppy old T-shirt, they’d all wet themselves with glee. So I have to spend money on clothes!”
    Aisling laughed. No matter what elevated circles Jo moved in, she was always the same funny, kind and totally lacking in pretension. The same warm-hearted girl who’d lend her less glamorous flat mate anything, even her newest and best-loved dress.
    Jo had always been a friend to rely on, the sort of person who’d be there with a box of tissues, a comforting hug and a buoyant speech no matter what happened, Aisling reflected. Unlike her sister, Sorcha, who was so tied up with her job in London that she barely had time to come home for Christmas, Jo genuinely enjoyed Aisling’s company. So what if Sorcha thought her older sister has turned into a non-person just because Aisling didn’t have a high-powered career by day, and didn’t go to management courses at night.
    Jo Ryan, deputy and fashion editor of fashionable Style magazine, was one of Aisling’s best friends and not even Sorcha could call Jo boring. Lively, clever and a little bit wild, maybe. But boring, no.
    Funny, warm, and a little too trusting when it came to men or so Aisling had always thought Jo had finally met the man of her dreams after years of meeting Mr. Wrong after Mr. Wrong.
    “You’ll love him, Ash,” Jo said happily down the phone, one romance-filled week after meeting Richard.
    “He’s perfect better than Richard Gere!”
    “That good?” Aisling chuckled.
    “Are you sure he’s real, or has he escaped from the pages of GQ?”
     
    “He’s real all right.” Jo’s throaty laugh told Aisling everything.
    The gorgeous photographer had obviously made it to first base. Aisling thought Jo should have waited a bit longer before going to bed with her new boyfriend. Michael had been her first and only lover. But, things were different now.
    She hoped Richard wasn’t like some of the other men Jo had been involved with. Jo always seemed to make huge mistakes when it came to men. She fell for each one passionately and wholeheartedly, only waking up to their faults when it was too late. Maybe this time would be different.
    Aisling hadn’t seen much of her friend since Richard had come on the scene. She briefly wondered if Jo had heard any rumours about Michael’s affair.
    Surely not, she thought. Jo would have told her if she’d heard anything. Or would she? Aisling’s head was spinning thinking about it all. And I’m the one who thinks Jo goes around with rose-tinted glasses. How ironic.
    Please let Jo be here tonight, Aisling prayed fervently. She and Jo always ended up sitting together at journalistic parties.
    Aisling was grateful to her more extrovert friend for introducing her to the ever-changing pool of reporters, subs and photographers.
    There were always loads of people she didn’t know, Aisling reflected, thinking of the occasions she’d tagged along with Jo after Michael had hot footed it in another direction.
    “Come on and meet