Page 2 of The Honeymoon Affair

‘But inside – inside I’m reckless, feckless and impulsive. I’m not marriage material. Not yet, anyhow.’

He was certainly impulsive the first time I met him. But so was I.

It was at a summer concert in Dublin’s Fairview Park. The weather was glorious and the park was crowded with concert-goers, all singing and dancing beneath the blue skies. It was the kind of meet-cute moment that sometimes even happens in real life; when two people accidentally bump into each other, gaze into each other’s eyes and fall in love for ever.

When Steve and I first looked at each other, I was smitten.

Then he kissed me and I was in love.

I know, I know. How can you love someone on the basis of a single kiss? When you don’t even know their name?

So maybe I actually fell in love with him later, when he came back to my house because he lived on the other side of town and there wasn’t a taxi to be had, while I live a mere ten minutes away.

‘This is cosy,’ he said when I opened the door. ‘Is it yours?’

I explained, as I made coffee and brought it out to the patio table in the small west-facing garden, that it was our family home but that I was currently living there on my own. My parents had recently headed to New Zealand to see my brother, his wife and their newly arrived twin boys. As my dad was now retired, they planned to stay for a couple of months, although I already had the impression that they wouldn’t mind extending their visit. Cori and Adrian live just outside Napier, and Dad, who’s originally from Wexford, likes both the coastal town and the green spaces. Mum likes them too, but it was the lure of her grandchildren that made me think she was in no rush to come home.

Anyhow, my parents being away gave Steve and me time and space to get to know each other. He moved in, and I can honestly say there was never a moment when I wasn’t ecstatically happy. We got engaged at Halloween – I know it was quick, but I was madly in love; besides, his proposal was romantic and original in equal measure.

I came home to find that he’d added a selection of orange and purple balloons to the rather terrifying decorations we’d put up earlier in the week.

‘What’s all this about?’ I asked as I took off my heavy work jacket and sniffed the aroma of spicy chicken.

‘A gesture,’ he said. ‘So that you know you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.’

‘Oh, Steve. How lovely of you.’

Despite his hard-man exterior, Steve likes cooking, even though most of his sauces (like mine) are from jars. But he pulls it all together better than I ever do.

‘I’d have run you a bath if there was one,’ he said. ‘But maybe you’d like to take a shower and change anyway?’

He’d put spooky candles in the bathroom and had replaced my usual shower foam with a gel that called itself Spectral Slime. Much as I appreciated the nod towards the horror theme, I retrieved my rice milk and cherry blossom Rituals product from the shelf beneath the sink, then showered and came downstairs wearing my blue satin-look pyjamas.

‘Best I could do to keep the Halloween vibe going,’ I told him as I sat at the table.

‘You can be my sultry spectre any time.’ He kissed me and then put a plate of piri piri chicken in front of me. ‘Eat up.’

After the meal, we went into the living room, where even more balloons were bobbing about.

‘This is for you,’ he said, producing a pin.

‘What for?’ I looked at him in surprise.

‘You have to use it. On the balloons.’

‘I hate bursting balloons. It’s proper Halloween horror for me.’

‘Oh, go on,’ he said. ‘This once? I promise you’ll like it.’

I always found it impossible to say no to Steve. So I scrunched up my eyes and jabbed nervously at each balloon. The box with the engagement ring was in the purple one with the witch’s face.

It was the most romantic moment of my life. Spooky, but romantic.

I still relive it.

Celeste was surprised that we’d got engaged so quickly, but even she said that we seemed ideally suited and totally in love.

Mum and Dad thought the same when they came home, sorry to have left their grandchildren but full of excitement at seeing me and meeting my fiancé. They liked Steve’s easy-going nature and his quick humour, although Mum did remark that he was too handsome for his own good. He moved back to his own family home on their return, and I missed having him with me every day. But there wasn’t an affordable rental to be had in Dublin and we were saving up, both for the wedding and to be able to get something suitable after we got married.