I Found Her Wedding Ring in My Drawer
I found her wedding ring in the bottom drawer of my bedside locker, underneath a packet of old batteries, two bus tickets, and a receipt from a café in Rathmines where we…
The Wedding Invitation I Never Opened
The envelope arrived on a wet Thursday in Stoneybatter, the kind of Dublin rain that doesn’t fall so much as sit in the air and wait for you. I found it bent…
She Loved Me in Secret Until It Was Too Late
I met Aoife in a queue outside the Light House Cinema in Smithfield, both of us pretending we understood a French film we had only come to see because it was raining.…
The Coffee We Never Finished
I met Clara on a wet Tuesday in October, the kind of Dublin day that makes everyone look like they are apologising for being outside. We had arranged to meet in Bewley’s…
The Silence Between Us Grew Louder Every Year
I met Niamh in a queue outside a small cinema in Rathmines, both of us pretending not to be freezing. She had forgotten her gloves, and I offered her one of mine…
The Friend I Should Never Have Kissed
I knew the kiss was a mistake before it happened. That is the awful thing about some mistakes: they announce themselves, quietly and clearly, and you still walk towards them as if…
I Learned to Love Again After Forty
I was forty-three when I decided I was finished with romance. I didn’t announce it dramatically. There was no throwing of rings into the Liffey or tearful speech in a pub. I…
He Was Everything Except Mine
I met him on a wet Thursday outside the Abbey Theatre, when the rain was coming down sideways and everyone at the bus stop looked personally betrayed by the sky. He offered…
The Love I Couldn’t Explain
I met Lina on a wet Tuesday evening outside Temple Bar, though neither of us was going in. I was sheltering under the shallow doorway of a closed souvenir shop, pretending to…
The Woman Who Changed Her Mind at the Airport
I had my whole life folded into one blue suitcase at Dublin Airport, and still I was mostly thinking about a half-empty carton of milk in the fridge. That’s the strange thing…