A Taste of Christmas: Dublin Style Read online

  While I’m sitting at the table my phone beeps with a message. I look at it and see it’s Tully. My heart skips a beat and I wonder if he’s texting me to cancel tonight. He could have gone out last night and met someone else.

  “Morning I’m looking forward to dinner tonight. Are you?”

  “Morning, I am but that’s a long way off, I’m only just out of the bed.”

  “Mmm please don’t tell me that.”

  I laugh to myself.

  “Ha ha it’s not as good as it sounds.”

  “That’s for me to decide!”

  Wow he is direct!

  “What are you doing for the rest of the day?” I try to steer the conversation away from my bed.

  “I have to go and see my parents for lunch and then I’ll be thinking of where to go for dinner tonight.”

  “Very nice. I have to try and do some more shopping, but it’s really hard when I’m not in a festive mood.”

  “I told you yesterday I’m going to change the way you feel about Christmas Nollaig.”

  “Good luck with that. This is the hardest time of year for me and I get very unhappy.”

  “I know and rightly so, but I want to make you happy not sad.”

  “It’ll be a hard job.”

  “Well I want that job. I’ll be over later to collect you. I can’t wait.”

  “Me neither Tully, me neither.”

  I sit looking at my phone, nursing my mocha when Bree comes in. “We are off to mass, are you coming with us today?”

  I don’t have any immediate plans so decide that I will. “Yeah why not? I just need to get dressed and then I’ll be ready.”

  I finish my drink and then go upstairs to get ready. When I come back down Bree, Rory, Tyler and Elena are ready to go so I pile into the car with them and Rory drives us to church. The mass is all about helping those less fortunate than ourselves, especially at Christmastime when they become lonely and it seems to be a really poignant service. I can feel tears welling in my eyes because I don’t need to feel lonely, I have Bree and her family, they’re my family too. I just need to let them in more!

  After Mass I turn down the offer of lunch and drive back to my house after collecting the car from Bree’s. I put together a quick sandwich and then I start the task of trying to decide what to wear tonight. I look in my wardrobe and realise that I don’t have anything that is smart but warm enough to wear on the back of a motorbike. I make a rash decision to go to Blanchardstown Shopping Centre to have a quick browse around the shops to see if I can find something more suitable.

  Many shops and bags later I sit down in Butler’s Chocolate Café with a mocha coffee and a scone and check out the contents of my bags. I have bought a pair of red skinny jeans, which I am going to match up with a see-through black lacey jumper which I’m going to have a red camisole underneath. Just enough skin to tease, but enough material to keep me warm. Perfect! I even treated myself to a pair of high heel, knee high boots which are going to look really sexy.

  I smile to myself as I drink my mocha, then when I’ve finished it I walk to my car and drive home. The first thing I do when I get into the house is run a bath so that I can have a leisurely soak.

  It’s five to eight when the doorbell rings, I take a deep breath and open the door to see Tully on the other side. He looks so sexy in his black jeans and his leather motorbike jacket. He smiles when he sees me and I open the door wider for him to come in.

  “Hi” he says as he leans down and kisses me on the cheek.

  I blush and say “hi” in return. “Come through to the kitchen I’m just getting my bag and then we can go.” He follows me into the kitchen, I turn and see hunger in his eyes. “Do I look alright? Am I smart enough? It was hard trying to find something that was smart and warm.”

  He looks me up and down, really slowly, from my feet all the way up to the hair on my head. “You look perfect Nollaig. How was I so lucky that you fell at my feet?” He smiles and I laugh.

  “Yeah I suppose I did do that” I laugh again. “So where are we going?”

  “I thought we would go into town and go to the Elephant and Castle, I love it there and I was hoping you would too.”

  “Ooh I’ve never been there before but I’ve heard so much about it, they do terrific wings apparently.” He nods his head and then he takes my hand and pulls me closer to him.

  “Well I’m happy to be the first person to take you there.” He moves his mouth so that it is closer to my ear and he whispers “and the last I hope.” I take a deep breath and then he moves away, still holding my hand and gently pulls me to the front door. “Come on let’s go, I’ve booked a table for half past eight.”

  I lock the front door and walk over to his bike, which is a Harley Davidson. I’ve seen them around but never this close before. It’s black, shiny and very sexy. He holds out a helmet for me to put on and I do, then he watches me as I lift my leg up and over the bike so that I am straddling it. I see the sides of his mouth lift up and a flash of hunger in his eyes.

  He puts his helmet on and then he too straddles the bike, he turns to me and says “Now hold on tight Nollaig, I don’t want you to fall off”

  I put my arms around his waist and hold on tight for dear life. I have to say I can feel all his muscles tightening when my hands slide around to lock in place at his front. I hear him take a quick sharp intake of breath. It feels good to hold him tight. As the bike rumbles to life underneath me it sends vibrations through me. I shiver and move even closer to Tully.

  “Are you ready? Keep hold of me” he says as he starts to move the bike. He whizzes into town driving really carefully and doesn’t try to frighten me by driving too close to the cars or weaving in and out. When we get to Temple Bar he parks the bike and he helps me off it. “Was that ok? You weren’t scared were you?”

  I take the helmet off and shake my hair loose “Not at all you’re a really careful driver.” I smile at him but he is looking at me strangely. “Are you ok?” I ask him.

  He takes his helmet off and takes mine from me shaking his head as he goes. “You look so beautiful when you shake your hair like that.”

  “Thank you” I blush. He puts the helmets into the two panniers at the side of the bike and then he takes my hand and we walk to the restaurant. When we get there we are shown to the table he has reserved, it was a good idea to make a reservation as the restaurant is nearly full already.

  The waiter gives us the menus and we look at them. “Is there anything you recommend?” I ask reading over it.

  “Well you already said you had heard about the chicken wings, so why don’t we have some of them to start with and then we can order something separate for the main course.”

  “Yeah I like that idea. I think I might have the salmon for my main course.” He nods and when the waiter comes back he tells him what we want to eat. He orders a coke for himself and a glass of white wine for me.

  We sit and chat about our jobs, he has his own TRX gym and spends his time working out all day and helping other people to get fit.

  He is really fascinated by my job as a Food Scientist for Butler’s Chocolate Factory. “Tell me what you do, it sounds so exciting.”

  “I help to check that the chocolate is made to the same standards and tastes every day. The best part of my job is creating new flavours, I put some flavours together to make something then taste it to see if they work well together. Sometimes the most unlikely flavours work together really well.”

  “I see, so that’s why you were able to tell me what you love about a French Vanilla in so much detail that I could taste it just from your description. I’m going to ask you how everything tastes from now on, because I loved that description you gave me yesterday.” He smiles, obviously remembering the kiss he stole after my description.

  When the chicken wings come they are on a platter which has different flavoured wings on it. There is salt and spicy, sweet chilli sauce, hot sauce, blue cheese sauce. So many choices. We bo
th tuck in and I have to say that they are absolutely delicious and the sauces are dripping off my fingers. There is a bowl to wash your fingers in, but I want to have all the sauce that I can so I stick my fingers in my mouth, one finger at a time and suck the sauce off.

  I hear a muffled noise and look up into Tully’s eyes as he is watching me so intently sucking my fingers. Suddenly I realise what I’m doing and pull my finger out of my mouth. “Sorry I forgot where I was” I laugh as I go to put my fingers into the water bowl.

  He reaches across and stops my hands from going into the bowl and takes my fingers and puts one of them in his mouth and starts sucking them. “Mmm they taste too nice to put in the plain water” he says taking another one. I feel the flush climbing up my face and spreading all over my body. I feel the heat coming from between my legs and I have to cross my legs to contain it.

  “Tully” I whisper and he stops what he is doing and looks up into my eyes.

  “Nollaig, sorry I got carried away. Your fingers looked like they tasted so nice, so I just had to find out for myself and yes they did.” He gently puts my hands down on the table and lets me wash them in the finger bowl.

  “They were the nicest chicken wings I have ever had” I say “their reputation is deserved.”

  He agrees with me and when the main course comes out we eat and chat about our families.

  He asks me about my parents and my sister and I tell him everything, he is so easy to talk to and I don’t feel embarrassed telling him that I don’t like Christmas.

  After we have finished our meal he pays for it and won’t take any money from me. “No I invited you out and I’m paying.” When we leave the Elephant and Castle he pulls me in close because it is starting to get cold and then we walk over to Grafton Street.

  “Why are we walking over here?” I ask confused as the bike is back near Temple Bar.

  “I just want to show you the lights, they are so beautiful. I know you don’t like Christmas, Nollaig, but I really want you to see how beautiful they are. Think of them as a festival of lights and not just Christmas decorations.”

  I nod “OK I’ll try” and we continue walking until we arrive at the bottom of Grafton Street where the Molly Malone statue used to stand.

  “Look” he says pointing up at the lights. “They are so beautiful like bright stars in the sky, all different shapes and sizes.” I look up at them and they really do look beautiful.

  “Wow, I never come into town at night time at this time of year, everyone is always so festive and having lots of fun. They are beautiful though. Thank you for showing me them.”

  We continue walking until we are at the top of Grafton Street and next to St Stephens Green. He slowly turns me around so that I can see almost all the way down the street, the lights are beautiful and so well designed. It brings a small tear to my eye because my parents loved Christmas and would have loved to see these lights. He looks up into my eyes and sees the tears. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “It’s fine ….. I just ….. I just know that Mam would have loved this. She loved Christmas and always made it so beautiful for us.” He pulls me in tight and then he reaches out and puts his finger under my chin to lift it so that I look him in the eye.

  “It is beautiful, but not in comparison to what I’m looking at” he says looking into my eyes. “I see a lot of sadness, but I can see a glimmer of hope in your eyes. I want to bring that hope out and I want to see happiness in them instead.” He slowly lowers his mouth to my lips and kisses them really gently. I close my eyes and just savour the moment, he then turns the kiss into something deeper, something with meaning.

  I moan, I didn’t know I was going to moan it just kind of popped out. He smiles on my lips and says “I feel the same” and then he devours my lips. He is such a good kisser and I can feel myself melting in his arms. I reach up and put my arms around his neck, one of his hands is around the back of my neck preventing me from pulling away. The other hand is on my lower back pulling me in tight.

  When we pull apart we are both panting slightly and I don’t want it to end. He puts his arm around my waist again, pulls me in to his side and we walk back down the street, talking about the beautiful lights and about hope.

  When we climb back on the bike, he kisses me very quickly on the lips before putting my helmet on my head. Then he climbs on too and smiles at me “hold on tight, I want to feel your body melting into mine.” I don’t mind doing that, so that is exactly what I do.

  After about 20 minutes we arrive at my house and I climb off the bike. He has turned the engine off and I ask “Do you want to come in for a coffee?”

  He laughs. “Only if it’s a French Vanilla” and then he smiles at me.

  “I’m sure I can make that for you seeing as I introduced you to them.” He follows me to the door and into the kitchen. He talks to me about the band and how they started while I make the coffee.

  “Me and Animal, who’s real name is Josh, started playing in his garage one day, I would sing and he played the drums. Next Paddy, who plays the guitar, joined us and then Stevie came along last on keyboards but since then we’ve been singing together. We always wanted to be famous, but then we realised that it was more a hobby than anything else. We love doing the gigs on Grafton Street and sometimes we do a gig in a pub. Actually, we have a gig later on this week in Whelan’s and I’d love you to come along and listen to us but also to meet the rest of the band. What do you say?”

  “That sounds like fun, but will you be singing Christmas songs?”

  “Probably one or two seeing as Christmas is only a week away, but most of the songs won’t be Christmas songs.”

  “Alright then I’d love to come along and hear you sing.”

  He smiles and I know I’ve made the right decision.

  We take our coffees into the lounge and sit on the couch while we both have our hands wrapped around the mugs to warm them up. When we have finished them, he pulls me into his side and kisses the top of my head.

  “You know I’m so happy that you heard us singing and stopped to listen, I feel like I was meant to meet you. It has given me a purpose in life, I intend to show you how to enjoy Christmas this year. Don’t argue with me Nollaig, please let me try!”

  “It won’t work but you can sure try.” I say looking up into his face. He leans forward very slightly and kisses me on the lips.

  I hear a very faint “thank you” and then he deepens the kiss, I can feel myself moving closer to the couch until I am lying down and he is on top of me. My heart is racing, it’s too soon for this, but my body is betraying me, my body wants him, needs him. I can feel his hands tracing the outline of my body and my hands are feeling his muscles on his side and his back.

  “I want you Nollaig but I want to do this right. I’m going to go home and I know you have work tomorrow, but I am going to make sure you enjoy the lead up to Christmas this year. I’m going to make it my goal to make you happy.” He holds out his hand to pull me up from the couch and then he takes me out to the front door. “Are you busy tomorrow night?”

  “Eh no” I say caught slightly unaware.

  “Good I’ll collect you at 8pm – dress warmly as it will be cold where we are going!” He kisses me on the lips “Sweet dreams Nollaig.”

  “Night” I say as he turns and climbs onto his bike and drives away. I turn and close the door behind me and lean against it.

  Wow what an effect he has on me. To think that two days ago I didn’t know him and now all I want is to know him. I smile and go to bed thinking of Tully.

  I dream of the lights in Grafton Street and me and Tully dancing under the big Christmas lights that we saw tonight.

  Day 3

  Monday 15th December

  I get up for work and have a smile on my face when I walk into the lab. Helena looks up and smiles at me. “What has put that smile on your face? Normally at this time of year we can’t get anything out of you.”

  I take my coat
off and hang it up along with my handbag. “I met someone on Saturday” I say sitting down at my desk.

  “Expand please” Joey says rolling his chair closer to me, he then leans his elbow on the table and puts his chin in his hand. “Details” is all he says.

  I look up at the two of them and try to decide whether to tell them anything or not, but they are both looking at me and I can see the excitement on their faces. It’s not every day I come into work with news like this.

  I tell them about how I met Tully and then I tell them that we went out for dinner last night on his motorbike.

  “Oh my god he has a motorbike, I need to meet him Nollaig. Does he wear bike leathers?” Joey is really dramatic and very much a man’s man.

  “He had a leather jacket on but he was wearing black jeans, but I’m sure he has leather trousers too Joey.” I laugh as I hear Joey taking a deep breath of air.

  “Describe him to us Nollaig, we love the way you describe things.” Helena says smiling from ear to ear.

  I take a deep breath of air so that I can think about this, I want to do Tully justice. “He is dreamy, he has brown hair with a hint of sunshine through it from being outdoors all the time. He has beautiful chocolaty brown eyes that start off light on the outside and get darker in the middle. He has a five o’clock shadow that is scratchy on my skin when he kisses me.” I look up and see them both hanging off every word I speak. I continue “he has a square jaw with beautiful lips that are full and juicy, his features are chiselled with a small dimple to soften his edges. If I were to describe him using my chocolate analogies, like I always do, then I would have to say he is like a chunk of white chocolate with chilli flakes; smooth, creamy with a hint of spice. One taste of him and you are spoiled forever. His kisses are like hersey’s kisses, so dreamy and luxurious.”

  I look off into the distance of the room and then I hear Joey and Helena clear their throats.

  “Earth to Nollaig, where are you now?” Helena says.

  “Sorry I got carried away with myself there.” I chuckle.