Better Together by Sheila O'Flanagan

half-eight was considered a lie-in. Her dad and the boys were up and out for an early run every single morning. Alice would have come in from her own run by the time they were leaving so that she could have breakfast ready for their return. Occasionally Sheridan ran with Alice, and sometimes she even went out with her father and brothers, but regardless, she was still usually up by eight for breakfast. When she’d moved in with Talia, she hadn’t been able to break the habit of early rising, even on her days off. She’d stretched the lie-in to nine o’clock after a late night, but she always felt that half the day was wasted if she wasn’t out of the house by ten.
    It occurred to her, as she stared at the ceiling, that it wouldn’t much matter what time she got up at in future. There was no reason for her to leap out of bed at all.
    ‘Stop dramatising,’ she told herself. ‘Get your act together. Remember that this is an opportunity, not a tragedy.’
    She sat up and the room did a dizzying 360-degree spin in front of her. She waited for a minute or two to allow it to settle, before sitting up a little more gingerly and reaching out for the bottle of water Griff kept on the bedside table. He’d left a note propped up beside it too. She had to blink a few times before she could make out the words:
Hope you’re feeling better this morning. Didn’t want to wake you. Call me later. Stay in the house as long as you like. Gemma and Marianne are out
.
    OK, she said to herself. Time to take stock of the good things. I can take my time about getting up. I have a great boyfriend. I have a great girlfriend. I’m twenty-nine years old and I can change my life. I’ll get another job and I’ll work my way back to where I was before. And I can freelance. Even though I don’t want to. I just need to think positive thoughts.
    Think Positive Thoughts was one of Pat’s mantras. He said it to the boys before they went off to play their matches. He said it to himself too. Both he and Alice were great believers in the power of positive thinking and not letting negativity hold you back. I wonder, thought Sheridan, as she eased herself out of bed, if they win so much because they think positively, or whether it’s because they’re all winners that they don’t understand what it’s like to feel down?
    Every bone in her body ached. She pulled Griff’s bathrobe from the back of the bedroom door and wrapped it around her. Then she walked slowly downstairs to the kitchen and made herself a cup of the strong black coffee she needed.
    It was early afternoon by the time she headed back to the apartment she shared with Talia in Kilmainham. Kilmainham had been very convenient for getting to the
City Scope
, a half-hour’s walk at most for Sheridan, who normally set a brisk pace. She usually walked to and from Griff’s place in Donnybrook too, which took about an hour, but although she started off today with good intentions, she was feeling so shaky by the time she got to Ranelagh that she flagged down a cab for the rest of the journey.
    Not that I can afford to be jumping into cabs now, she thought gloomily. I’m unemployed. I have to economise.
    She hadn’t quite got to grips with that concept yet, butwhen she said the words in her mind she felt herself shiver. She told herself not to panic. There were bound to be opportunities out there. She just had to find out what they were.
    She was surprised to find Talia sitting at the table by the window when she opened the door to the apartment.
    ‘Decided to work from home today,’ said her friend as she closed the laptop in front of her. ‘How’re you feeling?’
    ‘I’ve got the hangover from hell,’ confessed Sheridan. ‘My head has an army of hobnailed boots marching through it and my mouth feels like the Gobi Desert after a particularly dry spell. Otherwise I’m fine.’
    Talia grinned. ‘That’s my girl.’
    ‘Yeah, right.’ Sheridan slumped into an armchair and put a