“Three double vodka and cokes and a blue WKD, please.”
He knows that voice. Turning towards her, he’s annoyed to see her looking the other way, hiding behind her hair. Intentional? Everything about her is familiar. Scanning her up and down as she brings a hand to her face, he nods towards her heart tattoo on her ankle, double chin on full show as he tries to place it.
“Steph?”
She looks back towards her table by the window, ignoring him, and he gazes around her. It has to be Steph. There’s Abbie and Georgia and Katie down at that table, eyes on their phones and wielding them in each other’s faces as they laugh along at some meme or video.
“Steph?” he tries again.
Jutting out her chin, she turns towards him, before widening her eyes in fake shock.
“Chris!” she elongates the ‘s’ at the end of his name, going in for a hug that’s more like a pat on the back, “didn’t see you there. How’s things?”
“Good, aye. Workin’ away,” he manages to just about supress his burp, “same shit, different day. What about ye?”
“Aye, we’re all just out for a girls’ night. Jimmy’s got the wain for the night, so we’re helping Georgia let her hair down for a change. She deserves it,” she spins towards Georgia who’s laughing away with a glass in her hand.
He stares at her gorgeous blonde locks and gets a whiff of her shampoo as she whips her head back towards him. He’d always admired her looks. But, oh, shit…
“What about you, who are you out with?”
He takes a step back to block her view, making a perfectly shaped eyebrow raise.
“Just some of the boys from back in the day, ye know? Dave… Travis… Jase…”
Her suspicions growing, she jolts a head over his shoulder before he can stop her and her brow creases. It doesn’t help that Jimmy bursts into a cackle just at that time.
“So, what’ve ye been up to? Uni and all or wha?”
“What?” she resumes her attention to him, before apologising to the barman who has finished up with their drinks. Pulling out her purse, she hands over a few notes. “Aye, grand. Workloads a bit shite like, but sure what do I expect studying psychology?”
Chris snorts.
“Aye you’re right, don’t know how ye could be at that. I’d have fallen asleep in one of the classes.”
“Lectures,” she corrects him with a fake smile, “right, well get you back to ‘the lads,’” she air quotes, “I’m sure I’ll see you again.”
“Jesus what’s taking ya so long, lad? Dyin’ a drooth here.”
Chris closes his eyes in embarrassment. He hopes that isn’t Jimmy. He glances over his shoulder and is relieved to see that it’s Jase.
“Awk, Jesus. Alright, Steph? Didn’t see ye there, how ye keepin’?”
Chris leans back to let Jase step into the conversation, both physically and theoretically, whilst trying his best not to cringe. Jase always had an unreciprocated fancy towards Steph. Steph looks at him now and he can tell she’s equally as disgusted with him now as she was back in their teen years.
“Grand, aye, Jason. And yourself?” she says while turning her back to him and lifting her drinks.
“The very best after seeing your sexy self,” Jase laughs before frowning at her departure.
“Anyway, nice speaking to you, Chris.”
“Er… Right, hi. Good luck.”
He resumes his attention to Jase, who lifts three pints at a time, his dirty fingers splashing around in one of the glasses.
“That one’s yours ye dirty bastard,” he nods towards his blackened fingers from the garage as they make their way back over to the table, “and wait till ye see this drama.”
“What drama?” Dave takes his pint from Chris’s hands and gulps down a few mouthfuls, “you cheesin’ with Steph again ya dirty heure, was her best friend not enough?”
Everyone laughs except Chris, his eyes fixed over towards the girls’ table as they all link heads, before Georgia jerks her head around towards them with as much subtlety as a bull in a china shop.
“Jimmy, where’s the wee man tonight?” Chris spits through gritted teeth.
Jimmy looks up from his pint and hiccups.
“My ma has him. Why?”
“Aw fuck, here we go boys,” Travis squirms in his seat as they see Georgia marching towards them.
Jimmy, still with his back to the scene, is none the wiser until she looms over him, arms crossed. Looking up from her shadow, the blood drains from his once beaming face. Now, he looks like he’s going to lose a few kneecaps.
“Alright, Geor-“
“Where the hell is William?”
“He’s grand, he’s with my ma. Calm do-“
“You barely ever spend time with your own son, Jimmy… And when you get a chance, you’re out with all your friends getting steamin’?”
“Look, Georgie, I spent all evening with him.”
“All evening?” she screeches, “I dropped him round after work about half 6, it’s not even 11 yet, Jimmy?”
“Well, sure he’s in his bed and all now anyway.”
The boys around him inhale awkwardly. Bad move.
“So, you think it’s okay to just come out drinking when he’s in his bed? Jimmy, I look after our son every day, how often do you even try to see him? It’s always me that has to ask you to fuckin’ babysit your own son when I want a night to myself.”
“Well, you still can have a night to yourself. We’re only stoppin’ here for one then we’re heading down Waterloo Place and doin’ a bar crawl.”
“Whilst your ma is looking after my son. And you’ll be hungover in the morning, so I take it you’re not going to get up at 5am to watch cartoons with him?”
“With any luck I’ll only be getting home by then,” Jimmy laughs and lifts his drink to his lips, looking around at his friends expectedly with a wink.
No one laughs. No one smirks. No one even looks up from their laps.
“Nice one, Jimmy.
