will do your bidding,’ I suggest, poking my finger at her, aware I might be slurring slightly.
‘I couldn’t do that, it’s weird.’
‘No it isn’t.’ I’m waving my arms about. ‘Jas… Jas, listen. Go and get what you want,’ I slur, now talking absolute rubbish, but as I’m four glasses in, I think I’m a great philosopher and therefore qualified to advise and pontificate at full volume. ‘See your prey – and go for it – don’t stop until you get it.’
‘Hear, hear,’ Harry says, raising his glass. He’s taking the piss as usual, but he’s never mean, it’s always with affection.
‘You know it, mate,’ I say, slapping him on the back a little too hard in my drink-fuelled enthusiasm. ‘Look at you and Gemma, you’re perfect together, and you had to force yourself to go into the café that day and ask her out.’
He nods, and Sameera points out that she waited four years for her fiancé to even notice her.
‘Yes, love, but he was married,’ Margaret sagely points out, her face taut with disapproval. It’s after her bedtime, and she really needs to get back to feed her two cats, but, God bless her, she’s sticking it out, ‘for the young ones’.
‘Yeah, but I knew, I knew as soon as I saw him,’ Sameera says. ‘And, in my defence, she’d already cheated – and they were in an unhappy marriage.’ She giggles and Harry giggles and their heads lean together and we’re all laughing for no reason when some young girl wanders past and settles on a nearby table with her friend, clearly giving Harry the eye.
‘He’s taken,’ I say loudly, ‘so move on, love.’ I collapse into giggles.
‘Hannah, what’s got into you? She can look—’ Harry starts.
‘But she can’t touch!’ I slur, and Jas and I laugh long and loud.
‘Don’t worry about Harry,’ Jas says out of his earshot, ‘he wouldn’t stray, too happy with Gem. I knew she’d be perfect for him when I first saw her in the café – they’re so cute. I really have a knack for putting people together.’
‘Yeah you’re a genius, Jas.’ I laugh. ‘I just hope they last, they’re so young.’
‘Yeah, they make me feel old. Gemma’s only twenty-two. Shit, I just realised – I’m old enough to be her mother.’
‘Yeah makes you feel ancient doesn’t it?’ I nod, feeling quite tipsy, and clearly so is Jas, but we’ve hit a low point, we’re not laughing at everything any more. ‘It’s like drinking,’ I say. ‘This prosecco’s really getting to me, is that because I’m getting old?’
She laughs. ‘No, you’re just not used to going out on benders any more. That’s what comes with being in a couple, you don’t go out drinking like you do when you’re single. When Tony was alive, I hardly ever went out drinking – didn’t need to.’ Jas looks a bit sad.
‘I reckon I’ll always want to go out drinking,’ I say to bring her round a little, don’t want her to be upset thinking about her husband. ‘I just wish I didn’t feel so pissed so early, it’s not 10.30 yet.’
‘Don’t you worry, I’ve got your back,’ she says, putting her arm around me. ‘And if you get too pissed, you can always stay at mine.’ Then suddenly she stops smiling. ‘Well, what a surprise.’ She nods her head over at the bar.
My eyes follow where she’s looking, and there he is.
Alex is sitting at the bar, having a drink.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
‘How long’s he been there?’ I ask Jas.
‘No idea, I only just noticed him. Bloody weird him turning up on your office do.’ She pretends to laugh, and winks at me like she’s making a joke. I know she isn’t.
I tell her I’ll be back in a minute and leave the table to go and see him. I’m not sure how I feel about him turning up like this.
‘Hey, what are you doing here?’ I say, approaching him and going in for a hug as he climbs off his bar stool to greet me.
He hesitates. ‘I know you said you didn’t need a lift, but I was worried about you. I texted and called, but you didn’t answer. I thought something might have happened.’
‘I’d turned my phone off because I wanted to get work done. I must have forgot to put it back on,’ I say, taking my phone out and switching it on to see a lot of messages and missed calls. All from Alex. ‘Alex, when I’m out, or if I’m busy,