The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 270

“Tut-tut, I really hope you don’t use language like that inthe classroom. It’s hardly Topsy and Tim, is it?”

I was absolutely loving this.

She lashed out again, this time successfully knocking thetablet out of my hands and sending it flying across the room. It hit the walland landed face-down. It had probably smashed the screen, but that didn’tmatter now. The damage had been well and truly done.

“Ah, that wasn’t very sporting, Emma, was it?” I teased.“Rob’s friends were enjoying that. Never mind, you can watch it back on theinternet later, assuming it hasn’t been deleted. You never know, someone mightload it up onto SpankWire. You’ll be famous.”

“You complete bitch!” she screamed. She had totally lost it.

“Yes, I rather think I am,” I added. “Now I think you hadbetter get dressed and skedaddle. You can’t go outside in just your underwearand one sock, can you? It’s mighty chilly out there tonight, I should imagine.It usually is at this time of year – and I should know.”

“Amy…I’m sorry,” said Rob from the bed, looking all patheticand mournful. Well, if he thought that was going to work he was sorelymistaken. It hadn’t worked the first time around when I still cared, so itcertainly wouldn’t now.

“And you can take this sorry specimen with you,” I added.“You’re welcome to him.”

He was too weak and shocked to argue, and within fiveminutes I was ushering the pair of them out of the door. Mission accomplished.

Now that it was all over, I went to the kitchen and pouredmyself a large glass of champagne from the half-drunk bottle left over from theirearlier celebrations. It had gone a little flat by now, but certainly not asflat as their evening.

Champagne in hand, I went through to the living room, andput a couple of logs on the fire. It was a feature many of the houses in thisarea still had and I loved it.

As I sat sipping on their champagne, I reflected on a jobwell done. All things considered, it had been a fine evening’s work. Once I hadfinished, I started on an unopened bottle of Bacardi left over from Christmasand sat watching the flames flickering in front of me until tiredness claimedme.

When I awoke, I was still on the sofa. Daylight was pouringinto the room now and the fire was down to a few embers. I flicked the TV on,which was showing some kids’ panto. I had a raging hangover.

I had celebrated rather too well and the streaming cold Istill had was making things worse. Perhaps if I was planning to drink this muchagain I should do it on the second night of each of my trips so I could escapethe hangover when I jumped back in time. Never mind, it had definitely beenworth it. Now it was time to see what additional fallout there had been fromthe previous night’s work.

I checked my phone to find that the offending video had beendeleted. That was no surprise. I don’t know if he had deleted it himself or ithad been censored, but it didn’t matter. The damage had been done.

I also noticed that quite a few people had posted on mywall. Many of these were simple birthday wishes from people who hadn’t seen thevideo, but judging by the numbers asking if I was OK, many had. I also had astack of private messages expressing varying degrees of sympathy towards me andanger towards Rob.

I replied to each one, playing the hapless victim to thehilt. So what if I had engineered the situation to cause him the maximumdamage? He was still the one who had committed the crime.

One message in particular stood out. It was from Gary, hisrugby-playing friend.

He’s a tosser, and you’ll be better off without him. I’mgonna kill him when I get hold of him, don’t you worry. I’m really sorry you’vehad to go through this, Amy. If there’s anything I can do, please let me know.

Oh, there was plenty Gary could do for me – or should I sayto me. He was hot and I knew full well he fancied the arse off me. It had onlybeen a matter of chance that I hadn’t ended up with him in the first place. Hadthings happened differently the night we first met, I may well have ended upwith him, rather than Rob.

Nothing had ever happened between the two of us because,unlike Rob, I was the faithful type and Gary wasn’t the type to mess about witha mate’s girlfriend. Maybe I could find some way to change that. Why not? I hadalready decided I was going to live life to the full and here was a primeexample of a missed opportunity I could have a second crack at.

I thought back to the night when I had first met Rob andGary. Back then, when I was still in my mid-twenties, my main drinking buddyand partner in crime had been Kelly, a girl I had been at school with.

We were out on the town every Friday and Saturday nightwithout fail, revelling in our youth. Back then it seemed that those carefreetimes would never end, but eventually life moved on and we went our separateways. Nothing lasts forever.

It had actually been on my birthday, back in 2012, whenKelly and I had met Rob and Gary for the first time. We had been in a pub downGeorge Street when they had started chatting us up at the bar. We acceptedtheir offer of a drink and an invitation to sit with them followed.

Those first few minutes were crucial in deciding the outcomeof not only the evening, but also the next nine years. There’s an unwrittenrule in the dating game that when two men and two women meet on a night out, itis decided very quickly who is going to go with whom. Whether that happensverbally or through body language, once the lines of battle have beenestablished you don’t cross them.

Both Kelly and I were drawn to Gary initially, but she wasmore forceful in the short walk to the table, getting there