The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 285
This wasn’t ideal. If I let her find Rob and Gary before Idid, my plans could go up in smoke. I had just one advantage – I knew who I waslooking for and she didn’t. I needed to make that edge count.
Fighting our way through to the bar wasn’t easy. The throngof people jostling for drinks was three-deep and manoeuvring our way to thefront line was a challenge. When we did, we found that getting there was halfthe battle – getting served in turn was quite another.
A lot of the tradition British etiquette about queue-jumpingseemed to go out of the window when it came to getting drinks in crowded pubs.We just had to hope they had experienced staff on tonight who knew what thepecking order was when it came to serving people. That wasn’t the case in allpubs.
Fortunately the team behind the bar seemed to know what theywere doing, ignoring the fat man who had rudely squashed into the right of mewhilst waving a twenty-pound note in the direction of the barmaid. As if thatwas going to get him served any quicker! When I served behind the bar atcollege for a term, those idiots always went straight to the back of the queue.
Kelly was on my left, and had attracted the attention of abarmaid who had done a grand job of pretending not to see the money-wavingbloater next to me. Thank goodness she had. I needed to get away from him assoon as possible. The sweet, sickly stench of his cheap aftershave wasoverpowering in my nostrils.
Clearly he had worked up a sweat hauling his bulky frame upto the bar because I could smell that, too. I really hoped he didn’t sufferfrom flatulence, as that would be the icing on a seriously unappetising cake.In my haste to get out of there fast, I had temporarily forgotten all aboutGary and Rob.
Kelly had ordered up two more cocktails, but just as she wasabout to pay, I heard a very familiar voice speak from her other side. Themusic was loud, The Pogues version of “The Irish Rover” blaring in thebackground, but I even over that, I still recognised his voice instantly.
“Can I get those, love?” said Gary.
He was right next to her on the other side. This was a badstart because she was in pole position. This was exactly as it had happenedbefore. Was I powerless to change things? Was the future preordained?
No, that could not be the case. If it was, how come I hadmanaged to cause him to get killed the last time we had met? I could still turnthis around, even though the opening exchange had gone against me. Kelly hadalready turned to accept his offer, eyeing him with a flirty glance. As forRob, he was on Gary’s other side, almost out of view.
There was nothing else for it. I was going to have to dosomething drastic. Fat boy’s B.O. next to me was really getting on my tits, soI felt no qualms about what I did next.
As soon as I had my drink in my hand, I leaned back intohim, and then quickly lurched forward, chucking my entire Tequila Sunrise allover Kelly.
She shrieked, “For fuck’s sake, Amy, what are you doing?!”She was absolutely drenched. It was amazing how much mess just one drink couldmake. I had only intended to get it on her dress but it had gone all over herface and hair, too, completely messing her up.
“Oh God, Kelly, I’m so sorry. It was this twat here, he justbarged into me.”
“What?” exclaimed the fat man, turning to look at me for thefirst time, eyeing me in my dress with his leery little eyes as he did so. Whata pig. I thought he was going to deny it, but he didn’t. Perhaps he thought hemight get in my knickers if he took the blame. Dream on!
“I’m really sorry,” he said. “Let me buy you another.”
“Never mind that, I’m fucking soaked!” shouted Kelly. Queenbees don’t handle these sorts of situations well and I was enjoying herdiscomfort immensely. I needed to take care not to show that, though.
“Calm down,” I said, instantly wishing I hadn’t. I hadlearnt the hard way at school as a Scouser never to use this phrase, aseveryone took the piss. “It’ll be alright, just go to the toilets and dry off.”
Grumbling, she took a towel kindly offered by the barmaidwho had been serving us and headed off to the toilets. The bumbling idiot nextto me was blathering on, full of apology. As soon as I had the replacementdrinks from him, I turned the other way, towards Gary and Rob who had beenwatching this whole display with amused detachment.
“Is your friend going to be OK?” asked Rob.
It was the first time I had heard him speak and he seemed alot quieter and much less confident than I remembered from this night. Lookingat the two of them side by side, there was no denying that I fancied Gary more.So why had I gone with Rob that night? Had I been simply settling for thesilver medal because Kelly had claimed first prize? If so, it was a pretty poorstarting point to base the next nine years of my life on.
It really didn’t say much for me as a person, did it?Without realising it at the time, I had fallen into a trap that I think manypeople do. Instead of taking the time to pick the right person to have a relationshipwith, I had just settled for the first person who came along.
“She’ll be fine,” I said. “She’ll be back in a minute.”
“Shall we get away from the bar before there are any moremishaps?” suggested Gary. It was a fair question. It was getting a bit like arugby scrum where we were standing and the replacement drinks I was holdingwere definitely in peril.
Concurring, and ignoring the