‘What are you having?’ he said.
‘Nothing, I’m working.’
‘OK, what would younotionallybe having if you weren’t working? JD and Coke, right?’
She hid her surprise about him remembering, telling herself this was the oldest trick in the chat-up line book; remembering a small detail about a girl and hoping her self-esteem’s so low she’ll be bowled over.Not anymore, she thought.Bet he can’t even remember my name by now. ‘Is that what you want? Jack Daniels?’ she asked.
‘Sure, and have one for yourself after work, Mirren.’
Anyone can remember a name. What of it?‘No, I’m good, thanks.’
Kenneth had told her to always accept the offer of a drink and to put the money in the jar for splitting with the team and she had been saying yes all evening but nothing could induce her to accept in this instance. Perhaps if he wasn’t looking at her like that, with the wolfish smile and something daring in his eyes that her very blood cells responded to…
She worked the optic and handed him his drink, followed by the card machine. He was shaking his head and blowing an exasperated breath as he paid up.
‘Wish I hadn’t bothered now,’ he said in a wry tone.
‘Bothered with what?’
‘Asking Mr Ferdinand if he’d see you.’
She glanced around, hoping Kenneth wasn’t in earshot. Luckily he was wiping today’s specials from the board. ‘Mr Ferdinand? What did he say?’ she asked surreptitiously, fiddling with the plastic drink stirrers in the jar, still trying to be aloof.
‘December the first, lunchtime, you’ve got ten minutes.’
‘Really? Oh my God,’ she gasped and watched his mouth twitch in response. Mirren regretted her broad smile instantly. That was exactly the kind of thing that gave men the wrong idea; what Mr Angus would call ‘letting your overactive love life interfere with your professionalism’. She rearranged her face into something more neutral. ‘I mean, that’s very kind of you, thank you.’
Adrian was still smiling, charitably under the circumstances. ‘Look, I don’t meet many reporters around town. You seem like a good person, even if you are prickly as hell.’
‘Hey!’
‘We should be friends.’
She drew her neck back at his bluntness. Mirren was ready to speak but he knew what was coming, another knock-back.
‘Hear me out. It would be nice to talk shop with someone in the same line of work, you know, as friends and hopefully future colleagues. If you impress Ferdinand and convince him to bring you on board you’d be doing me a huge favour. Sometimes working alone with him is frustrating.Allthe time, in fact.’ His expression was so open, it was hard to rebuff.
‘Friends?’ she said, in spite of her brain screaming for caution.
‘Nothing more. I told you I’m taking a break from dating too after—’
Mirren flinched at the bell ringing loudly behind her and turned upon Kenneth. ‘I was looking forward to ringing that! Isn’t it the new barmaid’s rite of passage?’
She was met with a staid look from dour old Kenneth. ‘You’ll have a thousand more shifts to ring the bell, Mirren.’ Then he called across the room, ‘Last orders please.’
Mirren met Adrian’s eyes and she knew he understood her thoughts.A thousand more shifts? She hoped not, and so did he.
Mirren was still thinking about Adrian’s single status and what might have brought it about when a booming voice called over the crowd: ‘One for the road if you don’t mind, my lovely,’ and both Mirren and Adrian knew who it was.
‘That old Lothario’s always in here,’ Adrian complained, seeing the actor who’d doused him in beer.
‘That’s my favourite customer you’re talking about,’ replied Mirrensotto voceas she waved and pulled his drinks, always the same thing, she’d learned – a pint of ale, and a glass of Spanish sherry which he referred to as ‘sack’. The request had confounded her at first, but Kenneth had nodded to a bottle on the shelf saying, ‘That’s his; only one that drinks it. I bring it in special from Malaga, just for him.’
Adrian was glowering at the old fellow through narrowed eyes.
‘What have you got against him?’ Mirren whispered. ‘He’s lonely, that’s all. So what if he’s a bit… boisterous? I’m sure half his stories are made up but he’s entertaining when you get to know him. He’s got no family, you know…’
‘Oh, it’s all true,’ Adrian interrupted. ‘He’s a big star round here. Well he was. An old-guard luvvie. He was in loads of seventies sci-fi too, evenStar Wars.’
