Trust Dylan to suggest a former underground toilet for post-gig drinks, I think, grinning to myself as we wait outside. I’m sure you usually need to reserve a table here because it’s pretty small but by some miracle we’re sat down and perusing the cocktail menu within minutes.
‘Sorry to interrupt,’ a gorgeous woman approaches our table. ‘I was just wondering if you two are together?’ I’m sandwiched between Dylan and Zach on a small sofa and I realise that it’s Dylan who has his arm draped behind my back.
‘Oh, no,’ I reply hastily.
‘Just good friends,’ Dylan grins, scribbling his number on a piece of paper he finds in his wallet and handing it to her before she walks off. Dylan is one randy doggo.
‘Dylan has his own fan club,’ I explain, rolling my eyes at Zach. ‘The Twitter handle is something like HeckYeahDylanSmith and I occasionally send screengrabs of it over to him. Some of the chat is obscene.’
Zach smiles as he listens but I can sense that Dylan’s territorial behaviour has annoyed him. Every now and then his eyes dart towards Dylan’s arm around me and I think back to the woman who just came over, inwardly cringing. I guess it’s a bit awkward that I got mistaken for Dylan’s date, rather than Zach’s. I lean back, trying to surreptitiously nudge Dylan’s arm out of the way and scoot closer to Zach, but there’s not much room for scooting on our little sofa. Plus Dylan has insisted on sitting with his legs spread wide as per usual.
‘Never mind my fan club,’ Dylan says, ignoring my nudges and reaching his arm even further round my shoulder. He’s never been great at reading a scene. ‘Tell me what’s going on with Natalie?’
‘Urgh, Jake is an absolute fool,’ I say with a shake of my head. ‘Turns out he was seeing someone else behind her back for a while before he ended it and it’s all been unravelling over the past few months. I’m trying to take her mind off the split but every time we seem to make progress he gets back in touch and she can’t resist. It’s like she’s deliberately hurting herself by meeting up and listening to him explain every single detail of what happened.’
Zach leans forward, resting his arms on his knees. ‘Sometimes break-ups are like that. Sometimes you want answers to questions. And sometimes you surprise yourself by realising that something you thought was huge was actually nothing at all.’
My attention turns straight back to Zach and I have to say, I admire him. Here we are talking about someone he doesn’t know and he’s still making an effort, joining in with the conversation with his own personal experiences.
‘Definitely agree there, mate,’ Dylan replies. ‘I had a bad break-up once, I didn’t want it to end and it was like: “Why am I not good enough for you?” Maybe Nat could do with some time away? I could ask if she wants to come and stay with me for a bit. You’re both always welcome and a change of scene might be good. What do you think?’
‘That’s a great idea,’ I reply, deciding it’s time to steer us towards a conversation where we can all join in, but Zach gets in there first.
‘So you guys are all friends from school?’ he asks.
‘Alice and I were next-door-neighbours,’ explains Dylan. ‘We met Natalie at school.’
‘You must have got up to all kinds of trouble together?’
Dylan’s face lights up. ‘Oh me and Pickle got up to all sorts,’ he laughs, shooting Zach a look. I feel like there’s weird energy between these two tonight, even though it’s all jokes and smiles right now.
‘Tell me more,’ Zach says, signalling for another round.
‘Okay,’ Dylan rubs his hands together gleefully. ‘Where shall we start? The time when we “borrowed” a tractor we found in a nearby field and ended up trashing a lot of hay? The farmer was furious.’
‘That was your fault!’ I say. ‘Dylan insisted it would be good practice for when we could drive and we ended up working alotof summer jobs to pay the farmer back.’
‘Or the time you really got into tie-dye and decided that you should set up your own clothes range?’
‘I made Dylan and Nat model the T-shirts,’ I giggle.
‘We looked horrendous,’ laughs Dylan. ‘Remember that summer we went over to France with your folks and I had to rescue you from the kayak instructor who took such a shine to you that he kept turning up at the house your parents rented?’
‘I’d forgotten about him!’
‘Creepy kayak guy.’ We’re roaring with laughter at the memories and now Dylan’s on a roll, deciding to unleash the majority of his most embarrassing material in one giant dump and practically giddy with amusement. Thankfully Zach doesn’t seem too put off by the fact that I spent two solid years insisting that I was a unicorn called Barry. But I give Dylan a short, sharp jab in the ribs to make him stop. Besides throwing me under the bus good and proper, he’s also been hogging the limelight and not giving Zach a chance to get a word in.
‘Oh and she was always hungry,’ Dyl laughs, very much not stopping. ‘The kind of kid who’d hoover up a whole roast dinner and still have space for three helpings of pudding. I once caught her eating pickles out of a jar in the fridge as a mid-morning snack, hence the nickname. My mum had to buy twice as much food when Alice was coming over.’
‘That is not accurate,’ I protest. ‘Besides I just like puddings.’
Dylan pulls me in for a hug, laughing. As I playfully push him away, I spot Zach watching Dylan intently, as if he’s trying to weigh him up. They are so different, after all. Dylan loves to showboat and Zach seems much happier sitting back.
‘Did you go over a lot, then?’ Zach asks me.
‘Loads. Dylan’s mum sort of took me under her wing for a while.’
As always when things get a little too close for comfort, Dylan deftly sweeps in. He’s been doing it since I was a teenager and I love him very much for it. Although despite my dig in the ribs, he’s also continuing to plough on with his Embarrassing Alice material, which I love him a little bit less for.
