My attention was dragged away by the bartender depositing the last drink, and I handed the woman a few notes to cover her tip.
‘I love it when they do this set,’ Elle announced as she appeared at my elbow, her hand on my arm as she tiptoed up to be heard over the band. ‘Listen.’
I tilted my head towards the group sitting by the bar. ‘Is that…a Taylor Swift song?’
‘Yes! They do covers of pop hits, kind of like Bridgerton. It’s awesome music plus a little puzzle, as you try to work out the song!’
I laughed, because of course having an element of mystery, however brief, was always going to be the icing on the cake for her.
‘Want some help?’ She nodded at the drinks.
I didn’t really need it. I could use a tray to carry the drinks, but there was more risk of them getting knocked and the whole lot hitting the deck.
‘Go for it.’ I took a glass tumbler in one hand and stretched the fingers of my other to cradle another two. I turned towards her and realised she was watching me, her gaze fastened on my hands, as she bit her lip. It was a good job that my hands were occupied because I might have had to liberate that lip and take it between my teeth instead.
She looked up at me through her eyelashes, darker than usual with mascara, making the light grey contrast even further. Someone jostled her slightly trying to get to the bar and she broke the eye contact and lunged for the remaining drinks.
I motioned for her to go ahead of me. Her skirt was made up of layers of gauzy material and floated around her thighs as she squeezed through the crowds, her long hair fanning over the bare skin her strappy top didn’t cover, teasing me with flashes of the places I’d touched her last night but not in the way I wanted to. I narrowly avoided walking into the back of her as her step faltered, closer to our table. I glanced over her head and realised that her stupid-llama-headed ex had taken a smaller table only two away from ours, and he was staring straight at her.
He commandeered his date’s head by gripping her chin and then started kissing her, with his eyes still open and fixed on Elle. My hands tightened around the glasses to the point that I almost lost the lot.
I leaned forward, putting my mouth close to Elle’s ear. ‘Remember the coconut shy? I reckon I could take his head off with one of these cocktail glasses if you wanted me to? Doubt it would even take me three gos.’
Elle looked up at me and I was relieved to see her smiling. ‘And waste good alcohol?’ She shook her head and continued over to the table.
‘Can you believe him?’ Keisha said, after I passed around the drinks and she’d thanked me.
‘Sadly, I can, but I still nearly vomited up a little bit in my mouth,’ Elle said, taking a sip from the glass she had kept.
‘Not that,’ Caitlin said, and gestured to what I realised now was a solitary chair at the end of the table, where there had previously been two. ‘He came and swiped Elle’s chair, while I was putting in a request with Don.’
‘Boyd was in the bathroom and I was on the phone to the babysitter,’ Keisha explained. ‘He was gone before I could say anything.’
‘Wow. He literally took my chair? What is this, elementary school?’ Elle curled her lip.
‘You can have mine,’ I automatically offered.
‘No way. You’ve worked a — what? — fourteen hour day and on a Sunday, no less. I’m not taking your chair. Plus, it’ll be harder for you to hear us talking from up there. I’m closer to the ground.’
‘It’s only a few inches, I’m not at the top of the Empire State building.’
She put her hand to her chest as if in shock. ‘Alert the media, a man not making a big deal of his larger than average size.’
A thrill ran through me at all my possible retorts, but instead I decided to drop onto the chair. ‘Fine. If you insist.’
Her eyebrows raised, as I guessed they would. ‘OK, not going to lie, I thought you’d put up more of a gentlemanly fight than that.’
I smiled. ‘Don’t worry. I’ve got somewhere else in mind that you can sit, Elle.’
Her mouth dropped open as I let that hang in the air for a moment, and then I patted my thigh. Her cheeks flushed pink.
‘Oh. Your lap.’
‘Of course. Where wereyouthinking of?’ I gave her a scandalised look and she poked me in the arm but didn’t move to sit down.
‘You sure?’
I just patted my leg again and then she stepped closer, smoothing her skirt and settling onto my thigh but keeping her knees pressed tight together, and her body angled forward. I put my arm around her back, resting my hand lightly at the top of her hip to provide support. ‘Relax,’ I told her softly.
