27
Total Eclipse of the Heart
The barman crashed a glass into a sink, but even the sound of it breaking didn’t distract me. Pippa placed the empty vodka glass on the bar. Then, with excessive politeness, she said: ‘I’m so sorry about your drink, Zoë.’ She nodded at Nick. ‘That asshole will pay for a replacement.’
Then she walked coolly away, while the rest of us picked our jaws off the floor.
Nick reacted first. He shook his head a couple of times – either in shock or to flick away the last dregs of vodka tonic. He was drenched, from his hairline down to a single drop pooling at the cleft of his chin. His neck was shiny, and dampness had even seeped into his collar and down the front of his shirt.
A splotch of green made me pause. I peered again.
Lodged between his bow tie and the starch of his collar was a wedge of lime.
I lost it.
I turned back to the bar, so he wouldn’t see how much I was laughing. Lung-bursting belly laughs that strained the seams of my dress.Oh God, I was going to rip it. I tried to distract myself by picking out the names of all the designer gins lined up against the back wall of the bar.
A figure moved in my peripheral vision and when I glanced to my left, Nick was sitting next to me. He hooked his finger between his Adam’s apple and collar and tugged his tie free. The lime tumbled to the floor between us.
It rolled in a lazy arc, holding our attention as if it were a grenade with its pin pulled out.
I chanced a look up and when Nick caught my eye, his face erupted into a smile and a roar of laughter escaped me.
This time, the giggles were even more violent. I bent double, my face practically on the bar, taking big gulps of air. I was half aware of yanking my thumbs under my dress at the armpits to stop myself spilling out. The poor barman didn’t know where to look, and suddenly found a stack of napkins that needed rearranging.
Soft laughter was coming from Nick, as he beckoned the barman over.
‘I owe this woman a drink.’
The barman looked from him to me uncertainly. ‘Vodka tonic?’
I nodded, not quite trusting myself to speak.
‘Make it two,’ Nick said. ‘With extra lime.’
That set me off again. Nick sighed and shook his head. ‘I’m never going to hear the end of this.’
‘From what Pippa said, it sounded like you deserved it.’
His eyes widened. ‘What did she tell you?’
‘We had a pretty long chat.’ It was a blatant lie, but Nick didn’t know that. And anyway, I was enjoying watching him squirm.
‘You didn’t want to hear my side of the story?’
‘Maybe you should be worrying less about filling me in about your lovers’ tiff and more about making it up to your date.’
‘She’s not my date.’
‘She confused you with someone else? I guess all the blokes here are dressed the same, so it’s an easy mistake to make. Next time, maybe come in a clown’s outfit.’
‘We had a spare ticket in the office and I asked if she wanted to come. It was never a date.’
‘You keep saying that. But it makes no difference to me – why should I care who you hook up with?’
There was a hardness to my voice that he didn’t deserve.
He kept his eyes forward and didn’t reply.
