‘I’m sorry this is turning into such a shit night,’ I added.
He smiled grimly.
Before I could say more, Nick appeared, placing another bottle of champagne onto the table.
‘Not much of a surprise, mate,’ I muttered, in a very un-girlfriend-like manner. But I didn’t care. I just wanted to get to the end of the evening and fulfil my obligation to Nick. I couldn’t give a rat’s arse whether he was happy with the outcome or not. After tonight he was on his own.
As Nick sat down, Jess came into view behind him. She was carrying a tray of four chasers.
‘The surprise is the tequila,’ she sang.
This wasn’t right. Getting Jess blotto might have helped Nick’s cause, but it didn’t sit well with me. She didn’t deserve Nick’s underhand ways.
‘Whose idea was the tequila?’ I asked.
Jess giggled. ‘It was a joint decision.’
Concern mixed with anger was pooling in my gut. ‘Are you sure you’re all right, sweetie?’
‘I’m perfect, petal,’ she beamed. Her cheeks were rosy and her lip gloss was smudged. She picked up her glass of tequila and poured it into her flute. Then she chinked her glass against mine. ‘Bottoms up.’
Champagne tequila slammers were a lethal combination. A friend at uni had vomited lime green for two hours the last time I’d been anywhere near that particular tipple.
She banged her glass down and looked pleased with herself.
If Nick was right about Jess being a borderline alcoholic, it was damn near criminal that he’d introduced tequila to the mix.
I leant closer to Nick and placed a territorial hand on his cheek. ‘You’re a fucking psychopath,’ I whispered, a fake smile on my face so the others couldn’t see that I was seething.
He unpeeled my palm from his cheek, and held my hand in a fake display of intimacy.
His grip was tight. ‘You’re in as deep as me.’
I wanted to snatch my hand away, but he held fast.
A man shouting nearby broke the deadlock. Nick let go of my hand and we both looked over to where the noise was coming from.
Two men were waving at Jess from the pavement.
‘Wearing knickers today, Honeywell?’ one of them leered.
Jess looked stricken. One of the men was holding a camera. It flashed twice.Shit. Were they paparazzi?
They got closer and Simon tried to shield Jess from the lens. ‘Piss off,’ he shouted, angrily.
‘We’re on a public footpath,’ said the one with the camera, although I could see now that the other guy had his phone out and was filming us.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ I said, trying to put myself in front of Jess.
Nick stood up and pulled us both towards him. ‘Follow me, I know a private exit.’
I don’t remember the route we took, or how we got out, but we found ourselves by a side alley, mercifully empty of people.
Nick jogged up to the main road, and a couple of moments later, a black cab with a yellow light appeared at the entrance to the alley.
He waved us over.
I looked at Simon. ‘Should we get into the cab?’
