The bartender indicated right, past the brick fireplace and into the upper deck of the split-level floor. ‘Right on that corner,by that table over there, there’s another picture board with loads more photos and some memorabilia. You should go check it out.’
‘Oh, for sure. Thanks again.’ Mary had a swig of her beer and raised the shot glass at the bartender, who nodded at her.
‘To your health,’ he said. ‘Enjoy.’
She nodded back before downing her chaser in one and walking over to where the bartender had indicated.
Twenty-Eight
The picture board that the bartender had referred to was much larger than the one at the bar, glass-framed and hanging from the wall just behind a small round table that sat inside an alcove at the far end of the floor, and Mary’s luck seemed to be in. The three guys who were sitting at that table had just finished their whiskeys and gotten to their feet when Mary rounded the corner.
‘Vampire magic,’ Mary whispered to herself again, and even before the last of the three men had stepped out of the alcove, Mary was already sliding herself into the seat at the opposite end of the table.
As the men walked away, Mary poured a couple of sips of beer into the whiskey tumblers that they had left behind, and spread them around the table. Now, it looked like she wasn’t at the table by herself. Whoever she was there with, could be either at the bar or in the bathroom. A simple trick that more often than not, proved to be quite effective for a woman sitting alone.
Mary’s eyes lit up, as her full attention moved from the tumblers to the large, square picture board on the wall. It held several behind-the-scenes photos, where she could see the cameras, the crew, the actors and the director – and she could easily remember most of the scenes depicted in those images. She could even remember some of the dialogues.
‘I’m so sorry to bother you.’ Mary heard someone call from behind her. ‘But could I leave my drink at your table just while I quickly nip to the loo? I won’t be long, I promise.’
Mary turned to face a woman who looked to be somewhere in her early thirties. She was a couple of inches taller than Mary, with wavy blonde hair that just touched her shoulders. Her nails had been professionally manicured and her eyebrows professionally plucked. Her eyes were blue and they seemed kind. Her summer dress accentuated her curvy body in a simple but elegant way. She spoke with a foreign accent that Mary couldn’t quite place – somewhere in Europe, she thought, but not France. The woman was holding a medieval-looking wooden goblet in one hand and a tabloid paper on the other.
‘Umm…’ Mary looked at the tumblers spread around the table.
‘I’ll be really quick. I swear,’ the woman said, fidget-shuffling from one foot to the other, as if she was getting pee-shivers.
‘Yeah, sure,’ Mary finally replied, a thin smile gracing her lips. ‘Don’t worry.’
‘Thank you so much.’ The woman’s eyebrows curved up and in, making her eyes rounder. She placed her drink and the tabloid paper on the table, turned around, and dashed away in the direction of the ladies’ bathroom.
Mary’s attention was just about to return to the picture board when something floating inside the woman’s drink caught her eye. She leaned forward to have a better look at it, before smiling.
The drink inside the goblet was dark in color, and floating around on its surface was a couple of vampire jelly teeth. That had to be one of the threeVamp Bloodcocktails.
Mary’s eyes lingered on the tabloid paper for a moment, before bouncing back to the board.
‘Thank you so much,’ Mary heard the woman say, as shereturned to the table to collect her drink. ‘I really appreciate it.’ She fanned herself with the tabloid paper. ‘This heat makes me want to go to the loo all the time.’
‘That’s one of theVamp Bloodcocktails, right?’ Mary asked, halting the woman as she was just about to walk away.
‘I think so, yeah,’ the woman replied, turning to face Mary again. ‘This is called… Cliffhanger. It’s actually quite nice… and you get a couple of jelly teeth with it.’ She slightly tilted her goblet so that Mary could see them.
Mary smiled. ‘Were you a fan of the show?’
‘Vamp Blood?’ The woman seemed to be debating her answer. ‘I wouldn’t class myself as a “fan”. I never watched the whole series, but I did watch quite a few episodes… maybe a couple of seasons worth?’ She didn’t sound too sure. ‘But that was a long time ago. I was young.’ She paused and had a sip of her cocktail. ‘How about you? Were you a fan?’
‘Pretty much so, yeah,’ Mary replied with a half shy, half embarrassed smile.
‘Yeah, the bartender told me that a lot of the show was filmed in here,’ the woman said.
‘It was indeed.’ Mary indicated the board behind her.
The woman’s eyes moved to it. ‘Hold on – that bar fight scene, where one of the vampires – the really good-looking one – crawls along the ceiling and pretty much rips the other guy’s head off. D’you remember that?’
‘Of course. Season two.’
‘Was that filmed in here?’
Mary smiled and nodded at the same time. ‘Shot right there by the bar, I’m guessing.’
