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No, please, God, not more drinking.
‘Yes, okay,’ I say with a forced smile.
‘To the friends we make through dating apps,’ she says. ‘There are no people I would rather be friendzoned by.’
‘To the friendzone,’ Tobias laughs.
We all clink our glasses. I take the smallest sip I can get away with.
‘I was just telling the boys about the summer I spent in Kerala,’ Leila continues. ‘I was picking tea when…’
I try my best to listen. I wriggle in my seat. I start bouncing one of my legs lightly on the floor, to try to distract from my aggressively full bladder.
‘Billie, are you okay?’ Rocco asks me, concerned, noticing my leg.
‘Yes, yes,’ I quickly insist. ‘Actually, I’m just going to nip to the loo again.’
Amazing. I didn’t want him thinking I used the toilet at all – now I’m making myself seem like I have some sort of problem.
‘Are you okay?’ Leila asks.
‘Oh, yeah, I’m fine, I won’t be long,’ I reply as I hurry off.
This time, I’m careful to make my way to the toilets without passing Mum, Jess and Declan, which I do succeed in doing. The problem is that, as I walk out of the cubicle, and over to the sinks to wash my hands, I pull up next to my mum as she washes hers.
‘There you are, darling,’ she replies. ‘I was worried you’d got lost. Have you seen these taps? I’ve taken a photo of them. I’m thinking they would look good in the downstairs WC. Is everything okay?’
Her tone quickly changes as she sees the look on my face.
‘Yeah, I’m fine,’ I reply with a smile.
Well, I’m not fine, but I’m better now I’m empty.
Mum waits for me to wash my hands before hooking her arm through mine.
‘Come on, let’s go enjoy our drinks,’ she says. ‘It’s nice, to finally be on a night out together.’
‘It really is,’ I reply. I can’t help but cock my head as something occurs to me. This is my opportunity to do some digging. ‘We can finally be one another’s wingwoman, help each other find a man, what do you say?’
‘Oh, I don’t know about that,’ she replies with a laugh. ‘I’m more than happy to help you find a nice young man but, as for me, I’m content as things are at the moment.’
‘I thought you were on the look-out for someone,’ I say, a little too quickly.
‘I’m happy, darling,’ she insists. ‘Don’t worry about me.’
Words echo in my head as we head back to our table. She’s happy. She isn’t looking for anyone. Is that because she’s found someone? Is that someone my dad? I really, really hope it isn’t, for everyone’s sake.
We arrive back at the table to find another man standing there with Jess and Declan. As I take my seat, I realise who he is – or what he is, at least. He’s a magician, working the room, doing tricks for the customers. He’s a twenty-something who looks the part – think more David Blaine than Paul Daniels, though. We pull up alongside him as he’s performing a trick where he places his thumb between his teeth and then pulls down, creating the illusion that he is stretching his thumb, of course being alongside him gives us a peek behind the curtain, revealing that he switches from one thumb to the other, to make the first thumb look twice as long.
Declan pulls a face at him, suggesting that the trick looked rubbish head-on too.
‘Okay, how about this one,’ the magician says, pulling a playing card from his pocket. One of the corners is missing – he shows us the missing piece in his other hand.
Mum and I take our seats again. I sigh as I grab one of my cocktails. I’m not really a magician kind of girl. In fact, no one at this table seems to be enjoying it all that much.
The magician places the two pieces of card together and then, with a few speedy hand movements, reveals that the card is whole again.
He looks at me, his eyes wide with optimism, to see if I’m impressed. Not only can I see the fold in the card, where he was pretending it was torn, but he’s also dropped the smaller piece of card, the one he was pretending to stick back together on the floor.
