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I let Andrew walk ahead with Bill and it was only then I caught Tania, Bill’s wife watching us. She smiled and came to my side.
“You know, if there’s anything you’d like to talk about, Bill and me are here for you.”
It seemed a strange thing to say, but I smiled in response.
“You look terrified, and I’ve seen that look before, Amber. I was you once, before I met Bill. I’m here for you.”
“Oh, I... I’m not sure what you mean.”
I knew damn well what she meant, but I couldn’t acknowledge it. Bill shouldn’t have kissed me; Andrew would have every right to be cross. I’d be the same had some woman kissed his cheek, I thought.
We followed the men into the garden.
There was a pool filled with inflatables and children splashing around, a chef behind a cooking station. It wasn’t a bar-b-que, more a fully fitted outdoor kitchen. A couple of people came over to introduce themselves, and Andrew was polite. I was on edge. He hadn’t said a word to me. I placed my hand on his arm, and he finally turned to me.
“Shall I get you a drink?” I asked.
“I’ll have a glass of wine, thank you.” He clipped his reply. I hoped that he would stick at just the one glass, he could be vile when drunk.
I grabbed him a glass from a passing waitress and a Coke for myself. The tension rolling off him was palpable. I wanted to keep my wits about me.
I’d seen him angry a few times, but his stiff body and tense jaw were new.
He gulped down his glass. “If we have to mix with the riff-raff, might as well do that drunk,” he said, a little too loudly.
Tears sprang to my eyes. I liked my boss, his family, and the guys at work. They treated me well and I started to pray he wouldn’t embarrass me in front of them.
The more he drank, the less I did. He was chatty and seemed to get on well with my colleagues. We ate and he started on the beers. Whenever I moved slightly away from him, he’d grip my arm. I had wanted to join the ladies, but he wasn’t having any of it. Instead, I had to listen to him bore people with talk of his job. He was a trader in the city, a serious job, he’d tell them. He failed to add that he was still a junior trader and not quite up with the big boys he bragged about. I was sure he was trying to make them feel small and inadequate around him. Thankfully, they seemed to take it on the chin. I was guessing they’d come across lots of Andrews in their time. The posh twit who thought everyone was beneath him. I started to get cross.
When he started talking about how he’d found me in the gutter and that he was training me up to middleclassdom, I walked away. I snatched my arm from his grip and headed for the toilets. Andrew was laughing, swaying around, and I couldn’t care less whether he fell into the pool at that point.
After a few tears, I came out of the toilets, Tania was there. “You okay?” she asked.
“He’s drunk and being an arse. He isn’t like this normally,” I said, rubbing under my eyes to get rid of any smeared mascara.
She nodded, but I could tell she didn’t believe me. “I think you should take him home. He might end up getting a bop on the nose here,” she said, smiling kindly at me.
“A bop on the nose?” we heard, and I closed my eyes briefly before turning to face him.
“I think it’s time we left,” I said.
“I’ll leave when I’m good and ready,” he replied, slurring his words.
“You’ll leave when I ask you to, which is now. You’re insulting people,” Tania said.
He stared at her, and, unlike me, she held his gaze. “You can’t bully me, mate,” she added. “I’ll call you a taxi.”
He grabbed my arm and dragged me to the front door. I stumbled down the steps. “Stop pulling me, I’m going to fall!”
He stopped and turned to me. “I’m so sorry, Amber. Let me go back and apologise to everyone.”
He was a Jekyll and Hyde, for sure. One minute spitting insults, the next, all apologetic and remorseful.
“Let’s just get home.”
He turned and walked to the road. I followed, rubbing my arm, knowing I’d have a bruise there.
The taxi didn’t take long, and he didn’t speak to me at all. I kept my head turned, looking out the side window and paid when we arrived at my flat. I hadn’t wanted him to come in but didn’t want to stir the hornets’ nest by telling him that.
