‘I just can’t. You have it.’
He shrugs, takes the glass from Amanda and rearranges the row of glasses on the bar so that he and I each have two left.
‘Luke, I can’t. I’ll be ill. I’m already drunk.’
‘Nonsense, Scarlett, we used to drink more than this on a weeknight at uni. Man up!’ Luke says with a wink, the irony of his statement not lost on either of us. He presses a shot glass into my hand as Amanda lines up the camera on her phone.
‘Cheers!’
‘Oh, crap,’ I mutter, just before I lick the salt, neck the shot and suck hard on my second slice of lemon. ‘Oh it hurts!’ My feet stomp again and I shake my head, which only adds to the increasing fogginess in my mind.
‘Last one,’ Luke sings, seemingly unaffected.
‘Luke, I can’t!’ I protest, rubbing my chest as if it might quell the burning sensation.
‘Pipe down, Scarlett, it’s only one.’
‘One that’ll have me running to the toilet.’
Amanda flashes her camera at us again as we carry out the same procedure and my feet stomp on the floor a third time.
‘All right. I’m going on the prowl,’ Luke announces, without even so much as a flinch from his final hit of tequila. ‘Coming?’
‘No, thanks. I’m going to go and find my sea legs,’ I say, conscious that I’m having to concentrate too hard on putting one foot in front of the other as I walk back to the booth.
‘Are you going to vomit?’ Amanda asks, eyeing me cautiously as she slips into the booth beside me.
‘No.’ I laugh. ‘I just need a minute.’
‘You sure? I know what you’re like with tequila.’
‘Yet you still inflicted an extra shot on me?’ I raise a playful brow and she giggles with a shrug.
‘I thought it would be good for you. You seem… less… well, happy tonight.’
‘Oh, Amanda, please don’t start. Iamhappy. There’s a lot of stuff going on but I’m not unhappy with Gregory and I know where you’re going with this.’
She turns to face me, lifting her knees sideways onto the leather seat. ‘Just hear me out.’
My fingers locate a glass, mine or someone else’s, and turn it in circles until my head decides it’s too dizzy to watch anything rotate. A sudden need to swallow comes over me, then my stomach settles again.
‘I can see what he has to offer. He’s attractive, anyone can see that. He’s wealthy. He’s obviously smart to have gotten to where he is.’
I lift my head and find two sympathetic eyes looking back at me as she rests her head against the back of the booth, her auburn hair falling across her shoulders.
‘But?’
‘But, he’s not right for you, Scarlett.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘I know you. You’re one of the nicest people I know, probably will ever know. You never do or say anything wrong, Scarlett, and suddenly he comes on the scene and?—’
‘And what?’ My words reflect the sharp bout of anger I’m feeling. She’s got a matter of seconds before I refuse to listen to any more.
‘I don’t trust him. I don’t trust him and I don’t like what he’s doing to you.’
I stand, shuffling awkwardly around the table to escape the booth. I’m not listening to this and I’m not starting a fight with my best friend over it either.
