‘So, you’re here with Luca?’
Claire turned to see a pretty blonde standing beside her. She had seemed vaguely familiar earlier when Luca had introduced her as Aisling, and now Claire recognised her as the girl who had been sitting in his lap the night they had first met.
‘Er… yeah.’
Aisling nodded, her expression openly assessing. ‘Welcome to the club,’ she said, with a sly smile, raising her cocktail glass in salute.
‘Sorry?’
Aisling grinned, and took a gulp of her drink, obviously enjoying Claire’s discomfiture. ‘It’s not a very exclusive club,’ she said, ‘but congrats anyway on becoming our newest member.’ She clinked her glass against one of the bottles Claire was holding.
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ Claire said stiffly, even though she knew damn well this was Aisling’s unsubtle way of telling her that she shouldn’t think she was anything special because she was with Luca.
‘Oh, I think you do,’ Aisling said. ‘Well, have fun – while it lasts.’ She drifted away, leaving Claire reeling.
‘Claire?’ A female voice behind her called her name and she turned to see Yvonne arm in arm with Ivan, both of them clutching bottles of beer.
‘Itisyou!’ Yvonne said.
‘Oh my God! Yvonne! Hi!’ Claire’s eyes darted to the exit in panic, hoping now that Luca wouldn’t come back too soon.
Yvonne gave her a one-armed hug. ‘You remember Ivan?’
‘Yes. Hi, Ivan,’ she said, as he bent to kiss her cheek.
‘Lovely to meet you again, Claire.’
‘I’m surprised to see you here!’ Yvonne said. ‘I didn’t think this would be your kind of thing.’
‘Yeah, I, um… I came with a friend.’ She waved the two bottles of beer.
‘Are you enjoying the band?’ Ivan asked.
‘They’re good, aren’t they?’ Yvonne said. ‘Justine – the girl who plays the keyboards – is Ivan’s sister.’
‘Yeah, they’re great! I’m really enjoying it,’ Claire said,desperately hoping they would go before Luca came back. ‘This is a nice place. I’ve never been here before.’
‘So, who are you here with?’ Yvonne asked.
‘Oh, just… just a friend.’ Claire was relieved when she saw the band coming back onstage out of the corner of her eye.
Yvonne’s eyes lit up. ‘Is it that guy we were talking about the other day?’ When Ivan turned away for a moment, she mouthed, ‘Fuck buddy,’ at Claire, her eyebrows raised.
Over Yvonne’s shoulder, Claire saw Luca making his way through the crowd towards them. She tried to signal to him with her eyes that he should stay away, but either he didn’t pick up on it or he chose to ignore her because he strode right up to her.
‘Oh, hi, Yvonne,’ he said casually. ‘Ivan.’
‘Luca!’ Yvonne exclaimed. ‘Wow, everyone’s here tonight. We just bumped into Claire – you remember Claire? – and now—’ She stopped abruptly as Luca slid an arm casually around Claire’s waist and pulled her into his side, while he took his beer from her. ‘Oh!’ She smiled as her eyes darted from one of them to the other. ‘Oh,’ she said, eyeballing Claire.
Claire was relieved when the light dimmed, hiding her blushes and taking Yvonne’s focus off her.
‘Our friends are over there,’ Ivan said, waving to the other side of the room. ‘We’d better go back and join them.’
‘We might see you later, yeah?’ Yvonne said, as the band started playing.
‘What was that about?’ Luca chuckled, pulling Claire in front of him and propping his head on her shoulder.
‘I’ll tell you later.’
