Philip joined them with a few others and seemed to prove the point both Tasha and Juan had been making. “Juan get everyone a drink, the old man is paying.”
Tasha, with a drink in hand made her way to the group of Philip’s friends where one of them, with a warm smile, introduced himself. “Hi, I’m Alex. I work with Philip.”
“Nice to meet you. Tasha,” she said, unsure how to describe herself but extended a hand.
“Philip said you’re his dad’s girlfriend. You’re not what I expected.”
She smiled a little awkwardly and pulled back the hand Alex still held. “I’m not sure what to say to that.”
“Sorry,” said Alex looking embarrassed. “Would you like to dance?”
Tasha nodded. Dancing rather than talking would be far less awkward for them both. She was already following Alex to the dance floor where they were eventually joined by Juan who seemed concerned for Tasha and suspicious of Alex, but Tasha reasoned he’d done nothing to give cause for suspicion.
They’d all been dancing to the very loud music and after several drinks Tasha found herself getting lost in the music and remained oblivious to Alex getting closer and closer and it wasn’t until she felt his hands on her that she realised just how close he was. Philip, who was supposed to be looking after her while Juan visited the bathroom had moved onto shots at the bar with a few of the others.
With his touching of her becoming more persistent she tried to release herself from Alex’s relentless pawing so offered him a gentle reminder. “I have a boyfriend. I’m really not interested, please let me go.”
“I don’t care about your boyfriend. I have one too, and a girlfriend.”
Tasha stared, open mouthed, missing Alex pushing his hands up her dress where he somehow pinched her thigh.
“Piss off!” she screamed at him and managed to pull herself free as she pushed him away, then headed to the bathroom.
She sat in a cubicle and gathered her thoughts. What a dick Alex was; a boyfriend, a girlfriend and still he’d had a crack at her. How bloody dare he? He knew she had a boyfriend who was Philip’s dad which showed a lack of respect for her and Philip, never mind Jim himself. She had done nothing to encourage his advances, had she? She’d changed her drink to water because she really did want to stay sober and all she’d done was dance. She had followed all of Jim’s rules and yet another man viewed her as easy and available for his use. She stood up and straightened her dress and decided she’d overreacted, not in her rebuttal of Alex, but in her reaction afterwards. Alex had fancied her, she hadn’t realised so they’d danced and talked. He’d tried it on and she had said no, well piss off actually, but it was done now. No harm done, although he’d hurt her thigh, but Jim would never know and she would just keep her distance from Alex for the rest of the night, problem solved.
She checked her phone where there was just one message from Jim.
She considered replying, but decided against it. She went back out into the club and as she looked around Alex appeared again and tried to pull her back towards the dance floor.
“No. I’ll sit this one out I think.” She spoke with a flatness to her voice and hoped it would have the desired effect. It didn’t.
Alex wasn’t ready to take no for an answer just yet. As she went to walk away he grabbed at her and pulled the shoulder of her dress. She heard the fabric rip and realised he might prove more persistent than she’d first thought, dangerous even, so was very pleased to see Juan appear at her side.
“Are you okay?”
“I think so. He’s a bit drunk and appears to have torn my dress.” She was panicking slightly because apart from anything else Jim would see her torn dress and want to know exactly how it had ended up that way.
“Alex, leave her alone or I will tell Donny, you fucking idiot.” Juan did nothing to hide his anger at the other man.
The other man smirked, but put his hands up as if to surrender with a muttered and very insincere sounding, “Sorry.”
“Where is Philip? I went to the bathroom and left him to watch you. Jim is going to flip when he sees your dress.” Juan sounded worried and whilst his concerned eyes were solely focused on Tasha, she didn’t doubt his demeanour was for the fallout from Jim.
“He went to do shots at the bar, but I don’t need watching.”
Juan frowned at her protest. “Your dress says differently and so will Jim. Come on, let’s go home.”
She shook her head at the suggestion. “It’s early still, but I could do with doing something with this.” Tasha held up the two pieces of torn fabric that used to be the shoulder of her dress.
“Come here, let me help,” said Juan. “Maybe we could tie it or wrap it around your bra, do you mind?” he asked before touching her or the dress.
She shook her head again and as he started folding and wrapping the fabric she asked, “Do you call Jim, Jim because of Philip because your brother calls him Mr Maybury?”
He nodded. “When I do the pool I now call him Jim, but if I see him at work or make reference to him there I call him Mr Maybury. There’s only really Marc and Marcia who call him Jim at work, and probably only you brave enough to call him James.”
She laughed and with surprise asked, “You work for Jim?”
