Jackson reaches across to place a reassuring hand on my shoulder. ‘I’ll make sure you get back to the hotel safely. Don’t worry.’ Our eyes meet, and I notice how his catch the moonlight and twinkle. Every two minutes we are lit up by the laser beam shining from the nightclub, still in full swing. Eventually, he begins to pull a face each time the light hits us. Finally, my shoulders relax and I start to giggle, sagging back against the bench.
He rummages through his pockets. He pulls out a joint and lights it. I watch in the moonlight as he takes a deep drag on it and slowly blows the smoke out, visibly unwinding. He offers me a go, and I try not to appear shocked. Even though absolutely everyone at university was smoking weed, I was never one of them.
‘No thanks. I have a big day tomorrow. Need to keep a clear head for…’ I leave the sentence hanging as he inhales deeply, nodding.
‘No worries.’
‘Not because I’m boring,’ I explain, my old insecurities (not that old) coming back to haunt me. ‘It’s just that…’
He doesn’t even look at me. ‘Not a problem. No need to explain,’ he says, taking another drag. ‘I was just being polite. That’s all. You seem a bit stressed.’
I pause to let his words sink in. ‘You’re right. I’msostressed. This has been the day from hell.’ I lean over, take the joint from his kissable lips and pull heavily on it. The smoke immediately fills my lungs… and…holy shit, a few seconds later sends a bullet train full of wooziness straight to my brain. I take another long drag on it. Actually, it’s not that bad.
‘Careful now. If it’s your first?—’
‘Fuck me that’s good,’ I say, giving it back. ‘Between that and all those drinks, I can no longer feel my feet. In a good way. They were on fucking fire.’
He chuckles. It’s the sexiest laugh any man ever did. I watch his mouth curl upwards. Somehow, he’s even better looking.
‘Best take it easy then.’
‘I will,’ I say, plucking the joint from his lips to have another go. I’m really getting the hang of it. ‘Whoa. My brain is like mush. I feel so great.’
‘So, how come you’re on your own? Did you not find your friends?’ he asks, taking the joint from me with a raised eyebrow before inhaling deeply and passing it back.
‘No.’
I’m going to leave it there because between the joint and the tiredness I’m not sure I’ve got it in me to admit to wimping out of meeting my co-workers in favour of collapsing into a nice, comfortable bed.
‘What’s your real excuse for leaving early? It can’t be those women. You must get that sort of thing all the time.’ I take a long drag and hand it back so that he can do the same. I wince at the strength. It really is powerful.
‘I was supposed to meet some work colleagues but… like you, it’s been the day from hell. The company I work for aren’t happy.’ His chin drops to his chest. ‘I’m going to end up sacking a lot of them by the looks of things. Thought it best to keep my distance until tomorrow.’ He sucks hard on the joint. ‘And if the baby throwing up on me wasn’t bad enough, then the sodding LoveIt Holidays bus I was supposed to catch at the airport left without me.’
Ah.
‘Really?’He could be talking about any number of buses.‘That’s, erm, that’s such bad customer service. You must have been furious.’
‘I was.’ He takes another long drag. ‘But it’s all part of the territory. And there’s no point putting a complaint in about the bus. The poor driver would only get into trouble, and I have enough on my conscience already.’
Thank fuck for that.
‘Exactly. For all we know, it could have been a well-intentioned new starter put in charge on her first day. Thrown in at the deep end. We wouldn’t want to ruin a perfectly good career before it had even started, would we?’
‘Can’t see that career lasting long. How hard is it to get the right people on the right bus?’
‘Harder than you’d think, obviously.’
Jackson bursts out laughing as though I’ve just told the funniest joke he’s ever heard in his life. His incredibly accurate depiction of today’s shitshow starts me off giggling and somehow, I can’t stop either. Not even when a dolmus whizzes past and we forget to put our hands out to stop it.
‘Oh well.’ He shrugs, blowing smoke rings casually into the air. ‘We’ll get the next one.’
‘That’s if thereisa next one,’ I exclaim.Ho-ho-ho.
We laugh hard at this for about a hundred years, until tears streak our faces. ‘You have lovely musculature,’ I say, suddenly becoming an expert in human biology as my breathing calms. I point to his arms and then his legs. ‘Your muscle groups are arranged very nicely.’
Jackson takes the last drag of the joint. ‘I work out a lot. Sport is one of my cornerstones. It’s like a religion to me.’
‘I would worship that religion too.’
