The girls weren’t impressed by the invasion of male specimens; neither was the bartender, who as suspected, was a bodybuilder wearing very little other than a tiny pair of tight shorts.
“You might want to put some jeans on,” Max said, trying to expand his shoulders and height by a couple of inches. “Or leave.”
The bartender gave Max a hungry look and I bit back a laugh. There really hadn’t been any danger of him hitting on Victoria or Ava or any of the other girls.
“Whatever works for you,” he said. “And what would you like me to make you once I’ve put my pantson?”
“Whisky,” Max said. “A large one. Only one ice cube.”
“Gotcha,” the bartender said, giving him a cheeky wink. Max stalked off muttering something under his breath.
“Why are you here?” Ava said, her small hand clamping onto my forearm. “You’re meant to be playing poker at yours. Not crashing our girls’ night.”
“Max and Jackson were a little stressed at the idea of a mainly naked bartender,” I said. I could hear the other women berating their men. Claire was doing it rather loudly, not that it was having any effect on Killian, who was standing there smiling.
“The mainly naked bartender who is completely gay? I think you lot arriving has just made his night,” she said. I heard her phone vibrate and saw an annoyed look flicker across her face.
“Who’s that?”
She shrugged. “I think it’s probably Jon.”
“On a Friday night?”
She nodded. “He’s messaged me three times since seven o’clock. I haven’t replied.”
“What does he want?”
“I don’t know. Well, I kind of know, but I’m not opening his texts as I don’t want him to know when I’ve read them.”
“Do you want me to have a word with him?” I said. I knew what the answer would be. Like fuck would she want me to interfere and as our arrangement was temporary, I didn’t have the right.
“Not at all. I can fight my own battles,” she said, her jaw tightening.
“I know you can,” I said. “But sometimes it’s good to let others fight the odd one for you,” I said. My arms were around her waist, a hand on her ass. Max and Jackson were too busy with their respective women to notice and Seph and Callum were downing shots with Amelie and Simone, friends of the Callaghans.
“If he carries on with his persistence that I see him outside of work hours I’m not going to work with his firm anymore,” she said. “I can’t do it.”
“What about speaking to his partner?” I offered.
“Rich? He’s working in New York at the moment. I think he’s out there for another three months. Jon’s trying to get me to get me involved in a big project doing the interiors for a small hotel that’s being renovated in Greenwich.”
“Do you need the work?” I knew she didn’t. She’d taken on two junior designers in the past month to cope with demand and Vanessa was currently rebranding her company to tally with its growth.
She shook her head. “No, not at the moment. But I’ve always had steady work from them and they pass on big clients – which means my name gets mentioned. I could have Cat or Davina take it on instead, but when I half mentioned that to Jon he made a cutting remark about me getting an inflated opinion of myself.”
“Okay, step one, get a second phone tomorrow. Have two phones: one for business and one for personal. Then you can set up voicemail etcetera letting people know your office hours. Don’t give him your personal number. Step two, I’m coming along next time you meet him.” I didn’t expect her to be welcoming of the idea but it was worth a try.
“Why?”
“Because he’s interested in fucking you and I’m the only person who’s doing that at the moment.”
There was a loud holler behind us as Callum started to neck back a series of shots.
“I can handle myself,” she said, pulling away from me. “But it might help him get the message more. Come on, let’s go and watch Max’s face when Callum vomits all over his garden.”
The hotel was currently derelict apart from the evidence that a team of builders were working on it. There were a couple of portaloos outside and three skips, two completely full.
“This is a huge project,” I said to Ava. She was wearing her site clothing, having been supervising one of her flips.
