‘Twelve-year-old?’ Jack smelt it as he swilled it around the glass.
‘Yes. Congratulations.’ John gently tipped glasses with Jack, then me. ‘You’ve met Lucy, I see.’
‘I clocked you as soon as you walked in. I see I wasn’t the only one.’ Jack raised his eyebrows slightly and shrugged his shoulders as if to say what can you do?
‘Fucking pain in the arse,’ John muttered. She was now only about three feet away from us, subtly moving closer to us to get a better look. As she lingered nearby, I noticed the fine lines crinkling around her heavily pencilled eyes.
Though her figure was child-like, she was nearer to forty than thirty.
‘We must introduce Lucy, to Julia,’ Jack prompted loudly, and gave us a nudge in the other direction.
We scooted rapidly across the bar to the other side of the room.
‘One of the infamous frogs?’ I asked quietly, only a couple of metres from Julia.
‘Long story. But in short, she’s a frog who was determined she was going to turn into a princess for me. It was never going to happen. Ever. I’d been drinking all day at a wedding, and she pounced on me in the residents’ bar sixteen pints later. I was absolutely hammered. I barely remember what happened.’ He placed both hands on my waist, pupils intensely into mine. ‘She’s an absolute lunatic, she stalked me for months afterwards. I told you, I’m not proud of my past, sweetheart.’
Relief flowed through my blood to my clenched fists and tight shoulders and I began to relax again.
Everyone has a past. Still, it never ceased to amaze me how people could do intimate things with people that they didn’t even particularly like. To men, it was purely about the physical release, to women, it often meant so much more.
Our conversation halted as we reached our destination by the sash windows. ‘Julia, congratulations.’ John kissed her cheek.
Julia was five-foot five, with short black hair in a pixie cropped style and widely set aquamarine eyes. Her sallow complexion was flawless.
‘This is Lucy,’ John said, and Julia kissed me on each cheek, welcoming me warmly.
‘I would have known you anywhere,’ she said pleasantly. ‘John’s been showing off your pictures on his phone for weeks now.’ She tilted her head back and giggled, pointing at John. I couldn’t place her accent, but it wasn’t Irish.
‘Thanks for that, Julia,’ John said, the tips of his ears turning as red as his hair.
‘I’ll have to start photoshopping if he’s going to flash them around the place.’ I twisted my hair round one finger, unable to shake the feeling we were being watched.
‘It’s great to see John has finally met somebody too. We thought he’d never settle down,’ she enthused. ‘Perhaps now he’ll stop bringing my fiancé out drinking whisky into the early hours, when they are supposed to be on a “working dinner”,’ Her grin suggested she didn’t mind in the slightest.
‘I wouldn’t bet on it,’ Jack said. ‘At least not until she moves over.’
It seemed everyone had my future concluded already.
Part of me was flattered they felt John was serious about me. Another part couldn’t even contemplate having to start again in a new place. Especially one where frogs lurked around every corner.
Two drinks later, I’d forgotten all about the woman in red, instead enjoying the company of Jack and Julia. It transpired that Julia was Lithuanian. They were planning to get married over there the following year.
At the risk of losing my seat, I excused myself in search of the ladies’ room.
‘Are you ok?’ John checked as I got up from the barstool.
‘Perfect.’ I reassured him with a kiss.
‘If we were dogs, you just did the equivalent of peeing on me,’ he said, a small smirk curling his full lips.
‘Nothing like marking your territory.’ I winked and passed gently by him.
I found the ladies’ toilets without a hitch, but was unexpectedly stopped in my tracks on my return by the woman in the red dress, who apparently had not forgotten about me.
Her eyes narrowed as she blocked my path. ‘Hi.’ Her voice harboured a hint of boredom, like she knew everything about me already and I was lacking. Or maybe I was projecting.
‘Hi.’ I acknowledged her as warmly as I could manage, reverting to my professional “I’m At Work and I Have To Be Polite To Patients Because They Are Paying For My Service” kind of smile. I attempted to bypass her, but she sidestepped, blocking me again.
