Chapter Forty
After we left the beach Adam piggybacked me all the way to one of the gift shops that remained open, where he bought me an ￡11 pair of sparkly jelly sandals.
After the shops, Adam and I popped into the Ghost to kill time until Marram Bay’s only club opened. Well, it’s the closest thing we have to a club. It’s a secret bar, hidden above an arcade, but it’s the best place to go for a dance.
It’s getting late now and the place is really starting to fill up with the crowd from the Ghost who are done dry-humping one another in there, and want to do it somewhere darker, where the music is louder instead.
I am currently sitting at the bar with Adam, who so far hasn’t had to pay for a drink.
‘I’m beginning to think you’re a regular here,’ I say after we are interrupted for the millionth time.
‘It’s amazing how many people recognise my face from the radio,’ Adam jokes. ‘I used to come here with Si, before he started taking himself so seriously.’
‘I’m not… causing trouble between you, am I?’ I ask.
‘You’re not,’ he replies. ‘But he might be. I guess, when I first saw you again, he said the two of you were on a date, and then I kept seeing you together, and he strongly implied you were a couple – he even told me to back off.’
‘He did?’ I blurt. ‘I mean, yeah, it was a sort of date type thing, that first night, but I told him after that I wasn’t looking for anything, or anyone, that I needed time.’
‘He’s just… I don’t know, I think he’s heading for a midlife crisis,’ he replies. ‘There’s no point dwelling on…’
His voice trails off.
‘Here’s the plan,’ he says, changing his tune. ‘We knock back another couple of shots, because you are not nearly drunk enough, and then we dance.’
Adam signals the barman over.
‘What can I get you?’ he asks.
‘Four shots of… something that will make me and my friend very drunk. We don’t care what it is.’
The barman laughs and fills up four little shot glasses with a bright red liquid.
‘One, then the other straight after,’ Adam instructs, and I do as I’m told.
Cheering up is exactly what I need right now so I’ll do whatever Adam tells me to do.
‘Yuck,’ I can’t help but announce when I’m done. ‘That’s like poison.’
‘Poison that’s going to put a smile on your face,’ Adam insists. ‘Right, I’ll meet you on the dance floor, I just want to say hello to the DJ, I know him.’
‘Of course you do,’ I call after him. ‘You know everyone.’
As instructed, I make my way to the dance floor on my own. After the drinks at the fundraiser, and the Ghost, plus the ones in here, I’m starting to feel a little unsteady on my feet.
The thumping club music makes way for something slow, something familiar – My Heart Will Go On , by Celine Dion.
Oh my God, he hasn’t?
Adam walks across the dance floor, to where I am, and takes my hand.
‘May I have this dance?’ he asks.
‘Have you really just asked them to play a ballad in a club?’ I reply. ‘The crowd will turn on us.’
‘I don’t think so,’ he replies.
As Adam pulls me close I notice everyone around us staring, smiling, and cooing at us. They think we’re cute.
‘How did you…’
‘I told you, I know the DJ,’ he says with a grin.
I love the feeling of his hands on my body. I get a real rush of… something, as Adam and I gaze into each other’s eyes, and I can’t help but wonder if it’s from the alcohol, the spinning, or something worse. Much worse. Something there is no cure for.
I want him.