Chapter 24 #3
“You mean because you were supposed to take the lead?” She’d always thought he’d been cool with the fact they’d voted Nash into that role instead.
“It’s pretty darned difficult to play drums and sing lead vocals at the same time. No, I’m not sore. I just think he’s a self-centred gobby wanker, and you deserve better.”
“I’m happy with what I’ve got.”
He outright laughed at that. “You’re happy being ignored except for when he wants something?
Babe, we’ve been here well over an hour now.
” He woke his phone screen. “Longer. And Nash has spent less than five minutes with you. You don’t even know where he is.
And he hasn’t given a fucking thought to where you are or what you’re doing, because out of sight, out of mind, right? ”
Alarmingly, that was Nash described to a tee.
How many times had she slipped his mind because she hadn’t been right there in front of him?
His failure to turn up to their handfasting was only the most recent example of it.
Looking back, there’d been others, like the time she’d spent three hours by a stage door in torrential rain because he’d forgotten to tell security to expect her.
“Fucking fool. In his position, I’d be glued to you. I sure as hell wouldn’t be leaving the door open for a better man to walk through.”
“Do you know where Nash is?”
Jez considered that with his fag dangling from his lower lip for perhaps half a second.
“Like you need to ask. We both know where he is. Same fucking place he always is these days. With Balin.” He tapped a bunch of ash away.
“You should go do Rock Giant. Seriously. I’ll cover for you if Curtis makes an appearance. ”
“I’m not going to screw Rock Giant.”
“More’s the pity.”
“Have you always hated him this much?”
Jez sneered in a way that showed off the sharpness of his canines. Girls were charmed by those vampire teeth, not that they were inches long or anything. He didn’t have fangs, but they were pointy. “Wrong question.”
He got up and bumped over the barrier dividing the bar from the street. What was the right question? “Why do you hate him?” What had changed? They had been friends, hadn’t they? “Jez, why did you split up with Rune? Did Nash have something to do with it?”
“Do pigeons shit?”
Oh, God! She hadn’t banked on it being the truth.
“What did he do?”
But Jez’s long slim legs had already taken him halfway across the paved street. He didn’t turn or respond to her call.
Jodi slumped back into her wooden chair.
What had Nash actually told her? Wait, he hadn’t actually told her.
It’d been Balin…or was it Lee? Whoever it had been, had said they’d split because Jez figured it wouldn’t work out due to them being set to tour so much.
It’d seemed a flimsy excuse at the time.
Now, she didn’t believe it for a second.
“Jo-bill-o.” Balin slid his arms around her from behind. He smelled of recently sprayed deodorant with an underlying thread of sex. She didn’t need to ask what he’d been doing. “How come you’re out here alone?” His lips grazed her cheek.
“I was with Jez, but he’s…” She gestured in the direction of the quayside, with its colourful bobbing boats.
“Is he being a mardarse again?”
“Balin, do you know what happened between him and Rune? Has he spoken to any of you about it?”
He slid into the seat Jez had recently vacated. “Not to me. Figure he will when he’s ready.”
“But Nash didn’t have anything to do with it, right?”
Balin pulled his legs up, so he was sat cross-legged in the chair. “Why would Nash have owt to do with Jez and Rune splitting? Did Jez suggest—”
Nash scraped a chair up to their table.
“You’re here,” she observed, an awkwardly bright lilt to her voice.
She tipped her head up towards him, and he dutifully dropped a kiss on her lips.
He tasted of mints. “Where’ve you been?” But smelled of the same anti-perspirant as Balin.
They didn’t usually use the same brand. She knew, she’d been doing the shopping, and they were all very particular about who liked what.
“I went to the loo, then it’s taken an age to locate you.”
The bar wasn’t that big, which made it a shitty excuse for an excuse. He could have just admitted to being with Balin. It wasn’t like she was unaware of his current fetish.
“But I’m here now.” He folded one of her hands between the pair of his. “What’s your desire? Do you want another drink? Shall I go to the bar? What do you want? Beer, again? Balin?”
“Yeah.”
And off he went like he knew he’d wind up in the shit if he stayed.
Jodi drew her chair closer to Balin’s. He had a dazed look about him, testament, she suspected to the fact he’d just got laid. “Was he watching you?”
“Ah, Jo—”
“Balin, just answer the question.”
He sniffed. “Yeah, sure.”
“Just watching?”
“Course.”
“And what happened to the... to your hook up?”
He shrugged. “Went back to her guy, I guess.” He was so blasé about it, at first, she was convinced she’d misheard him.
“You just shagged someone’s girlfriend?”
“Wife, I think.”
“What!”
He treated her to another of those loose-limbed shrugs. “It’s hardly a first. What’s the big deal?”
“Balin! You’re screwing married women! You don’t think maybe that might be detrimental to their relationships?”
He leaned over the table, bringing their heads closer. “Jo, their relationships are none of my fucking business. I make it a policy not to interfere in other people’s affairs. I’m there for the good times. We have fun. I never disappoint. Everyone knows the deal and gets what they want out of it.”
“Right.” The word came out more clipped than she’d intended it to.
“Oooh, disapproving look,” Balin crowed. He didn’t seem in the least bit perturbed.
“And when the condom splits, or—”
“Shh!” He pressed his index finger to her lips while grinning. “Not your problem. Your job is just to keep me stocked up on jonnies and lube.”
“Well, that makes me feel complicit.”
His handsome mug scrunched into a frown. “Don’t be daft. Look, is this because you’re pissed off at me for letting Nash watch? Babe, if you’ve issues with it, you need to discuss them with him. You realise he’s just watching, right? So, what’s the big deal? It’s not like he’s cheating.”
Right. Of course it wasn’t. Balin wouldn’t bullshit her over that.
“Is he just watching, though? Or is he getting off?”
Balin went all po-faced on her. So, that was a resounding yes, then.
“I’m just asking because if he is, that makes it sound an awful lot like you’re having strings of threesomes with random married women.”
“Not all of them are—”
“Not the point, Balin.”
She rubbed her suddenly prickly eyes, and then at the stinging sensation in her nose.
“Jo, babe.” Balin bumped his chair closer so he could sling an arm around her shoulders. “We’re not having threesomes. Trust me on this. You don’t need to get upset. Promise. He’s just being an observant wingman for me. It’s all harmless.”
“Right,” she snuffled into a napkin she didn’t remember picking up. “But is it?”
“Yes.”
“So, if I decided to, I dunno, go watch Rock Giant jerk off, would that be just harmless?”
“I’m not sure that’s the same. Nash isn’t watching me jerk off. He’s not interested in me. Watching just gets him going. It gets him excited for you.”
He was always hot for her after he’d been places with Balin.
“He’s only interested in you.”
“I know, but... Suppose I asked you to stop letting him—”
“Jo.”
“Balin.”
His gaze slid away from hers, so that he was looking into the middle distance.
“I thought we were friends.”
“We are friends.”
But not close enough friends that he’d make her that promise. A fact that hurt more than she liked, and cemented the precariousness of her position.
“I don’t get involved in other people’s relationships,” he reiterated.
“It’s up to you two to make the rules of your relationship.
” He sat for a couple more seconds, no longer with his arm comfortably around her shoulder, then rose.
“I’m gonna go see if Nash needs a hand with those drinks.
” And off he went, probably to report everything she’d just said straight to Nash.
Well, there was a truly smashing conversation to look forward to later.
It wasn’t much fun stewing in the semi-dark alone, and while she didn’t doubt there was a queue for the bar, she also couldn’t tolerate waiting for them.
Jodi relinquished the table to a bunch of thirtysomethings and crossed the plaza to join Jez by the water’s edge.
He was standing, gazing out to sea, his wavy hair lifted by the night breeze, hands in his pockets.
They stood in silence for several minutes.
“Do you ever wonder if you’ve made the right choices?”
Jez glanced at her from beneath half-shuttered lids, but didn’t answer. After a moment, she rested her head against him. He yielded, and put his arm around her shoulders. “Sometimes.”
“Do you miss Rune?” Stupid question, she knew he did.
She’d watched him grieving, but she hadn’t taken the time to ask him about it.
She’d never dealt with a guy friend going through a breakup.
All the lads she’d known growing up bounced from one lass to the next without standing still long enough to figure out if it hurt, and she’d never had a female bestie to nurse through a breakup with rom coms and ice-cream.
Did Jez need rom coms and ice-cream? He’d probably prefer some psychological horror film that’d give her nightmares for months.
“Can’t you fix it?”
“I’m the one who broke it off, Jodi.”
“Right. Earlier, you implied Nash was involved.”
“He wasn’t uninvolved.”
“But he didn’t cause the... It wasn’t because of anything he did that made you break up?”
He remained silent, a faraway look on his face. After a moment or two, his sullen scowl transformed, and a smile kissed his cheeks.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
“I haven’t seen you smile in like forever. It’s something.”
“I was just thinking maybe I should have a T-shirt made, or I could doctor one of the merch shirts. Or a Team GB one, graffiti on an R. No, wait, a Pokémon one. Instead of Team Rocket, I could be Team Rock—”
“Giant,” she finished for him. “Please don’t do that. Just because I’m mildly pissed off at Nash at the moment doesn’t mean I want you to start trolling him.”
He flashed her a look of those pointy teeth of his again. “I’m making no promises.”