Chapter Twenty-Two #2
She hasn’t been in the public bar since a trip home a few years ago when Joni brought her to the pub for a drink.
They intended to sit in the beer garden but it started to rain, so they ended up in here with the professional drinkers and some lonely gamblers – all because of Joni’s aversion to the ladies lounge.
She spotted Christina’s father in there once with his girlfriend and hasn’t been back since.
Christina decided against the ladies lounge this evening in solidarity, but now worries that Belinda may go there first and not think to look in the public bar.
She’s about to get up and search for her when someone appears in front of her, but the someone is wearing jeans and a Billabong T-shirt and is definitely not female.
‘Chrissie!’ says Duncan, putting his hands on his hips and grinning down at her.
She winces at the nickname, but she didn’t tell him not to call her that the last time he did it, so she can’t blame him.
‘Are you here on your own?’ he says, and sits in the chair opposite her.
‘Hi, Duncan. I’m, um, waiting for …’ She was going to say ‘a friend’, but that’s not right, is it?
‘Waiting, eh?’ He looks inordinately pleased to see her. ‘I like your hair. Suits you.’
She can’t help showing surprise. He noticed? Since when do men notice women changing their hair?
‘Thanks,’ she says. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Drinks with the boys.’ He looks at his watch. ‘Or not. I think I’ve been stood up.’ He shrugs. ‘Never mind.’
‘What time were you meeting them?’
It’s only polite to make conversation, and besides, he’s stopped her feeling so obvious sitting alone in this place with its sagging sofas, grumpy barmaid, unfashionable carpet and a smell of beer that’s been baked into the walls over the years.
‘Six.’
She looks at her own watch. ‘It’s only five past.’
He shrugs again, grinning. ‘Can’t stand lateness.’
‘What if the traffic’s bad?’
In Sydney this is a legitimate reason to be late. The city has become so much busier since she moved away, and it can still surprise her to see the lines of cars on Military Road heading in both directions.
‘Could be. I’m not worried, though.’ More grinning. ‘Gives me a chance to chat to you.’
‘My, um, friend should be here shortly.’
His smile drops. ‘Wait – are you on a date or something? Sorry, I didn’t –’
‘No!’ She laughs. ‘No date. Meeting a girl I knew at school.’
‘Old friend, eh?’
‘Not really. She called out of the blue the other day. I haven’t spoken to her in years.’
He nods slowly. ‘Right. Get a few people calling you out of the blue, do you?’
‘I have done, yes. Not so much since I’ve been home.’
It’s been more her mother getting the calls from people she hasn’t heard from in years, asking how she is, how’s the family, any news? Joni cottoned on quickly and has given nothing away.
‘How did you know?’ she adds.
‘My mate played cricket for Australia,’ he says, and she likes that he doesn’t name the mate.
‘Every man and his dog wanted a piece of him,’ Duncan continues.
‘“Can you sign a photo for my kid?” “Could you donate a stump for my charity auction?” “Can you call my mum for her birthday?”’ He rolls his eyes.
‘Poor bloke started wishing he’d never been promoted from the under-twelves second eleven. People can be parasites.’
She feels the truth of this but doesn’t want to agree. She still doesn’t know him, not really, and he could be one of the parasites, trying to get a quote from her for a magazine.
‘I’m sure your friend isn’t,’ he says, more softly.
She laughs. ‘I’m not. I don’t know her any more. But I’ve kind of been stuck around the house, so Mum encouraged me to get out for a bit.’
There’s something in his eyes that she can’t read.
‘I’d be happy to get you out of the house anytime you like,’ he says in that way a person can have when they’re saying something serious but they’re nervous about the response, so they try to sound light-hearted but just end up with a strangled sound to their voice.
‘Oh,’ she says, not entirely surprised – he looked so pleased to see her, after all, and she remembers that he called the house the other day – yet also taken aback.
‘And in case you think I’m just one of those parasites …’ He raises an eyebrow, then stands slowly. ‘I liked you at school, Christina O’Flynn. I just didn’t know how to tell you.’
He turns his head toward the doorway that leads to the beer garden. ‘I think this might be your friend,’ he says, and winks. ‘Great to see you.’
Then he’s gone, replaced by the shape of a new person who must be Belinda, flapping her arms and half-screeching, ‘I was in the beer garden! Where were you?’
It’s not the greeting of someone who wants to impress her but of an old mate, almost, and Christina feels so grateful that she nearly gives Belinda a hug, then stops herself because it might seem weird.
‘Sorry,’ she says, ‘I forgot how many areas this place has.’
‘Right?’ Belinda squeezes her arm. ‘It’s so good to see you. And you’re even more beautiful than you used to be, you bitch! How dare you.’
She laughs and Christina decides that she’ll go for that hug after all.
It’s a night for her defences starting to come down – she can feel them almost sliding off her – and she wants to give in to it.
To feel, even if it’s just for tonight, that she can be open to the idea that some people are who they seem.
‘It’s good to see you too,’ she says to Belinda, then lets go. ‘Now, what would you like to drink? My shout.’
Order taken, she heads to the bar and the grumpy barmaid, smiling the whole time.