Chapter 30
Three days of walking on eggshells later and I’ve finally cracked a smile on Soumia’s face with the promise of a night of free alcohol and a pub quiz. Though initially reluctant to third-wheel mine and Olly’s date night, I’ve invited a few of the other Tiny World gang to make it less intimate.
Soumia initiates the conversion for the first time since she left the crew room as we open the door to The Goose. ‘Did you respond to the Facebook comment?’ Soumia’s asks carefully, mindful of my reaction.
‘What is there to respond? Liam’s in the past and that’s where he’s staying. I could still kill Alex for posting the pic.’
‘Not as much as I could stab the bitch with a rusty knife.’
Olly is already inside the bar and looks even more handsome than I remember.
A white shirt contrasts with his black skin, top buttons undone, his tight curly chest hair peeps out from underneath.
I can’t wait to put my fingers through it.
It’s been three days since we were together in Iceland.
It’s felt like an eternity. I’ve had my phone glued to my hand messaging him non-stop.
I’ve not been this excited to see someone since I went to watch Madonna’s The Celebration tour.
He’s reserved us a high table with stools.
Naturally, I sit next to him. He secures me to my seat by putting an arm around my waist like an extension seatbelt.
I expect the lights to flicker as I’m electrocuted by his lips. I know tonight will end in sex.
Nick and Dave arrive seconds later and sit themselves down.
They’re wearing matching striped jumpers; they look like a real-life version of Bert and Ernie (if Ernie was permanently on edge).
Dave is scanning the room for any potential threats to his wedded bliss.
Soumia settles herself on her stool. She’s wearing high waisted denim jeans, a white vest and black leather jacket, looking very much like Kylie Minogue doing The Loco Motion.
Olly, Soumia and I take up a side of the square table each, Nick and Dave share one.
Nick’s still very much on a tight leash.
‘Can I get anyone a drink?’ Nick’s back on his feet seconds after his bottom has touched his stool.
Dave pulls him back down. ‘You’re not drinking remember.’
‘One or two won't hurt.’ Nick’s grown balls, he’s up again. ‘Gin and tonics all round?’ He turns to the bar before I can ask for a shandy instead.
Dave’s the first to strike up a conversation and aims a question at Olly.
It’s the first time I’ve heard him talk without Nick or a passenger being on the receiving end.
His voice is higher pitched than I’ve noticed before, possibly nerves from his new experience.
‘Olly, my man,’ he’s awkward, ‘how are things with the big bird?’
Olly gives me a slow side eye before responding. ‘She’s alright, clean bill of health, for now. We flew it back yesterday. It’s gone back out to JFK this morning.’
Soumia is passing her phone over to Dave. ‘Will you get a pic of us three please.’ She jumps off her stool and stands behind me and Olly, prising her way into the middle of us.
Dave lifts up the phone. ‘Say “Tiny World.”’
I pull my best smile.
‘Here, I took a few,’ Dave says.
‘Not that one, I’ve got my eyes closed,’ I say to Soumia.
Soumia’s scrolling through the identical pictures. ‘God, you both look so cute in this one. I’ll tag us.’
I point at Olly. ‘Excuse me, when did you two become Facebook friends?’
‘Worried you’re going to lose your work wife?’ He teases.
‘She would never leave me for the likes of you.’
‘Errrm, why not?’
‘Because you’re like a proper grown up, I’m her project.’
Soumia is tapping away on her phone. ‘You can both shut up before I sell you on marketplace.’
Nick’s back with the drinks. He’s balancing five gin glasses between his hands to stop them falling to the floor. There’s a chorus of Thank You as he puts them down.
The drag queen on stage, Diamond White, so called because she’s never without a cider in her hand, is a slightly larger lady wearing a fitted velvet dress the colour of Santa’s coat.
The curves of her stomach are accentuated, her natural moobs making the need for prosthetic breasts redundant.
Her bingo wings shake as she holds onto the microphone.
She’s not bothered to shave off her five o’clock stubble, choosing to paint over it instead – badly.
Her voice is deep. ‘Right you shower of shite, ten minutes to go and then we’ll get the quiz started.
Five rounds of ten questions, winner gets a packet of pork scratchings.
Don’t moan, it’s just for fun.’ Her cheap wig is glued to her face with sweat.
‘I’m having a right hot flush up ‘ere. One of you bastards not got me a drink yet. Right, we’ll have some music to get us in t’ mood. ’
A Eurovision track dances through the speakers; shoulders pop in sequence to the camp dancefloor filler.
Olly has got his hand on my lower back. ‘What’s your specialist subject then?’
Soumia answers for me. ‘Oh that’s easy: Sugababes and Coronation St from the 90s.’
Olly nudges my glass with his. ‘That’s shameful.’
‘Overload is the greatest debut pop single of all time. And Vera Duckworth is a legend.’ I give him a playful elbow nudge. ‘What would yours be?’
‘Greek mythology and Freddie Mercury.’
‘Clever Bastard. Are you being serious?’
‘Deadly. Did you know Icarus flew too close to the sun which melted the bees wax he’d used to make his wings? He fell into the sea and drowned.’
Soumia swills her glass around, mixing the gin and tonic. ‘Don’t tell Tiny World that, they’ll have the wings coated in honey instead of bolts.’
I whisper into Olly’s ear. ‘Clever and a cracking shag.’
He raises his eyebrows and tickles my ear with his breath. ‘Cracking shag, am I?’
Soumia throws a soggy beer mat at me. ‘Please, not in public.’
I put Olly down. ‘Aren’t you too young for Freddie Mercury?’
‘Queen is the greatest band of all time, and Freddie the greatest front man,’ Olly says.
‘What’s that one they sang with Lulu?’ Soumia looks like she’s got her thinking cap on.
I laugh. ‘That was Take That you stupid cow.’
‘What about you pair, what’s your specialist subjects?’ Olly asks Nick and Dave.
Nick’s the first to respond. ‘Dave’s would be cartoons from the 80s.’
‘And Nick’s would be wine from the corner shop,’ Dave adds.
‘Soumia?’ Olly doesn’t leave her out.
‘I never really thought. It would have to be aviation.’ Soumia readjusts herself on her stool and dramatically flips her hair back, rock style. ‘Or Tina Turner.’
Olly laughs. ‘We might be in with a chance of winning then, as long as there are no questions on sport, geography, and English literature.’
A muscular barman hands Nick an answer sheet and a pen, as he moves to the next table, Nick’s head follows.
‘It’s a gay bar, they’re not going to ask questions on sport,’ I say.
Diamond White’s husky tones take over the speakers. ‘Right you lot, question one. Who won the 2018 world cup?’
Bollocks.
We score seven out of ten in the first round. Nick impresses us by correctly naming who wrote Ulysses. A perfect ten out of ten is achieved in the second with our collective knowledge of 90s girl groups. The gins have turned to doubles and Soumia has just brought back our fourth drink from the bar.
She hops up on her stool. ‘Tell us about you, Olly.’
‘There’s not much to tell. Born and raised in Manchester. I have a brother, Otto. I went to Salford Uni. My mum has a villa in Portugal.’ Olly’s had his hand half in and half out the back of my jeans since the end of round one.
‘Is that an invite?’ Soumia’s not backwards in coming forwards.
‘Sure. Anytime you like, just say the word.’
My turn to speak. ‘You shouldn’t have said that she’ll be there this weekend.’
‘I wouldn’t bother going until summer. We went last March, it pissed it down for the whole week and everything was shut.’
Olly’s teasing me now. His hands are going lower to my bum. He knows he’s turning me on. The bar is getting busier, standing room only. The crowd’s gathering for the main event of the evening, cabaret with Diamond White.
I’ve got a hand on Olly’s inner thigh and I’m stroking him to tease him back.
‘Has anyone heard from Trev?’ I ask.
Dave offers a high-pitched response. ‘No.’ Short and sweet.
Soumia’s looking at her phone. ‘I sent him a message, it’s been delivered but he’s not responded.’ She puts the phone on the table before retrieving it immediately from a small puddle of a spilt drink and attempts to fan it off. ‘Do you reckon he’ll go down?’
I work my hand higher up Olly’s leg whilst keeping my face straight to not attract the attention of the table. We’re in danger of self-igniting.
I try to distract myself from the movement in my boxers. ‘Who knows. I hope not. He’s a nice lad, just stupid.’
Nick’s shoulders dance to an old classic. He’s waiting for Dave to be distracted to seize an opportunity to shimmy to the dancefloor.
Dave talks to the group, his voice a few octaves lower now Nick is back at his side. ‘Of course he’s going down, he was pissed in charge of an aircraft cabin and blew a slide.’
Diamond White appears back on stage. She’s had a quick change and is wearing a yellow bears outfit. Her sweat runs off her nose, over her lip, and forms a waterfall from her chin.
‘Jesus, it’s hot in that dressing room. Four of us crammed into a phone box, not enough room to swing a bollock.
’ She picks up a fan and with the flick of a wrist extends it to display the word CUNT.
‘Why am I dressed as a bear, you might wonder. I wanted to pay homage to my dear friend Sooty. Anyone who can walk around with a man’s fist inside him and not say a word gets my respect. ’
The lowbrow clientele cheer in delight at the smut. The muscular barman is back at our table selling shots. He’s gone straight to Nick who orders two each.
Dave, ever the killjoy, is not impressed. ‘Do you have to do that?’
‘Do what?’ Nick says, salivating at the barman’s biceps.
‘If you got any closer to him your tongue would be up his arse,’ Dave strops.
We all turned to face Nick, not knowing whether to laugh at Dave’s outburst or politely pretend we didn’t hear. Thankfully, Diamond White starts up again, and all attention goes back to her.
‘Two rounds done, only three to go. Oh, bollocks to it. Is anyone actually doing the quiz? Shall we fuck it off?’ The crowd cheers.
Nick passes the shots around. Toffee vodka.
As Nick, Dave, and Soumia are distracted, knocking back a shot, Olly slips a finger further into my boxers, leans into my ears and whispers, ‘I can’t wait to get you home and fuck you.’
I’m instantly wet. My eyes are wide, my body is tingling at the thought of this man going deeper into me. I pull his arm out from my pants and whisper back into his ear, ‘Don’t do that, you’re making me drip.’
Olly’s face shines brighter than the star that led Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. ‘I’m going to pin you down and make you my bitch.’ He grabs the back of my head and steals a kiss from me, his tongue pushes deep into my mouth.
‘Oh, you two, I’ll have less of that.’ Diamond White is seething down the microphone.
‘These punters have come here to see me, not you two licking the back of each other’s tonsils.
’ She addresses Olly directly. I’m aware that all eyes are on us.
‘I mean, look at him, you don’t know where he’s been.
I do.’ She shoots a biting comment, ‘I knew his ex.’
Olly raises his glass up to Diamond White, taking in the banter. My face smiles but my head is trying to understand the significance of the comment. Soumia can feel it too.
‘Here you two, catch up.’ Soumia puts the shots in front of us.
I fire them back, double barrel, one shot after the other.
Olly’s got his hand back down my pants and Diamond White’s moved onto another victim in the crowd.
Olly’s back in my ear. ‘When I’ve pinned you down, I’m going to lick the side of your neck.’ I can feel him doing it as he describes it. ‘Kiss you softly, all the way down to your hard –.’
‘You’ve really got to stop before I forget where I am and pounce on you.’ I can feel myself getting carried away. ‘I’ll be back in a second, I’m just going to the loo.’
I spin round on my stool and hop down, squeeze through the crowd to make my way for a piss, hoping no one can see my semi.
I stand at the urinals and unzip; my boxers are soaking.
The toilet door opens and closes behind me, a blast of Girls Aloud’s Love Machine seeps in from the dancefloor.
I’m just putting myself away when I feel a hand on my arse.
The hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
The energy that waves over me is nuclear.
I know I shouldn’t, it’s not classy, but atoms are colliding.
I need to have Olly right now. I need to taste him and feel him in me. Complete me.
‘You’ve got me so fucking wet,’ I say as his hands work their way from my arse to the back of neck. Every part of me tingles. I turn around and –
‘What the fuck?’ I push him away and reach for the toilet door, chemistry evaporated.
My skin gone from tingling to crawling. Dirt all over me.
The music has turned into noise and the people a kaleidoscope of colours blocking my path.
One, two, three, four, no, no, no, no, one, two, three.
I need a drink. My tongue’s sticking to the roof of my mouth.
I search for Soumia’s eye. I catch them. She already knows.
‘There you are.’ Alex is hovering next to the table. ‘We saw you tagged in and wanted to say hello.’
I need to go, I need to escape, I need to jump down the emergency slide. I need my legs to be strong, to carry me and run, but they fail on me. Weak and jelly. I slither down on the bar stool. Olly is where I left him. He grabs my hand. ‘Are you OK?’
I’m frozen to my seat.
A shadow moves across Olly’s face and raises its hand to him.
‘Nice to meet you, I’m Liam.’