Page 34 of It's Now or Never

The nicely romantic intimate mood we’d created was shattered by someone barging into my stool, almost sending me toppling over the side.

‘Well, well, well! Look at you two getting cosy together!’

We both looked up at the same time as we felt an arm around our shoulders. Tom was standing between us, grinning broadly. He gave me a wet and sloppy kiss on the cheek and I had to resist the urge to shudder and wipe it away.

‘Hi!’ Alex and I said in unison, dropping our hands and giggling as though we had something to be embarrassed about, which of course we didn’t. Seeing Tom swaying between us dashed my good mood immediately. Not only had he wrecked a lovely moment between Alex and me but he was clearly way ahead of us in the drinking stakes, and without his lovely wife at his side too.

‘So, what’s going on? Are you two an item now?’ he asked, laughing, patting Alex heartily on the back.

‘No,’ said Alex quickly. A bit too quickly if I’d stopped to think about it, but that wasn’t my major concern right now. ‘We’ve just been catching up, that’s all.’

I looked at Tom, trying to reconcile the man in front of me with the man I saw marry my best friend just a few months ago. His smooth, charming demeanour that had been very much in evidence that day was missing now. His hair was unkempt, dark shadows circled his eyes and I felt sure if I put a match up to his mouth he would have erupted into a fireball.

‘How’s Angie? Is she not with you?’ I asked, making a show of looking over his shoulder, knowing full well she wouldn’t be.

‘Aw, she’s fine. Getting fatter by the day.’ He swept his hand in front of his stomach, imitating a bump. ‘No alcohol, no sex, she’s no fun at the moment.’ He winked as though I might find that remotely amusing, which I didn’t.

‘Really?’ I nodded, biting on my lip. Only a few moments earlier I’d felt happy and light-hearted, and now Tom had waltzed in and spoilt everything. I had an anger stirring deep in my stomach, something I was having trouble keeping a lid on. ‘You know, Tom, I think Angie would appreciate it much more if you were at home with her rather than propping up a bar with your mates.’

‘Excuse me?’ he said, looking at me as though he couldn’t quite believe what I said. He turned to Alex for support, but he’d taken the moment to casually look away – suddenly finding the stem of his wine glass infinitely more interesting.

‘Tom, you are newly married, your lovely gorgeous wife is pregnant with your first child and I know, because I had a long heart-to-heart conversation with her the other night, that she’s feeling vulnerable, exhausted and unloved right now. You shouldn’t be here with us, you should be at home providing her with support and care.’

‘Woah. Give a bloke a break, Jen. For your information, I’ve been working hard all week. Someone has to. How else will the mortgage get paid? It’s not too much to ask to want to have a couple of drinks at the weekend, is it?’

‘No, but it’s just not the weekends, is it?’ I could hear my mouth running away from me and I could do nothing to stop it. Not that I was bothered. Someone needed to tell him. ‘It’s every night. You’re a married man now, Tom. You can’t just carry on acting as if you’re still a single bloke.’

‘But I’ve always done this,’ said Tom sounding defensive. ‘Alex will tell you that. Angie knows the score.’

‘But that’s exactly my point, Tom. You always did it in the past when you were a single man, but things have changed now. You’ve got to start acting more responsibly. Think about Angie for once.’

Tom grimaced and looked out of the corner of his eye at Alex, who shrugged by way of reply.

‘When you split up before wasn’t it because of these very reasons, Tom? You going AWOL for days on end, not turning upwhen you were supposed to and generally messing her around. You can’t treat her like that any more.’

In fairness, he was taking my onslaught on the chin, even if he was looking a bit browbeaten right now. His shoulders had slumped and he was shifting from one foot to the other, looking like an errant schoolboy. Just in case he was thinking of turning round and doing a runner I took the opportunity to press the case home.

‘It’s half past ten, Tom,’ I said, glancing at my watch. ‘You can’t expect Angie to stay up until all hours just waiting for you to roll home. Have you got any idea what it must be like for her? Sitting there all night on her own. Are you going to carry on like this when the baby arrives? I really hope not because if you do, well then honestly, Tom, I don’t hold out a lot of hope for your marriage.’

‘Jeez, I know we’ve never really hit it off, Jen, but I didn’t know you were quite so strong in your dislike of me. What is this, have a pop at Tom night?’

‘Jen’s my friend. I want the best for her. And if I see her upset or being hurt then that upsets me too. She’s a great girl and she doesn’t deserve to be treated badly.’

‘Oh.’ Tom dropped his gaze to his feet. ‘The last thing I’d want to do is hurt her. I do love her, you know?’

As he looked up at me, hollow-eyed, and as if he didn’t know quite what he was doing there, I could quite believe that he did.

‘Well, for goodness’ sake just be a bit more thoughtful and respectful. She needs you right now, Tom, can’t you see that?’

He nodded. ‘Yep. Thanks, Jen. Received and understood.’ He gave me a friendly salute before he looked across at Alex, a tentative smile forming on his lips. ‘Still, we’ve got time for a quick one while I’m here, haven’t we?’

Alex laughed, holding up a note to the barman, and proceeded to put in an order for a round of drinks.

‘Not for me,’ I said, turning to Alex, feeling a sudden wave of disappointment. ‘Do you know something, Angie was right, you’re just as bad as he is! Thanks for a great day, but now I really need to get out of here.’

17

I stormed out of the bar, feeling ever so slightly ridiculous, and tried to hang onto a modicum of dignity as I was fully aware of a few sets of eyes turning to look at me on the way out. I wasn’t really the storming out type and I wasn’t entirely sure where tonight’s display of feistiness had come from, but all I knew was that I needed to get out of that place, away from those two grinning idiots.

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