Page 12 of Strictly Friends
‘Oi!’ Fi spluttered indignantly, almost spitting out her drink.
With a grin, Ruby picked up her handbag and made her way through the crowded wine bar in search of the toilets. After a ten-minute wait to use one of two small cubicles, she washed her hands, crouching to use the tiny square of mirror provided to smooth back her hair and touch up her lip gloss. When she emerged, the wine bar looked even busier, and she strode across the room with her freshly braided hair swinging freely down to her waist. Conscious of several pairs of eyes following her, she tried to shrug off thenagging feeling of never quite belonging. While she accepted that a six-foot-tall Black woman in black jeans, a black leather jacket and dizzyingly high-heeled boots would probably stand out in a wine bar in the heart of the financial district, it would also have been nice to just occasionally blend in with the crowd.
‘I wish I had your legs,’ Priya said enviously as Ruby walked up to their table. She shook back her long dark hair with a pout. ‘Mine are way too skinny to look sexy in tight jeans, and I’d probably break my neck if I wore heels like yours.’
‘I definitely wouldn’t advise it, love,’ Fi cautioned, taking a long sip of the blue liquid in her glass. ‘Ruby’s been wearing dominatrix heels for years, and she can probably turn cartwheels in those. Makes me feel like a bleeding munchkin, standing next to her!’
‘You are kidding me, right?’ Ruby quipped, settling back into her seat. ‘If I were a curvy little pocket Venus like you, I’d be on my knees thanking every god I’d ever heard of.’
Priya shook her head. ‘I can’t imagine you as petite, Ruby. You’re such a big, you know—’
‘—girl?’ Ruby interrupted.
Priya frowned. ‘No, I was going to say such a bigpersonality. You’re amazing!’ She paused. ‘A bit stern, sometimes, but still amazing.’
Ruby gave a non-committal shrug. Had the praise come from anyone else, she might have been more impressed, but in Priya’s world anyone who wasn’t a tosser – their account managers being her point of reference – was amazing.
‘Stern suits me just fine. Now can we please stop dissecting me and talk about something else?’
She had barely finished speaking when a harried-looking waiter came up to their table and set down glasses and an ice bucket containing a bottle and a smattering of ice cubes.
‘Sorry to interrupt, ladies, but the gentleman over there sent over this bottle of wine with his compliments.’
He nodded in the direction of an attractive dark-haired man in a suit sitting by himself a few tables away and, as one, the three women turned to stare at the man, who returned their scrutiny with a friendly smile.
‘Blimey, Fi,’ said Ruby, arching an eyebrow. ‘That’s impressive! I warned you about that dress, didn’t I?’
‘Actually, miss, the gentleman said to bring the wine to you,’ the waiter said, looking directly at Ruby.
Ruby’s eyes widened, and she looked so shocked that Fi and Priya dissolved into hysterical giggles. Without so much as a second glance at the man in the suit, Ruby scowled at the waiter and shook her head. ‘Take it away, please, and tell him I can get my own drinks.’
‘Ruby!’ Fi and Priya protested in unison.
‘Hold on just a sec, love, and put that back down, please,’ Fi demanded, motioning to the waiter, who had picked up the bucket as instructed. He glanced at Ruby’s set expression and hesitated before setting it down again.
‘Now listen here, Rubes,’ Fi hissed, ‘the man is not proposing marriage, for God’s sake! It’s just a drink!’
‘It’s never just a drink,’ said Ruby grimly. ‘That’s how it starts, and if you don’t nip this kind of thing in the bud, before you know it, they’re reeling you in like a fish and setting you up for a world of pain.’ She glowered at the waiter and her voice brooked no argument. ‘Like I said, tell him thanks, but no thanks.’
The waiter’s gaze moved from Ruby’s stubborn expression to Fi’s exasperated one and then back to Ruby’s. With a shrug, he picked up the ice bucket and walked away.
Fi sighed. ‘You reallydoneed to go away and sort your head out. That bloke is a real looker and he’s probably loaded if the label on the wine he ordered is anything to go by.’
Ruby picked up her drink without comment and it was left to Priya to break the awkward silence. ‘We’re really going to miss you while you’re away, Rubes. But then you’re going to be on a lovely island in the sun! I’m sure you’ll have an amazing time.’
Ruby took a sip of her drink and pulled a face. ‘I seriously doubt it. It’s not like I’m going on a proper holiday now, is it?’
Before Priya could reply, Griffin appeared out of the crowd and strolled over to their table. Dressed in a grey suit with a white shirt open at the neck, his hazel eyes twinkled in merriment.
‘Hello, ladies! Sorry I’m late for the leaving drinks, but my meeting overran.’ He raised an eyebrow at the empty glasses on the table. ‘Although, from the looks of things, you’ve started without me.’
‘She’snotleaving,’ Fi growled. ‘We’re just wishing herbon voyagefor her extended – er... trip.’ Her face cleared, and she beamed and opened her arms wide. ‘Come here and give me a kiss, you handsome devil! It’s been far too long.’
Griffin chuckled and bent to kiss the proffered cheek, following suit with Ruby, and then a fiercely blushing Priya.
Ruby cast her eye around the packed wine bar and looked up in apology. ‘I’m really sorry, Griff. We reserved this table, but it was so busy when we got here that we were lucky the chairs hadn’t been nicked...’ She tailed off and looked around again. ‘I can’t see a spare chair anywhere.’
Griffin scanned the room quickly and then walked over to a booth where a few women were clustered around a table. While Ruby couldn’t make out Griffin’s words over the hubbub in the bar, she didn’t miss the flirtatious smile he flashed at the group. After a couple of minutes of conversation, the woman sitting on a chair at the end of the table stood up. Her friends shuffled together to make space for her on the cushioned banquette and, giggling helplessly, she gestured to Griffin to take the chair she’d just vacated.
