Page 24 of Just Do It
‘More’s the pity.’ Colette grinned as she spoke.
‘The sooner he’s gone the better as far as I’m concerned. He’s an unnecessary distraction.’
Colette placed her glass down on the green marble of the bar. ‘For Bella, or for you?’
‘Bella. Obviously.’ I gave her a stern look and took a gulp of my cocktail. Shit, that was strong! I did that thing when you try not to cough and it immediately makes the situation twice as bad. The cough escaped and I did my best – which wasn’t great – to choke in the most subtle manner possible.
‘Hi.’ Greg appeared behind us, leaning round and kissing Colette on the cheek. She turned and met his willing lips as she hooked her hands behind his neck. I, meanwhile, was still trying to die quietly and frantically trying to decide whether to ride it out here or risk attracting more attention by heading to the loos. The problem was I had no idea where those were and right now Colette was too busy to ask, even if I’d been able to form the words.
‘Could we have a glass of water over here, please?’ Finn’s deep voice, together with a commanding tone caught theattention of the bartender, despite the many others vying for service in the throbbing bar.
‘Here,’ he said, his voice softer now but with that edge of order to it.
I took the glass from him and sipped, desperately trying not to cough it straight back out or even worse, expel it down my nose. These things never happened to Colette. I made to put the glass back on the bar but Finn covered my hand with his own. ‘Try a bit more.’
I did so and felt things beginning to return to normal. I sipped again just to make sure. ‘Thanks,’ I said, placing the drink on the counter and faced him properly for the first time since he’d entered the bar. Greg said a brief hello before returning every fibre of his attention back to Colette, which she returned, pausing briefly to check I was still alive.
‘No problem. You OK?’ His face still showed some concern.
I waved it away. ‘Yes, fine. No thanks to my best friend,’ I said loudly enough for Colette to hear over the crowd.
Her smile was wide and teasing as she leant over and kissed me on the cheek. ‘I knew you were in good hands.’ Her eyebrows rose briefly as the private message was transmitted to me. That would teach me for declaring to Finn whilst under the influence, and within earshot of my friend, that he had incredibly nice hands.
I sent her a warning glare which she laughed off and kissed Finn hello on both cheeks and with as much subtlety as a hand grenade, began a conversation.
‘I hear you have an admirer at the museum?’
Finn slanted his gaze to me. ‘News travels fast.’
I took a sip of my cocktail, more carefully this time. This was obviously news to Greg and his antennae perked up. ‘You never told me, mate.’
‘I only discovered it for myself recently.’
I rolled my eyes. ‘Even though everyone else in the entire museum and job site had already noticed.’
Greg nodded. ‘Yeah. Our Finn is notoriously dim at picking up on things like that.’
‘He picked up that Lizzie liked him.’
I shot Colette another glare as Finn shifted his glance to me.
‘To be fair, I was doing most of the heavy lifting on that particular occasion,’ he noted.
‘An occasion we’ve agreed is in the past and not to be spoken of.’
‘So you said,’ Finn said, raising his hand to catch the attention of a member of the bar staff. As if by magic, one appeared, a wide smile on her face as she asked what she could get for him.
‘Something tells me she has a few ideas of her own on that score,’ Colette whispered.
‘Shoosh!’ I widened my eyes at her.
‘She didn’t hear. Stop worrying so much.’
Finn ordered a pint for himself and a glass of wine for me then gave my friend a patient look. He had definitely heard.
‘I didn’t know you were coming tonight,’ I said to Finn once he’d got our drinks and I’d realised that I wasn’t going to get any conversation out of Colette for a while.
‘Neither did I but Greg’s been away on a work trip for the last two weeks and apparently couldn’t wait another minute to see Colette, who already had plans with you.’
