Page 64 of Animal Instincts
Gary smacked his head with the flat of his hand, as though to say how could he forget.
“Yeah, that’s right. You were always so ambitious. Where did it all go, then?” Gary’s laugh was loud and throaty, before he half emptied his glass in a couple of deep gulps.
Joss’ blood ran cold as next to him, he sensed Oliver stiffen. The words were on Joss’ tongue to tell Gary he was realising his ambition. The village that had seemed so small was now offering him the world, and for the first time in his life he didn’t feel the urge to escape because everything — and everyone — he wanted in life was here in Love’s Harbour and hugging him close. But the words stalled, and stilled, got stuck and remained unsaid, as Gary continued.
“You were always really clear about what you wanted,” Gary said as he put his glass down. “Way more ambitious than me. I remember you showing me the places you wanted to live, the things you wanted to do, and the clubs you were going to make your second home.” He laughed.
“Yes, that’s true, but circumstances change. I’m realising those ambitions—”
“In Love’s Harbour? Not a lot of scope for ambition here. I took a good walk around before I came in for a quick pint. The place seems like it’s full of second home owners from London. If you want a dead end job making coffee or waiting on tables for weekenders, fine, but where’s the future in that?”
“I work part time in Harbour Coffee.” Joss bristled. “You make it sound like there’s something wrong with it.” But didn’t he himself think that once? Not anymore. “The rest of the time I’m working with animals, doing what I—”
Gary snorted. “A couple of part time jobs, here in the village. Is that really it?”
“If Joss is happy doing what he’s doing why should he jump ship? If you’ll excuse the expression. Joss also works with me, in my veterinary practice. I don’t regardthatas being dead end.”
Joss glanced across at Oliver. His voice was cooly polite, but Joss could see his held back anger in the press of his lips and in the thunder cloud grey of his eyes. Joss looked back at Gary, but his former friend either didn’t notice, or care, about the drop in temperature.
Gary glanced around the pub, ignoring Oliver’s comment as though it had never been. The shadow of a smirk sat on his lips. What Joss had taken as confidence was revealed as nothing more than arrogance, the smile he’d thought friendly now a sneer.
Gary shrugged his shoulders, and downed the last of his pint, dragging the back of his hand across his foam coated lips.
“Each to his own, I guess, but I’m surprised you’ve let yourself get stuck here.”
“I’m not—”
“A word of advice, Joss.”
Gary leaned forward, batting Joss’ words away; Joss veered back from his acrid, beer laced breath.
“The first chance you get to escape, grab it then run for the hills and don’t look back. Honestly, this place will suck all the ambition out of you. Or what’s left of it. There’s a big world waiting beyond the borders of the village, but to hear half the people in this place talk, you’d never know it.”
“It’s not like that. Maybe once, but not now. Yes, there have been lots of newcomers but they’ve brought a lot to the Harbour. You can’t pretend you’ve not seen the difference? Oliver, here—”
But Joss’ words were too few, and too late. Gary pushed himself to standing.
“It’s pretty, and all the rest of it, and all right for a few days. But that’s the limit of it. It’ll drain the life out of you if you let it. Do yourself a favour, Joss, and don’t give up on your ambitions to experience life beyond the confines of this place, because a few years down the line you’ll regret it.”
* * *
“Your friend, he has very firm views and a crude sense of his superiority.”
Joss winced, but Oliver had nailed it.
“He’s turned into a bit of an arsehole.Look at everything I’ve done, kind of thing. Maybe that’s because he’s travelled the world, reminding me I haven’t.”
Gary had been a steamroller, flattening everything in his path. He’d always been a bit like that, but it had been so long since Joss had seen him, he’d forgotten how he could be.
But…
What Gary had said had been true, or at least in part. Theyhadplotted and planned their escape and although Gary had found his in joining the navy, all his travel hadn’t seemed to have broadened his mind. Yet, his words about letting his ambitions go had struck a nerve and now, as he and Oliver walked in silence, he worried at it like a loose tooth.
He’s wrong. Everything I’ve always wanted, it’s here in the village…
“And is that an ambition that’s been stifled?”
“What?” Joss had been too caught up in his unsettled thoughts, and he struggled to catch up.
