by Angela Peach
“Is it bad?” I asked her, and she looked surprised, as if she hadn’t expected me to speak. Then it clicked.
“Oh, your face? Uh, kinda.” She leaned forward, scrutinising the smudges, so I turned away quickly to the sink and set about scrubbing my hands with the anti-bacterial hand wash. I could feel energy pulsing off her, pulling my attention her way. It was a wonderful feeling.
“Dammit,” I muttered, seeing the oil just smear itself over my skin with minimal amounts washing off and down the drain.
“Hold on a sec, I’ll get you some sugar.”
“Sugar?”
Sophie took one of the bowls of sugar sachets from the counter and tore the tops off a small handful, just as a group of four walked through the door.
“Homemade swarfega, just rub it in with the soap and it’ll help remove the oil,” she said, pouring the sugar onto my hands. I obediently did as she said, amazed that it was actually working.
“Wow, where’d you learn that?”
“My Dad’s a mechanic. I grew up with engine oil and parts strewn everywhere, and he used to drive my Mum mad by using up all the sugar washing his hands.”
I quickly rinsed off and dried my hands.
“Thanks. I’ll just go serve these customers and be right back,” I said, ignoring her reminder about the oil on my face. As I hurried over to the table I decided my plan was to be as friendly as possible, ask her out, then get her out as quickly as I could. There was only so long I could get away with not washing my face without her thinking I was stranger than she probably already did.
I took their order (despite a few sideways glances, they very politely didn’t mention my oily face) and ran it out to Fred. She took it from me, still amused and shaking her head at the lengths I was going to. I myself was starting to wonder the same thing, to be perfectly honest.
As I was preparing the drinks for the new table, Sophie leaned over the counter conspiratorially.
“You know you missed a bit?” she whispered, eyes shining behind her glasses. She was so cute, I couldn’t help smiling.
“I know. I’ll do it in a minute.”
“It’s okay, I know your face will probably look a bit raw at first, but it’ll go down after about an hour. I think.”
I sagged. Did she enjoy seeing me in a variety of awful states? I tried to gauge how long she was planning on staying – she’d finished her torte, and had only a couple of mouthfuls of her Mocha left, but she looked comfortable. I felt anxious.
“Sophie…I…I’d really love to chat with you, but I’ve just got such a lot to get on with, and I feel really rude…” I started to say, wondering how to finish the sentence without alienating her completely. She blushed and stood up.
“Oh, sure, it’s fine. I keep forgetting other people aren’t dole bums like me. I’m really sorry. I came by to see how Danny got on with you both, but I can come back anoth…”
“Would you like to come out?” I interrupted desperately. “On Saturday night? Y’know, with me, and a couple of friends.”
I felt sick. This was not the smooth way of asking that I’d been practising in my head for the last few hours, and I stupidly rubbed my face, smearing the oil up and down my cheek. Sophie tilted her head slightly, looking confused.
“Are you sure?” she asked, pushing her hands deep into the pockets of her jeans. She looked vulnerable and uncertain.
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t figure you out, Anna. You’re sending really mixed signals. Are you sure you want to go out with me? Cos I like you, but I don’t want to be messed around.”
“Hanna. My name’s Hanna, not Anna. And yes, I’m totally sure I want to go out with you. I’m sorry for the mixed signals…you make me really, really nervous,” I confessed. She looked even more confused, possibly wondering why it’d taken so long for me to correct her on my name.
“Okay. Sure.”
“You…you would?”
“Yes. Did you think I’d say no?”
I rubbed my face again, cursing as the oil came away on my fingers again.
“Um, yeah.”
“Did you only ask me because you thought I’d say no?”
“What? No, I mean I wanted you to say yes…”
She smiled, a wonderful wide smile that made me melt into a puddle before her.
“I’m just messing around. So, do you want me to come to yours, or you to mine?”
“If you give me your phone number, I’ll text you all the details. I’m not sure about them myself yet,” I lied, but I wanted her number and this seemed a good way to get it. She wrote it down on a napkin for me (with three x’s under her name) then left, waving happily back to me when she got to the door. I waved back, in a bit of a shocked daze.
Fuck! I had a date! I had a fucking date with a real live living person! I already knew Mel would not like this one little bit, but I decided to see how Saturday night went before saying anything to her. Best to be certain on things before putting myself through any unnecessary stress.
(Yes, I know it sounds like I was putting it off…)
CHAPTER 7
By the time Saturday evening rolled around, I was being so careful not to think about Sophie around Mel, I’d already made her suspicious. From the moment I’d got home from work, acting normal had been nearly impossible despite my best efforts, and both she and Danny had followed me around incessantly. I was currently running late because I’d had to take him for an extra-long walk until he pooed.
After I’d showered and tried to pick an outfit that looked awesome, but not too awesome, (were jeans and my favourite jumper awesome?) I poured myself a large glass of wine and gulped half of it in one go.
“What are you so nervous about? You’re only going out with Ju and nob-end.”
I winced, wishing I’d left more time to style my hair than the ten minutes that were currently racing past.
“I’ve told you not to call her that. And I’ve also told you why I’m nervous. I want tonight to go well for them cos they’re both my best friends and I don’t want to be stuck in the middle if anything goes wrong.”
“I don’t know what Julianne sees in her anyway. She’s so gorgeous she could have anyone she wanted,” Mel sneered, standing next to the mirror which was incredibly distracting.
“Well obviously it’s not about who she could have, it’s about who she wants, and she wants Freddie,” I muttered, frowning at my fringe and wondering if I’d used too much gel.
“I’m just saying I don’t get it, that’s all.” She sighed. “For Pete’s sake, Han, you’re not going on a date, just leave it already or you’ll miss your bus.”
I blushed guiltily and swigged another half glass of wine down, losing some of it down my chin. This was good – get the embarrassing stuff out of the way here, now.
“I’m ready. I just gotta put some perfume on, get my phone and money, and I’m gone,” I recited, worrying about whether or not I was actually going to get to the bus stop in time now. I trotted from room to room, spraying myself here, picking up my phone in there, money…where was my money? Oh yeah, in the kitchen of course. One last swig of wine (from the bottle, but no one was watching) and I was running to the door.
“Keys!”
“Shit, thanks. Where…?”
“In the lounge on the coffee table.”
It came in handy having a ghost sometimes. I grabbed my keys, shouted a quick farewell to them both, then I was racing to the elevator. I’d sent Sophie a text while I was walking Danny to tell her I was running late and to meet me at the bus stop. This way, I figured we wouldn’t be seen leaving the building together, but it also meant I ran the risk of missing the bus myself. I wanted to look fresh when I got there, not red-faced and gasping for air.
But as I rounded the corner, I could see the bus was already approaching so I was forced to sprint the final hundred yards. Sophie, of course, was already waiting at the stop and held the bus until I got there, much to the annoyance of t
he driver. I jumped on, slightly redeemed myself by handing over the right change for the fare, then we walked to the back of the bus and sat down. I tried to regulate my breathing back to normal.
“I thought you were gonna stand me up,” she admitted, wiping her palms nervously on her jeans. She’d opted for a black jacket over a grey jumper, and blue jeans that curved nicely around her assets (okay, the jeans made her arse look spectacular and I’d already perved at it as we walked the length of the bus) and she looked stunning. I took a moment to look her up and down.
“Are you kidding? I’ve been looking forward to this all week, but I had to walk Danny, and get ready and it just took a bit longer than I thought,” I explained, feeling unable to get my breathing under control being this close to her. My pulse was racing quicker at our close proximity than from the recent sprint. She smiled, I smiled…then there was a long pause. Oh dear god, neither of us was saying anything! I started to panic.
“How is Danny?” she blurted out, desperately almost.
“Great! He’s really great, thanks. I had to spend a fortune on flea stuff for the flat and car, but he’s squeaky clean now. Settling in just fine.”
“Good, good. That’s really good.” She nodded over-enthusiastically. “So your friend was okay with him as well?”
I paused. This could get tricky if she mentioned this later in front of Ju and Freddie.
“I, um, I actually kinda live alone,” I said slowly, before changing the subject as quickly as I could to what Sophie had studied at Uni. She noticed, but politely went with it.
She told me that she’d spent the last three years studying Politics and Sociology at Sheffield. When my face went blank, she smiled apologetically.
“It’s okay, I’m not gonna bore you with political discussions or anything. If I’m perfectly honest, I only finished the course so it wasn’t a complete waste of my time. I don’t think I ever want to talk about politics ever again, and I certainly don’t want a job in that field. You can only imagine how my parents felt when I told them this.”
“Well, it’s better to get a job you enjoy and can be passionate about than to get stuck in something just for the sake of it. I’m a good example of that. I work in that café all week, but I don’t really know what else I’d do if I didn’t.”
“Don’t you have a dream? Y’know, something you really want to do with your life?”
I thought about her question for a moment. It was one I hadn’t contemplated for a long time.
“I don’t know. I suppose I always thought I’d get into some kind of holistic therapy, but I never got round to it.”
“Why not?”
“I was going to. I looked into it and had it all planned out, but my ex-girlfriend, she thought it was a waste of time,” I admitted, remembering how Mel had chucked away all the paperwork and forms I’d collected and filled in. I’d cried about it for a few days, more out of anger than sorrow, but she’d been adamant that we couldn’t afford for me to do it. And, she’d argued, even if I did get the qualifications, it probably wouldn’t bring in any money because it was all ‘bollocks.’
“Oh no. It’s weird how our exes can have such an insight into what makes us happy, isn’t it?” she asked knowingly. “But you’re not together now, there’s nothing stopping you from pursuing it if you still wanted to?”
The bus went round a corner and we fell into each other, the contact erasing all thoughts from my head. She smelled so alluring that I stayed close longer than necessary. She smiled, holding eye contact, and that was when I lost myself, falling and flying all at the same time while my heart strained to break free of my chest. Something very powerful passed between us, and I quite literally had to drag myself back to reality before I was unable to. Clearing my throat, I glanced out of the window.
“Shit, we missed our stop,” I frantically pressed the button to stop the bus, feeling like we’d just gone through a bizarre time warp. We were only about a ten minute walk out of our way, but once we’d got off the bus I called Ju and let them know what had happened. She told me that they’d already ordered a taxi, so if we wanted to wait where we were, they’d swing by and pick us up shortly. I relayed this back to Sophie, and we went to sit on a wall to wait for them, huddling together for warmth against the cold November evening.
Another silence fell over us, but this time it was more comfortable and I didn’t feel the panicky need to think of something as filler. Instead, I found myself relishing the warmth of her thigh against mine, something I’d missed a lot. Well, it wasn’t just the warmth, it was the ‘other’ kind of heat that was being generated catching my attention. I rammed both my hands between my thighs, partly to keep them warm, partly to stop from touching her. Sophie mimicked the action, then gave a nervous little laugh.
“This is pretty crazy, huh?” she said quietly, almost to herself. I gulped, knowing exactly what she meant. This was one crazy attraction.
“Yeah,” I whispered, surprised I could even manage that. I heard her take a deep, shaky breath before she removed her right hand, tentatively holding it palm up on her leg. I took the cue, moving my left hand to meet hers. But she didn’t clasp it – keeping her hand flat against mine, she lightly moved it in a circular motion, brushing them together softly and creating an intense friction of tingling pleasure. My mind officially blew. We were sat on a cold wall in the middle of town, creating some kind of magic that seemed more fitting for a cheesy fairy tale. Running her fingers along the length of my own and grazing my palm, I gasped slightly as a shiver of pleasure engulfed the entire length of my body and I closed my eyes to enjoy the sensation fully.
When I opened them again, I held my breath at what I could see. There was a miniature light show surrounding our hands, almost like a firework display of purple and white sparkles. And between our palms, little bolts of lightning were jumping across the small gap. I watched, transfixed by it all and wished Sophie could see what I was seeing because it was beautiful. One thing was for sure – she was definitely feeling the same.
We were rudely interrupted by a car honking its horn, shaking us out of our moment and making us jump guiltily apart. Honestly, I’d never been so unhappy to see my best friends before, and there they were, gawking happily out of the cab window. I mean, the look on their faces was pure gold. We stood up a little shakily, and got into the waiting taxi where I made the introductions, feeling a sudden shyness wash over me preventing me from looking at Sophie.
I could still feel the sparkles on my hand.
CHAPTER 8
“Excuse me, are you sure you’re going the right way?” Ju asked the driver, anxiously leaning forward to talk to him and revealing a pink thong under her short pink dress. I looked away, but caught Freddie pretending not to look out of the corner of my eye. The taxi driver sighed.
“I think I know where I’m going, love. I’ve been driving these roads for the last twenty one years.”
“But…we’re in the middle of nowhere. We’ve just been going through fields and farms for the last ten minutes.”
“Yep, you asked to go to the Ram and Goat, there’s only one Ram and Goat in this area, and this is how you get to it. We’re nearly there, so get your money ready please. Seventeen ninety, or thirty round if you want picking up later.”
“Yes! We definitely want picking up later! Do not leave us out here,” Ju begged, looking round at us with an ‘I had no idea’ expression on her face.
“Are you sure you got the date right mate?” Fred asked. I winced at the use of the term ‘mate’ and saw Ju bristle at it too.
“Of course I did, I’m not stupid. There is supposed to be a bloody beer festival here, tonight.”
The taxi slowed to a halt next to a very dark country lane, and about fifty yards down shone the faint lights from a pub. We all peered warily out of the window.
“I think we’re here?” Sophie said from the front seat, wiping condensation from the window with her sleeve.
“Oh my god, it�
��s like the pub from An American Werewolf In London” Ju murmured, setting us all off giggling hysterically.
“Do you think we’ll get a refund on the fare if we don’t all get out alive?” Fred whispered, making us laugh even harder. She pushed three tenners through to the front, and we piled out of the cab into the dark cold night. Aside from looking like the set of a horror film, it felt anything but. The hipflask of rum we’d all just shared had put us in a relaxed, happy mood, and as the taxi drove off we started walking down the lane huddled in a group.
I noticed Ju taking advantage of the situation by holding onto Freddie very firmly as she tottered in her heels, but then…what was this? Fred was putting her arm protectively around Ju’s waist? My heart swelled and I beamed happily, wondering if my expression was not so dissimilar from theirs on seeing me and Sophie earlier. My hand found Sophie’s, and this time we lightly linked fingers, starting the tingles off again.
“Look, there’s a banner above the door.”
Freddie was right. There was a banner about six foot by two foot hanging above the small entrance, saying
RAM&GOAT BEER FESTIVAL 18/19NOV
In very small letters.
We all stopped walking and silence enveloped us.
“Well, the date’s right…”
“I told you!”
“…but surely we should be able to at least hear something? Or see someone?”
“Maybe they have a soundproof marquee in the back garden?” I suggested hopefully.
“Or maybe we’ve only just missed the killing spree? What if we’re about to walk in and find…”
“Fred!” Ju snapped. “Will you bloody stop it? Come on, it’s probably all happening inside.” She set off again, wobbling precariously on an unseen stone, but Freddie caught her easily.
