Читать книгу Somewhere Only We Know: The bestselling laugh out loud millenial romantic comedy - Erin Lawless, Erin Lawless - Страница 10

Alex

The fourth Jagerbomb was sitting rather sourly in Alex’s stomach. Across the table, Rory had his face pressed into the space between Lila’s neck and shoulder, making her giggle and squirm against him. The PDA between them always got worse when they’d been drinking; Alex looked away.

The chair that Nadia had been sitting on had long been pinched by an opportunistic bar patron, dragged off to another table, but the empty space there remained, looming large between him and his friends, who – quite frankly – wouldn’t exactly be missing him if he had gone to Bison & Bird after all. As if to illustrate this point, Lila drew her body slightly back from Rory’s and murmured something meant only for him to hear, her bottom lip grazing his earlobe – not that Alex could have heard her over the noise of the bar anyway. Rory listened to his girlfriend patiently, smiled and moved his head to kiss her again as she finished speaking. Alex had watched Lila be kissed like that so many times by now he almost fancied he knew exactly how it felt.

Distracting himself from that maddening chain of thought, Alex pulled his mobile from his pocket and swiped the touch screen with his thumb to wake it. He tapped his fingers against its frame. Surely some of his old mates would be out doing something, somewhere in this great wide city? He scrolled through his contacts list – past old uni friends and colleagues and people whose surnames he only knew because they were linked through his Facebook app – looking for someone suitable to text. Nobody jumped out at him. He guessed he'd spent a lot of time hanging around with just Rory and Lila over the past year, and as a result he’d sort of dropped out of general circulation. Going through his phone was highlighting this rather painfully, and Alex suddenly wasn’t entirely sure whether watching Lila get kissed had been worth giving up the remnants of his social life for. He had to get the hell out of here.

The last two Jagerbombs sat between them on their sticky plastic tray, Lila having abstained, meaning he and Rory had been left with five each. Alex stood and reached for one; Rory and Lila didn’t budge from one another’s faces as he downed it purposefully, the combination of alcohol and energy drink streaming stupidity down through his body. He reached for the last one; that got Rory’s attention.

“Hey,” he protested, still half-pressed to Lila’s throat. “S’mine.” Alex did the final shot even faster than he’d done the one before and brought the empty doubles glass back down to the table top with a satisfying clatter.

“I’m off,” he said, without preamble.

Rory’s eyebrows creased together. “You’re off?” he repeated.

“Hang on a minute and we’ll come home with you, then,” offered Lila, reaching underneath the table with her foot for her handbag.

“Oh no, I’m not going home. I’m just going to meet up with some mates.” Alex waved his mobile phone as if to give the impression that it was crammed full of texts from exciting people inviting him exciting places. “Catch up with you guys tomorrow,” he said, before Rory and Lila could invite themselves along to his fictitious evening. “Have a good rest of the night.”

“Alex,” Rory called after him. Alex didn’t turn back, but somehow he could still picture his friends' incredulous expressions.

When he arrived outside on the pavement, the fresh air immediately washed some of the Jagerbomb impulsivity away; Alex swore under his breath. Now what? He couldn’t go home for a while after what he’d just said. There probably were friends in his phone book who’d be pleased (if a little nonplussed) to see him, but latching himself on to them just felt a little too much like that same old third-wheel lie.

Moving carefully around the groups of drunken merrymakers, the queues at the bus stops and snaking out of small fried-chicken shops, Alex steadfastly picked his way down the high street in the opposite direction from the bus stop to his flat. He slowed as he saw the neon sign for the Bison & Bird cocktail bar glowing in the distance like the answer that he was searching for. It had been about an hour. Surely they’d have moved on by now? Maybe it was worth checking it out. Or was he being a tad stalkery?

But he couldn't shake that sliding-doors feeling. Nadia had been so friendly. And nice. And really rather pretty. And wasn't life meant to be about taking chances – or something like that?

Being a lone guy, he had to queue for a couple of minutes whilst the bouncer waved small groups of half-dressed women in ahead of him. Then he was ID-ed for good measure. Finally, feeling markedly insignificant, he was waved through to the darkness of the bar beyond.

Bison was a long and narrow space, all done in dark, shiny wood with rows upon rows of bottles and optics gleaming on their backlit shelves behind the bar, harried-looking bartenders rushing between them. Alex looked for the paleness of Nadia’s hair in the darkness, but the open space in front of him had become an impromptu dance floor and he couldn’t see beyond the mass of whirling people. Doggedly he pushed through the dancers to reach the booths at the back of the room. A brunette in a red dress grabbed his hand and made him spin her around as she laughed, startling a laugh out of him too. Released by his impromptu partner, Alex moved into the clearer space beyond the dancers, still smiling. The energy drink and the bass from the DJ’s speakers felt as if it was drumming in his blood, making him feel as though he could do anything, be anyone, and as if, for once, he was meant to be exactly where he was.

He clocked Nadia almost immediately, standing out in the gloom with her blonde hair and sky-blue dress. She opened her mouth and he could almost hear her laugh over the boom of the music track. The guy she was with was tall – taller even than Rory – and fair-haired, with the sort of artful stubble that would make Alex look as if he was homeless. The guy bent and spoke leisurely into Nadia’s ear, touching one of his hands to her hip in a proprietary way. And just like that, the evening’s buzz left his veins, and Alex was just the third wheel once again.

Nadia

The guy’s Russian was so appalling, Nadia couldn’t help but laugh.

“Zdravstvyite,” she sounded-out the word for him.

“Zurdraztevee,” he repeated into her ear, causing her to laugh again.

“How long ago did you say this holiday to St Petersburg was?” she teased.

“A while ago,” he admitted with a smile. “So, how would I ask you if I could buy you a drink in Russian, then?”

Nadia shot him an amused look. “Mozhno tebia ugostit?” she answered obediently. “But net, spasibo!” she declined, nodding at her half-full cocktail. “I’ve already got one.”

“Well, when that one’s finished, then,” the guy grinned, undeterred. “Consider it as payment for the Russian lesson.”

Nadia laughed. “Well, when you put it that way. I’m Nadia, by the way!”

“Matt.”

Nadia blinked. “Matt?” she echoed. “Seriously? Matt? MATT?”

“Er, yeah.”

“Your name is Matt?” she repeated again. “Genuinely? Matt?” She looked around herself suspiciously. “Has Caro put you up to this?” she asked him. Seriously, what were the odds?

“Er, no…” Matt looked at her a little less appreciatively and a little more as though she might be mental. “My name is seriously, genuinely Matt. Why? What’s wrong?”

Knowing that explaining about her fake visa boyfriend would just confirm any suspicions that she was crazy, Nadia just laughed again. “It’s a long story,” she brushed him off. “Nice to meet you. Matt.” She looked at him a little closer, mentally ticking off boxes as she noted his tallness, blondness, handsomeness… And he was called Matt. Finally, the universe seemed to be giving back; here was karma, wearing a Lacoste polo neck and drinking bottled lager. Delivery for Nadia, one boyfriend, please sign here.

“Hey!” Holly barrelled into her, grinning, sloshing cold drops of water onto Nadia’s bare arm from the melted ice in her empty cocktail glass.

Nadia glared at her friend, using her free hand to steady her arm, noting with interest that Matt had very gentlemanly done the same. “Hols,” she said warningly into her flatmate’s ear, raising her eyebrows meaningfully, “this is Matt.”

Holly ignored her, speaking over her to boot. “Look who I bumped into,” she laughed, pulling Alex from the Bellevue quiz out from behind her with a flourish, like a magician pulling something from a hat.

Alex

Time apparently flies when you're forced into awkward proximity with strangers you've semi-stalked to a bar. It was getting late and the crowds were thinning out, most leaving to either make the last Tube or to join the queue for the nearby nightclub before it reached pointless proportions. Caro and one of her fawning tagalongs had usefully commandeered one of the larger booths. Alex rested his head against the clammy leather, feeling the bass from the DJ’s speakers travelling through it to fizz against the back of his neck.

The longer he spent in Nadia’s company, the more he liked her. She laughed without covering her mouth, danced so energetically that her makeup smudged into the creases of her eyes and her hair stuck to her forehead. He’d danced with her for twenty minutes straight, in the thrum of the dance floor, only copying her movements at first and then simply just letting go and moving however he wanted to. He’d danced in a circle with Holly and Caro and the others, complete strangers, accepting the sips of various cocktails from proffered straws, the crash of the liquor and the sugar keeping him going until he was out of breath from all the shouting over the music and dancing and laughing.

Nadia was over by the rear bar, queuing in formation with Caro and Holly, hoping that surely one of them would reach service soon. Glancing over her shoulder, she must have noticed that Alex was looking over because she shot him a smile.

“So, how do you know them?” asked Matt, nodding towards the girls. Alex felt inexplicably annoyed by the question.

“Met doing a pub quiz,” he answered shortly, not feeling that there was any need to specify that the said pub quiz had taken place that very same evening.

“Ah, cool, cool.” Matt drummed his hands nervously against his thighs. Alex wasn’t even sure why this guy was still hanging around. His friends had left ages ago. “So.” Matt dipped his head conspiratorially. “What’s the deal here, with you and Nadia?”

“Deal?” Alex echoed, confused.

“You know,” Matt urged, glancing across at the bar, where the girls were still waiting to be served. “Am I stepping on any toes here? If I ask Nadia for her number and take her out, I mean.”

“Oh. The deal.” Alex blinked. “Don't worry about it. There’s no deal.”

“It’s just you guys seem like you’re close,” Matt explained, visibly relieved. “And she’s a really cool girl, I thought for sure there’d be someone cockblocking me, you know?”

Alex blinked again. “No. No cockblocking here.” He laughed to himself. “I get enough of that at home,” he confessed, loose-lipped from excessive cocktail consumption.

“You what?”

“My flatmate,” Alex clarified. “Cockblocker of the highest order. There's this girl, right? The girl of my dreams. We lost contact and then met up again." He lifted his hands expansively. “A year later and most nights I can hear him having sex with her.”

Matt winced. “Man, that sucks.”

Alex sighed, his good mood evaporating like the sweat off his skin now that he’d stopped dancing. “Yup,” was all he said.

Nadia

A Facebook Friend Request notification slid unceremoniously onto Nadia's mobile. She hadn't been wholly convinced she'd even receive one. When Alex had suddenly announced he was leaving Bison last night she’d asked him for his surname so that she’d be able to find him on Facebook. He’d smiled and said that he’d add her instead; she’d be easier to find, her surname being much less common than his. Matt’s Friend Request had arrived before she and Holly had even reached home that night. She’d been waiting on Alex’s all day.

Accepting the request, Nadia scrolled with interest through Alex’s profile. There wasn't all that much to see, unlike her own borderline-embarrassing page, full of selfies and check-ins. Alex was just as big an enigma to her now as he had been when she'd sat down at his table at the Bellevue. But still, there was something there, something drawing her in in the turn of his mouth as he laughed, or in the brittle sort of shyness he wore like a bad coat. She'd liked him.

After Alex had gone, Matt had taken Nadia out onto the dance floor for the final ten or so songs. It wasn’t the same as dancing with Alex had been. Matt held her by the hips, trying to make her move in time with what he was doing, whereas with Alex it had all been free and easy and they’d danced in careless synchronicity, even though their bodies rarely touched. And then he’d kissed her, for the entire second half of Nickelback’s ‘Rockstar’, which was nice, but also a little annoying, as it was one of her favourite songs.

Holly had been jubilant during their short walk home. “I can’t believe it,” she’d kept repeating, tipping her head back and shouting it up at the stars as if they were in on it. “I can’t bloody believe it! How much is this meant to be?”

Nadia had just laughed. “It’s just a coincidence. You’ve been watching too many bad films.”

“But WHAT a coincidence,” Holly had insisted. “Of all the names Ledge could have pulled out of his arse. And here he is! Your future husband! Conveniently British and conveniently called Matthew and conveniently well into you!”

“Hols,” Nadia had protested, laughing and pushing her friend on the arm. But her good humour was infectious.

“So when you guys kissed, did he taste like crumpets and cricket and cream teas? Or just like a visa?” Holly had asked, mock-serious.

“Holly!” Nadia had glanced behind them just to double-check that Matt wasn't somehow within earshot. “I don’t know what’s going to happen between me and Matt, but if he overhears you saying shit like that, I’ve got a pretty good guess that the answer will be ‘sod all’!”

“No, it’s meant to be. This is it, Nads – it’s what you deserve. Everything’s going to be alright now,” she’d insisted, earnest with relief. And Nadia had felt her eyes go hot. She gave her best friend a clumsy, one-armed hug and kissed her on the cheek.

“What a good night,” Holly had summarised after a moment. “Did you get Alex’s number too?”

“No, but he’s going to add me on Facebook.”

“Okay.” Holly had dropped her voice conspiratorially. “I think he might fancy me or something,” she’d admitted.

Nadia had laughed. “What makes you think that?”

“Well, he ditched his friends and full-on stalked us to Bison.”

“We’d invited him!” Nadia had protested. But maybe, on reflection…

“Has Alex added you yet?” Nadia was pulled back to the present and looked up to where Holly was leaning through the doorway part-way into her bedroom.

“What’s it matter to you? I thought you weren’t interested,” Nadia teased.

Holly rolled her eyes. “Please, I’m not. You know me. I like a bad boy!” That was the understatement of the century. “And Alex is hardly a bad boy.” But that was another one.

“Hey, he’s quite sexy in a suit-and-tie sort of way,” Nadia shrugged. “And he’s got gorgeous eyes.”

“I hadn’t even noticed,” Holly admitted. “And I don’t know why you did, when you had Matt’s, your future husband, eyes there to be looking into.”

Nadia rolled her eyes. “Okay, I guess Matt's eyes were alright too.”

“I wonder if your kids will have his colouring or yours?”

“Hols, please.” Nadia gestured at her laptop. “He hasn't even poked me on Facebook yet. Children aren’t exactly imminent.”

Holly squinted at the laptop screen. “Who actually still pokes on Facebook?” she asked, incredulous.

“I think it’s been so long that it’s actually acceptable again now, it’s retro or something,” Nadia told her, authoritatively. “Maybe I should poke Alex,” she decided.

Holly laughed. “Okay. I’ll see you when you get back from 2006.” She saluted dismissively as she slipped back into the hallway.

Alex

This was the first summer Alex was really spending time with Lila. Sure, there'd been parties and beach days and road trips in the warm weather throughout the three years they'd been in the same group of friends at university, but it wasn't quite the same thing. He'd had Alice back then, and that had blocked him from ever getting around to thinking about Lila in the way he did now. And last year, her relationship with Rory was too new, but this summer everything was much more comfortable. Including her attire.

“God.” Lila exhaled heavily and rolled her tank top another inch up her stomach. “It’s so hot.” She sank down further into the sofa cushions. “Are there any windows left that we can open?”

“Nope, we’ve got them all,” Alex told her apologetically, staring anywhere than at Lila, who seemed to consist of an impossible amount of naked arms and legs, bare creamy skin from all angles. He took a distracted sip from his glass of coke, which had hit room temperature in the space of five minutes. It was the very last from Rory’s litre bottle, but, well, you snooze you lose – literally.

Lila blew strands of hair from her face listlessly. “I wish Rory would just get up. It can’t be any hotter outside.”

“Well, if he really drank another tray of those shots after I left, I doubt we’re going to be seeing him this side of three o’clock, to be honest.”

Lila made a cross noise. “I might just go home, you know. What’s the point of me just hanging around here?” Alex must have allowed his hurt to flash on his face as Lila’s expression immediately softened. “Aside from obviously getting to hang out with you. But you know what I mean.” She smiled sadly. “Sometimes I feel like it’s you and me who are the couple.”

She did this, sometimes – he could swear it was on purpose. She created little openings by saying things like that, looked at him through her eyelashes as if she was expecting something. He wished he could work out what it was that she wanted from him. It was too much to hope it would be the same thing that he wanted from her. There'd been once or twice at uni where he'd gotten the feeling she was interested in him. But maybe that was just the arrogant sort of guy he'd been back then.

“Come on.” Alex got to his feet. “If we’re going to just doss around and waste our Saturday we might as well do it in the sun on the Common. Grab your flipflops.”

Nadia

Matt appeared to be wearing the same Lacoste polo shirt he’d been wearing the night they’d met in Bison. Of course, it was entirely possible that he owned more than the one – did they come in double packs as standard, she wondered?

Realising belatedly that Matt had asked her a question and was waiting attentively for her response, Nadia stalled for time by taking a large drink from her wine glass.

“Oh, totally,” she decided to go with, relieved when Matt just nodded enthusiastically.

“I know, right?”

As far as first dates went, it was a smidgeon underwhelming; it was mostly down to her to be fair. Not wanting to just assume that Matt would be bankrolling the refreshments – but unable to afford anything much – Nadia had suggested the Bankside All Bar One, where she knew you could always get a voucher for a sharing platter and a bottle of plonk for under eleven quid. The so-called Sauvignon was acidic and warm as bath water against her teeth – her own fault for ordering the house white and not insisting on an ice bucket. She swilled down another mouthful. She had a bit of drink envy. Matt was drinking a nice-smelling fruit cider from a slim-necked, fat-bottomed vintage bottle. Ironically, he’d said that he thought men drinking wine was effeminate.

What was she doing here? This was hardly the right time to start dating somebody, even if they were tall, gorgeous and conveniently named…

Her thoughts had wandered again; she forced them back to what Matt was saying just a moment too late.

“So what about you?” he asked with a wide smile. Shit! There was no fudging around that one. Sighing she put her wine glass down.

“I’m sorry, I just got totally distracted. What was the last thing you said?”

Matt’s smile grew wider. “Only the very last thing?”

“I’m sorry,” Nadia repeated. “It’s so loud in here.” Lie. Maybe if you were half-deaf. Matt’s smile grew all the wider.

“Here, let’s do this, then.” He stood and dragged his chair from opposite her to next to her, reaching back to scoot his pretty cider bottle closer along the table. The scraping of the chair legs across the floor tiles drew attention from several tables over. Nadia saw a glossy city type in a fluffy pussy-bow blouse appraise Matt before dipping her head in closer towards her two friends to comment. They all then proceeded to stare across at them over the rims of their wine glasses.

Whereas she was normally pretty comfortable in herself, at that moment Nadia felt exceedingly rumpled next to Matt’s Lacoste-clad glory. She wasn’t sure how people who lived in year-round hot climates managed it, but the minute it got above twenty-four degrees she turned into a limp-haired, flush-faced state. She had agonised over the fact that the only clothing she could bear to put on her in this heat were linen sun-dresses, scantily short and pretty much see-through in the right light (which she very much hoped the bar didn’t have). Still, Matt had greeted her with an appreciative look, told her she looked nice, and had kept his eyes politely on her face all night, ignoring the temptations of her loose spaghetti straps or mid-thigh hemline with aplomb.

Pussy-bow and her friends continued to look over shamelessly. Nadia very much hoped they were just fascinated by the gorgeous, perfect-looking couple and not wondering what the hell a godly stud like him was doing with a minger like her. My hair’s not actually greasy; I did wash it, she wanted to rush over and assure them. It was just really hot and sweaty on the Tube getting here…

“Nadia?”

Matt had been talking to her again. Oh shit!

“I’m sorry,” she babbled as she cast around for an explanation for her offensive inattention. “I, er, I think I know that girl. I was just trying to work out where from.”

“Which girl?” Matt turned fully in his chair to look behind him. “Her?” He pointed straight at Pussy-bow, who panicked that she’d been caught staring and busied herself topping up her already full wine glass. Nadia cringed a little against her seat.

“Er, yeah, but actually I don’t think I do know her, after all.”

“Oh.” Matt swivelled back to front in his seat and picked up his drink again. “Nadia, are you okay? You seem a little… nervous.”

“Nervous?” Nadia echoed.

“Yeah.” Matt smiled. “It’s cute.”

Bless him. He thought that she was just flustered and overwhelmed about being on a date with him, rather than just highly distractible that evening. To be honest, that’s probably what he was used to, if Pussy-bow and co’s reaction to him was anything to go by. Come on, Nadia, she told herself sternly. You have in front of you an absolutely drop-dead gorgeous guy who seems to be really into you and magically has the same name as your Fake Visa Boyfriend. The universe is throwing you a bone here. Take it, take it!

“So are you up for it?” Matt was saying as she tuned back in.

Fuck!