Stars and Hearts

Chapter Six

  “Hiya!” Ty said, grinning.

  “Hi,” I replied. I sounded weird, as my mouth wasn’t moving properly.

  “How are you today?” he asked.

  I felt I had no option but to lie. “Not great,” I answered as best I could through stiff lips. “Just come from the dentist – filling.”

  Rose was sat next to me and I could see her staring in disbelief.

  “You’re not having the best week, are you?” he said sympathetically. “Oh well – good you got the tooth sorted. Do you have any tickets for A Christmas Carol on the sixteenth of November?”

  I clumsily tapped away at the keyboard, getting the date wrong three times, before finally getting into the right performance. I could see Rose’s shoulders jiggling up and down as she silently giggled.

  “Mmmmm!” I said, nodding, my lips now feeling like they’d been super glued.

  “Great!” Can you reserve me a pair please? Preferably in the stalls.”

  “Mmmmm!” I replied, my hands shaking over the keyboard. After pressing the wrong keys about fifteen times, I actually managed to reserve two tickets in his name.

  “Thanks!” he said. “Get well soon!”

  I gave him a superglue half-smile and a jerky nod. I must have looked very frightening because he practically ran like he couldn’t wait to get away from me. I gulped hard. Bloody, bloody, bloody nerves!

  Rose looked at me, her eyes twinkling cheekily beneath her silver rimmed glasses. “Dentist?” she asked, giving me a knowing look.

  “Yes,” I said in a small voice. “Need to go to the dentist.”

  “But you told him you’d just been. Strange girl!” said Rose, turning to face a middle-aged couple who’d appeared at her window.

  At six o’clock, I sighed with relief as the working day ended and Suki arrived in the building to pick me up for the drink. She was dressed all in pink and black and looked absolutely stunning. I’d never seen anyone radiate such dazzling confidence. I felt small as I looked at her, realizing my chance of winning this boyfriend challenge thing was miniscule. I couldn’t even look at an attractive man without turning into a quivering mass of jelly and Suki was always cool as a cucumber. So unfair!

  “Happy Birthday!” I said with a smile, although the jealous part of me wanted to tell her the outfit looked garish and that she’d overdone her make-up, just so I could knock her unfair share of confidence.

  “Thank you!” she said, oozing charisma.

  We stepped out into the cool autumn evening air. The walk to the pub took only a couple of minutes. It was very cosy inside with its black wooden beams on the ceiling and walls, which were littered with framed autographed photos of actors. A guarded fire blazed in the hearth – very welcoming. We chose a seat close to the fire and removed our coats.

  “I’ll get these,” Suki said.

  “No!” I insisted. “It’s your birthday.”

  “I got my purse out first – you can buy the next round,” Suki said. “What do you want?”

  “Ok. I’ll have a sweet cider and a pot of fries, please.”

  Suki beamed, looking even more stunning than ever as I sank into my seat, feeling small, watching her slink off to the bar and smile at the hunky ginger barman, who eyed her up as he asked for ID, which she showed him confidently, pointing out it was her birthday.

  She returned with the drinks and I dashed to the loo. I’d brought my cosmetic bag, so I thought I’d touch up my make-up in an attempt to look at least half as nice as Suki did. I stood by the brightly lit mirror, re-applying everything from luminescent foundation to lashings of black mascara and pink tinted lip gloss. Pleased with the result, I smiled at my reflection and walked back into the bar area.

  “You look gorgeous!” Suki said, as I sat down.

  I straightened up with confidence as I replied, “Thanks – so do you!”

  I sipped my cider and tucked into my food, as Suki and I reflected on the day.

  “I really like Ty,” Suki said.

  I opened my mouth to tell her I thought he fancied me, but then I shut it again. It was her birthday. Stunning as the bitch looked, I didn’t want to upset her today. Besides, knowing my luck, I may have just imagined he fancied me and had probably blown any chance I might have had anyway.

  “Yeah,” I said. “He’s ok.”

  She proceeded to talk about how charming and how beautiful he was, as I sat there nodding and making occasional noises of agreement. Then I swiftly changed the subject.

  “How could I forget?” I said, hoisting my bag up from the floor and pulling out a big pink envelope. “Happy Birthday!”

  Suki smiled and ripped the envelope open. Inside was a birthday card and a book token.

  “I’m not very good at presents,” I said. “I thought a book token would be better than getting you something you didn’t really need.”

  “Thank you!” she exclaimed, pushing the token into her handbag and standing the card on the table. “Actually, I’ve been thinking a lot about your visit to the fortune teller and decided I wasn’t quite so afraid after all. I was thinking of buying a pack of Tarot cards. I can use the book token!”

  “Great!” I said, buzzing. “We could ask the cards questions about the actors!”

  “That’s the main reason I’m buying them,” she said, screwing up her face in excitement. “Don’t we both start at twelve o’clock tomorrow?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you want to meet at about half past ten? We can meet at Harry’s Bookstore on the High Street, then have coffee.”

  “Sounds like a plan!”

  The evening passed quickly as Suki and I giggled, chatted and drank.

  “I’m going to speak to Ty if he comes in,” Suki grinned. “I can talk about my birthday and see if he’ll buy me a drink.”

  “I’ll buy you one now, before the theatre goers flood in,” I said. “Mothballs will be finishing about now. I see they do garlic bread, would you like some of that?”

  “No thanks,” Suki replied. “I’ll just have a glass of lemon and lime.”

  “Oh,” I answered, disappointed she hadn’t fallen for my plot to make her breath stink of garlic when she chatted up Ty. Damn!

  A motley crew of theatre goers flooded through the doors just a few minutes later, followed by none other than Dirty Dudley Mountain. He was accompanied by a tarty fifty-something woman with shoulder length curly blonde hair and tits the size of barrage balloons, showing too much cleavage. She wore lacy gypsy type clothes and a black biker jacket which looked about two sizes too small for her.

  “What a slag!” Suki said, looking her up and down.

  Then Dudley noticed us both and began staring while the tarty woman battled for his attention by giggling and thrusting her tits into his face. She looked over at us and bitchily narrowed her eyes.

  He made his way to the bar, still looking at us. The twat should have watched where he was going as he walked into a table, knocking his leg. The table was occupied by a group of leering women. One of them wolf whistled him and made a lewd suggestion. It was disgusting – she looked at least eighty-five. He gyrated his hips as the old biddies clapped. I looked at Suki, stuck my finger in my mouth, and mock puked. Then, for no apparent reason, Dudley swiftly grabbed his tart friend and fled the pub. Perhaps the dirty old octogenarians at the table had made him randy. I really didn’t want to know.

  The next twenty minutes were pretty disappointing. No interesting men turned up, so we decided it was time to leave.

  “Oh well,” Suki sighed. “I enjoyed the night anyway. Thanks for coming.”

  “It was great,” I replied.

  Suki picked up her phone and called her dad. We waited outside the pub, chatting and laughing, then a black Mercedes pulled up. Inside was a grinning, round faced Japanese man in glasses.

  “Here’s Dad!” Suki exclaimed. We jumped in and they dropped me off at the flat on their way home.