Tequila & Tea Bags (11 page)

It seems the whole village knows what happened. How mortifying.

‘Ha ha bloody ha,’ I snort, closing my eyes and hoping it will all go away.

‘Don’t be so miserable, love,’ she chuckles. ‘You have to be able to laugh at yourself.’

I should be a bloody clown with the amount of times I’ve had to laugh at myself.

My phone bleeps in my pocket, reminding me I should have it on silent. Another reason for Will to tell me off.  I take it out and open the text. It's from James.

Hey baby, fancy another booty call? You know you’re wet just reading this x

I smile to myself. What a cheeky bastard. It makes him all the more irresistible to me. I need a distraction right now.

‘Who’s that?’ she asks, peering over, trying to read it. Nosey parker.

‘Just James,’ I shrug, unable to hide the smile on my face, butterflies fluttering in my stomach at the excitement of him touching me again.

‘James Buckley?’ she squeaks, her cute face recoiled in horror.

‘Yeah, why?’ I shrug.

‘He’s bad news, Rose.’ She creases her eyebrows in concern.

‘Haven’t you heard?’ I laugh sarcastically. ‘So am I.’

***

Thursday 16
th
October

The dance is today. Well, I say dance; I’ve downloaded a load of old tracks Betty told me about and I’m playing them while a few pathetic banners and balloons are pinned around the room. I persuaded Coral in the flower shop to donate them. They look like she was about to bin them anyway.

It’s my only way to redeem myself with Will. I’ve also thrown myself into organising this bloody outdoor cinema screening. Madge from the library still hasn’t gotten back to me about us borrowing the big projector, and apparently I need a licence from the local council so we can use the green on the common. It’s such a bloody palaver.

Slowly, one by one, the men stand up (if they can) and walk over to a woman, requesting her hand and asking her to dance. It’s so cute I can't help but smile. This is how dating used to be. So dignified and respectful. Not like now, with a creepy guy appearing from nowhere and deciding it’s okay to start grinding behind you or James sending me a booty call request. God, how I wish I was born in another time.

Soon almost all of the residents are up dancing to Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly. It’s one of the few I know. I start tapping my feet involuntarily.

‘May I have this dance?’ asks a voice behind me. I turn around to see Will bowing dramatically in front of me.

I raise my eyebrows, but take his hand and let him lead me to the middle of the dance floor. He places his hands on my hips and pulls me close. It’s so quick that I have to steady myself by grabbing onto his sides. God, the abs on this man are ridiculous. I can feel them through his shirt. He must work out.

He carefully collects my hands and holds them in front of us. The residents are jiving, but as they can barely move it’s a far pared down version. Before I know it he’s pulling me around in a circle, before pushing me away from him. I think I’m going to fall, but then he grabs my hand again and pulls me back in.

‘Not used to dancing?’ he asks with a grin as I step on his foot again.

‘Sorry, I didn’t realise we’d gone back in time,’ I snap, irritated with myself for having two left feet. ‘Put on Beyoncé and I
dare
you to a dance off,’ I joke, raising my eyebrows jokingly.

‘Here,’ he offers, putting his feet out. ‘Stand on my feet.’

I frown. ‘What? Like a child?’ I’m highly offended and it’s hard to hide.

‘Whatever you want to call it,’ he says, quickly losing his patience.

How he can flip from silly and playful to moody and intimidating so quickly I don’t know.  

‘But I’ll crush your feet,’ I mumble.

‘Nah more than you’re doing now,’ he snaps, narrowing his eyes at me. I stand back, ready to push him away, but then realise his eyes have playfulness in them. He’s so hard to read.  

‘Fine,’ I snap, stamping one foot on top of his, hard. I see him wince from the pain, but he takes it like a pro. I place the other one on and look around to see if anyone can see us. They’re all too busy reminiscing about old times. ‘Am I hurting you?’

‘Sorry? I couldn’t hear you through the crushing pain,’ he jokes. ‘Please, you weigh nothing. You need to eat more.’

God, he’s bossy.

He starts jumping around, light on his feet even though I’m crushing them. He can jive. How random.

‘You’re joking. I’ve put on weight since I moved here. I don’t get it either as I’m eating less. At home my parents would always leave a massive dinner for me.’

He slows his jumping, although he seems nowhere near out of breath. He has stamina, eh…FOCUS!

‘So…what, you’re not eating dinners now?’ He sounds far too concerned.

‘Elsie can't cook, so I’m basically surviving on cheese on toast.’ I smile to let him know I’m only half joking. I don’t want him to think I’m slagging her off. She’s been nothing but good to me.

‘That can't be good for you,’ he reasons, narrowing his eyes again.

I just nod in agreement. I’m in no mood for a fight. Especially when he’s making me so dizzy with all of the twirls.

I attempt a change of subject. ‘Will, why don’t you ride Mitsy anymore?’ I blurt out.

I’ve been thinking about it and it’s weird. Something big must have happened to take such drastic action.

He stops dancing and looks away, as if watching something else happening. Trying to ignore me.

‘I saw you the other day,’ I press, eager to find out more about him. ‘You were itching to ride her. Why not?’

‘It’s just…’ he hesitates, looking away again before locking his eyes with mine intently. They bleed vulnerability. ‘She reminds me of my mum too much.’ His voice makes it sound like he’s confessing to a humiliating weakness.

I’ve never seen him like this before. I just want to wrap him up, take him home and cuddle him until he feels better. But I reckon I’d look a bit stalker-ish.

‘But surely your mum loved her,’ I press carefully. ‘If anything, isn’t it a way to be close to her?’

I’d love to see him ride her. I can see he loves her.

‘I can't be close to her, Rose. She’s dead,’ he says bluntly, swallowing down a lump in his throat.

‘You know what I mean.’ God, he’s annoying.

He’s not going to shut me up this easily.

‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ he states, staring down at me firmly.

‘Okay,’ I nod, deciding to give up. He’s going to be a hard nut to crack. I push my head into his chest. But then I realise he’s being a hypocrite. He’d be the first one to pull me up on it. ‘No.’

‘No?’ he grins, pulling back, his eyes crinkled with confusion. He’s so stubborn.

‘You can't be a hypocrite, Will. That’s just not you and you know it.’

‘Fine!’ he snaps, his eyes blazing. I stand off his feet, suddenly feeling exposed and vulnerable. Why did I have to push him? ‘If you must know,’ he says, his voice like acid, ‘we rode Mitsy together just before she died. It’s my last proper memory of her.’ His eyes shine with unshed tears. He's too stubborn to let them fall.

Oh God, what have I done? I’ve forced him to share this with me and now I feel awful. You can't just force these soul exposing confessions from people. They’re supposed to
want
to confide in you.

‘I’m so sorry.’ I grimace, wanting more than anything to take his pain away.

I step forward and push my head back into his chest, my body’s way of apologising. I don’t think he’d appreciate my boobs being pushed at him right now. He surprises me when he wraps his arms around my back, keeping me in place. I feel his heart beat begin to slow down. I’d like to think it’s because I calm him, only I know that’s not true.

‘She must have known she didn’t have long,’ he says, still keeping me in place. ‘She was supposed to be in bed, hooked up to morphine, but she told me we were going on an adventure. She ripped out her IV and we sneaked out the back door. At the time I thought it was fun.’ He laughs, only it’s clear it’s a laugh to cover his pain.

‘We walked to the stables, but we had to keep stopping for her to sit down. I was used to it by then. The cancer had spread to her bones.’ I squeeze him tighter.

‘We took Mitsy out and I helped her up. We rode around the village while everyone was sleeping and she told me stories about me as a baby. She said I was born stubborn and sulked for a week when James was born.’ He laughs at the memory.

‘I remember feeling proper special and loved, with the moonlight above us illuminating her fragile features. She made me promise to look after James, and I knew by the way she spoke she knew she didn’t have long. When we got back dad went mad. It didn’t matter anyway. She had passed by the morning.’

If it’s possible my heart is actually breaking for him. I feel physical pain for his loss. He was so young; just an eight year old boy who should have been carefree and silly. Instead he was trying to hold his family together. How could anyone ever get over that?

‘I’m sorry, Will,’ I say into his chest, still feeling too upset to look at him. I’m sure to burst into tears if I look at him too quickly. ‘I didn’t mean to push you.’

‘Yes you did,’ he laughs, the sound strained. ‘But it’s okay. I just…I don’t know if I can ride her again. It would bring it all back, you know?’

I nod, pulling back slightly to look at his broken face. ‘But have you ever thought about making new memories? Don’t you think your mum would want to look down and see you enjoying her memory?’

Not that I’ve ever believed in an afterlife, but after something like this I’m sure you’d cling on to the idea.

‘I don’t know. I’ll think about it,’ he shrugs, noncommittally.

My poor hunky damaged Will.

‘Why don’t we go to ride her this Sunday?’ I press. I have a feeling that if he rode her he’d start healing.

He looks unsure. ‘I’ll think about it.’ In other words, no.

The next track, Rock Around the Clock, comes blaring through the speakers and the mood immediately electrifies in the room. Every single resident perks up. If we were in a nightclub they’d be shouting ‘I love this song!’

Ethel and Harry start full on jiving in the middle of the floor. It
is
slow jiving. There’s no cool moves like Grease in there, but it’s still fun. People start joining in around them. Peter even lugs his zimmer frame to the dance floor and starts shaking his hips. He sees me watching him and decides to throw his zimmer frame into the corner. I nearly pass out from shock. He’s throwing some shapes now, clapping his hands together and lifting his feet off the floor, as if he were jumping. Will beams at me. I don’t see him happier than when I bring happiness to others.

Everyone starts to turn round and look at us. It makes me realise we’re still slow dancing. I look up at Will, blushing, and its then I realise they’re not looking at us at all. They’re looking beyond us. I turn around, still in Will’s arms to see two policemen. Will follows my gaze and his body stiffens as he appears just as stunned as me.

‘Excuse me,’ the tall one says. His moustache is so long it seems to be growing into his mouth. ‘But we have a few questions for you. You are William Buckley, the general manager here?’

Will releases me from his arms. ‘Err, yes. That’s me. Follow me to somewhere quieter.’ He walks towards the hallway, glancing back to give me a quizzical look and shrug.

What the hell are they doing here?

I suppose I’ll have to wait. I can be patient. Right? Oh God, who am I kidding?

***

‘More shots?’ Riley sings, already half way to the bar.

We’ve gone to a bar in the next village. Riley took matters into her own hands and organised it with Elsie. She was a bit unsure about coming here though. Something about a long running feud between villages. Not that I have any loyalty. It’s actually fun in here. It’s got dim lighting with small rickety miss-matched tables and chairs. If I squint I can imagine I’m in a vodka bar back home. Only the drinks would be five times the price.

Elsie’s still laughing from her joke about the panda. Who knew Elsie could be so much fun? Just ply her with red wine and watch her go. I can't believe she’s giving this all up to join Saint Ville. I
have
to save her. She’s got so much potential.

While Riley’s at the bar I figure it’s my best opportunity to quiz her.

‘Els, this Riley…’ I say carefully, ‘is she for real?’

I mean, she seems really friendly and genuine tonight. Maybe I’ve completely misjudged her.

‘What do you mean?’ she asks, her innocent little face squished up in confusion.

‘Just that. Is she real? Can I trust her?’

‘Oh yeah,’ she smiles reassuringly. ‘Riley’s the nicest girl I know. Her dad’s the vicar. I’ve known her forever.’

I forgot about the vicar being her dad. That’s got to make Elsie biased. And I
am
asking possibly the nicest girl in the village. I doubt she’d say a bad word about anyone.

‘So she’s trustworthy?’ I press.

‘Yes, Rose!’ she giggles, her lips starting to turn purple from the wine. ‘You need to start trusting people more.’

I roll my eyes. She needs to start being a bit more cautious.

Riley walks back to the table with more tequila shots. I knew I liked her deep down. We grab one each.

‘To trusting people,’ I toast, before slamming mine down my throat.

***

I can’t believe I’ve had such a brilliant night. Who knew the other village was happening. I may,
may
have gotten slightly shit faced. The truth is that I kind of passed out at our booth and Elsie had to wake me by throwing a glass of water over my face. But whatever, I had fun! I feel giggly, a bit spaced out, but most of all I feel pure unfiltered love for Elsie. Who knew she could be so much fun? Not me for sure!

We shower Riley, my new good friend, in kisses and drop her off at hers, before pulling into our road.

‘That’ll be forty five ladies,’ the cabbie says, not even bothering to look back at us.

‘What?’ I shriek. Forty five for a bloody fifteen minute journey? ‘That’s a bloody joke,’ I snort.