Never Really Over

Chapter 7

May 2014

"Beth, you said five minutes?!"

John calls from the living room of the Albert Dock apartment. He's sitting on the grey crushed velvet sofa, the style everyone seems to have, and he thinks shows a complete lack of imagination. His feet are resting on the glass coffee table, which Beth hates him doing because he always leaves marks. He glances at his phone to double check the time, smiling to himself as he does so, because he's wearing a watch, but Beth says she's never once seen him check the time on it. She teases him that she's not even sure he can tell the time properly.

"It's been an hour!" There isn't even a hint of annoyance in his tone, only resignation that he will spend several hours of his life waiting for Beth to be ready.

He can picture her crouching on the bedroom floor in front of the mirror, with all her make up spread out around her. She'll be attempting to apply her mascara without opening her mouth, she's been trying to master this the entire time he's known her.

He's right.

"You look like a goldfish," he leans on the door frame and smiles at her fondly. She catches his eye in the mirror and grins back, "Okay, I'm ready." She twists the mascara closed and drops it into her bulging make up bag.

She gets to her feet and twirls, flashing the heavy hint of leg her royal blue thigh split dress reveals, "How do I look?!"

"Yeah, yeah, gorgeous." He walks over to her and places a hand on the base of her back and pushes her towards the door. "Love the dress, you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, blah, blah, blah. Let's go!"

*

"Why is she sitting in the front seat?"

John feels his shoulders tense. First, he had to wait for Beth to be ready, then he was stuck for almost fifteen minutes making small talk with Jade's family when he'd only popped in to say 'hi' out of politeness and now she's about to throw her toys out the pram over Beth again. "Why did you pick her up first?! I'm supposed to be your girlfriend."

"Because we live in the same building! Would be a bit stupid to drive all the way here to pick you up first then drive all the way back again, wouldn't it?!" He is careful to keep his tone light to hide his irritation. They don't have time for this and if Beth is witness to another of his and Jade's arguments, all he'll hear for the next week is why are you even with her?! And girlfriend!? That's a bit of a stretch. 'Fuck buddy' is how Ross would probably refer to her.

Jade doesn't reply, instead she marches down the garden path and pulls open the passenger door making Beth jump. "I get travel sick if I sit in the back, can you please move?"

As Beth climbs out of her seat, without protest, John catches her eye over the top of the car and mouths an apology. Beth shrugs, normally Jade refuses to acknowledge her existence, the fact she has uttered even one word to her is progress, regardless of how those words were delivered.

"Sure," Beth plasters on the smile John knows she usually reserves for particularly difficult people she has to deal with at work. "No problem. You look beautiful by the way Jade."

Just as Beth knew it would, Jade's vanity gets the better of her, and she smiles, before turning to John, who is now back in the driver seat, and glaring at him. "I'm glad someone noticed."

John cringes. He would much rather wait in the car for Jade, but her dad has this weird thing about it being rude not to come in and say hello, so he always does it and has to chat with anyone who happens to be home, including the family dog. The entire time he wishes he could be somewhere, anywhere else as they dissect his latest performance and ask awkward questions, he doesn't know the answer to about where his relationship with Jade is going. Tonight, her gran was there, and John's had to pretend to be sad about the fact her vacuum cleaner wasn't picking up things properly anymore and gently explain that, unfortunately, as a Premier League footballer, he didn't have a clue how to fix it, and the best advice he could offer her was to buy a new one, because that's what he would do. By the time Jade had practically floated down the stairs like the female protagonist heading off to prom in those stupid teen movies Beth liked so much, he was a sweaty mess and his suit felt like it was shrinking. He was so desperate to get out of there that he had completely neglected to tell Jade that she looked nice. Which she did, because that was her appeal. That and the fact that, despite her family's overactive imaginations, she was happy to just coast along, never expecting anything from their 'relationship' other than nice dates and a few presents.