“What about us?” She smiled, before the glass was raised to her lips.
“Do you want his babies?”
I silently applauded for myself on the timing, midway between taking a slip and swallowing. What liquid she hadn’t choked down was sprayed out in a cough. Points went to her for projection.
“I-umm, it’s a bit early to be thinking about that. We haven’t been dating all that long.”
I shrugged off her answer. She seemed…sensible. Did Harry want sensible? I had always imagined him shacking up with some tattooed, pierced, not-afraid-to-throw-a-punch kind of girl. Bo was tame. Unless she had some sort of naughty ink creation hidden somewhere only Harry had explored. I was going off topic.
She shifted in her seat looking mighty uncomfortable. Time to move on.
“But would you want to get married?”
“I hadn’t thought about it. I’d like to see him in a suit though.”
Her posture transformed, leaning forward slightly as if gearing up for my next question.
“So, what do you do?”
I stretched my legs out, crossing my ankles whilst taking another swig of beer. It crossed my mind that I should probably steady my pace with the alcohol, but the thought soon shimmered away as the bubbles fizzed and my head began to swim.
“I work at a music place in town; we sell all the old vinyl records along with the new stuff.”
Not quite as stuffy as I previously thought, maybe there’s hope for her yet.
“With that Dan bloke?”
I scrunched my nose up in disgust. Harry had been less than reserved about his feelings toward the guy. I hadn’t even met him and he sounded like an arse.
“Dan’s a friend,” Bo sternly replied.
I’d hit a nerve. I thought about pressing the subject further, but by the way her face hardened I didn’t particularly want to discover the boundaries of the topic.
“Are you at uni?”
It confused me when her eyes and demeanour softened, Bo’s tone lowering along with the mood apparently. Another touchy subject maybe?
“Has Harry talked to you?”
A few more people had floated away, and over to where some stupid guy had been dared to down another shot. I’d taken swimming lessons when I was younger, did the whole pyjamas in the pool thing, but I doubt I’d be able to fish him out in my current state. We’d both be bobbing around together.
Bo’s eyebrows rose in prompt and it took me a few seconds to cotton on the conversation once more.
“About what?”
I think I was starting to slur.
“Oh, I guess not. I can tell he’s not that keen on me going, but I’d love to take a writing course.”
Hmm, trouble in paradise. At least she had plans to get away from this area. Not much prospect for someone with bigger dreams. That’s what Harry and I had done, escaped from the looming ghosts of our old neighbourhood. Nothing much there for either of us, not now anyway.
“What do you do, Louis?”
I cleared my throat, not really prepared for her to reciprocate my attempt at probing questions. This was my interrogation, she couldn’t just flip the situation. But as the self-inflicted intoxication progressed, there was little I could do to keep my mouth shut.
Chapter 54:
Start from the beginning
