‘Hey, fancy coming to the pub later? All the guys are going down after work tonight.’
‘I’m having dinner with George later! What time are you going?’ I replied.
‘About 7! Come before you go for dinner! We're going to The Bull.’
I stood looking at my wardrobe trying to figure out what to wear. To look good, but in a friendly way. But also to look just a little bit more for the pub beforehand…
I decided on a dark green pinafore dress, layered with a long sleeve top underneath and tick tights. Then I slipped on my docs and grabbed my oversized aviator jacket.
I arrived at the pub and heard Abbie before I saw her. I headed over to the table I could see her at when I stopped short.
George was sitting at a table on the other side of the bar. Holding hands with a blonde woman. It took a moment for me to realise I was overtly staring and forced myself to join Abbie at the table.
“Alice!” I was greeted with a chorus from the group.
“What do you want?” James asked, standing up with his empty glass.
“Can I get a fruit cider? Any flavour is fine.” I said, only half paying attention to James.
“Abbie. George is here with a woman.” I said to her. She straight away started looking around and her eyes narrowed when she spotted them.
“Want me to go and throw my drink in his face?” She looked around the table, probably for a full drink because hers only had one sip left.
“No no! I'm angry. But only because he lied. I was literally going to make it clear we're just friends tonight.” I said looking at Abbie.
“Why are we angry and who are we only friends with?” James said as he put the drinks on the table and slid into the booth next to me.
I turned to look at him and was captivated by his eyes. I internally shook myself.
“Oh. So this guy from my office asked me out and he's here with another woman. But we've only been on like 2 “dates” and I just don't like him like that and was going to make it clear at dinner later but he told me he was with his mum and he isn't… I think we're not friends anymore either.” I took a deep breath.
“Should we go sit on the table over there and hold hands, pretending you didn't see him?” James suggested. I laughed and realised he was serious. It only took me a moment to consider. I grabbed my drink with one hand and James' arm with my other.
James led me over to a table that put me in George's line of sight but I wasn't looking directly towards him.
“So tell me a little bit more about what happened with this loser.” James said. I recounted what happened with Warren and George and reiterated that I was ‘ending’ it anyway.
James went up to the bar to get some more drinks and I made sure I didn't look over at George and tried to look around and go on my phone.
“He has definitely noticed and even though he's here with someone else he's not happy. I caught him looking over at me at the bar and he was definitely trying to assess what this is.” James whispered as he sat back down.
“You know what. I'm going to text him and cancel. He'll probably realise I've noticed him.” I type out the text and show it to James before hitting send.
Only a moment after George stood at our table.
“Alice. What is this?” He gestured between me and James and showed me the text I just sent him.
“George, it's not nice to leave your mum alone.” I said sarcastically and gestured towards the blonde.
“She's just a friend, she needed some support tonight… I cancelled on mum.” He stuttered out.
“It looked more like she was supporting you, with her foot running up and down your leg like that… and the kissing…” George had the decency to look guilty. I didn't let him say anything else.
“Goodbye George.” I stood up and looked at James before including my head towards the rest of the group. He smiled at me and got up without a word. Bumping into George as he walked past.
As we approached the group we found everyone was watching. They started to applaud and cheer loudly as we got back to the table.
I started laughing and lent into James to whisper thank you to him.
We've been back with the group for a round when James leans into me.
"You wanna grab some air?" He raised his voice so I could hear him over the music.
I nodded and he grabbed my hand and we weaved through the people who had started dancing and ducked out to the beer garden.
"You police really go hard at the weekend." I laughed as I said it and sat down on the bench James had walked us to. I was very aware that he was still holding my hand.
"They make the most of their time off, that's for sure… you've fit into the group as if you were a cop."
"I'm honoured." I put my other hand up to my chest as I said this and James laughed.
"Seriously! You're fucking great. You can come out with us whenever!” James exclaimed and waved his hand around dramatically.
"I think I will." I looked up at him and he looked at me directly. And started rubbing his thumb over the back of my hand.
"James…" I trailed off as he raised his other hand and brushed some hair across my cheek and tucked it around the back of my ear.
I watched his face. He looked at me.
He leant forward and kissed me. Very gently for a moment, and then slightly harder. He broke away but stayed close and studied my face.
Then he slid his hand to the back of my neck and pulled me in, crushing our mouths together. My lips tingled and I felt myself warm. I'm sure my cheeks were as red as tomatoes.
We broke away and smiled at each other. James ran his hand down my arm and took hold of my hand again.
"We have an audience…" He whispered. I turned slightly and saw the whole group looking at the window. It looked like they were catcalling and whistling, most with their hands punching the air.
"We better put on a show then" I whispered back with a wink.
He leant in to kiss me again and I put my middle finger up towards the window. I felt him shift and pulled back slightly to see he had also flipped them off. I laughed and put my hand on his chest as I tried to get my breath back.
“We'll have to go in and face the music at some point. Might as well be now.”
We went back inside and sure enough, we were greeted by whistling and a lot of ‘oh la la’s’. I definitely blushed but I was on cloud 9.
Abbie winked at me as I sat down.
James walked me home that night and got a taxi from mine.
“It's only 2 minutes away apparently.” James said after checking his phone when we arrived at mine. He looked up from his phone and slipped it back into his pocket as he stepped towards me. He pressed me up against my door and pulled me close to him. His lips touched mine hesitantly. I grabbed hold of his jacket and pulled slightly. The kiss changed. We were just mouths and heat, pressed together, moving, our hearts rapidly beating against each other.
The taxi honked.
We jerked apart at the surprise and James kissed me gently once more before turning and walking to the taxi.
I got inside and my knees were weak under me.
Tonight went better than I could have expected.