Charlie was feeling great. She had done everything her boss had asked, and everything else was all right, too. She was heading towards Charles Dickens as the annoying void inside made her feel hungry. She pushed the door and was about to enter when some jerk with fiery eyes and messy hair bumped into her. He didn't even say sorry, just looked at her lewdly, hiding his eyes behind sunglasses.
'Isn't he disgusting,' Charlie thought. 'Some people find it easier to get wasted in the morning than to go and actually work.'
This little mishap gave her food for reflection for a whole two minutes. She thought how ill-bred people can be sometimes as she kept moving past the tables and chairs.
She sat at the counter and noticed an unfinished four-letter word scratched on it. She was not in the mood to attract the bartender's attention to it, so she covered the letters with a menu.
"What will you have?" John asked with his familiar husky voice.
"Cinnamon coffee and...something to eat..." Right, beer was not food after all. Charlie laid an eye on the pastry tray and picked a doughnut glazed in white chocolate. "This one!"
"Good choice, dear." John smiled at her easily.
While the bartender was busy with her order, Charlie looked around the pub. In the corner, there was some guy covered in cigarette ashes. He was trying to dust it off, and the waitress wasn't much help, considering that her breasts stole all of the suit's attention. What a sad-sack! The smell of cinnamon wafted up with the steam from the hot coffee.
"For you, lady." John smirked and then went to greet a newbie. Charlie was left alone, face to face with her own thoughts.
She had lately started feeling like thoughts were her only company. Of course, she did have friends, although she hadn't seen much of them since she'd moved in with her boyfriend.
She did have Nigel, but he kind of had his papers. Together they could make a great family. And instead of kids, they could be raising their bank account. For a second there, Charlie imagined, what would it be like to spend all her life working 'till six o'clock on the line with editors, and having two-day weekends, along with a constant salary. And after that? Sipping cocktails in a lounge while Nigel is playing golf? Charlie had two important questions stuck in her mind: what were her personal goals, and what happened to all her friends? She'd had a hell of a crew in the university. They sure knew how to make some noise. And then she met Nigel, and he alone took all her attention. Now she had no one to talk to, except for Sarah.
If she kept on like this, she might as well end up with a headstone saying, "Charlotte Soledad Chester. Lived for Nigel. Died of the blue devils."
Charlie poked the doughnut with her fingernail. The glaze broke, but the doughnut lifted back up. She poked it harder. Charlotte wasn't gonna give up in favor of the pastry. However, the roll was just as stubborn.
"Firm, huh. As JLo's butt." John set his hands against the counter in front of Charlie. She shrugged, but didn't argue. "So, what's wrong?" the bartender asked.
Charlotte Chester was never the one to spill her guts all over the pub, so she reeled off, "It seems like I'm gonna die of boredom before thirty. Nigel is probably still not ready to propose, so this makes me think whether our relationship is going anywhere. I blame it on him, but to be honest, my life is just not fascinating anymore! My boss doesn't appreciate me, and instead of real stars, I get cruel, effete youngsters. And all they need is a good old detention. I waste my time and my talents on nothing!" As Charlie listed all of her problems aloud, she felt something strange. All of a sudden, it all seemed far away, as if it wasn't her life anymore, but there was one familiar thing left...
"Rain!" John reached his hand over the counter to shake Rain's small palm. The girl who Charlie had met a few days before sat next to her.
"Hi!" Charlie greeted her. She liked this new acquaintance. This girl seemed like an enigmatic person.
"Charlie! I knew I'd meet you here!" See? She knew Charlie would be here. Wasn't that mysterious enough?
"May I take your order?" John asked with ironic politeness.
"No, you may not. I'll wait for Dave." Rain turned to Charlie. "Try skydiving!"
"What?" Charlotte was so gobsmacked, she almost poured out her coffee. "What for?"
"Well, you know, looks like your life is not vibrant enough. You gotta spice it up somehow. With something cool and hot."
John looked at the girls with interest and spoke to Charlie.
"You know what? She might be right." He said it as if he was a professional therapist, ready to listen and give advice. So Charlie was pretty sure he was going to give out the sooth Socrates was searching for.
"I won't say anything about your boyfriend. I haven't even met him. But you do need some heavy action in your life."
"Harvey!" Rain burst out. "You remember him, John, don't you?"
"Sure, yes. A good fellow, he was always down in the dumps. A lousy job, no girlfriend, it was like he had lost his balls to depression. So he decided to join a skydiving club. And you know what? He met a hot blonde at the training. Now they've been married for eight months. And the boy got all his confidence back, as good as new. He was promoted too, came here to celebrate."
Charlie took a bite of the doughnut and, while chewing it, imagined herself falling from the sky and then flying. That must be so exciting!
"This is genius! I would've never thought of this!" She sounded extremely inspired.
"Just be careful. It's dangerous as well." Rain's words faded away, because now that Charlie had the idea of flying, all she could think about was skydiving. She saw herself jumping from a plane, pushing off its floor, and flying. With the wind blowing in her face, and the sun smiling at her... She was floating through the sky and then stepping on solid ground just to hear the chime. It was time to get back to work. Charlie finished her coffee and left the money on the counter.
"Don't forget to tell how it went," Rain said, waving at her as Charlie grabbed her bag and rushed back to the office.
"You know what?" Rain told John, "I'm gonna have red tea and croissants."
She moved to a corner table with two big claret armchairs. Sherlock might have sat on those chairs, smoking a pipe and solving crimes. Rain imagined that picture when suddenly somebody put a hand around her waist and kissed her gently on a cheek.
"Davey!" She turned around and hugged her friend so tight he could barely breathe.
As always, he looked great, wearing a lounge jacket, black jeans, and smiling with his adorable beam. Although, his eyes were laid on someone behind Rain. Obviously, he had noticed some good-looking man. Rain composed a judgmental face and followed his look with her eyes.
"I clearly have a better chance with him," she said and then laughed. "And, by the way, I have great news. So raise your glass!"
"Really? What news would that be?" Davey sat in front of her.
"What do you think?"
"New commission?"
Rain nodded.
"I'm going to decorate the new hot spot!" she said it with so much enigma, Davey couldn't hold his tongue.
"A bawdy-house?"
"Exactly." Rain smirked. "Only in my case, it's a club."
"Good girl, Mel!" He smiled.
They had known each other for so long that they were on a middle-name basis, only Dave never had a middle name, so it was only for Mel, which was short for Melody.
"This means drinks are on you tonight!" Dave sat back and relaxed, rolling a small teaspoon in his hand. A waitress brought tea and croissants.
"I'm not getting paid in advance, sweetheart." Rain took a bun. "So, they're on you!"
"I had no doubts about that. Then you pick a place."
"I like it here just fine."
"Okay!"
Rain looked around. So what if it was the middle of the day, and people were mostly in their offices. Dave was absolutely right when he said, "You have to take every last thing from this life. And what does it matter if people don't quite get you."
Actually, throughout the years, Rain and Dave had developed a strange type of a relationship. Everyone around thought they were dating and sometimes "accidentally" on purpose pulled one of them aside and asked haltingly, "Dave... Davey... Yes, here's the thing, Dave... Are you and...Rain, well, you know?"
"Oh, yes we are! We have a bottle of whiskey and we are going to drink it!" was Dave's answer. "We are having the time of our life," Rain usually said.
"If you had been straight, we would've been married for years now." That was the motto of their relationship. They spent free time together, met guys in clubs, and discussed them later.
Back when Rain and Will were together, he was insanely jealous of Dave. He used to think that Rain was cheating on him with her best friend. He even tried once to catch them. Will had overheard Rain arranging a meeting with someone, and his mind was blinded by a desire to finally discover the truth, so he stole Rain's emergency key to Dave's apartment and headed off to the lion's den. He had no better idea than to hide in a closet, and in the meantime, he wanted to jump out and catch the liars red-handed. He had to spend half of an hour inside before the bedroom door slammed. Clearly, there were two people. His muscles tightened and he prepared to leap out. Will waited for another few minutes, and as soon as the rhythm of a shaking bed became more obvious than he could handle, he opened the doors! There sure were two people on that bed: Dave and a confused guy.
"Is that your surprise?" the guy asked.
The next time Rain met Will was when he came to pick up his stuff from her apartment.
So that's how Rain ended up with Dave once again, in a world with plenty of other men ready to accept their friendship.
But right now they were celebrating her new project.
"John, two cocktails!" Rain waved at the bartender.
"How about four?" Davey added.
"Four it is!" John left and came back with a tray and four Hawaiian umbrellas in four cocktail glasses. Even a prim classic sometimes begged for a touch of cute immaturity.
"So, how did it go with Ed?" John asked. It was meant as an ambiguous joke.
"Pretty well, actually. And I gotta thank you, John!" Rain was smiling.
"Have you two met already? Did you see the club?" John showed interest in the topic.
"Not yet. We are set for Monday night. I spoke to a woman, secretary maybe. But your friend is gonna be there."
"Ed is a good fellow. You'll like him."
Rain smirked. Not that she cared what kind of a fellow Ed was. However, she was worried about his preferences, after all, that was the most important thing. And in her mind, she'd already created dozens of sketches.
Dave was talking to John about something, giving Rain some time to deal with the rolls. Her thoughts were caught by a simple but very haunting tune of an old song that used to be popular. It went something like, "I knew I loved you before I met you."
"And a bottle of Jameson too," Rain heard Davey's voice through the song that had conquered her mind. "I'm not sure if we'll be able to finish it here."
"You guys are my best clients today," John said.
"Sure, if we keep drinking like this, you might change the sign to bank vault, with all our money you'll have." Dave raised his glass. "Cheers, comrade!"
"No pasarán!" replied John, walking back to the counter.
As soon as the bartender left, Rain suddenly reeled off, "Will came by to pick up his stuff today."
"Hope he did not get lost in your closet." Dave laughed loudly, and it took him some time to collect himself. "Seriously, Mel, did he return your keys?"
"I'm not sure. I know I told him to."
"Classic you, today you forget the key, tomorrow you leave the door open. I wonder when you're gonna show up at my door with a suitcase."
Rain playfully pouted.
"You don't own a flat iron. Besides, my place is as good as new, now that there's so much free space."
"No more lonely socks on your antique lamp?" Davey even managed to express regret.
"No more play-station controllers or wireless cars!"
"Gosh, is he eleven?" Dave grimaced and continued opening the bottle. "Straight guys are so immature."
"Well, I'd like to think you're wrong. There must be that one man somewhere, right? Strong and smart, respo-onsible." Rain rolled her eyes dreamily and placed her glass in front of Dave. Her friend poured a drink and moved the glass towards Rain.
"You're looking in the wrong places. Try a library."
"If I wanted to spend the rest of my life rubbing my husband's glasses, I'd probably do so," she laughed, "but I don't want to look for the one anymore, I'm tired of it. I'm counting on destiny now."
Davey shook his head and said perceptively, "Be careful what you wish for, it might just come true."
"Then I want everything to be oka-ay." She sank her head onto her arms and sniffed.
"Well, then so be it!" Davey took a second glass of raw whiskey.
Rain, however, already sounded glassy-eyed.
"By-y the way..." she moaned, "I've been told by a fortune teller that a man is soon to appear in my life. And at first, I am so-o not going to take him seriously."
"That must be me." Davey giggled so loudly that the whole pub might have heard him, then he started singing along with the song playing in the pub.
"I was made for loving you, baby. You were made for loving me..." Rain joined him with drunk pleasure. A guy at the next table peered at them for a second but then got back to his pint.
Two hours later, an idea of hitting a club came into sight, and later that night Rain blacked out.
"Gosh, my head..." Rain tried to sit up, pressing a blanket to her chest. Her eyes were barely open, and a throbbing pain was running through her temples. She was slowly falling back asleep, but somebody started moving on the other side of the bed. Then Dave's head rose from the pillow and he looked suspiciously happy.
"Morning, Mel. Melody?"
"Davey?" she replied with the same sense of wonder.
They exchanged looks. Both were trying to recall last night, especially the part where they came home.
"I think I'm naked," said Dave, checking under the blanket.
"Same here." Rain nodded. "Look, we didn't... Did we?" She blinked and looked at the white sheet.
"I have absolutely no idea..." Dave scratched his forehead.
"The funny thing is, I remember the beginning, but not the end..."
"Well, either something happened here or we've been playing strip poker again. And well, the bad news is, I don't remember any cards."
Rain chuckled as the door opened and a blond hunk entered the room. He was smiling but seemed somewhat confused. Probably because he was covering his bottom with a thick towel. Rain and Dave were both gazing rapturously at him.
"You guys are something else!" He smiled and even winked at them. "Too bad I gotta go to work."
"You guys?" Rain whispered. "What, there were three of us?"
"Maybe there was just one of us..." Dave was unsure again.
"He's clearly not my type." This conclusion wasn't worth a damn, because last night everyone who could take more than two minutes with them automatically became both their types.
"I think he's straight..." Dave stopped short, because the guy came back. Thank god, now he was wearing clothes. He bent over to Dave and gave him a kiss on the lips.
Then he winked at Rain and said, "I remember where the door is. You give me a call." That was meant for Dave too.
When the door slammed, Rain and Davey exhaled at the same time.
"So much for being straight..." she said. "All the straight guys are already at the stadium watching football and scratching their beer bellies."
Rain lay back and pulled the blanket over her head.
"You know what the funny thing is?" Dave didn't wait for her reply and went on, "I have no idea what his name was. Something like Rob."
"That would make him Roberto." Rain yawned.
"Or Bob."
"Boberto then, I guess..." She fell asleep.