"Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine." - Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
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The quartet followed Tom back to the three tables which seated the Americans that he seemingly knew best. They were on their second round of drinks by now after having decided to share their first together. It was so rare for them to get to go out together like this, they wanted to savour it.
Juliette was somewhat reluctant to have to leave the safe bubble of her team and interact with the others again, but the whiskey she'd downed before she left combined with her first drink gave her a sort of warm buzz that dulled her anxiety. This time, when they returned, fake introductions were in order.
Thomas put an arm around Juliette and dragged her up next to him, almost parading her in front of his friends, most of which she'd met in some capacity already.
"Boys, this is Penny. Most of you already know her which is rather unfortunate but I can't do much about that -" Juliette shoved his arm off of her immediately, making some of the men laugh. "She's a little bit feisty but she's a real sweetheart once you get to know her."
Juliette rolled her eyes and avoided eye contact with the Americans at all costs. Thomas really did know how to embarrass her.
The fair-haired man then turned to Will, who stood on his right. "This is James, who some of you will recognise as the unfortunate young man who received a verbal bollocking in the middle of town the other day. Legend has it that if Penny hadn't stepped in he'd still be standing there now." Will made a show of scowling at Thomas but laughed along with the rest of them almost as soon as the glare had hit its mark - a tipsy Thomas was a crowd pleaser and they were all used to it by now.
"Then next to Penny is Warren," Tom introduced, gesturing to Martin on Juliette's left. Thomas paused, likely trying to think up something funny to say about him, before Juliette cut in.
"He's my dad."
Tom laughed loudly and abruptly when Martin shoved her into him. "You're not funny."
"I am a bit."
That seemed to break the ice. Juliette and Martin were pulled into conversation with a group of men that featured Joe Toye and Bill Guarnere, and were quickly introduced to a very tall, mountain of a man named Bull Randleman and a much smaller, though no less intimidating, man named Johnny Martin. It was rather unfortunate that his surname was Martin, Juliette thought, for the paratroopers called each other almost exclusively by their last names and this would no doubt be confusing for everyone who knew the Martin beside her's real name. She hoped Martin himself was used enough to his fake name by now that he wouldn't turn around every time someone called out to the other Martin, otherwise people would probably think he was in love with him or something. She snickered at the thought.
Juliette was soon engrossed in conversation with Bull and Johnny about the common misconception that British beer is served warm, which it most certainly is not she would have them know, though they obviously knew as much already. She was, much to their amusement, horrified at the thought that the Americans had come to England expecting it to be so, and told them to write home immediately that the Brits were not, in fact, barbarians and did drink cold beer just like any normal, sane people.
Juliette felt a pair of hands come to rest on her shoulders and turned to find Tom grinning mischievously at the pair of men before her. "Mind if I steal her away?"
When the men replied in the negative Tom steered Juliette in the direction of where he'd been standing before, only stopping once they'd come to stand before Bill, Don, Joe, and George. With the way all of the glasses had been lined up on the table, she knew what was coming.
"She's my partner."
So it was a drinking game.
"Fine by me," Joe Toye commented dryly and shot her a smirk. He would regret that comment, she thought, and smiled innocently back at him.
"What are the bets?" Juliette asked. She looked between each of the men and crossed her arms, sizing them up. She thought that Joe would probably be their biggest competition - he was the biggest of all of them, after all.
"The winners don't have to pay for a single drink for the rest of the night," Thomas told her, and she nodded. She surmised that if the pair of them hadn't been competing it would probably have more likely been cigarettes they bet on, but the required physicality of their work meant that neither her nor Thomas smoked. He had made sure to give her an incentive to win, though, and she grinned at him.
"Hope you're ready to pay up double, Henry, 'cause I ain't havin' a broad payin' for my drinks," Bill drawled, puffing on his cigarette.
Juliette rolled her eyes. "Who said we're going to lose?"
"Oh, come on," Malarkey interjected with a smile, "you're smaller than Luz!"
"I'm not that short!" George protested.
Juliette smirked and leaned forwards onto the table. "What I'm hearing are a lot of reasons why you don't want me to compete. Scared, boys?"
"Yeah, in your dreams, doll," Bill replied, stomping out his cigarette and beginning to hand out the pints. "I'm with Malark, Joe's with Luz, and you two are gonna lose," he declared, passing Juliette her pint last.
"Boat race, right?" she asked. The boys nodded.
It was a tag-team version of who can down it first; little did the boys know that this game was all they'd played after they'd first graduated training. Tom and Juliette were veteran teammates. He shot her a subtle grin - he'd obviously orchestrated the whole affair.
"Bull!" Bill called, gesturing for the larger man to come over. "I'm trustin' you to judge this fairly. No special treatment just 'cause she's a broad, alright?"
"Alright," Bull agreed, standing back to get a full view of each of the teams. Each pair began discussing who would be going first, though all Tom and Juliette needed to do was share a nod. They'd done this a million times before.
She saw Martin and Will approach them from a little ways away, obviously having had their attention grabbed when Bill called Bull over, and they stood amongst the rest of the Americans ready to spectate. Juliette had to win this, if not for herself and Thomas then so that she wasn't relentlessly teased by Martin afterwards.
Bets were thrown around between the onlookers, most bartering money on Joe and George. A very select few took a chance on Tom and Juliette, namely Will and Johnny, and she smiled at them both when she'd heard them call it out.
"Ready?" Bull finally called. Each pair nodded, Tom and Juliette faced each other whereas the others chose to stand side-by-side. "Three, two, one, go!"
Thomas was the first to go on her team, George the first out of him and Joe, and Bill the first out of him and Don. Juliette kept her eyes locked on Tom and tuned out the cheers and jeers from the spectators, not sparing a glance to track the others' progress and trusting that Tom was fast enough to beat them.
By now, she didn't even have to encourage him, and whatever she shouted at him would no doubt only have served to slow him down. It was a mere few seconds but it always felt like forever that it took Thomas to finish off the pint, all the while nerves were bubbling in her stomach in the hopes she didn't mess this up.
As soon as Tom slammed his glass down onto the table she began to see her own pint off, tipping her head back and opening her throat so she could get as much liquid down at one time as possible, just as Tom had shown her all those years ago. It was almost second nature to her now.
The cacophony of the room was a mere buzzing in the background as she focused on draining her glass, eyes locked on the golden liquid until it was all gone. She slammed her glass down on the table to the sound of all hell breaking loose and grinned when Tom picked her up and spun her around.
"That's my girl! Just like I taught ya!"
"Holy shit!" she heard Don exclaim as soon as he'd slammed his glass down. He'd evidently been the last to finish. At the same time, she heard George shout out a 'what the fuck!'. Juliette merely laughed brightly as Thomas set her back down again, the victorious pair high-fiving with both hands before turning back to their dumbstruck competition.
"Legal drinking age is eighteen here, boys," Juliette told them with a smirk. "We've got years on the lot of you." She laughed as she watched Joe scowl and Bill mutter something incomprehensible which was no doubt rather foul.
Juliette saw Will and Johnny collecting their money from fellow betters and laughed once more when Tom pulled her into his side. She didn't know why she'd ever doubted herself.
"What are we drinking to celebrate?" he asked her. She shrugged, looking between the faces of the men gathered whilst they awaited her answer.
She looked back up at Thomas and laughed. "Whiskey?"
"What the fuck is in the water over here?" Joe asked, laughing a little bit through his astonished expression.
"Whatever it is I want some," Don replied. "How'd you do that?"
Juliette grinned at him. "Magic."
Just as Bill left to go to the bar Juliette felt a hand on the small of her back and turned to find a man she hadn't yet been introduced to, though he wore the same dress uniform as the other Americans. He was tall and thin but no less boyish than any of the others, and gave her a charming smile that spelled trouble.
"Where'd a girl like you learn to drink like that?"
Juliette shrugged. "A girl like me? Or just a girl, in general?" She was used to the 'you're not like other girls' remarks and was frankly rather sick of them.
The man smirked. "You know what I mean." The hand that rested on the small of her back slid across to her hip before being held out in front of her. "Joe Liebgott."
She put her hand in his to shake it though instead he brought it to his lips. She fought the eye roll. "Penny Williams." When her hand fell back to her side she asked him, "Your last name, is it German?"
His expression barely changed but his posture straightened. "Austrian, actually." Ah, she thought, so that's a touchy subject. Understandably.
"I see. Have you ever been?"
He shook his head. "I haven't. Have you?"
She shook her head as well, though this wasn't strictly true. But Penny Williams had no business leaving England, so for all intents and purposes she had never been. "No, but I've heard it's very pretty."
"Yeah, I'm sure it is." The intensity of his gaze left no doubt in her mind that he was just as big a flirt as George and Floyd, though he played it differently. He was definitely more coy - less charming and more mysterious. "So, can I buy you a drink?"
"She's already got one, actually," Bill interrupted, passing her a small glass of whiskey and coming to stand beside her. When Juliette glanced to her other companions she found that they all had matching glasses to toast her and Tom's victory. She smiled and thanked him.
"Haven't you got a girl back in Philly, Bill?" Joe Liebgott asked, staring the other man down. Juliette didn't look at Bill but could guess he was staring back with equal ferocity.
"It's celebratory, actually," Juliette cut in, gesturing to the entirety of the group and all of their matching glasses. "Well, for some of us," she added, winking at Bill when he rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, keep on braggin', sweetheart, we'll see who's laughin' tomorrow mornin'."
Juliette laughed, because honestly it was true enough. She looked back to Joe when she felt his intense gaze on the side of her face, and found him staring down at her with that same smirk again.
"Let me buy you the next one, then."
Juliette sighed, but smiled politely at him nonetheless. "That's very kind of you, but having just won a rather pricey bet I think I'd like to exploit the losers a little bit further. Thank you, though."
Joe brushed her away with a quick gesture of his hand. "Come on, one drink. And I won't take no for an answer."
Juliette looked up at him with a smile and a shrug. "Try."
Bill exploded into obnoxiously loud laughter and patted her firmly on the back, but she just saw Joe smirk down at her, his coyness turning to amusement. He turned from her without another word, but Juliette secretly thought that perhaps that meant she'd earned his respect.
"I like you, sweetheart," Bill was saying to her as Joe retreated. She turned back to the group once more as he slung an arm over her shoulders. Juliette laughed.
The group of six all clinked their glasses together before downing the whiskey in one, which Juliette seemed to be doing a lot of lately, and they all cheered when they came back up. She shared a grin with George, who was on her left, and laughed when Don immediately started asking what they were drinking next. The Americans were starting to grow on her.