In the end, she chose a little red camisole top that tied at the back and really dressed up her dark blue jeans. She wore a red pendant to match and left her hair out and curly.
Carl had offered up his five-seater ute for transport if either she or Sharon drove. He wanted to drink. Lena volunteered her services as skipper because she thought Sharon would need the Dutch courage more than she would, especially if Gavin made his move. At six-thirty, the two friends met Carl in the parking lot next to his vehicle.
Sharon looked fantastic and Lena could see by the surprise on Carl’s face that he thought so too. She’d clearly taken a curling wand to her short red bob, which looked great with the black halter-neck top she was wearing.
‘You look awesome!’ Lena beamed and, when Gavin turned up shortly after, she immediately scanned his face for a reaction. ‘Doesn’t she look great, Gavin?’
He paused to give Sharon the once-over. ‘Yep.’
Sharon blushed. ‘Thanks.’
He turned to Lena. ‘And so do you.’
Lena waved the compliment aside: he didn’t need to worry about her feeling left out. Tonight was their night.
‘Fuck, I’m thirsty.’ Carl rubbed his hands together. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, which he later told Lena was his ‘drinking shirt’, and a pair of blue shorts. She’d never seen him more set to party. Just as she was about to ask what they were waiting for, Fish turned up, also wearing a Hawaiian ‘drinking shirt’. She had been told that he and Carl had a history but up until this point hadn’t been able to see what they had in common – Carl wasn’t into fishing and Fish didn’t seem to be into anything else. She figured it out as they made matey fun of each other during the drive to Point Samson. She learned that they had first met at a pub over more than a few drinks. Apparently, they had quite a number of party stories to share on the way to their next crime scene.
When they finally did arrive, Lena noticed there were other women at the pub but not enough to make a dent in her and Sharon’s minority. She realised in dismay that half the project workforce was crammed into that little pub at Point Samson.
Overall, however, it was a great set-up. It had a huge balcony area that overlooked the beach with a long bar servicing the crowd. The majority of people were standing as most of the tables were inside where meals were served. When Lena’s party arrived, the festivities were well and truly under way. Some of the guys had not bothered to change out of their site uniforms and had just come straight from work. There was a quiet group of client personnel drinking by themselves in one corner and before she could stop herself she was searching for Dan’s face among them.
He was leaning against the wall in a TCN shirt, which probably meant he’d come straight from work that night too. With a beer in hand, he was talking to not one, but two women. Lena was momentarily struck. Until then she hadn’t credited Dan with any ability to be socially charming. Her eyes narrowed stubbornly. There was still no proof, really. The women could be his administrative staff, being criticised for late typing submissions. The brunette, a rather good-looking one too, threw back her head and laughed at something Dan had said. Lena eyed them both crossly.
As though feeling an arrow of disapproval hit the wall above his head, Dan looked up and met her gaze across the room. Heat crept up her neck and Lena tore her face away. How embarrassing. She needed to steer all her thoughts as far from Dan as possible. Lately, she couldn’t seem to trust either her body or her brain whenever he was around. She seemed to lose all aptitude for reasonable behaviour.
Instead, she turned her attention to Carl and Fish, who were anxious to get started. They headed straight for the bar. Apparently pre-dinner drinks were a must. The food would come later. This was fine with her, as she was eager for a chance to scope out the scene. There were a couple of secluded areas on the balcony, where a couple might move away to catch a private moment if they so desired. One of them was a selection of large pot plants on her far left, the other an isolated table on her right. Keeping these two areas in mind, she turned to see where Gavin was and watched him get hailed by one of his men. Before she knew it, he had also been dragged away. She clicked her tongue in frustration, wondering how she was going to get him and Sharon alone. Sharon recalled her attention by shoving a glass of house white into her hand.
‘Penny for your thoughts.’
Lena turned a cheeky smile on her. ‘It’ll cost you way more than that.’
Sharon laughed and clinked her glass to Lena’s. ‘To good times.’
‘To good times.’ They drank. As the cool woody flavour hit her tastebuds, she sighed. When it was all said and done, it was just nice to be out, relaxing with friends, totally dust-free.
‘You know,’ she said to Sharon, ‘I don’t know what I’d do without you.’
Sharon winked. ‘Right back at ya.’
Half a glass and fifteen minutes later, they’d been chatted up by at least five guys.
‘Hello, ladies.’ Lucky Mr Six wiggled his eyebrows at them as he walked by. ‘I’ll be back soon.’ Sharon shifted uncomfortably beside Lena.
‘Don’t they ever give up?’ she muttered under her breath.
A Barnes Inc welder sitting at the bar seemed to have overheard her comment and turned around. ‘Yeah, I’d watch out for Tim.’ He pointed after Mr Six. ‘He’s a real womaniser. But you can trust me.’ He held out his hand and Lena and Sharon shook it reluctantly. ‘I’m Brad.’
Lena noticed out of the corner of her eye that Gavin was watching. The schemer in her immediately jumped to high alert. Jealousy was a great motivator. She decided to encourage Sharon to add fuel to the fire.
‘Can I buy you ladies a drink?’ Brad was saying.
Lena polished off the rest of her wine and set her glass on the bar. ‘Sure, Brad, why not?’
Sharon’s eyes shifted curiously to Lena. She nodded reassuringly, so the bus driver also placed her empty glass on the counter. Delighted, Brad moved down the bar towards a waiter.
Just then Tim returned from wherever he had gone and joined them with a grin. ‘Saw you guys talking to Brad and thought I better give you a friendly warning.’ He lowered his voice as though confiding a secret. ‘He’s a bit of a ladies’ man.’ He rocked back on his heels and stuck out his hand. ‘But you can trust me, my name’s –’
‘Tim,’ Lena finished for him. ‘We know.’
His brow wrinkled in confusion as Brad returned with the drinks. Lena watched as the two men sized each other up before suddenly coming to an unspoken truce – they would share. One each, Lena supposed, torn between amusement and indignation.
It continued like that for another hour or so. Lena and Sharon collected a couple more glasses of free booze although Lena refrained from drinking hers as she was driving. The men around them continued to get drunker and drunker. Carl, Lena noticed, was leading the crowd.
Soon dinner was forgotten. The men were filling up on alcohol and seemed in no hurry to move inside for a feed.
‘Damn it,’ Lena told Sharon, ‘I think they’re all going to skip dinner.’
Sharon nodded hazily. ‘Nothing like drinking on an empty stomach to get you plastered real fast.’
‘So you want to go inside for a bite then?’ a voice whispered in Lena’s ear. She spun on her heel.
It was Gavin.
Why is he asking me?
Warning bells started to tingle in her head but she ignored them. Surely not. Gavin and Sharon would make the perfect couple! No other outcome would be permitted.
‘You know what, that sounds great. Why don’t you two go inside and find us a table?’
‘But –’
‘I’ll be in shortly.’ She looked meaningfully at Sharon. ‘Okay?’
‘You sure?’ Sharon’s eyes were a little wide, so she touched her arm reassuringly.
‘Yep, just save me a seat.’
The two of them headed inside and Lena pretended she was going to the toilet. She was delighted by her own ingenuity. It was the ideal plan. They’d go inside, order their food, get to talking and after a while forget she was even supposed to join them.
She moved towards Carl’s group at the bar. The man was definitely in his element, entertaining the guys with his repertoire of lewd jokes. He hadn’t seen her yet and was in the process of delivering the punchline of an incredibly filthy number when she cleared her throat. She grinned, as the guys laughed harder, more at Carl noticing her standing there than the end of his joke.
‘Come on, Carl, tell us another one.’ Fish slapped him on the back. ‘I know you’ve got more.’
To her surprise, he reddened and hid behind his beer. ‘No, no. Got fuckin’ told off the other day. No fuckin’ bullshit with the ladies present. I’ve already scared one of them off.’
His reference to Dan’s comments immediately made Lena’s back stiffen.
‘If you mean Sharon,’ she reassured him, ‘she’s just gone inside for a bite. Not scared at all.’
But Carl refused to budge, the liquor in him bringing out a stubborn streak. ‘No, no,’ he slurred. ‘’Bout time I became a fuckin’ gentleman. Been thinking about it since the other day: never been any good with the fuckin’ ladies. I’ll tell you what, got some clean jokes for ya.’
The men groaned loudly and booed him but Carl was determined. He raised his pint and began yelling at the top of his lungs.
‘Why did the leper meet with a car accident? Left his foot on the accelerator. What’s long, brown and sticky? A stick. Why do giraffes have such long necks? So their heads can connect to their bodies.’
He didn’t stop.
Lena didn’t know where he was pulling them all from but they were the worst jokes she’d ever heard in her life. Luckily, the men had enough alcohol in them to find anything funny. The laughter got louder and louder as each consecutive joke got worse and worse until everyone was choking on their beers. The noise was drawing the sober crowd too. So Carl kept going until he had tears in his eyes. In turn, Lena was laughing so hard she couldn’t talk and when she thought she couldn’t possibly laugh any more Carl shouted: ‘Confucius say, man who drop watch in toilet keeps shitty time.’
Clutching a stomach aching with laughter, she didn’t resist the arm that came around her shoulders and pulled her aside. Still hiccupping with mirth, she turned to find Gavin there.
‘Gavin?’ She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. ‘What are you –?’
‘Aren’t you going to join us?’
She glanced back at Carl and the boys, who were still laughing hysterically. ‘Yes, no – I thought I might give dinner a miss.’ She patted his arm distractedly. ‘You and Sharon go ahead.’
‘Lena, I need to tell you something.’
‘Huh?’ She suddenly realised he’d pulled her over to the pot plants. She looked behind him, wondering where Sharon was. ‘What’s going on?’
And it was only then when she saw his too-intense brown eyes that she realised what a very terrible mistake she had made. But it was too late. He had already grabbed her face between his palms and lowered his lips to hers.
She froze in shock, until the sound of a glass shattering broke her stupor.
Their lips disconnected and she took a giant step away from him, turning quickly to view the damage. There were a lot of people staring.
A lot.
Her skinned burned hot as she turned from one amused person to another, like a bird in a cage. The bar was almost quiet with the weight of the speculation going on. But all other faces blurred into the background as one person’s suddenly came into sharp and painful focus.
It was Sharon, her broken glass at her feet.
Sharon’s face was as red as her hair. She spun on her heel and stumbled into the crowd. Lena’s throat closed up.
Oh crap.
‘Lena, what’s wrong?’ A gentle hand on her cheek pulled her attention back to Gavin, who she realised was standing far too close. She swiftly stepped back.
‘I really wish you hadn’t done that.’
He lowered his hand, his eyes reflecting the concern in his voice. ‘Why?’
Her reply was lost in the cheer that rose up around them. The drunk and the drunker raised their beers.
‘Way to go, Gav!’
Double crap.
Lena did her best to stem her rising panic as they converged on them, their teasing remarks filling the air.
‘We knew there was something going on between you two!’
‘Too cosy by half!’
She looked beyond their ranks, trying desperately to spot Sharon. It was useless. Hands stretched out to ruffle Gavin’s hair; grubby fingers waggled wickedly in front of her nose.
She pushed them aside, craning her neck to see past them.
‘I have to find Sharon,’ she said to Gavin. When he didn’t seem to hear, she made her announcement louder and to everyone at large. ‘I have to find Sharon!’
They blatantly ignored her, too busy congratulating Gavin, clicking their beers together and laughing at some lewd joke, of which she was no doubt the centre. With a frustrated groan, she shoved the guy in front of her out of the way.
‘Hey.’ His tone was exaggerated hurt but she didn’t care.
Finally, she broke free of the crowd. Sucking in a breath of clean air, she crashed face-first into the flat plane of a hard male chest.
‘Guess you’ve never heard of the golden rule.’
Lena fell back and looked up to find Dan’s mouth pulled into a taut line. A muscle worked in his lean cheek as he stared down at her, less than impressed. The last thing she needed was a riddle. What was wrong with these people? But like a log caught in a rip, she went along for the ride.
‘What rule?’
‘Never dip your pen in the company ink.’ Each word was pronounced slowly and succinctly, like he was throwing darts at a bullseye one by one. A shot of anger heated her body. The fact that it was the advice she’d been giving herself ever since her break-up with Kevin only served to heighten her resentment. Instead of agreeing with him, her shrill voice jumped right to defensive.
‘Excuse me?’
‘How long have you and Gavin been seeing each other?’
‘How is that any of your business?’
‘You’re the one keen on a public display.’
She put her hand up. ‘I don’t have time for this. I have to find Sharon.’
He indicated to her left with his head. ‘She went inside. Toilet, I think.’
Lena sighed, relieved he wasn’t going to try to rile her further. ‘Thanks.’
‘Stole her boyfriend, did you?’
What?!
The off-the-cuff remark stopped her in her tracks once more. ‘No. Not that I need to explain myself to you.’
He shrugged. ‘’Cause if you meant to send her some sort of message,’ he sipped his beer, ‘you nailed it.’
Before she could reply, he strode away, leaving her steaming. If he was going to be so interested in her business, the least he could do was give her the last word. Of all the inconsiderate, Bulldoggy things to do. She reined in her temper, however. There would be time enough later to put his head on a stick. Right then, she had a friendship to save. She headed for the toilets.
Pushing open the door, she stopped short when she saw Sharon poised over the sink in front of the mirror. She was dabbing beneath her eyes with a tissue, trying to repair damage to her mascara. Damage that had clearly been caused by crying. Their gazes clashed briefly in the mirror before Sharon jerked away, as she threw her tissue in a bin against the wall. Lena waited for her to turn back around but she didn’t. Instead, Sharon stood
there with her hands on her hips, her gaze locked firmly on the dirty white tiles at her feet.
Lena closed the door quietly behind her and came further into the room. ‘Sharon –’
‘Don’t you dare speak to me,’ her friend hissed. ‘There’s no excuse for what you did.’
Lena tried to inject calm and logic into her tone. ‘It was a misunderstanding. Before I knew what was going on, it just happened. He kissed me.’
‘I’m not seeing the misunderstanding in that explanation.’
Lena had never heard so much bitterness in Sharon’s voice before and it scared her. Sharon still wasn’t looking at her either, which wasn’t a good sign. Lena wrung her hands, knowing that she needed to do better but wasn’t sure where to start.
‘It came as a shock to me too,’ she tried again. ‘I didn’t want him to kiss me.’
‘It’s not like you were pushing him away.’ Sharon’s voice cracked like cooled glass as she finally spun around. ‘How could you encourage him like that? Did you lie to me? Or decide later that you wanted him for yourself?’
‘No.’ Lena was horrified. ‘It wasn’t like that at all.’
‘Like what? Like you knifed me in the back, made me look like a fool?’
‘I didn’t make you look like a fool.’
‘I came onto him, Lena,’ Sharon cried. ‘When we went off to dinner I practically threw myself at him.’ She pushed the words through her teeth bitterly. ‘You built up my confidence. Made me think I had a chance, plus the wine . . .’ Her voice trailed off.
‘Sharon, I’m so sorry –’
‘You didn’t look very sorry when I found you a minute ago.’
‘It wasn’t –’
The Girl in Steel-Capped Boots Page 14