by Gary Locke
Clive then looked at Gayle and she looked as surprised as he was.
What was going on? Was this what happened in pubs these days? People just snog each other within a few minutes of meeting?
Both Gayle and Clive quickly contemplated whether, if they had come on their individual dates, they would be kissing Lee and Stacey, respectively, right now.
Wow, crazy.
They both then looked at each other and couldn’t help but laugh. This was actually a good thing. There would be no need for any awkward conversations about why they didn’t want to go through with the dates and maybe feeling like they had to explain the whole weirdness of the weekend. It actually also felt quite nice that Lee and Stacey looked like they had turned what could have been a disappointing night into something that could maybe be the start of something for them. Maybe the start of something special, who knows? Most importantly for Clive he didn’t need to find out whether Lee was as short-fused as his meat-head look suggested he might be, and whether he may actually be much quicker than a man of his bulk looked like he would be.
The whole situation felt a bit surreal, but both Clive and Gayle couldn’t help but feel like something had lent a helping hand. It was almost like fate had intervened and brought Stacey and Lee together, for a reason, whilst they were waiting for Clive and Gayle to arrive.
Suddenly a cool blast of air shot through the pub and a man in a long black coat passed in between where Clive and Gayle were standing and where Lee and Stacey were kissing. Neither Gayle nor Clive got a look at his face as he moved too fast to focus on and almost floated across the room and round the corner and out of sight. They looked at each other as if maybe they had seen a dark-figured apparition of some kind. Clive shrugged this off as one of those weird, unexplainable things you sometimes see and, as he looked at Gayle, he was happy to see that she no longer looked as anxious as she had when they walked into the pub. As he turned his head to face her, Gayle placed her hands at either side of his face and pulled him into her lips. If there was kissing going on round here then she wanted in on the action as well.
After a good few seconds of their own snogging, Gayle pulled away and she and Clive smiled at each other.
Wow, that felt good.
Gayle glanced across at Stacey and Lee and felt a bit miffed that they were actually still snogging. It didn’t matter though. This wasn’t the youth club more than twenty years ago (or even last night for that matter) and so they were not involved in any kind of snogging contest.
Gayle looked around, and saw that Knobhead was still standing by the bar, before looking back at Clive.
“Are you going to go and say hello to your boyfriend Robert …… I mean, Knobhead?” she said, grimacing as she used the nickname that she disliked so much.
“No.” said Clive straight away.
“You can do, you know?”
“I know I can. I just don’t want to.” Said Clive, before moving his face closer to Gayle, coolly bobbing his head slowly up and down, a bit like he imagined George Clooney smoothly would if he was in this situation, before he spoke some more.
“I’ve spent too much of my time not concentrating on you. It’s not going to happen anymore.”
Gayle smiled at him, while wondering why he was strangely nodding his head up and down like some freaky nodding dog on the back shelf of a “classic” ford escort.
“Do you fancy a drink?” Clive asked.
Gayle looked at Lee and Stacey, who were thankfully not snogging anymore, but were now chatting and laughing and still hadn’t noticed that she and Clive were there. She quite liked the idea of not having to speak to them because she just wanted to be with Clive; with no complications or awkwardness.
“We could just go home?” she said. “We’ve got some Cava and strawberries in the fridge; we could snuggle up and watch a film or something?”
Clive was a bit confused about why Gayle was saying they had strawberries in the fridge, but he liked the idea of the Cava and the snuggling up. He smiled and nodded his head.
“What do you fancy?” Gayle asked. “We could watch The Mask – seeing as Jeremy cocked that up? Or the whole of Dumb and Dumber?”
Clive nodded before putting his own suggestion into the mix, with a playful grin.
“I’d watch either of those ………. or maybe we could watch some X-Files?”
Gayle couldn’t help smiling.
She knew exactly what Clive meant and it had been quite some time since they’d properly watched some X-Files.
“Ok then.” She said, speaking through her smile.
Clive reached out for Gayle’s hand as they both took a sideways glance at Lee and Stacey, who were still chatting and smiling at one another and appeared to be having a good time.
As they began walking Clive leant into Gayle and whispered: “You and me baby ain’t nothing but mammals…..”
Gayle squealed out a little laugh and put her arm around Clive as they walked. Clive smiled to himself thinking that Gayle/Stacey’s’ Lee may be smooth..... but he was smoother!
Just a couple of steps away from reaching the front door a slim girl with medium length brown hair fairly rudely barged past them as she headed for the exit at great speed.
“Mandy!”
A desperate cry came from a fairly stocky, ginger haired boy who was also approaching them fairly quickly.
“Go to hell, Jake!” said the girl, apparently named Mandy, as she stopped by the door. She removed a ring from her finger, throwing it towards the boy, apparently named Jake, adding “It’s over” before leaving the pub.
“I’m sorry” said Jake, fortunately finding the ring on the floor straight away. “Don’t give up on me” he shouted towards the, now, closed door. “I love you!”
He also squeezed past Gayle and Clive, showing a bit more in the way of manners as he muttered a quiet apology before heading out of the pub and after Mandy. Clive couldn’t help but think that this Jake was probably punching slightly above his weight but, in truth, he probably felt that about most men that were in relationships. Also, these days, thanks to Ron Weasley, those ginger kids seem to be more in with a fighting chance.
Clive and Gayle looked at each other but before either of them could say a word, a third person barged past them at high speed. Another blast of cool air hit them, which may or may not have been caused by the front door being opened twice in quick succession, as that mysterious man in the long, black coat became the latest person to quickly go by. His apology was much louder and both Clive and Gayle clearly heard the words “Sorry, excuse me …. duty calls”, spoken in an almost shouted, and rather fake, Australian accent.
Gayle and Gayle instinctively looked at each other.
The pub door opened and closed quickly as he vanished out of sight.
“Was that.....?” began Gayle.
“I don’t know.” Said Clive, not needing to hear the rest of what she may have been going to say.
After a couple of seconds of staring at each other they both turned and quickly made their own way to the front door. It was fairly dark outside now and as they both frantically looked around outside there was no sign at all of any of the three people who had just barged past them. They both continued to look and listen but there was nothing to be seen and only silence to be heard.
Very strange.
“Look!” said Gayle after a few more seconds of scanning the area.
She was pointing into the pub car park where, right in the far corner, where the lights on the side of the pub didn’t quite reach, there was a car that looked like it could possibly be a maroon Volvo.
“Shall we go and have a look?” asked Gayle.
Clive shook his head.
“There’s no need.”
Gayle felt confused. Why would they not go and check to see whether that was Jeremy’s car or not. Did Clive not want to know if that was him in the pub, carrying out more “Love Work” in an almost supernatural way?
As Clive smiled at
her she realised what he was thinking. He was right - there was no need. Whatever and however it had happened was irrelevant, what was important was that it had happened. She and Clive had re-found their love; and nothing else mattered.
She smiled back at him.
“Come on” said Clive. “Let’s go home.”
They both started walking, comfortable in the knowledge that there were certain things that they would never know for sure. But there was one thing that they could be totally sure about. For Clive and Gayle, Jeremy had been completely correct; because, for them, it turns out, Love is usually where you left it.
Next Time.
Next time I’ll be a rock star,
Next time I’ll write a symphony,
And I’ll forever be at number one,
Yeah, next time I will make history.
Next time I will go travelling,
See every country in the world,
I’ll learn every single language,
And meet every boy and every girl.
Next time I’ll climb a mountain,
And I’ll swim the deepest ocean,
Next time I’ll change the world,
Yeah, I’ll invent perpetual motion.
Next time I’ll be an athlete,
I’ll break every single record,
Running, jumping, throwing, sprinting,
I’ll do it ‘til I’m bored.
Maybe I’ll fly up to the moon,
And I’ll see all of the stars,
Yeah, next time I’ll be an astronaut,
I’ll be the first to walk on Mars.
I’ll go right to the end of the Earth,
Next time I’ll admire the view,
But I won’t admire it on my own,
Next time I will take you.
Next time I’ll live a million dreams,
But this much will be true,
Next time won’t be as good as this time,
Unless I’m loving you.
By Gary Locke:
The Paul Day Chronicles Comedy Series –
The complete days of 2006 –
Paul Day Chronicles – Happily After Ever!
Short Stories from 2006 –
Paul Day Chronicles – Love Is Like Fireworks!
Paul Day Chronicles – The Stag Do.
Paul Day Chronicles – Football Is Like Sex!
Paul Day Chronicles – Fate… Bloody Fate!
The complete days of 1992 –
Paul Day Chronicles – Goodbye B.M.X., Hello S.E.X.
Short Stories from 1992 –
Paul Day Chronicles – Love for the Very First Time.
Paul Day Chronicles – Dead Legs, Exam Dreads and Fun Behind the Bike Sheds.
Selected Short Stories -
Fifty Shades of Paul Day
Congratulations…..you’re having a baby twins!!
! – For when full stops aren’t enough and question marks aren’t appropriate
Authors Note / Acknowledgements
Gary Locke
Love Is Usually Where You Left It is the culmination of various ideas; the seeds of which slowly cultivated over the past couple of years. The tone was always meant to be light-hearted and at times almost farcical, with lots of observational humour, hopefully resulting in an easy, undemanding and entertaining read.
Yet, as those ideas grew, I realised that sitting at the heart of the book is a really relevant and strong message. Everywhere you look you can see relationships breaking down and, for many of them, you have to ask: why? I believe that love; real love, is eternal. But like everything that is good in life, it doesn’t always run smoothly. If this book can, on any level, make anyone realise that love needs to be cherished, constantly worked on and, in times of desperation, fought for; then bringing those various ideas together has created so much more than a light-hearted, farcical tale.
Thank you to all my family and friends and to everyone I’ve known and loved past, present and future.
This book is dedicated to my three girls – Sharon, Ella-Louise and Hazel.
You are my everything.
xxx
Cover Design by Andy Tiplady – Freelance Graphic Designer
Copyright © Gary Locke 2019