Tequila & Tea Bags (24 page)

‘It is for me’, she sniffs, her eyes red and puffy. ‘It’s just another thing Jeanette’s going to remind me I can't do.’ She looks so broken. Over cupcakes.

‘Who’s Jeanette?’ I want to punch her in the face.

‘Riley’s mum. The vicar’s wife.’ I remember her bitching about her before.

‘She’s always insinuating I’m not good enough for the church,’ she wails, her chin wobbling.

It kills me that this woman can reduce Elsie to tears.

‘Hello? The woman’s daughters are monsters,’ I shriek, making a monster face. ‘You should pity her.’

‘I suppose,’ she says sadly, smiling at my monster impression. ‘But, I promised I’d make cupcakes for the stand.’

I look around at the devastation surrounding us. I’ve never seen British Bake Off, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t how it’s supposed to look. There’s no salvaging those cupcakes.

‘Why don’t I give it a go?’ I offer, wanting nothing more than to bring a smile to her face.

Because apparently I don’t have enough going on, what with worrying about whether the other village will show up and trying to make sure everything else runs smoothly. I really need to learn when to shut my mouth.

***

Two hours later and who would have thought it? I’m good at baking! Unfortunately, I’m
not
so good at icing them, so between me and Elsie we’ve bodge jobbed it. They don’t look too bad, but at least they’ll taste nice.

We’ve only got about five to go when there’s a knock at the door. Elsie runs to get it, while I desperately try to make them look more appetising. Maybe more icing? I hear him talking and then Will walks into the kitchen with an amused grin.

‘Honey, I’m home,’ he says in a silly Fred Flintstone voice. ‘And you baked me my favourite.’ He grabs a cupcake and raises it to his mouth.

I slap it away. It falls on the counter, icing squishing against the worktop. ‘No eating,’ I warn, my face stern.

He grins, his eyes changing. They become hooded, hungry for something other than cupcakes. He pushes me back against the oven with his hips until our bodies are completely pressed together, his erection now obvious. This reaction over a cupcake? I should bake more often. I look at his plump lush lips and realise I’m panting.

He leans back, picking up the cupcake again. He moves my hair behind my shoulder and plants a bit of the cold icing on my neck. I shiver in anticipation. God, he drives me crazy.

‘I can't eat
anything
?’ he teases, his eyebrows raised, as he leans down to my neck. He looks up at me through his dark lashes, as if daring me to say no.

I roll my eyes in response. It’s hard to act unaffected.

He licks and sucks the icing from my neck, inch by tortuously slow inch. My whole body trembles involuntarily, as I put my hands through his hair, begging him to continue. When every last drop of the icing is gone and I’m sure Lulu’s made a puddle on the floor, he leans up and takes my mouth.

He ploughs his tongue into my mouth, letting me taste the sweet vanilla icing. They might look like crap, but they taste amazing. He tastes amazing. I pull him closer, leaning over the oven so I can feel his erection press up against Lulu. I want him to push me up on the worktop and take me now, but I’m sure Elsie would protest. Plus, it probably wouldn’t be very hygienic.

I’m vaguely aware of the door knocking, but I couldn’t care less right now. Elsie can do one for all I care at this exact moment.

A forced cough forces us to stop abruptly and look up through our hazy with lust eyes. Elsie is standing at the door of the kitchen next to an astounded looking Janey. Janey? What the fuck is she doing here?

‘Janey?!’ I scream, pushing Will away and bouncing over to her, so high I almost touch the ceiling.

‘Freckle Tits!’ she exclaims, throwing her arms around me, embracing me with her boobs and her bergamot scent. She feels like home.

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ I gush, pushing her back so I can take in her tanned limbs. They look amazing set against her dark hair and turquoise eyes. Mexico clearly agrees with her.

‘I
had
to see it for myself,’ she says, her deep husky voice filling the room. She eyes up Will slowly, from head to toe. ‘It seems you’ve made friends.’ She winks.    

He crosses his arms awkwardly over his chest, leaning back against the oven. Luckily his boner isn’t obvious. He releases a hand to do an awkward little wave. God, he’s adorable.

‘Yeah, sorry.’ I bush, remembering my manners. ‘This is Will and this is Elsie.’ I’m so proud to show them off.

She completely ignores Elsie and instead grabs Will’s hand.

‘Charmed, I’m sure,’ she flirts, batting her eyelashes and flicking her hair.

It gets my back up immediately.
He’s mine, bitch,
I want to shout as I slap her slutty hands out of his. I suppose I’ve never had a serious relationship around Janey before. This is weirdly unsettling. Can I trust her? What am I
saying
? She’s my bestie. Of course I can.

‘Well…I should get back,’ Will says, smiling at me, seeming amused. He obviously finds it funny that my mate’s as nutty as me. ‘I’ll see you at the fête.’

He goes without giving me a kiss goodbye. It makes me feel sad and needy. What’s happened to me? Janey won’t recognise me.

She claps her hands in front of my face, breaking me from my day dreams. ‘Okay, you need to tell me what the hell is going on,’ she shrieks, jumping up and down on the spot.

I have my friend back!

We took so long catching up that it means we arrive late at the fête. She knows about Will and that we’re still a secret, although I held back my more embarrassing gushy feelings for him. I don’t think she’d get it. We’ve never talked like typical girls. More like
‘you tap it? Nice.’
 

‘So you seriously think you can win this incentive thing?’ she pries as soon as Elsie is out of ear shot.

I look over to her setting up the cupcake stand while a lady scrutinises them. That must be Jeanette. Can I win? Sure, but I don’t even know if that’s what I want anymore. Mexico has taken such a back seat lately. I’ve been too busy enjoying myself. I nod vaguely, avoiding eye contact.

‘Don’t let a penis hold you back, Rose.’

I flip my head round to face her. She knows me too well.

‘There’s plenty of dick in Mexico and they taste of tequila.’ She raises her eyebrows and flashes me a dirty smile.

‘Gross,’ I mutter under my breath, smiling despite myself.

‘But seriously, you are coming, right?’ She looks at me, her gaze accusing.

An uneasiness creeps into my stomach.

‘Of course,’ I smile, more to get her off my back than anything. ‘But, Janey, how come you didn’t answer any of my emails?’ I try not to sound pathetic, but I realise it still sounds it.

She rolls her eyes. ‘Oh, babe, I was busy!’ she dismissed, waving her hand around. ‘You must have seen my pics. It’s been non-stop.’ I’ve forgotten how her hand gestures are so big. ‘Plus, I found a man.’ She raises her eyebrows up and down comically.

‘Really?’

No way? Janey settling down? What is the world coming to? Maybe we’re all just growing up.

‘Yeah,’ she grins, her face nearly splitting in half. ‘The owner of the club. He’s the reason I’m here. He paid for my flight.’

Owner of the club? How old is he? And paid for her flights? Is he her sugar daddy? She’d always joked about finding a rich man, but I thought she was kidding.

‘Is he rich or something?’

‘He’s…got his fingers in a few pies,’ she smiles, her lips pursed together. ‘And me most nights,’ she cackles loudly. A few people turn around to stare at the loud stranger.

‘Don’t be crass, Janey,’ I snap, smiling politely at people as we pass.

‘When did you become such a prude?’ she snaps back, looking at me as if I’m an alien.

She’s right. I sound like Elsie. I cross my hands over my chest defensively.

‘I’m not,’ I say sulkily. ‘I just…’  I look over at Will helping the residents get comfortable and can't help the smile breaking across my face. Betty waves at me.

‘Don’t tell me you’ve gone all gooey over him?’ she accuses, her mouth open in disgust. ‘Don’t get me wrong, he’s hot, but hoes before bros remember?’

‘Yeah,’ I shrug dismissively. ‘Anyway, you picked the right day to visit. You’ll see the village in all its glory.’

I feel stupidly proud to show it all off. I just bloody hope it goes without a hitch. With Janey here it could really go either way.

***

A few hours later the fête is in full swing. The Morris dancers have been on, as have the line dancers. It was hard to concentrate on them when Janey was taking the piss the whole time. I pretended to laugh along, but I was terrified someone would hear her. They’d done their best to perform and they’d offered their entertainment for free, so that we could raise money for the home.

It makes me realise how much I’ve changed since I got here. Wasn’t I the same as Janey when I arrived? Sarcastic and selfish. Only now the people in this village managed to worm their way into my heart. I’ve formed real relationships here. Not that those relationships have been formed with anyone in the other village.
None
of them showed up. Not one. The unforgiving bastards. I’m starting to agree that they can go fuck themselves.

The tapping of a microphone pulls my attention away. I look up to the stage to see Megan’s friend’s band, Beauts, starting their set. Its two guys and a girl singing some happy, dance tune. They’re actually pretty good.

Janey grabs me and we run to the front of the stage to dance with Megan and her friends. The same friends that abandoned her in her time of need. They seem to be glad with the attention. We hardly had to push people out of the way. But slowly a crowd of teenagers form around us, the girls swooning to the lead guys love lyrics.

The band kicks out some more tunes and soon everyone is dancing, holding their plastic cups in the air. Even Mavis! A dark threatening cloud begins to loom above us and soon rain drops onto my shoulder. I try to ignore it but as it gets heavier people start shrieking and running to take cover under the small marquee.

‘What a shame,’ Megan says, sad for her friends.

The disappointed look on the bands faces makes me stop from following them. Poor little guys getting their moment ruined. I grab Megan and Janey’s hands and carry on dancing, this time pulling the hood of my coat up. The look on the bands faces is enough for me to see its worth getting wet for.

Everyone soon joins us and Will shuffles up beside me, smiling. I know he’s pleased with me.

‘Rose,’ Elsie calls, pointing behind me.

I turn to see a mob of people walking over the bridge towards us. The other village. They came! Everyone stops dancing and turns to stare towards them. The band seems to notice the weird atmosphere and stops playing. Crap. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.

They all come to a halt in front of me, with the fat man from the meeting walking to the front, looking like he means business. I hold my breath as everyone stares at me with questions on their faces. What the hell have I brought on myself? Have they come for a fight? Oh God, what have I done?

‘You call this a party?’ he asks, a small smile spreading on his face.

I sag with relief. Thank God, he comes in peace!

‘What the hell are they doing here?’ Will spits, stepping forward, his face red with fury.

Fat man looks at me, puzzled. ‘We came to accept your apology,’ he says, nodding with a gracious smile.

‘Apology?’ Will laughs cruelly. ‘No one ever said we were sorry.’

Damn it, why is Will being such an arse?

‘Hey, hang on now,’ fat man says, shaking his head, clearly outraged.

‘STOP!’ I shout, jumping between them both.

Everyone is looking at me.

‘Can't you see how this has gotten completely out of hand? You’ve all fallen out over pure hearsay and most of it is wrong.’ I take a deep breath.

‘Now you have two choices. One, you can keep up this grudge and slowly ruin your own villages. Businesses will be lost and enemies made once more. Or option two. You make up, forget whatever’s happened, and work together to become the community you once were. When you helped each other. I come from a place where that is very rare, and let me tell you, once its lost its fucking hard to get back.’

There’s silence as everyone seems to contemplate this. Oh God, what the hell have I done? I should have just kept my nose out of it. Why did I ever think meddling would be a good idea?

‘I’m game if you are,’ fat man says, offering his hand out to Will.

Will looks down at his hand, his face impassive. I hold my breath. Please,
please
be the bigger person. Silence covers the crowd as everyone waits for his reaction.

‘Okay,’ Will says, shaking it firmly, his face unreadable. ‘Forgotten.’

Cheers erupt around us with people beginning to chat as if nothing’s happened. I suppose I’ve forgotten that there were a lot of true friendships ripped apart over this. Not that it stopped them from their own stubbornness.

Within an hour everyone’s a little shit faced. As the alcohol flowed so did the talk. Most people found out what they heard wasn’t true. Riley was mentioned a few times. Nobody seemed to put two and two together, realising she was shit stirring the whole time. I haven’t even seen her today, thank God. Although I’d have loved to have seen her face when Will announces we’re a couple.

The school head masters pledged to give the bread contract to Mavis and everyone’s agreed that they’ll help each other.

Mavis and the thin lady are holding each other extremely close, while they dance to Lady in Red, courtesy of Lauren’s boom box. The fat man is passed out in the grass, with the teenagers drawing a moustache on his face. Friendships are being re-made everywhere you look. It’s heart-warming.

‘That was a nice thing that you did,’ Will whispers in my ear, making me jump.

I wink back at him, a warm fuzzy feeling going through me at the idea of making him proud. All I ever want to do is make him happy. Lulu wants to make him happy too. She’s got an evening planned.

‘I’m going to get a drink. Want one?’ he asks, his hand on the small of my back. It’s a friendly enough gesture to everyone else. Only I know the heat and want behind it.

‘Vodka, lime and soda,’ I grin.

He knows Phil still doesn’t want to see me since the whole Megan thing. She barely got away with dancing with me before Phil called her back. He still set up a beer tent though. He seems to be doing a roaring trade, judging by the way everyone’s stupidly drunk.

He makes a point of slipping his hand to my waist as he walks away, sending electricity to bolt through my spine. God, I want him.

I go over and chat with the band, telling them how good they are. They should audition for the X Factor or something. Maybe I could be their manager. When I’ve inflated their egos enough I decide to go look for Megan, as Janey seems to have gone missing too. Maybe she can get away from her Dad again.

I walk round the oak tree and head towards the beer tent. Maybe she’s helping out with glasses or something. It’s hard to get through with all of the people buzzing around, trying to thank me for such a great day.

I’m almost at the tent when I see them. It’s dark enough so that the twinkle lights round the tent are the only illumination. Will’s standing at the make shift bar holding our drinks while chatting to Janey. Only I
know
Janey; I know when she’s throwing herself at someone. I feel queasy.

She’s leaning into him, her hand stroking the collar of his shirt. Get off him, bitch. She keeps throwing her head back laughing, as if whatever he’s saying is the funniest thing in the world. It works to get her tits thrust in his face too.

Worst of all is that he’s laughing along, as if he finds her endearing. She calls over Phil who pours them two shots of tequila and hands over some salt and lemon slices. They both line up the salt on their hands and down them. Will dribbles a bit down his chin, which Janey catches with her thumb.

Get. Off. Him.

They quickly lick the salt and stuff the lemon in their mouths to suck. They both grimace, with Janey jumping dramatically up and down on the spot, bouncing her boobs in his face. She puts her hand to her mouth and pushes her face into Will’s chest, as if to help comfort her from the pain.

I can't watch anymore. I need to turn away. I
must
turn away. But I can't.

Will pats her on her back playfully. Why is he encouraging her at all? She looks up at him with a cute smile and then it happens. She leans up and kisses him.

I turn away and close my eyes, my stomach seizing and contracting. I try to fight the nausea with all my strength, but I still fear I’ll vomit.

How?
How
could they do that to me? How could
Will
do that to me? I thought he loved me? Was that just a load of bullshit? Was Riley right all along and he is playing me for a dickhead. My head whirls with unanswered questions.

I turn and run, ready to run, but instead bump into Lauren.

‘Rose,’ she says sternly, like she’s been looking for me. ‘Tell me you haven’t told Megan?’

I can't deal with this right now. I’m barely keeping it together.

‘About Phil? No, of course not.’

‘She was just telling me how she’d have loved to have a younger brother or sister. I thought maybe she knew.’

‘No, but she should. It’s not fair on Noah either. Not knowing his own dad runs the local pub.’

‘What?’ We both swivel our heads to face Megan, two glasses in her hands. ‘Wha…what did you just say?’

Oh holy fuck. I open and close my mouth several times, desperately trying to think of something to say, but I’ve got nothing. I’m too busy dealing with my own heartbreak. I need to be alone.

They both look at me furiously. ‘I’m sorry,’ I mumble.

I turn and run, not sure where I’m headed, just wanting to sprint away from it all. The ache in my shins is nothing compared to the crushing pain in my heart. Will’s fucked me over. The one guy that I trusted. He lured me into a false sense of security and now he’s making out with Janey. My Janey. My best friend.

I stop when I reach the stables. I hadn’t realised I was heading here, but my mind must have subconsciously wanted to see Mitsy. A friendly face. I haven’t got many of those left now. I go to her stable and stroke her mane affectionately.