The Geary Series Boxed Set (44 page)

Lilly rubbed her belly, satisfied with being plump full of delicious food. The low ceiling pub closed specifically for the ten of them, Jack and Olivia, Ruth and Michael, Elijah and Lilly, Angie, Mickey, Jane and Cecily. Feeling the odd one out, Cecily stood and tapped a knife against the side of her pint of cider.

“Can I have your attention please?” she said and waited for the soft murmur of chatter to stop. “I would like to raise a toast to the happy couple and wish that you have many years of happiness together. Also, if you have another brother, please can I have him?” she pleaded. A ripple of laughter bounced around the room. When there were no takers, she raised her glass, “to Lilly and Elijah.”

A chorus of Lilly and Elijah and cheers were followed by a sip of their preferred drink. Olivia sulkily drank her diet coke and pouted until Jack kissed her. Heckles of getting a room and scrunched up napkins raining over them didn’t stop their embrace, it spurred them on. Once they broke their kiss, the group decided what they would do next. The pub was only closed for a few hours for their meal and would be opening in the next half an hour to the general public. Mickey and Jane had put the world to rights throughout the meal and had shared their current woes. Jane owned a candle shop in the heart of Brighton’s eclectic Laines. She had run the business for over thirty-five years and she was weary of it. It held no purpose in her life, even though it was a thriving business. She didn’t owe anyone anything, but she still lacked any true happiness or knew any real peace. She hadn’t told Mickey her deep rooted heartache, she hadn’t told anyone other than Maria, who is her aunt. Hearing Mickey’s war stories belittled her selfishness which only led her to order another drink from the bar.

She had already had several drinks before she had arrived, a reward for staying awake for more than three hours. Jane needed the numbness to face Michael. She never wanted to see him again, worried that what she felt was written above her in a speech bubble. She worried that he would work out everything that happened to her. She assumed that she was transparent. Jane couldn’t trust her sister to keep her mouth shut, the stress of her secret being revealed at any moment, took its toll. Jane made a quick exit when Mickey slid along the bench to talk with Angie, her advice on how to be in a relationship hopefully would work.

Jack left his wife’s side to speak with Elijah, he spotted him coming back from the bar with two tumblers of whisky. He knew one wasn’t for him, deciding on a teetotal status was already driving him to distraction.

He had trouble getting his brother’s attention, he wanted to have a quiet word with him and didn’t need to draw too much attention and make a fuss. He watched as Elijah passed the glass to Mickey, Jack liked Mickey from the moment he met him. They shared a joke at Elijah’s expense and the friendship was set. That summer seemed so long ago, it was before he lost his first wife, he hadn’t even married her. They were both setting up their business when Elijah brought Mickey home for the weekend from Navy fitness training. Elijah called him his waif and stray friend who could cook like no other. The shared joke was about Elijah’s inability to cook, where Jack could also cook very well.

Impatient to speak with Elijah, he pushed past a few regulars in the pub, they had opened the doors to the general public once the wedding breakfast was over. Elijah insisted on there being no formality of speeches, so as soon as the meal had been eaten and the tables cleared, the pub reopened as usual. Excusing his way through the throng of six men and women he reached Elijah and Mickey.

“Congratulations again Elijah, you’ve picked yourself an excellent wife, I hope you have many happy years together.” He raised his soda water and clicked glasses with Elijah, “What about you, Mickey, have you told Angie you want to marry her yet?” Jack asked.

“I’m not the marrying type, too many years on my own. I’m too broken to fix and I don’t think she likes me,” Mickey said in defence of his inability to keep Angie’s attention.

“Of course she likes you, she hasn’t kept her eyes off you all afternoon, you’re such a fool,” Elijah said. “She’s looking right now while she talks with Lilly, women can do these things very sneakily,” Jack said, revealing an enormous secret.

“Women,” he exclaimed, I’ll never learn the rules. We’ll see how that goes, but don’t hold your breath, I don’t think she’s the type of girl to put up with my melancholy.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, what have you got to be melancholy about?” Elijah asked.

“Never mind about me, Elijah, concentrate on getting that woman of yours pregnant, I want to pretend uncle to lots of babies,” Mickey said and clinked his glass against Elijah’s once more.

Elijah and Jack raised their eyebrows to each other, “You don’t have to pretend Mickey, we already consider you our brother, so stop with the pretend bit. Are you feeling broody?” Elijah said.

“Yeah, I've always wanted brothers and sisters when I was growing up, but they never came, so instead I’m going to encourage you two to have many children. Kids need siblings.”

“Get it together with the American and you can have your own mini football team,” Jack said. “Anyway, I get to go first so you can practice changing nappies for my child,” Jack replied, “You can have babysitting duties too.”

“Be glad to, but it’s a long way off yet. Six months to go?”

“True, anyway, Elijah, here are your honeymoon details. Everything you need is in this envelope, you leave in four hours time, go get your wife and start packing,” Jack said and hugged him. When he released him, he pinched his cheek. Elijah couldn’t scold him straight after his generosity, so growled instead.

“Thank you, I’m really grateful for all that you have done today, I’m so happy she went along with it all, are we going somewhere warm?” Elijah asked, shaking the envelope and holding it up to the light for clues.

“It’s a week in Rome,” Jack said and chuckled, “You can open the envelope, it’s not sealed. I thought you could wander the city hand in hand soaking up the culture and eating great food.” Jack suggested.

“This is perfect, thank you.” Elijah hugged his brother again and rushed over to Lilly to tell her the news. Mickey and Jack watched as he hugged his wife and whispered in her ear where they were going. She jumped up and down on the spot and squealed, waving the envelope in the air. She blew a kiss to Jack. His job was done, the happy couple were happier still.

“Mickey, seriously, I hope you know that you’re like family to us, never feel like you’re alone. I’ve said this for a long time, please believe me.”

“I know, I hear you, I do,” Mickey said and patted Jack’s upper arm and raised his glass in a toast. He’d been envious of Jack and Elijah’s family, their common link of being adopted. Their upbringing had been entirely different. His father, who raised him, hated him, for as long as he could remember. Michael adored Jack and Elijah like they were his own.

Elijah’s door manager Gareth came over and spoke with his boss so say his goodbyes. He would be helping Pete run Blue’s, Elijah’s bar for a few days while Elijah enjoyed a short honeymoon.

Angie left the group of girls and made her way over to Mickey, who was sitting alone. She wanted to tease him about being single and dateless for the after wedding party but then realised that she too was dateless. There was a good reason for that and she was about to speak with him.

“Hi Angie, are you having a good time?” Mickey asked her.

“Yes Mickey, I love weddings, this one especially, Lilly deserves someone to protect her from her awful parents. She’s come out of her shell since she has met Elijah.” She said glancing at her watch.

“Can I buy you a drink?”

“No, I have to go to work later and get some sleep first, you can escort me there if you’d like. You can tell me more about why you wouldn’t make good husband material.” Angie suggested.

She giggled and nudged him in the ribs, Mickey caught her infectious laugh and joined in. He was embarrassed he had revealed so much to her earlier. Had he ruined his chances, he mused. 

Angie needed to head back home, grab a few hours sleep before she started her first night shift. She said her goodbyes, kissing everyone’s cheek and slipped out the back door. Her boss had given her the time off to attend Olivia and Jack’s wedding at short notice, but he had made her pay for it by giving her the night shift. Jack had strong-armed her boss into giving her the time off or he would pull his business. To Jack’s face, he had been gracious but when Angie had returned from her trip, she had been informed that she had been switched to night work, indefinitely. Nodding enthusiastically when her boss gave her the news, she silently cursed him to hell.

The remainder of the group stood outside the small pub and chatted for a few minutes, Mickey escorted Angie to the taxi rank and Jack and Olivia walked back to their flat. Cecily, talking animatedly on her phone and waved her goodbye and wandered away. Michael and Ruth walked to their home on the sunny evening.

Angie and Mickey strolled happily in silence, she hugged his arm as they walked through the evening crowds of young people making their way to their regular haunt. The taxi rank was a few minute’s walk away, which gave Mickey little time to think of witty things to say. He wasn’t interested in a one night stand with Angie, his deeply hidden shyness came to the forefront when he was in her presence.

“Will you go on a date with me Mickey?” Angie asked while they stood in the taxi rank queue, they were the only people waiting for the next car to pull up. She’d waited until they were stationary to ask him so that she could see his reaction.

Mickey didn’t answer, he opened the door to the car that had driven up at that moment and let Angie get in before closing the door. He bowed his head to be level with the driver and gave him the two addresses he needed to go to. Walking around the back of the car he composed himself and then climbed on the other side of the car and sat next to Angie.

Settling in the seat and snapping on his seatbelt, he glanced over to Angie and nodded for her to do the same. She didn’t move and the taxi started to pull away.

“Hold on driver, we haven’t got our seatbelts on yet,” he said while tapping him on the shoulder.

The driver hit the brakes and put on his hazard flashers, the driver had seen the set of Angie's mouth before Mickey had. He knew he was in for a bit of a wait, but he didn’t mind, the meter was running and he used less diesel this way.

“I’ll put my seatbelt on once you have answered my question, it’s rude to keep a lady waiting.” Angie’s southern drawl emphasised her disdain, where she came from manners were everything and she had just asked a man out. In Nashville, her hometown, it was unheard of, especially for Angie, she had never been short of dates. It came as a shock when she had arrived in the UK, that very few people dated or asked women out on a date. As far as she could tell, men went to bars to pick up women or got fixed up by their mates. She had never been asked out on a date in the all the years she had been in Scotland.

She wasn’t going to not date because of this, she would do the asking instead.

“Well?” she asked again, folding her arms under her breasts.

“Um, I’ve never been asked out on a date before, this is a very strange situation.” Mickey volunteered as a stalling tactic.

“Is that a no?” Angie asked pointedly.

“No, it’s not a no, just put your belt on, you’re eating into your sleep time for your shift,” Mickey said raising an eyebrow, inviting her to argue.

She obliged because he was right, she needed to get some sleep before she started her shift at the hotel.

The taxi drove through the city and came to a halt outside Angie’s home, she lived on the outskirts of the city in a high-rise block of apartments. She had lived there since she arrived in the UK from the United States. It was a modest apartment, two bedrooms on the top floor. Her father had bought it for her, he wanted to know she was safe and not at the mercy of lecherous landlords. His old-fashioned sensibility dictated how he behaved towards his only daughter. She put up with his over protectiveness because she loved him. In fact she adored him, she loved both her parents, they supported her through everything she wanted to attempt.

She’d decided that she wanted to live overseas for a couple of years. All of her friends were married with children and she was the last single woman from her group of friends. Angie had read a book which featured Edinburgh and had fallen in love with the city. She didn’t know which career she wanted, she stayed in the hotel industry because she loved it. Bouncing around each department with each job she took. This time she chose Front of House department as a new avenue, the hotel she worked at was a small boutique hotel. The wealthy and well connected stayed at this hotel for privacy and exclusivity.

Her boss hated her with a passion she had rarely seen, perhaps it was her accent or her constant positive outlook on life that pissed him off. She didn’t know, but his latest trick to put her on nights was a new low even for him. She had never done a night shift before and had spent the day at Lilly and Elijah’s wedding celebrations. She figured a lot of coffee would be the answer to getting her through tonight’s shift.

Finally getting his game back, Mickey spoke for the first time since they had begun driving again.

“Are you going to be all right? I can come and tuck you in if you’d like?” Mickey grinned and pulled the handle on the taxi door.

“Not so fast sunshine, you don’t get the opportunity to see me in my PJs until we’ve actually dated. And, as you haven’t answered my question, it will be some time until you do unless the answer is yes.”

“OK, I’ll go on the date if I can see you in your PJs.” He pulled the door shut and sat back, pleased with himself. Angie hadn’t moved while he was trying to climb out of the vehicle, she fished around in her handbag for her purse to pay her half of the fare.

Handing over a twenty-pound note to the driver, the paper almost touched his hand before it was snatched away. The driver frowned and turned back around and viewed the couple from his rear view mirror. Mickey stuffed the note back into her bag and gave her a warning glare not to argue.

“I didn’t offer to bring you to your door and then make you pay, try not to take away all my chivalry in one move.” Mickey said winking at her, he was offended that she thought he would make her pay for her own part of the fare. Angie giggled and didn’t argue, she liked him and his manners.

“Ok, thank you, Mickey, for the ride home, I’ll see you soon no doubt.” It was more of a question than a statement.

“How about tonight? Let’s have our first date. I want to see those PJs.” Mickey said, he steepled his fingers under his chin and gave a good attempt at puppy dog eyes.

“I’m working, you moron.” She answered, not looking at him, she was busy trying to find her house keys.

“I know you’re working,” his insolence rang out through his words, “I could bring a snack on your break. I need to catch up on my job, which will take a while. What do you want me to bring?” He asked, assuming that she would say yes.

Angie thought about this, she wanted to see him again, tonight wasn’t too soon for her. If he was best friends with Elijah, then she knew she could trust him not to mess her around.

“Cheeseburger and curly fries, and a bottle of fizzy orange, please.” She pulled the door handle of the taxi and clambered out, the drop down was high. Her height mainly prompted her to jump down or hoist herself up. She made up for her pint-sized body with bouncy curly hair, exuberant personality and red lipstick.

“Deal, I’ll see you at 2am, that’s when my lunch break is, don’t be late.” She ordered, not looking at him, trying to find her keys she thought was in her hand and not in her oversized bag.

“Really? Excellent, I’ll see you then, go and get some sleep and send me a picture of you in your PJs.” He said rattling her keys in his hand. She had dropped them on the seat when she was trying to decorously get out of the car.

“I don’t wear PJs,” Angie said, grabbed her keys slammed the door shut on Mickey’s open mouth stare.

Mickey kept staring as she waved goodbye, the slow movement of her hand dictated her brain speed. He hadn’t asked which hotel she worked at.

He didn’t need to, he had already found out where she worked and would have turned up tonight even if she hadn’t agreed.