Page 15 of The Cocktail Bar
River’s lack of loyalty to his family was astounding. Okay, so Heather had made a complete mess of the ‘ceremony’, and he had grown up never knowing his dad. But still, his mother had been his biggest fan since the bar’s conception; he didn’t know how lucky he was to have her as a constant in his life. What a jerk putting strangers before blood.
“So now there’s just the woman from next door’s bakery and I think I’m up-to-date,” Georgina let her own agenda take priority.
“Nice job,” he said, “really nice job,” the twinkle in his eyes telling her just how well her plan was starting to take shape. He was falling for her all right, no two ways about it. “I’ll show you how much it means to me later,” he added.
She tried to stop her cheeks colouring to candy floss but they had a cotton wool mind of their own. And, well, the sex was pretty amazing… and luckily she didn’t ‘do’ emotion, so she was as safe as houses when it came to the question of reciprocation. She coughed and added a stern “erhem” reminding him there was a time and a place, a quick seductive pout – definitely not of the tragic trout pout variety – thrown in for good measure. Then over she sashayed again (for it was the second best thing to her standard elongated stride which left men trailing in her wake) to their next-door neighbour in trade.
She’ll be a B52. In and out, five short but powerful sips from a shot glass, a pleasantry or two at the ‘housewarming’ and that’s the last we’ll ever see of her in here.
“Hi there, thanks,” her final customer greeted her with a friendly grin as she played with the corners of her coaster.
“It should be me thanking you,” Georgina heard herself croon. “What can I get you and I’m so very sorry for the short delay. Needless to say, this will be on the house.”
“No really, no need to apologise at all, and I’m more than happy to pay my way. I um… I can see you’ve been,” she paused, “rushed off your feet,” she whispered.
They laughed in unison, the joke very much understood between them.
“I’m in a bit of a rush as it happens, got to prep for tomorrow before locking up so the bakers have all they need for the early morning start – I’m Zara by the way. So I’ll make it a quick, but much-needed B52 for a little energy burst.”
“Perfect choice, he makes the best for miles,” Georgina nodded toward the bar, glowing at how in tune she was with her customers. “And I’m Georgina, pleased to meet you. I will definitely be calling in for some goodies, especially if I’m working a late shift.”
“Please do, that would be wonderful. It’ll be good to have some female company next door, pop in any time, won’t you?”
Something told Georgina this was the beginning of a rather beneficial alliance.
***
One hour later saw the bar in danger of Demolition Revisited.
“Georgina, I need you to try to prise a mobile off one of them,” said River, shaking his hands like palm leaves caught up in a hurricane. “I don’t think I should be man-handling a pair of fifty year old women – much as it might make their days – and we can’t leave them to the fate of a taxi without speaking to their other halves, being sure about their addresses.”
“No worries, leave it to me,” she said, tutting at their lack of responsibility, especially when they were so publicly advertising their workplace.
The ever-so-slightly-younger one was a heap on the floor, sitting in a puddle of her own vomit, as the elder of the two now looked double her age, face creased with laughter at her colleague’s inability to hold down her drink.
Heather was equally less than impressed.
“I can’t believe you’ve served them up Absinthe.” She stood hands on hips, incredulous as to the disaster before them both. “This really doesn’t bode well for the reputation of the bar. Your only saving grace is the fact hardly anybody turned up tonight.”
“I tried to warn him, Heather, really I did,” said Georgina, shaking her head at the pitiful scene as she asked the eldest travel agent for their addresses in the neighbouring town, to avoid her having to go through their personal belongings. “It wouldn’t have been half as bad if they’d not followed those Earthquakes up with a couple of Kamikazes.”
“This is no time at all for dilly-dallying about,” Lady Rigby-Chandler barged past them both, hauling the younger woman up from the floor and dumping her onto a nearby couch. “I’ll be billing you for these, too,” she took in the extent of her broken ruby shellac nails, flashed them at River who stood behind the bar, and shouted, “my husband and I were super excited to learn of a proper cocktail establishment opening its doors in Somerset, you’ve had a lot of backlash in the press, but we were only too happy to buck that trend, prove all the Negative Nellies wrong about their reluctance to get past their anally retentive traditions. But I fear they had a point all along.”
Lord Rigby-Chandler rose from his seat, as if on cue, and took his bowler hat off in a gesture to back up the sentiments of his wife.
“My Lady’s right. The evening’s proceedings really have got quite – hic – out of hand,” he flumped back into his chair and started to resemble a Tory backbencher falling into a post liquid lunch slumber.
“Give me their bags,” said Lady Rigby-Chandler to Heather and Georgina.
Heather managed to extract one from the chair back of the travel agent turned hyena, Georgina had a slight battle with the other when Hyena’s laugh became paranoia and the elder dove onto the shoulder bag of her friend, grappling momentarily with its bulk until the contents spilled across the floor and she surrendered to her next round of giggles.
“Righty-ho, I will hunt for the numbers of their next-of-kin and inform them of the situation, requesting they call us back once these women are safely deposited to their husbands – one presumes they are married to men anyway. Do they have rings?”
Heather and Georgina were cardboard cutouts.
“Well? Help me out, dears, for goodness sake,” she sighed. “Both of you have been about as much use as a chocolate teapot so far.”
Oh, Georgina really needed that drink now, to think she’d even felt sorry for this Hooray Henrietta and her marital status moments earlier!
