Page 70 of The Cocktail Bar
“I could ask the same of you,” said River. “Think of all the money you could be making.”
“Tsk,” said Hayley, in-between her sampling, “I never operate over the carnival weekend, oh no Siree, not since the year Burnham-on-Sea’s entry of a float broke down halfway up the High Street and Muggins here ended up having to jump start the bleedin’ tractor.”
“Gosh,” said Alice. “That would be enough to put you off.”
“Anyway,” said Hayley, “three’s a crowd and I’m beginning to feel like a strawberry.”
“Don’t you mean gooseberry?” River corrected her.
“I think I know the rumblings of my own stomach better than you, River Jackson.Jahodový Rez, says that wooden sign over yonder.” Hayley pointed to a traditionally painted sign which could have been written in Japanese, for all of River’s linguistic capabilities.
He shrugged his shoulders at Alice as she continued to down the fragrant magic with somewhat shaky hands.
“Czech Strawberry cake,” said Hayley. “Oh my days, I’m glad one of us did our culinary homework prior to coming over here, like.”
“Oh yeah, that… Czech Strawberry cake, of course… heard loads about it,” he lied.
“Laters!”
Hayley had somehow finished her various collections of morsels already, as well as the unexpected conversation, and was beginning to walk, very briskly, in the direction of the stall she had pointed to.
“Hey, Hayley, wait up, just a minute,” River called after her. “Not a word to the others, please… we’re here to surprise them.”
But she was already a speck in the crowd.
“Well… that went well,” said Alice, eyes glazing over from lack of food and sudden consumption of alcohol. She looked dreamy, ethereal, but despite the devil of temptation perched on River’s shoulder, he was categorically not going to take advantage of that.
“I guess we ought to Czech out – geddit? – the Old Town Square then.” River paused for a laugh, met only by the kind of face one pullsa proposa Bruce Forsyth gag.
“River Jackson, tipsy I may be, but that was the corniest thing that has ever flown out of your mouth. If you’re trying to impress me… to build things up to a dirty weekend of pure unadulterated sex, you’re going to have to try a helluva lot harder than that.”
***
Czech folk music greeted them as they were led through the foyer of the restaurant by an elderly waiter. River began to feel nervous, transferring his irrational fear to Alice through the energy centre of his hand which she squeezed gently to reassure him.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah, course,” he replied, clearing his throat.
It wasn’t so much that he was about to potentially give his mum a heart attack, rather that he’d built his hopes up high for tonight, and now he was wondering if he’d taken things too far, like the architects who’d designed Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, when frankly the Burj Al Arab had sufficed. He’d even snuck off to ask Piet to scatter rose petals on the bed while they were out – this whilst Alice was blissfully unaware and taking a tepid bath. It was probably the most ludicrous and potentially risky request anyone could make, Piet evidently having become completely smitten with the love of River’s life, and totally spooking him out when on arrival in reception, Avalonia’s one and only love song, ‘And Then My Eyes Found You,’ from the recently gifted album, blasted out as the latest arrivals checked in, but he wanted things to be perfect.
“Guess who?”
River was back in the present, blindfolding Heather’s eyes moments later with a napkin, and Terry was almost spitting out his goulash.
“Woop woop,” said Cassandra. “Oh heavens above, what a wondrous thing to do. Well, I always said magic follows this man wherever he goes, but now it seems that very magic is here at our table.”
All this before Heather had even stabbed a guess at the person who was letting her veggie dumplings get cold. Much as he’d warmed to Cassandra in recent weeks, why couldn’t she just keep a lid on it, show some decorum?
“Ha,” added Hayley, “I’ve had to keep schtum all afternoon after bumping into Riv and Al down in Wenceslas Square, now the secret’s out at last and I can breathe a sigh of relief, the number of times I’ve almost let the cat out the—”
“Well, cheers for that, Hayley. I might as well uncover this now then, hadn’t I?”
River released his grip on the napkin, thoroughly pissed off at the lack of discretion. Then again, going by the growing collection of empty wine bottles, clearly this lot had been knocking back the glasses for a couple of hours already.
“River? No… I don’t believe it!”
Heather was practically shaking, somehow only catching up with the revelations of the others once she’d laid eyes on the boy for herself. “Oh, the pair of you,” she looked around for Alice now as well, and pulled them both in for a hug, “this is just amazing… oh, what a day we’ve had.” She turned to her right to squeeze Terry’s hand, happy tears in her eyes. “And we’ve only just arrived as well… this is all just so exciting. It had been too long since I’d visited another land, Stonehenge and Avebury aside… way too long.”
