Page 34 of One Night in Edinburgh

‘They won’t. I purposely used address labels so they’d take up as little room as possible. So, you’ll do it?’

‘Who am I to stand in the way of true love.’ He chuckles. ‘I’ll get right on it.’

I take the folder back, and hand him several sheets of labels, noticing that his eyes keep creeping back to the TV. Watching him for a few seconds, it strikes me that I can’t trust this guy to deliver. He’ll set the stickers down somewhere, then forget about them, and they’ll end up in the bin.

‘Umm… any chance I can do it myself?’ I ask. ‘If you get the cans, I can put them on right here.’

The barman doesn’t have to be asked twice. He empties the fridge, and brings through a couple of boxes from the storeroom, then returns his attention to the game. Pleased that my plan is now well and truly in action, I make myself comfortable on a bar stool, and work my way through the haul.

By 8:45 p.m., I’ve made my way around all the pubs and bars in the vicinity, and I’m starving. But I’m quite pleased with the result – most places agreed, as long as I did the work myself, and only a couple refused my request (the miserable sods – have they no sense of romance?!), so my chances of finding Jamie have significantly improved. I just have to hope that he doesn’t habitually stick to one local, and if he does, that it’s not one of the pubs where the owners wouldn’t play ball. I’m also getting used to people having a laugh at my expense – but who cares? As long as my plan works.

Sheltering at the bus stop, shivering slightly from the cold, I’m about to board a bus back home, when I look along the road, and spot the bright lights of a local supermarket in the near distance. Crap.I didn’t even think of shops. What if Jamie normally buys his beer to drink at home? I stride back in the direction I’ve come from, pulling my hood up as I walk. The rain is still quite light, but it’s now coming down almost horizontally from the gusty wind that has picked up even more.

Spotting a specialist off-licence on the way, I drop in there as well. They do sell that particular beer, so I’m relieved to have caught that one. Then after ticking that off (thanks to a friendly young woman who was taken by the romance of it all), I head a few doors along to check out the supermarket. To my relief, they don’t sell Serve Minus Pigs. Much as the small businesses have been quite amenable, I’m not sure I would have had as much luck when dealing with one of the big brands.

Before I leave the supermarket, I quickly check online that I haven’t missed any other places in the area that might sell artisan beer. Then, finally happy that I’ve covered all bases as far as I can, I head back outside, dropping a couple of quid in the paper cup of a homeless man who’s sitting there as I go. He looks up at me and mumbles a polite thank you. I can’t help feeling sad for him, and a bit guilty that I get to go home to a nice warm apartment, when he’s sitting outside in the freezing cold getting soaked.

Once I’m on the bus though, this temporary dip in mood has passed, and a feeling of nervous excitement is building in my stomach. I’ve got my message for Jamie out there! Now all I need to do is wait for a response.

Chapter 11

I arrive back at my apartment to hear Connor and Anna laughing and joking in the next room. This doesn’t surprise me. Having helped with the label design and production that afternoon (while continuing her monologue that I’ve lost the plot), Anna had announced there was no way she was leaving until she saw how this ‘comedy gold turned out’.

On entering the kitchen-living room, I can immediately smell that they’ve had a takeaway.

‘Where’s the pizza?’ I plead in place of a greeting. ‘I’m famished. Please tell me you left me some.’

‘We didn’t just leave you some,’ says Connor. ‘I got you one of your own: a nine incher with pepperoni and olives. It’s in the fridge.’

‘Connor McCrae, you are the best ex-boyfriend-slash-gay-best-friend I could ever have.’ I lean over and kiss the top of his head before heading straight for the fridge.

‘You’re welcome.’ He grins across at me. ‘So how did it go? You’re back late.’

‘Yeah, we were wondering if we should call you,’ says Anna.

‘It went fine,’ I reply.

I’m deliberately making them wait, because I know they’re dying to know everything, and I’m not handing them a laugh at my expense that easily. I catch them sharing a look and shake my head. Couple of vultures, the two of them, picking over the desperate moments of my attempt to get into the dating game – with the right guy.

Switching on the oven, I load my pizza on to a tray and stick it in to reheat. Then I pour myself a glass of white wine from the open bottle in the fridge and plonk myself down on the sofa beside Anna.

‘So?’ She gives me a pointed look and whirls her finger in an impatient gesture of ‘come on, spill’.

I sip my wine and lean back with a relaxed sigh. ‘There’s not much to tell. I went round all the bars in the vicinity of The Shore and also an off-licence on Bernard Street that stocked the beer. They mostly agreed to the labels, but I had to stick them on myself, which is why I’m so late.’

‘And?’

‘And what?’

‘Oh, come on, you know what I’m looking for.’ She pounds the sofa in frustration. ‘How did they react? Did they take the piss? Give me something… I knew I should have followed you. Connor, why wouldn’t you let me do that?’

‘You were going to follow me?’ I eyeball her, before Connor can respond.

‘Uh,yeah. Who wouldn’t want to be a fly-on-the-wall it in that situation? Apart from boring, super loyal Connor here.’ She sticks a resentful tongue out at him, and he responds by throwing a cushion at her.

‘OK, you two. Break it up.’ I chuckle. ‘Connor, thank you for keeping her on the leash. I appreciate it. Video footage of my venture on Instagram would not have been a happy outcome.’

‘It could have supported your cause,’ Anna huffs. ‘We could have turned it into a proper search campaign. #findJamie. That would have got you the result you’re looking for.’

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