One Night Only by Welfare Sue

Author:Welfare, Sue [Welfare, Sue]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harper Collins, Inc.
Published: 2012-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

Leon Downey was far looser with his money than with his tongue. Since the four of them had arrived at the Anchor he had bought the girls round after round of shorts, and appeared to be completely enraptured by Charlotte’s increasingly wild ideas and outrageous suggestions for their bright shiny future; although Helen noticed that Leon was being extremely circumspect about exactly what his involvement might be in her master plan. Helen also couldn’t help but notice that neither Leon nor Vince seemed to be drinking anywhere near as much as they were.

‘And then I was thinking that we should go to America.’ Charlotte was still banging on. ‘I mean that’s where the big money really is, don’t you think? Do you think that’s mad? I mean they like English things in America, don’t they? Lots of singers have gone out there and done really well. Have you got any contacts in Hollywood? You know I still can’t believe we didn’t win tonight. I mean it was crazy. I thought it was a sure thing. They loved us. You were there, you saw them, didn’t you? They went mad. We got an encore. It’s got to be some kind of fix, don’t you think? I mean the man who won was a magician,’ Charlotte snorted. ‘A magician.’ The sentences were running one into another as she downed another vodka and Coke. ‘A bloody magician. That is just bizarre, don’t you think?’

It was coming up to closing time and the lounge bar had steadily emptied out over the last half hour or so, until there were just the four of them left sitting around a sticky Formica table, which was tucked away just out of sight of the barmaid. Next door in the public bar people were still drinking hard, their voices and laughter rolling in through the doorway behind the counter.

It was warm in the lounge bar, there was piped music, a coal fire and carpets and a few large plastic plants set around the groups of tables making each area a little more private and intimate than the benches in the public bar. Charlotte, Helen and the two men were sitting in a corner booth. Leon sat right in the corner and had his arms stretched out along the back of the built-in leather banquette, his Crombie coat unbuttoned. He had one leg crossed over the other, his ankle resting on his knee, the master of all he surveyed. Charlotte was sitting to one side of him, all eyes, giving Leon the full benefit of her adoring smile and undivided attention. From time to time Leon made a show of patting Charlotte on the thigh. Helen couldn’t help but think the gesture looked tacky and proprietorial.

Helen sat on the other side of him, making sure she was just out of reach, but nevertheless she was pinned in by Vince, who sat on the other side of her and who, so far, had said very little. She was making a real effort to stay at the midpoint between the two of them and out of harm’s way.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.